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Montemayor: Second half forecast no less clear after wild weekend

Monday, October 13, 2008

It was warm and sunny — very sunny — in Lawrence on Saturday. A beautiful day for a football game in a country where beautiful days have been scarce as of late.

Saturday offered a brief hiatus from a volatile presidential campaign trail and a wild and wooly Wall Street, described by many as “riots every day.”

Sen. John McCain — in an effort to regain momentum — kicked up attacks on Sen. Barack Obama, inadvertently whipping up some supporters into a brutal frenzy. Some shouted at recent campaign stops that they want this “terrorist” dead.

Oops. Last Friday, McCain urged at a Lakeville, Minn., town hall meeting to show respect for his opponent. It was too late, as his own supporters responded by booing him.

Parallels were hard to miss when Kansas football coach Mark Mangino’s plea to end students’ profane kickoff chant landed in their e-mail inboxes and was replayed before Saturday’s game.

And so all eyes Saturday — in the press box at least — were focused on the Kansas student section rather than the field during kickoffs. A local paper’s front page story read “After coach’s plea, focus is on fate of obscene chant.”

That’s right. Above all else right now, you should care most about whether a few thousand students drop the f—bomb on kickoffs.

They did — as loud and clear as ever — and those that cared to follow the game saw No. 16 Kansas rally from another punchless start to eventually crush Colorado.

Kansas 30, Colorado 14.

There was something different about this contest — the Jayhawks’ second conference game and last game of the season’s first half. Several key flaws that plagued the season’s first half were addressed while a glaring one was put under Mangino’s microscope.

For the third consecutive game, the Jayhawks were shut out during the first quarter. Yet while that led to a 20-0 halftime deficit at Iowa State, Kansas avoided a similar disaster with stellar defensive play and an offense that again bloomed in the second half.

As emphatic as the Kansas student section was in being heard in all its obscene glory on ESPN2, the subject of their mantra — special teams — frequently failed to live up to the chant.

At times students would have been better served shouting “Make a f*cking tackle!” or “Return the f*cking punt!”

Comical at times, Kansas’ return units played a huge role in giving its offense poor field position for much of the game.

But everything else was in place Saturday. Todd Reesing simply didn’t miss — completing 27 of 34 passes with no interceptions. Old Faithful Kerry Meier sprung to life in the second half, nearly notching a fourth consecutive 100-yard game.

Six games through and six crucial games left, Kansas forcefully answered its once woeful rushing attack. Junior Jake Sharp returned to shifty form while adding some new highlights to his resume. Once dismissed as mere change of pace back, Sharp carried the workload for the Jayhawks with 31 rushes for 122 yards and three touchdowns — all career highs.

Defensively, the Jayhawks were as good as ever. It speaks volumes about this unit when a coach has to pull his own sorry son. Colorado coach Dan Hawkins had no choice but to put quarterback Cody out of his misery after sophomore defensive end Jake Laptad chased him 16 yards backwards into his own end zone, bringing the poor fellow to the turf for a game-changing safety.

Now comes the second half of the Jayhawks’ schedule — a real bitch of a slate ahead. Beginning with a trip to No. 4 Oklahoma on Saturday, the Jayhawks will welcome No. 7 Texas Tech, No. 1 Texas and finish the regular season at Arrowhead Stadium versus No. 11 Missouri.

As unclear as to how a tougher schedule would play out, the forecast for this second half is actually cloudier — in the best possible way.

While Kansas was waxing Colorado, Texas out-dueled the once infallible Sooners in a game where neither produced much on the ground. The high-flying Red Raiders were nearly upended in overtime against sorry Nebraska while Missouri’s Heisman hopeful Chase Daniel threw three picks at home before falling 28-23 to Oklahoma State. No team in the mighty Big 12 is unstoppable.

Should Kansas’ overall season’s success mirror their individual games, we may be in for another surprise in Lawrence, as the Jayhawks appear to be hitting their stride at halftime.

— — Edited by Rachel Burchfield

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