Thursday, February 26, 2009
Kansas’ 70-53 victory over Nebraska last Saturday appeared to be a routine squash of an overmatched squad subsequently expelled from memory after a thrilling Big Monday in Norman, Okla.
Not so.
Last Saturday inside Allen Fieldhouse could potentially be one of the more significant days for Kansas athletics. If so, it was because of who was in the stands, not on the court.
Having signed its most lauded class to date this year, Kansas football hosted more than two dozen of the most high profile recruits to set foot on campus for its biannual Junior Day.
The cream of the 2010 crop arrived early for a comprehensive tour of campus, athletic facilities, academic support staff and met with the football coaching staff before they watched a game inside Allen Fieldhouse.
Be thankful the band took precedent over arena rock and that the Phog faithful responded with a more spirited showing. Allen Fieldhouse needed to be at its fabled best. After all, Wichita quarterback Blake Bell is also entertaining offers from an expansive list of schools including Georgia, LSU, Miami, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Oklahoma.
Columbia, Mo. defensive lineman Chase Rome has offers from Oklahoma and Wisconsin and finds letters from Southern Cal, Florida and Alabama in his mailbox with the frequency we see offers from cell phone carriers and magazines.
Before leaving Junior Day with an offer Saturday – as reported by Rivals.com – Wichita running back Joseph Randle’s lengthy travel itinerary included visits to Arizona, Louisville, Kansas State, Missouri and Texas A&M.
The idea that the student section could do anything to leave a mark on a blue-chipper is not merely birthed on message boards never to materialize.
“The crowd was great, they were really funny,” Rome told Rivals.com.
But with trips to Oklahoma State and Kansas State scheduled between now and March 7, Rome may lean more toward the flavor of the week than for the next year as his peers are likely to do.
“Everybody’s status kind of changes day-by-day, it just depends on who I am talking to that week,” Rome said.
Recruits choose a school for a myriad of factors – proximity, a liking taken towards a coach – but a good deal of players can be influenced by an impressive day on campus. Adoration from would-be fans does much to help.
The next Junior Day will be April 11, Kansas’ spring football game. For the current team, it is a chance for a final display in Memorial Stadium before the fall. For those in attendance, it is another opportunity to entice the next crop of possible players.
These days the waves of wheat flow in a path opposite that of decades past for Kansas football. As they will once more in April, the most significant collection of talent to visit Lawrence sat near one another Saturday with the potential to comprise an elite team one day.
Behind and all around them sat those who could aid that process.
— — Edited by Carly Halvorson
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