Morning Brew: Linebackers awaits bowl destination, beards?

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By Bryan Wheeler

Friday, December 5, 2008

The Jayhawks are two days away from finding out their bowl destination this season. For senior linebackers Mike Rivera and Joe Mortensen comes an opportunity to start preparing for the last game of their collegiate careers. Sure, these guys won’t be reviewing game film of their upcoming opponent yet; but they can start working on their secret weapon: their beards.

Remember those beards that they sported during the Orange Bowl? It’s time to bring them back. When the two joined forces with the lumberjack look, they dominated Virginia Tech. Rivera had 12 tackles and a sack and Mortensen had eight tackles, a sack and a blocked field goal.

In the preseason, Mortensen and Rivera were on the national radar for the top defensive awards in college football. Mortensen, who was an All-Big 12 first team pick in 2007, was named to the Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch list and the Rotary Lombardi watch list. Rivera was named to the Chuck Bednarik Award watch list.

This season, Rivera has 79 tackles, three forced fumbles and two sacks. Mortensen has 77 tackles, two sacks and one forced fumble. While those numbers are not a disappointment, they have since fallen out of the spotlight. And that is precisely why the beards must come back.

Sporting the same goatees they’ve worn all season, the two paid a visit to KUJH-TV’s Jayhawk Sports Talk on Tuesday and talked about their excitement for Kansas’ upcoming bowl game. Kansas is predicted to play in the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., against one of two Big Ten teams, Minnesota or Wisconsin. With that, the two linebackers talked about which team they would like to play.

“We’d want to play Wisconsin because our old linebackers coach is over there, coach (Dave) Doeren,” Mortensen said. “Also, if you guys remember, Kevin Kane. He used to play linebacker (here). He’s an assistant over there.”

“We want to play in Arizona under that nice hot sun,” Rivera said. “Either team we would play would be great.”

Doeren, who was a co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for Kansas, is currently Wisconsin’s defensive coordinator. Kane played football for Kansas for four years and worked as a graduate assistant last season. Kane now works as a graduate assistant for Wisconsin.

Should the Jayhawks get selected to play in the Insight Bowl, Mortensen and Rivera have some serious beard growing to do. The game is scheduled for New Years Eve leaving them with less than four weeks to grow beards.

— — Edited by Brieun Scott

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