Wasn’t 2008 a great year to be a Jayhawk? Orange Bowl champions. National Champions in men’s basketball. Two sports had brilliant, record-breaking seasons.

This year could be better.

Whoops. Not that Kansas fans have high expectations.

The Jayhawk football team, according to senior captain Darrell Stuckey, has set a team goal to return to a BCS bowl game and might have the talent to do it. There are plenty of reasons to believe so: Todd Reesing at the helm, the nation’s best (at least in this columnist’s eyes) receiving corps that he’ll be throwing to, and the pleasant lack of 2,000-yard guarantees from the running back position (oops!). The four senior captains — Reesing, Stuckey, Kerry Meier and Jake Sharp — are as solid a group of leaders as Kansas has seen in a long time.

Men’s basketball, too, could be looking at another deep postseason run. Although no official polls have been released — with it being three full months before the Jayhawks set foot in Allen Fieldhouse for a game — all early indications are that Kansas will be the preseason No. 1, perhaps by a unanimous vote. Coach Bill Self has the best returning one-two punch in the country in Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich and an incoming freshman class that has been salivated over all summer by Jayhawk fans. Oh, and he’ll bring back a gold medal winner in Tyshawn Taylor, who spent his summer drubbing international competition with the Under-19 division of Team USA.

So far, so 2008.

But Taylor’s not the only returning Jayhawk who had some extracurriculars involving gold medals and Team USA. Danielle McCray from the women’s basketball team and T.J. Walz, a pitcher for the baseball team, also bring a little international experience — and success — back to the University.

McCray, who may have picked up some tips from her summer roommate, 2008-09 National Player of the Year Maya Moore of Connecticut, is now entering her final year in the crimson and blue. She leads a women’s team that saw record crowds and a runner-up finish in the WNIT tournament, and she has a chance to be the first Jayhawk to win the Wade Award, given to the top women’s basketball player every year, since Lynette Woodard in 1981.

Walz is a hard-throwing, soft-spoken right-hander who is likely to inherit the post of staff ace for Kansas, vacated by Shaeffer Hall’s move to the pros. Even with the loss of Hall and three others to the major leagues, the Jayhawks should be able to build on last year’s postseason berth, the first at-large bid Kansas has merited in coach Ritch Price’s tenure. Key to that success — and any they might have this year — is junior Tony Thompson. Thompson won the Triple Crown in the Big 12, leading the conference in batting average, home runs and RBIs, but somehow not the conference offensive player of the year. Think he’ll have a bit of a chip on his shoulder?

Two sports with brilliant, record-breaking seasons? Two? That’s a cute little number.

Whoops. Not that Kansas fans have high expectations.

Back to School

YouTube Sesh

What can I say? I’m a sucker for tradition. So on that note, allow me to continue former Kansan sports editor and Morning Brew specialist Rustin Dodd’s tradition of a weekly YouTube video recommendation.

In honor of the “is-it-college-football-season-yet?” mentality that has spread through, if not yet the entire campus, then at least this writer’s nervous system, this one’s a personal favorite from the many brilliant moments of Reesing’s Kansas career. Type “Reesing vs. Nebraska” into your YouTube search and enjoy.

­— Edited by Amanda Thompson