Tuesday, September 16, 2008
A quick Tuesday morning Kansas football Q&A:
Q: What happens when a team that leans too heavily on its passing game builds a commanding 20-10 halftime lead?
A: It punts on four consecutive possessions to start the second half, holds the ball for less than five minutes of the third quarter and, in the process, relinquishes its lead. The team loses, 37-34. That’s what happened to Kansas last Friday. There’s certainly some blame to assign to the Jayhawks’ tame defensive line and young secondary, but the real culprit is a lack of offensive productivity on the ground. An inspection of the box score reveals Kansas simply gave up trying to run the ball in the second half. In its four-straight unsuccessful drives, Kansas went to designed running plays twice, gaining three yards. Without the legitimate threat of a running game to worry about, South Florida blitzed junior quarterback Todd Reesing from all angles, forcing him into a 3-for-10 third quarter.
Q: At this rate, what does junior running back Jocques Crawford have to do to reach his preseason prediction of 2,000 rushing yards?
A: First, he needs to convince the coaching staff to get him more carries. Second, he needs to play more like Barry Sanders and less like Clark Green. Crawford’s current stats (22 carries, 64 yards) put him on pace for 264 yards and four touchdowns at 2.9 yards per carry. At his current clip, he’d need almost 94 games — nearly eight full seasons — to reach 2,000 yards. On the bright side, if Crawford averaged 215.1 yards-per-game for the rest of the season, he’d hit his goal. Unfortunately, at this pace, it’d take him 74 carries per game to reach that total. Kansas is averaging 77 plays from scrimmage each game so far this season.
BEARKATS?
One of the greatest things about collegiate athletics is the prevalence of odd team nicknames — there’s truly something for everyone. For those who enjoy etiquette: the Centenary Gentlemen. For those in search of general hilarity: the Stetson Hatters. For people who love penguins but live in northeast Ohio: the Youngstown State Penguins. And for the brave few who like their mascots fictional and misspelled: the Sam Houston State Bearkats.
Kansas will play host to a swarm(?), covey(?), flock(?) of Bearkats this weekend when Sam Houston State visits for the Jayhawks’ final non-conference tune up. But what exactly is a Bearkat?
According to Sam Houston State’s official Web site, the Bearkat was never named after a real animal, despite rumors that its inspiration came from bear-and-kat-like creatures such as the Kinkajou or the Binturong (I am not making this up).
Instead, the Bearkat is “a combination of the fiercest fighting qualities of both the bear and the cat families.” Thankfully for Kansas, the description didn’t mention whether the Bearkats play decent run defense.
— — Edited by Andy Greenhaw
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