Morning Brew: Football moves up in ranks

Column photo

By Tim Dwyer

Monday, September 28, 2009

Don’t look now, but the Kansas Jayhawks are sneaking up the rankings.

Granted, this latest climb wasn’t so much a product of a dominating performance by Kansas — actually, if the pass defense forgets to show up in conference play like it did this week, this column will be quickly rendered obsolete — but rather a second consecutive weekend of uninspiring performances from the teams at the top.

My dark horse candidate for the title, No. 6 Cal, took a 42-3 beating at the hands of the Oregon Ducks, and they were just one of many. Of the teams ranked Nos. 4, 5, 6, 9 and 18— all above the Jayhawks— that lost last week, only No. 9 Miami was to a ranked opponent.

But back to the effects this will have on the Jayhawks. For one, if they start to defend the pass, they have a legitimate shot at running the table — only Texas and Oklahoma are ranked above the Jayhawks and left on the schedule.

Kansas has the Sooners at home, where the Jayhawks are tough to beat on their bad days. Even if Sam Bradford returns to form — which at this point seems unlikely — Kansas has a real shot to knock off the Sooners. This is especially true considering the Sooners’ early season collapse against BYU, and though excuses can legitimately be made about Bradford’s being out, the Cougars have never, to me at least, seemed to have the makings of a top-15 team.

The biggest challenge will likely be the Longhorns, which Kansas hasn’t beat since 1938, and never in Austin. Neither is a good trend if you’re a Kansas fan. But Kansas, despite everything Mark Mangino will say to the contrary, is looking more and more like the team that won the Orange Bowl a couple of seasons back.

The emergence of running back Toben Opurum, who sports editor Stephen Montemayor was so impressed with Saturday that Monty started calling him “Adrian Peterson Lite,” gives the offense a dimension it sorely missed last season. Todd Reesing is still Todd Reesing, and now has the best receiver corps in the nation to help him in the aerial attack. The Jayhawks are top-20 in both rushing and passing offense and are averaging more than 40 points a game.

The defense on the other hand, is stout against the run, but susceptible through the air. If the Jayhawks look to make a prophet of me — which, come on, should totally be the focus of their season — Darrell Stuckey and Co. will have to step up their coverage.

But for the moment, the Jayhawks are undefeated. And that’s all that matters for now.

Greetings from Bristol

Allow me a moment of self-indulgence. I’ve been working two weeks now as an intern for ESPN, as a production assistant. This means that, five nights a week, I watch a game, decide what the highlight is going to be and make it happen. Dream job! So I’ve decided to take a little time each week to tell the masses what it’s like working for the worldwide leader in sports (kinda cool.)

Today’s story comes from this Saturday. I was watching the Athletics-Angels game and the Vitali Klitschko-Cris Arreola heavyweight title bout, but, for obvious reasons, all eyes turned to the Florida game when Tim Tebow went down with an injury.

In the room I work in, several shows are filmed, one of them being College Football Live, where analysts Todd McShay and Robert Smith provide coverage of the day’s games. I’ve never felt like I was getting inside scoops quicker than when I was close enough to McShay, who seems to scoop every story, to give him a high five.

Sure enough, the wire story concerning Tebow’s injury comes in, I open and read it, and ESPN’s broadcasters announce, after I’ve read the story, that Florida coaches are saying Tebow just “got his bell rung.”

Good times were had by all.

— Edited by Alicia Banister

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Comments

ftworthku (anonymous) says...

“Adrian Peterson Lite”? Rushing against Southern Miss ain't Texas or OU. I like him too, but perhaps we should reserve our gushing praise. You can kiss your editor's backside later, when the lights are low and the Big Twelve Championship is on. Playing Tech in brown town is no easy feat, Nebraska ate our lunch for a half a century, and the Misery slavers will come at us hard even if they're 4 and 8 (God willing!) If we come out of those five games with anything more than 3 wins, then we shine. If we lose to CU, IU, or Silo Tech, then we deserve to be unbowled. But I have faith. Come December, I want to be complaining about east/west coast media bias!
Did you really write, "kinda cool"? What are you, twelve?

September 29, 2009 at 10:42 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

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