Woodling: Backup Luke etches name in Kansas lore
Columbia, Mo. ? On a steel gray November day — with apologies to legendary sports writer Grantland Rice — the first four books of the New Testament, not the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, came to mind.
The names are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Yet on the gridiron Saturday, on the hallowed turf of Faurot Field, Kansas didn’t need three of those guys. Luke was plenty. Brian Luke, to be exact.
A scrub quarterback, a fourth-year junior who had fallen to fourth-string on the basis of his poor play, Luke etched his name in Kansas University football lore with a storybook performance against the dazed Tigers.
Luke completed 24 of 36 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns as the Jayhawks washed out the bad taste of a season awash in adversity by stunning the 11-point favorites, 31-14.
“We couldn’t be happier,” KU offensive coordinator Nick Quartaro said about Luke’s gold-star outing. “It’s a great testament to his perseverance. We’re proud of the way he slugged away.”
The Life of Brian has been rife with football woes. His nadir may have occurred three weeks ago when, after replacing the injured Adam Barmann, he fumbled at Iowa State, and the ball was returned for the Cyclones’ only TD in a 13-7 defeat.
Sadly, Luke had elevated himself to second-string in practice that week. But he went into the Colorado game the next week as third-stringer, then was supplanted by fourth-stringer John Nielsen, a walk-on.
“I’ve definitely faced some adversity,” Luke said, minutes after the zenith of his checkered KU career. “That (Iowa State game) was very humbling. I thought I was prepared.”
The Jayhawks' Rodney Harris gestures to a booing Missouri crowd in the first half. KU led, 21-0, at the half.
When Nielsen was hurt against Texas last week, Luke went in by default because Barmann and Swanson both were still ailing with apparent shoulder injuries, and darned if Luke didn’t look as good as he ever has (until Saturday, that is).
Now we know that Luke’s strong relief showing against the Longhorns was not a fluke. It was foreshadowing. Still, who knew?
Kansas quarterbacks have been falling like bowling pins. Barmann started the first eight games, then was hurt. Swanson started the ninth game and was hurt. Nielsen started the 10th game and was hurt.
That left Luke. Period.
How this rangy 6-foot-6, 225-pounder from the suburban San Francisco area evolved from the king of klutz to King Midas is hard to fathom.
6Sports video: Jayhawks trounce Tigers in season-ender
Hear Mark, players: Missouri postgame
Photo Gallery: KU vs. Missouri
Photo Gallery: Crossing the Border, Day 4
Scorecard: Grade KU’s performance against MissouriNothing you can do to make a child walk will enable a child to walk. The kid will walk when he’s darned well ready to walk. Does Luke fit a similar pattern? Is it a case of him not becoming a college quarterback until he was finally ready to become one?
“I don’t know about that,” Quartaro said. “The biggest thing he did was, on the weeks he wasn’t playing, he was prepared. Our guys just don’t hang out there with baseball caps on. They stay focused.”
On the Kansas sideline Saturday afternoon, as the clock wound down and Missouri was trying desperately, hopelessly, to score, Luke couldn’t stand still. He was walking up and down, continually looking for somebody to hug and finding plenty of takers.
“We knew he’d do good,” said running back Clark Green, who did good himself with 118 yards rushing and a touchdown.
Perhaps this wasn’t the first time a KU quarterback made his first career start and led the Jayhawks to a surprising win over arch-rival Missouri. Heck, the series is older than dirt. Maybe somebody did it in the ’20s or ’30s. Who knows?
In my recollection, the most similar scenario was in 1976, when Mark Vicendese subbed for injured Nolan Cromwell and guided the unranked Jayhawks to a shocking 41-14 win over No. 19-ranked Tigers, also in Columbia. But it wasn’t the first start for Vicendese. It was his third or fourth that season.
How fitting that in one of the unluckiest seasons in KU football history — five losses by six points, three starting QBs injured, etc. — that Brian Luke, of all people, would become the Jayhawks’ rabbit’s foot.
Now the man who was time and again dismissed to the scout team as a failure probably will go into spring drills as the Jayhawks’ No. 1 signal-caller.
For one reason, and one reason only.
“I haven’t given up,” Luke said. “Ever.”