Senior QB to start Saturday for Kansas

KU coach Mangino says Whittemore will be at helm for Senior Day

This time Bill Whittemore’s injury was not of the season-ending variety.

Kansas University football coach Mark Mangino announced after Wednesday night’s practice that Whittemore — who missed KU’s last three games with an undisclosed injury — would start Saturday’s regular-season finale against Iowa State at Memorial Stadium.

“Bill Whittemore looks very sharp on the practice field,” Mangino said. “He is showing no signs at all of an injury. He is just as sharp as he was prior to the injury and is throwing very well. Plus, he has fresh legs. He’s running all over the place. He’s rejuvenated. I’m very pleased. He definitely will be the starter Saturday.”

Whittemore was the nation’s second-rated passer when he suffered what was believed to be a collarbone injury Oct. 25 at Kansas State. The Jayhawks lost that game and the next three without their senior co-captain.

It was the fourth time Whittemore had a college season interrupted or ended by injury. His red-shirt freshman season at Tennessee-Martin was disrupted by a knee injury, and his sophomore season at Fort Scott Community College was cut short by a shoulder injury. He missed KU’s final three games last year because of a knee injury.

Kansas didn’t have an effective backup when Whittemore went down last season, but that wasn’t the case this year. Freshman Adam Barmann passed for 564 yards and four touchdowns in three games while filling in for Whittemore, and sophomore Brian Luke had a breakthrough game with 193 yards and two TDs Saturday at Oklahoma State after Barmann was hampered by an ankle injury.

But there’s no question who the Jayhawks wanted under center when KU (5-6 overall, 2-5 Big 12 Conference) meets Iowa State (2-8, 0-6) on Senior Day with bowl eligibility at stake.

“Bill’s a good friend of mine,” senior offensive lineman Danny Lewis said. “I’d like to see him play in his senior game. I think all of our quarterbacks have the ability to get it done, but it’s his last game and I’d really like to see Bill get to play.”

As promising as Barmann has been, KU’s offense was more efficient with Whittemore. Going into the K-State game the Jayhawks were averaging 37.1 points and 469.6 yards per game. In the last four games, KU has averaged 15.8 points and 332 yards.

<i>” border=”0″/> 6Sports video: Whittemore will start</a><a href=</i>” border=”0″/> 6Sports video: Receivers bright spot for Kansas</a></td> </tr> </table> </div> </div> <p>“Bill brings a dimension we just don’t have because of his experience and knowledge of the system,” Mangino said.</p> <p>Part of the drop, no doubt, is because of the competition — Kansas State, Nebraska, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State handed KU four straight losses. But Whittemore’s numbers are hard to ignore. In eight games, he passed for 1,921 yards and tied a KU single-season record with 15 touchdowns. He also rushed for 365 yards and seven TDs.</p> <p>He also was efficient in the red-zone. In those first seven games, KU scored 76.4 percent of the time (26 of 34) when crossing an opponent’s 20-yard line and 21 of the 26 scores were touchdowns.</p> <p>In the last four games, Kansas has scored on 69.2 percent (nine of 13) in similar situations and settled for field goals (four of nine scores) more often.</p> <p>Part of the drop off was because of turnovers. KU had 10 in the first seven games and lost 13 in the last four games.</p> <p>After Saturday’s loss at OSU, when the Jayhawks coughed up three turnovers, Mangino was doubtful that Whittemore would return for Saturday’s finale. He was still uncertain after Monday’s practice when Whittemore didn’t throw with a full range of motion and experienced discomfort.</p> <p>“Our medical staff said that was normal,” Mangino said. “He got all the muscles working again that he has hardly used for a period of time. Yesterday and today he said he had no effects at all. Everybody’s really happy; the trainers and the doctors are ecstatic about it. I’m very pleased. He really looks good. I’m really happy about it. We all are. He told us he really doesn’t have any pain. His range of motion is complete.”</p> <ul> <li>Birhiray’s back: Senior defensive back Bobby Birhiray was not on KU’s roster at the start of the season, but the Houston product was added to the roster this week and will bow out with the rest of the senior class Saturday.</li> </ul> <p>“Bobby had a school issue to take care of a long time ago,” Mangino said. “After he got it taken care of he asked me if he could come back, and he’s been working on our scout team.”</p> <p>Mangino said it was unlikely that Birhiray — who played in eight games last year with two starts — would play against ISU.</p> <ul> <li>Extra points: There had been no betting line on the ISU game early in the week because of KU’s uncertainty at quarterback. The Jayhawks were installed as 10 1/2-point favorites Wednesday night. … Mangino said tight end Lyonel Anderson was “nursing a nagging injury.”</li> </ul> <script type=