Wednesday, October 29, 2008
If Kansas State plays as well as it talks, the Jayhawks don’t seem to have much of a chance Saturday in the annual Sunflower Showdown.
During Monday’s session with the media, K-State kick/punt returner Deon Murphy offered a Rasheed Wallace-like guarantee to reporters.
“I’m taking one to the crib this weekend,” Murphy said. “That’s the bottom line.”
Kansas State receiver Deon Murphy jogs off while the Kansas defense celebrates after Kendrick Harper (24) intercepted a pass intended for Murphy during Kansas' victory in Manhattan last year. Murphy has guaranteed to "take one to the crib" during this year's game.
The “crib” refers to the end zone, meaning Murphy is predicting to do what has happened only one time against Kansas this year — return a punt or kick for a touchdown.
“He can do all his talking now — we’ll do the talking on the field,” said linebacker Joe Mortensen. ”Thats how coach Mangino brought us up and that’s how we’re trying to play. If anything, it just fuels our fire.”
Kansas players laughed upon hearing Murphy’s guarantee but refused to offer any return guarantees of their own.
“To me there’s no guarantees in life, anything can happen,” Mortenson said. “Its been a crazy year in college football, so we’ll see. We’ll see what he does on Saturday.”
Murphy is averaging just 10.8 yards per punt return but did have an 86-yard return for a touchdown earlier in the season. He has only 10 kick returns but is averaging 27.4 yards per return.
“Our kickoff and punt return teams will be keying on him more now I guess,” said cornerback Chris Harris. “If he has that confidence, good for him. We will just go out and do the best we can to stop him.”
The 5-foot-10, 170-pound Murphy didn’t stop his trash-talking with his punt-return prediction. He went on to predict that coach Mark Mangino and the Kansas coaching staff would wish they would have actively pursued more of the players on Kansas State’s roster.
“They’re probably going to wish they recruited this whole team, the way we’re gonna play this weekend,” Murphy said.
Mangino replied, “I don’t respond to other players’ comments.”
Several players, including quarterback Todd Reesing, were offered scholarships by both Kansas and Kansas State before ultimately choosing the Jayhawks.
“Yeah, I don’t know about that,” wide receiver Dexton Fields said in response to Murphy’s recruiting comment. “A lot of the guys on this team might have been recruited by K-State, and they made their choice, so I don’t pay any attention to that.”
Murphy wasn’t the only Kansas State player to speak out Monday. Center Zach Kendall said he thought Kansas State was the better team.
“Heart,” Kendall told the Lawrence Journal-World. “I feel like we have more heart.”
Fields laughed.
“Anytime someone doubts you or says that they are going to do something against you,” Fields said, “it’s your job to take that as a challenge and stop them from doing that.”
Freshman punt returner Daymond Patterson, who himself has already returned a punt for a touchdown, wouldn’t make a similar guarantee for Saturday. He said that while the Wildcats were busy talking trash, the Jayhawks would be busy getting ready for Saturday’s game.
“We’re going to let them talk in the media and we’re just going to practice hard and hopefully prevent it on Saturday,” Patterson said. “You just have to laugh about it because lots of people make guarantees, and sometimes they come through and sometimes they don’t. We’ll see.”
— — Edited by Mary Sorrick
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