Shutout victory against Louisiana Tech spotlights junior running back

By B.J. Rains

Published on Mon., September 8th, 2008

If someone had told Angus Quigley before the season that he would lead the team in rushing in each of its first two games, the 6-foot-2 junior running back wouldn’t have believed it.

With Jake Sharp and junior college transfer Jocques Crawford primed to split the carries, Quigley seemed destined for special-teams duty.

But after his 47-yard performance against Florida International last week, and his career-high 84 yards during the Jayhawk’s 29-0 victory against Louisiana Tech on Saturday, it’s Quigley — not Sharp or Crawford — who has led the team in rushing in each of the first two games.

“I probably would have chuckled at that one,” Quigley said of the preseason prediction. “I would have laughed or smiled and said, ‘Yeah, I’m going to lead the team in rushing from the special teams — sure, ok.’ It’s just a privilege to even get in the game these first two games. I just went in and kept my feet moving and played the way I know how to play.”

While Quigley provided the spark on the ground, it was quarterback Todd Reesing who contributed through the air. The 5-foot-11 gunslinger passed for a career-high of 412 yards, the third-best single-game total in school history.

After completing 37 of 52 passes against FIU in week one, Reesing completed 32 of 38 passes against Louisiana Tech and again had three touchdowns.

A large portion of Reesing’s yards came after the catch, including all but five of Dezmon Briscoe’s 48-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter. Briscoe, who had seven catches for 146 yards, caught a short pass from Reesing and broke six different tackles before falling into the end zone.

When the replay was shown on the video board, the students that had braved the cold, rainy conditions counted out each of the six missed Louisiana Tech tackles.

“That’s the ideal pass: when all you have to do is throw it about 10 yards and get a 50-yard completion out of it,” Reesing said. “It doesn’t get much easier than that. When you have guys that can take a short pass and get a lot of yards after it, it makes my job a lot easier.”

Not very often does a drive last 22 plays, cover 82 yards, take more than nine minutes off the clock and result in zero points, but such was the case for Louisiana Tech.

The Bulldogs failed to score on a drive that took almost two-thirds of a quarter when Chris Harris picked off quarterback Taylor Bennett’s pass in the end zone midway through the second quarter, giving Kansas the ball after a marathon Louisiana Tech drive ended with nothing to show for it.

“I didn’t like it because it’s uncharacteristic of our defense,” coach Mark Mangino said of his defense on the long Louisiana Tech drive. “I really thought they were out there for a very long time. It shows you the character of those kids. They were tired, but they toughened up and went out there and competed.”

What could have been seven points for Louisiana Tech resulted in seven points for Kansas when the Jayhawks drove down the field 80 yards in eight plays on the ensuing drive — capped by a three-yard touchdown catch by freshman Daymond Patterson that made it 10-0.

The punt-returning sensation Patterson replaced the injured Dexton Fields in the starting lineup and had eight catches for 130 yards and two touchdowns.

The only dull moment of the night for Kansas came when defensive back Kendrick Harper was taken off the field on a stretcher and driven to the hospital after appearing to injure his head or neck as he attempted to make a tackle late in the first quarter.

The 5-foot-9 senior left the field under his own power but soon needed medical attention and was attended to for several minutes before being put in an ambulance.

“I don’t know all of the details. We’re still working on that,” coach Mark Mangino said of Harper’s condition after the game. “He’s in good care. He’s in good hands. We don’t have a whole lot of information, and we want to talk to his family before stuff is printed all over the Internet.”

The defensive play of the game came midway through the third quarter with Kansas leading 20-0. Louisiana Tech’s Phillip Livas took an end-around from his own 20-yard line and broke free for what looked like was going to be an 80-yard touchdown run.

But safety Darrell Stuckey, who tipped a ball intercepted by Chris Harris in the end zone earlier in the game, somehow chased down the speedy Livas and knocked him out of bounds at the two-yard line.

Stuckey tackled running back Patrick Jackson for a four-yard loss on the next play and then pressured quarterback Taylor Bennett on third and goal, causing his pass to go incomplete and forcing a field goal attempt that Bulldog kicker Brad Oestriecher would miss.

“It’s what you always talk about and what you always want to see from your players — not ever giving up on a play, no matter how hopeless it looks,” said defensive coordinator Clint Bowen. “That’s exactly what he did. He continued to run, and he caught the guy and made what turned out to be a play that saved the shutout for us.”

— Edited by Adam Mowder

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