Stuck on You
Darrell Stuckey led the team with 10 tackles
Darrell Stuckey's third quarter play exemplifies what the Jayhawk defense is all about
By Taylor Bern (Contact)
Sunday, September 7th, 2008
Louisiana Tech wide receiver Phillip Livas took the end-around hand-off from quarterback Taylor Bennett and found a gaping hole on the left side of the Kansas defensive line.
With his team trailing 20-0 in the third quarter, Livas broke for daylight, sprinting down the left side of the field without a single Kansas defender between him and a sure touchdown.
Darrell Stuckey didn’t see it that way.
The junior safety was on the opposite side of the field, Livas was already past him at full speed and at that point a touchdown wouldn’t have damaged Kansas’ stranglehold on the game.
None of that mattered to Stuckey, who put his head down and sprinted at an angle.
Photo by Jon Goering
Senior linebacker James Holt makes a tackle on a Louisiana Tech receiver.
He hoped there was enough yardage between Livas and the end zone for him to catch up. He hoped that he could channel the 4.4 speed that he displayed in off-season workouts.
Stuckey hoped he could make a touchdown-saving tackle, that he could be the hero and help his team preserve its shutout – something the entire unit so desperately wanted.
“That play, it was amazing,” said Stuckey, a very spiritual man. “I thank God that He really used me to speed up and never give up.”
Stuckey caught Livas and wrestled him down at the two-yard line, but that’s not where it ended. On first and goal, Stuckey sprinted to the ball and planted running back Patrick Jackson four yards behind the line of scrimmage.
On third down, Stuckey pressured Bennett and forced an incompletion. Bulldog kicker Brad Oestriecher – who hit a 60-yarder before the game – came in on fourth down and doinked his 23-yard attempt off the right goal post.
The Jayhawks took over and marched down the field, adding a field goal to their already bountiful lead.
Coach Mark Mangino pointed to Stuckey’s hustle play as an example of how to play defense.
“The gutsiest play in the game of football, is when a player is out in the open running for a touchdown, and you’re the only guy who can make the play,” Mangino said. “You have everything going against you, yet you go down and make the play.
“The whole complexion of the game is completely changed in our favor because Darrell Stuckey chose to hustle.”
Senior captain Joe Mortensen echoed Mangino’s take on the play.
“That was the momentum-changer in the game and it’s a good hallmark play of our defense,” he said.
Stuckey laughed at a reporter’s assessment of Livas as ‘pretty fast.’
“I don’t know if pretty is the word, he was very fast,” he said.
Kansas vs. LA Tech, 1st Quarter
A photo gallery of the first quarter against Louisiana Tech.
The play that seemed impossible when he sprinted after the high school sprinter became real when Livas looked back and realized he could be caught.
It was just one example of the Jayhawk defense giving up a big play – Livas gained 78 yards on the run – but stopping the Bulldogs when it mattered most. There’s a popular term to describe such a defense, but don’t tell that to Mangino.
“I don’t go for that ‘bend but don’t break’ stuff, that’s ridiculous,” he said. “If your defense is bending, it’s going to shatter someday and that’s not how we play here.”
Kansas’ defense held on for the shutout, the second of the Mangino-era, and it’s the only Big 12 team this season that hasn’t surrendered an offensive touchdown.
Still, not everything went according to plan for the Jayhawk defense.
Stuckey’s roommate, senior cornerback Kendrick Harper, had to be carted off the sideline with an undisclosed injury. Mangino said his replacement, freshman Isiah Barfield, suffered through some mental lapses but eventually settled into the role.
The defense also allowed Louisiana Tech to march down the field on a 22-play, 82-yard drive before Chris Harris intercepted a pass in the end zone. Harris caught the ball after Stuckey stuck his hand in the way of the pass and tipped the ball away.
Stuckey’s game overall was stellar. He helped with the interception, he led the team with 10 tackles and, of course, there was that one play.
It’s hard to put any more emphasis on Stuckey’s third quarter hustle play than Mangino did in crediting it as complexion -hanging, but Stuckey gave it a shot.
“I think that play alone defines me as a person, and how willing I was to throw everything out there for our team,” he said.
Of course, even with an all-important persona-defining play, there’s room for improvement.
“If I wasn’t so tired,” Stuckey said, “I think I would have tried to make him fumble.”
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