Never mind it was his first NCAA snap. Never mind that he — nor any Kansas football player — suited up in front of a Memorial Stadium crowd of 52,112 Jayhawk fans, which broke the attendance record and saw its high expectations translate into a big win.

Junior college-transfer tailback Jocques Crawford shook his nerves and took off for a 15-yard gain one play after his counterpart, junior tail back Jake Sharp, tacked on five yards.

And later in the first quarter, when Crawford tore through FIU’s front line like a hell beast to score the season’s first points, Crawford’s lofty goal of 2,000 yards didn’t seem so ambitious. Together, he and Sharp could at least match or better that mark.

But on a day when two of the nation’s top football programs had their scares – Ohio State’s Beanie Wells and Mizzou’s Jeremy Maclin both left their respective games because of injuries – Kansas’s rush attack took a hit when Crawford injured his ankle near the end of the first quarter.

He returned at the start of the second quarter but wasn’t the same. After averaging 4.6 yards-per-carry and a score in the first quarter, Crawford had just five more carries — two for a loss — and left the game for good in the third quarter when he tweaked his ankle again. Crawford’s total on the day: 11 rushes for 36 yards — an average of 3.2 yards-per-carry.

A healthy Sharp was more productive in the passing game seeing limited rushing action. Junior quarterback Todd Reesing found him for an 18-yard gain in the first quarter, but he finished with just eight carries for 27 yards, an average of 3.3 yards-per-carry.

Coach Mark Mangino and offensive coordinator Ed Warriner rightly did not want to take any chances with Crawford after he went down early and again later in the game. But with a healthy Sharp at their disposal, Kansas abandoned its running game for the bulk of the game, allowing FIU’s defense to dictate that Reesing attempt a career-high 52 passes, even when the game was well in hand.

Crawford, who sports the number three, and Sharp, wearing jersey number one, represent a one-three punch necessary for success in a year when Reesing can no longer sneak up on anyone.

Despite airing it out all day, Reesing completed only one pass longer than his 18-yarder to Sharp. Warriner insisted Kansas wanted to run more but it just didn’t work out that way when FIU started blitzing and putting more defenders in the box – pretty much what any team does to combat the run.

The problem was the FIU defense isn’t exactly a world beater. Eight of FIU’s defensive starters returned from a unit that ranked 105th against the run in 2007. FIU gave up an average of 203.8 rushing yards per game last season and more than five yards-per-carry. The Jayhawk’s rushing for Saturday: 36 carries for 128 yards – an average of 3.6 yards-per-carry.

Even those numbers are skewed a bit. Third stringer Angus Quigley actually led the team in rushing, mopping up the FIU defense for 71 yards in nine carries in garbage time. His 7.8 average could have been supplemented by a score if he had not been tackled at the one-yard-line to close the game.

If Crawford’s injury is worse than he or his coaches let on, Quigley should be the interim bruiser while Sharp runs finesse plays and catches passes.

Either way, Kansas running backs are going to have to be implemented more in future contests or this season may take a turn for the worse. Reesing may be one of the best quarterbacks to wear crimson and blue but the competition he will face this year has had more than twelve months to study and prepare to make life a little harder on him.

Dating back to last season’s opener, on only two occasions have Kansas running backs had less yards than they did Saturday: the Nov. 24 loss to Missouri (42 rushing yards) and their Jan. 3 Orange Bowl victory over Virginia Tech.

They’re two polar-opposite games, I know, but there’s no Aqib Talib to run back any picks this year so should Kansas fail to establish their one-three punch, I’m banking on tough times ahead.

— — Edited by Andy Greenhaw