FIU’s new offense could pose challenge
A new offensive coordinator means no film to help the team.
By Taylor Bern (Contact)
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
Kansas has had plenty of time to size up its opening weekend opponent, FIU, but has little idea how to best do so.
That’s because the Golden Panthers have a new offensive coordinator, which means there’s no film of their new system in a real game. Furthermore, there’s still a quarterback battle down in Miami.
Photo by Jon Goering
FIU quarterback Wayne Younger attempts to evade Kansas defenders during last year's 55-3 loss on Sept. 22 at Memorial Stadium. Younger and junior Paul McCall are still competing for the starting quarterback position under FIU's new offensive coordinator.
Sophomore Wayne Younger, who started against Kansas last season, and junior Paul McCall are each vying for the starting job. Coach Mario Cristobal might have an idea who his guy will be, but he told the Miami Herald on Thursday that he wasn’t going to tip his hand.
“Both present a couple of different packages, so we’ll let Kansas prepare for both,” he said.
At his press conference yesterday, coach Mark Mangino said his team was preparing to combat all different styles of play and admitted he was keeping an eye on FIU.
“We have followed their program very closely, and all indications are that they’re a highly disciplined team,” Mangino said. “They’re well-coached, well-organized and they have some talented players.”
Mangino said the first game of the year made him more nervous than any bowl game ever could, simply because he didn’t know what to expect from his team. This time that feeling is intensified, because although his team thrashed the Golden Panthers 55-3 last year, he doesn’t know what to expect from them.
“We know to a degree, but we don’t know completely because we haven’t seen them since they changed coordinators,” Mangino said.
The new coordinator is Bill Legg, who was at Purdue for the past five years and spent the past two seasons as its co-offensive coordinator. All the unknown factors surrounding Saturday’s tilt haven’t been lost on Kansas’ defense.
“That’s tough, it really is,” junior safety Justin Thornton said. “We don’t really know what to expect. We’re kind of going into this game blind.
“We watched Purdue for the schemes, then we watched Florida International for what kind of players we’re going to be matched up against.”
Mangino said he thought the Golden Panther attack would closely resemble the Boilermakers’ in the way they spread the field, but Legg had more running backs at his disposal and could rely on them heavily.
FIU seniors A’mod Ned and Julian Reams and junior Daunte Owens could all get carries in the backfield.
The lack of information about FIU’s offense is a problem for some, but junior safety Darrell Stuckey sees it as an advantage.
“It’s less stressful mentally because you just have to go out there and react to the football,” he said. “In some cases you get teams’ film and you figure out their tendencies, then you get overwhelmed with tendencies and they throw something else at you. At the same time, if you’re out there and you don’t know exactly what to look for, then you have to understand the game as a whole.”
Either way, the Jayhawks will be heavy favorites and shouldn’t have too much trouble putting away the Golden Panthers.
No matter which quarterback lines up under center or what system he runs, Thornton says the only team that can get in Kansas’ way of starting out 1-0 is itself.
“As long as we go out there and eliminate all of our mistakes we’ll be just fine,” Thornton said. “It’s not about what they’re going to do, it’s about how we play and how we execute and I think that’s going to be what matters.”
—Edited by Brenna Hawley
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