You know the old saying about desperate times?
Well, Kansas University football coach Terry Allen used at least one desperate measure on Tuesday, the first real day of practice since KU's 51-17 loss at Colorado on Saturday.
Allen let the Jayhawks hit.
"They got after it well today," Allen said. "We broke our rhythm a little bit and had some 11-on-11. That's uncustomary for us. Maybe it'll get 'em tougher. " They responded pretty well. We even had a fight out there."
Allen normally frowns on fights, but Tuesday's scrap showed him at least the Jayhawks have a little fight left.
Allen said Kansas was too soft against the Buffs, and some of the Jayhawks weren't about to disagree.
"We've been wracking our brains about what we can do differently," said wide receiver Michael Chandler, a 6-foot, 200-pound senior offensive co-captain. "A lot of people thought the tempo in practice needed to be changed, so we picked it up.
"It's a nice change getting to hit. Knock on wood nobody gets hurt. But one thing we really emphasized is scout teams. You practice and you don't hit and you get in a game and everything is 100 mph. (At Colorado) we got caught off-guard. We've been too lackadaisical. Practice has just been a walk-through for us, but that's going to change."
Chandler was as depressed as anybody by the CU loss, but the Chiefs, curiously, lifted his spirits with their 26-10 victory Sunday over Denver.
"I've been telling all my friends, the Chiefs actually gave me hope," Chandler said. "I was depressed. Then I watched the Chiefs. They were supposed to get beat, and they won. They beat the defending champions. We've got nine games left. As far as I'm concerned, we're going into all nine like we can win them all. I don't want to worry about, we need to win this many games to go to a bowl. I want to win them all, and it all starts with practice."
Allen typically has shied away from live scrimmages because of the greater risk of injury, and Tuesday proved him correct. Starting sophomore offensive tackle Justin Hartwig suffered a broken bone in his right hand, but he should play Saturday against San Diego State.
He'd better.
Kansas' offense floundered in the mountain air, and the Jayhawks will face a stiff defensive test Saturday against SDSU.
"They do a lot of things like Oklahoma State and Cincinnati a few years ago," Chandler said. "We don't want what happened at Cincinnati.
"I looked at so much film from Colorado. The plays were there. We just didn't execute. We can't let our defense down again. We killed our defense. We dug too many big holes. We just failed to execute."
Contrary to Allen's stated opinion, though, the Jayhawks didn't feel they were manhandled by the Buffs.
"I don't think we got beat up," KU center Chris Enneking said. "It's not like we got physically handled. We just made mistakes. Like that fumble on the goal line, we missed a block. But we never felt that they were handling us."
Can Kansas handle SDSU's aggressive defense that has surrendered less than 100 rushing yards per game? Enneking is confident KU can, and he hopes the line's rushing performance Tuesday proved it.
"I like to run the ball," Enneking said. "It takes a whole different attitude, and it starts in practice. Instead of just coming in and going through the motions, we wanted to come out and show the coaches they can have confidence in the run. We're ready to run the ball."
Kickoff for Kansas-SDSU is 6 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
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Injury update: Allen said ailing wideout Termaine Fulton (high-ankle sprain) had been downgraded to very doubtful, and wideout Byron Gasaway still hasn't been cleared by doctors to return to practice. Allen said running back David Winbush (ankle sprain) would play. Offensive tackle John Oddonetto (sprained shoulder) will play, but Chad Coellner (hamstring) is possible.
"Chad claims he's going to go," Allen said, "but I'd list him as questionable. But who knows with him?"
-- Andrew Hartsock's phone number is 832-7216. His e-mail address is ahartsock@ljworld.com.
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