Montemayor: Jayhawks lost their spark

By Stephen Montemayor

Monday, October 26, 2009

Todd Reesing floated a pass on the game’s first play intended for Dezmon Briscoe — who torched Oklahoma a year ago — only to see it intercepted, putting Oklahoma’s offense on Kansas’ 46-yard line. The result? An 11-play drive met by little protest from the Kansas defense save for a near goal-line stand that invited an invigorated crowd to dare dream that this game would be different.

Alas, missed — and perhaps lost — opportunities will be the book on Saturday’s game, a 35-13 Kansas defeat.

Reesing’s short-lived Heisman bid was humbled. Likewise, a chance to reestablish the Jayhawks as the class of the Big 12 North was greatly missed in front of a national audience watching at home on ABC — just like last year’s game in Norman, Okla.

Fiesta Bowl representatives watched from the Kansas press box as the Jayhawks fell far short of topping an Oklahoma squad slowed by a 3-3 start.

Reesing would be picked off twice more Saturday, completing one of the darker days in his storied Kansas career. The second interception came when an Oklahoma defensive lineman got a finger on Reesing’s pass, allowing linebacker Jeremy Beal enough time to debate the merits of a public health-insurance option before collecting the turnover.

Defensive back Dominique Franks made it a trilogy when he shot past wide receiver Bradley McDougald to steal away a pass without breaking stride en route to a touchdown. The score put the Jayhawks down two touchdowns and ultimately proved an insurmountable deficit.

So, yes, it was a bad day for Reesing. Sparky was without his spark.

It was last week’s trip to Colorado redux — only worse.

That magic, that tossed-up prayer answered, that superlative moment like so many we’ve come to expect was missing.

“There are no excuses,” coach Mark Mangino said. “He has made some throws that he should not have. He knows that, we all know that.”

And so Kansas State and Iowa State — not Kansas, Missouri or Nebraska — sit atop the Big 12 North standings on Oct. 26, with just five games left to play. The Cyclones could have been cited for indecent exposure in Lincoln, Neb., as they practically depantsed the Cornhuskers and their bid for a special year. Without the aid of quarterback Austen Arnaud and one of the Big 12’s leading rushers in running back Alexander Robinson, Iowa State held on for a 9-7 victory against Nebraska, its defense forcing a whopping eight turnovers in Memorial Stadium’s 302nd sellout.

At Faurot Field, Texas smacked Missouri around to a final result of 41-7 in the second half of ABC’s production of the Haves (Big 12 South) vs. the Have-Nots (Big 12 North).

There’s little reason to think Kansas has much more than a fighter’s chance in Lubbock on Halloween night. But strangely it’s not the Kansas defense that looks worse off. No, that unit actually held Oklahoma to seven first-half points (Reesing supplied the other score with the aforementioned pick-six). Kansas simply couldn’t make good on its opportunities Saturday, inside and out of Lawrence.

But until Kansas State and Iowa State shock us once or twice more, all this really boils down to for Kansas is aiming for the Big 12 North title. Like its heartbreaker a week ago, Kansas was felled while its supposed top competition faltered, too.

All things held constant, Kansas could yet be the best of a six-team bunch being groomed for a beatdown in the Big 12 title game.

— Edited by Amanda Thompson

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