Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Coach Mark Mangino may not want to say it, but several of his players will.
Friday night’s game at No. 19 South Florida has all of the makings of a game that could make or break their 2008 season.
Win, and silence the critics and build momentum for another successful season. Lose, and stir more whispers that last year’s success was the result of a weak schedule.
Video
Coach Mark Mangino and a few players discuss the upcoming South Florida game at the weekly press conference. The players included are Jocques Crawford, Chris Harris, Dezmon Briscoe and Angus Quigley.
“Thats exactly what’s going to happen,” said wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe. “If we win, we will have people jumping on the band wagon. If we lose, then they are going to jump off and say how bad we were and how we didn’t play anybody.”
As cornerback Chris Harris said, “This game sets a tone for the rest of the season.”
Harris and the Jayhawks know what’s being said. They know that some still doubt last year’s success and wonder whether Kansas is for real. A nationally televised game on ESPN2 Friday night on the road against a ranked team — what better way to prove the doubters wrong once and for all?
“Everybody always says we play cupcakes and stuff,” Harris said. “This is a respect game for us. We want to prove that we should be ranked even higher.”
As one of only three matchups this week between ranked teams, the Kansas-USF game is arguably the biggest of the weekend. No. 1 USC plays No. 5 Ohio State on Saturday, but all eyes will be on ESPN2 and Raymond James Stadium on Friday.
“It’s going to be fun playing on a Friday night again,” Briscoe said. “Being on the national scene is always something that pumps you up for the week, but with two nationally ranked opponents, everybody is going to be amped.”
This will be the second Friday night game since Mangino arrived at Kansas — they lost 37-31 in double overtime at Toledo in 2006 — and Mangino said that though he preferred not to play on Friday nights, the added national television exposure was too hard to turn down.
“We have to take opportunities as they come,” Mangino said. “There was no talk about the game being televised on Saturday, so our options were Thursday or Friday and I said that I’d prefer not to have to travel in that short of a week to a road trip on the east coast. I didn’t think that was in the best interest of our program at all, so we were able to work it out with South Florida and ESPN that it would be played on Friday night.”
With the game being a day earlier than usual, schedules and routines have been altered. The Jayhawks practiced on Monday, their usual day off, but had only a light practice on Tuesday. The team’s normal Thursday practice, arguably the most important for establishing the game plan, will be today instead. The Jayhawks will have a short practice Thursday before boarding a charter plane for Tampa that evening.
Players have said this game will be key to their success in 2008, but Mangino disagreed.
“In no way am I trying to downplay this game. No way. We’re going there to play well and do the best we can to get a win,” Mangino said. “But this early in the season, if we beat South Florida, I can’t tell you after the game that we’re going to cruise through the rest of the season. If we don’t, I can’t tell you that the rest of the season is going to be a failure, because it will not be. It’s too early to say that this is a huge game and we have to win it.”
While Mangino tries to downplay the importance, players know it’s not just another game. It’s an opportunity to prove — on national television against a ranked team — that the Jayhawks are for real.
“We’re playing in Tampa Bay, on ESPN, in an NFL stadium,” Harris said. “It’s like a bowl game. That’s how big this game is.”
— — Edited by Mary Sorrick
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