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Wheeler: Shutout not forecast of Big 12 performance

Offense needs to improve execution to succeed in conference

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By Bryan Wheeler

Thursday, September 13, 2007

After the Southeastern Louisiana game, many fans may believe Kansas is primed for the Big 12 title game. For the second week in a row, the football team has blown out another cupcake team.

While beating a team 62-0 may sound impressive, Southeastern Louisiana is about as competitive of an opponent as Free State High School. Just to give you an idea of how bad Southeastern Louisiana was, another cupcake team Kansas played last season, Northwestern State, defeated the team 87-27 in 2003. When the Jayhawks played Northwestern St., they won 49-18.

While the defeat may be impressive on paper, the first half was rather disappointing for the Jayhawk offense. Before the Kansas special teams and defense completely sucked the heart and soul out of Southeastern Louisiana, the Kansas offense looked average at best.

The first two offensive series were poorly executed, resulting in senior Kyle Tucker punting the ball away. It was not until the defense forced a safety and junior wide receiver Marcus Herford returned a kickoff for a touchdown that Southeastern Louisiana finally let up and the momentum of the game went Kansas’ way.

In addition to the sub-par offensive performance in the first two drives of the game, there was a very questionable coaching call on behalf of coach Mark Mangino in the second quarter. After junior cornerback Aqib Talib recorded his second offensive touchdown of the season, Mangino decided it would be a good idea to go for a two-point conversion after the Jayhawks already led 22-0.

Some of you may say, well, why be so critical of the Jayhawks after they won by 62 points and recorded their first shutout since 2000?

While everyone would agree after two games that Kansas seems to have improved since last season, the competition, especially this past weekend against Southeastern Louisiana, is nowhere near the Big 12’s level of competition. Historically, Kansas has been known to rough up a couple of cupcake teams in non-conference play, then to go into Big 12 play and end up in the bottom of the Big 12 standings.

For instance, after Kansas’ most recent shutout against Southern Illinois in 2000, it lost its first two Big 12 games against Oklahoma and Kansas State. Similarly, in 2004, Kansas defeated Toledo 63-14, and went on to go 2-6 in Big 12 play.

Though Kansas does not have to play Oklahoma in the regular season this year and K-State has dropped off as a major competitor in the Big 12, a blowout win against a cupcake team is not a good indicator of how well Kansas will perform in Big 12 play.

Considering the Jayhawks’ unimpressive 2-10 in-conference road record during the last three years and this season’s road games against K-State, Colorado, Texas A & M and Oklahoma State, precise execution early in games will be crucial if Kansas expects to be a contender in the Big 12 North this year. If the offense performs as it did against Southeastern Louisiana in the first half, the Jayhawks could find themselves falling behind and continuing the trend of losing on the road.

The next two weeks, Kansas will face Toledo (0-2) and Florida International (0-2) and it will be surprising if the Jayhawks do not blow out both opponents. Before everyone gets their hopes up, the offense will need to execute better than it did in the first half against Southeastern Louisiana.

As for Mangino’s decision to go for a two-point conversion in the second quarter while leading by 22 points, he should leave bad play calling to Missouri’s head coach Gary Pinkel.

— Edited by Rachel Bock

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