Thursday, September 18, 2008
The Athletics Department should have reconsidered scheduling its annual Family Day festivities for Saturday’s football game against Sam Houston State.
The drubbing that is about to ensue in 48 hours will be far from family-friendly. Any parents accompanied by their kids will have some consoling to do after their little ones witness several dozen mangled Bearkat bodies strewn about. Think Mickey Mouse being mauled to death by a tiger at Disney World.
On the subject of scheduling, perhaps coach Mark Mangino should have reconsidered scheduling Sam Houston State altogether. The team’s division (I-AA) has more A’s than an average report card. Vegas won’t even post a line on this game.
Maybe it would have worked as the second or third game of the season before the trip to South Florida, but now’s not the time for playing pitch and catch against a hapless opponent. Why schedule a team from Texas while Phi Kappa Psi’s touch football team is available right here on campus?
Parental Discretion is advised Saturday. If you are willing to subject your kids to a slaughter of this proportion, might as well hand them a copy of today’s Sex on the Hill mag while you’re at it.
So what does Sam Houston State have going for them? Well, they are a Texas college football team ... but you’ll probably find a few high school teams that wouldn’t mind them on their schedules. Their quarterback, senior Rhett Bomar, is a more prolific car salesman than passer, as you may recall from his Oklahoma days.
The rest of Kansas’ wide receivers may find themselves joining Kerry Meier at the top of the nation’s receiving stat sheet come Saturday night. The McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden tickets would like to point out the inexperience of Sam Houston State’s secondary. Hell, Kansas may even establish the run Saturday.
To make this mismatch worse, Hurricane Ike forced Sam Houston State to cancel last weekend’s game against Prairie View A&M, meaning the last time they played was Aug. 28 – against Division II East Central Oklahoma.
Now they travel to Lawrence nearly a month later, having resumed practice only two days ago, to face a team with a prolific pass attack and a taste for beating up on lesser opponents.
Kansas 87, Sam Houston State 3.
Judging by Saturday’s actual score – which might not be that far off – you’ll think Sherron Collins was on the field, not Todd Reesing. So why I am so down on the scheduling of this game? Won’t it be fun to watch Reesing and Co.’s numbers climb every other minute?
It’s not just an issue of scheduling this team, but what this game means as Kansas’ non-conference sendoff into Big 12 play.
After dropping a heartbreaker at South Florida, Kansas started practicing with a new vigor and determination. That’s just fine, but Saturday can’t exactly be a statement game nor can it be redemption for last week’s loss.
Kansas learned a lot about itself in South Florida. Reesing needs more than one second of protection from his offensive line, the running backs need more than to run straight into a defensive line and the defense must stop plays before they start on the ground or through the air.
Scheduling can be a gamble sometimes. Mangino made a gamble lining up South Florida on the road early in the season. It paid off in terms of exposure and one hell of a football game.
He made an even bigger gamble enlisting Sam Houston State to come to town the next week to be embarrassed a la Britney Spears at the 2007 VMAs.
Sure Kansas is going to look like football gods Saturday. They’re going to look unstoppable. They might score as much as Missouri does. Just hope that the lessons learned Sept. 12 are not forgotten by Oct. 4 - the kickoff of Big 12 play for the Jayhawks.
— — Edited by Scott Toland
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