Kansas University’s defense allowed averages of 412.6 yards and 30.5 points a game last year.

That was quite an improvement from 2002.

“We were much better last year,” said KU defensive coordinator and line coach Bill Young, whose unit allowed 472.4 yards and 42.2 points in 2002, coach Mark Mangino’s first season. “A lot of people don’t feel that way, but we were. If you look at the stats, we were light-years better than the year before. Were we good enough? No, but we were much better.

“I think we’re taking the next step. But we’ve only played one game. We have to put another one back to back. It’ll be a tremendous challenge because they’re a darn good football team.”

KU shut down Tulsa in Saturday’s 21-3 season-opening victory at Memorial Stadium. The Golden Hurricane, which had eight offensive starters returning from a unit that averaged 387.8 yards and 30.7 points in 2003, finished with 141 total yards.

The Jayhawks (1-0) will face a tougher test at 6 p.m. Saturday when they play host to Mid-American Conference Western Division favorite Toledo (0-1).

“As a coach, you’re always cautiously optimistic,” said Young, who has five new starters. “We feel really good about our players. They worked extremely hard, and we were really excited about the way they played. We hope they go out and play that way again.”

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Players of the Week: Senior receiver Brandon Rideau, who was honored Monday as the Big 12 Conference special-teams player of the week after blocking two punts against Tulsa, was named KU’s special teams player of the week Tuesday at Mangino’s weekly news conference.

Junior linebacker Kevin Kane and junior cornerback Theo Baines were KU’s defensive players of the week. Kane had five tackles — including a sack — intercepted one pass and broke up another in his first start. Baines had two tackles, one interception and broke up two passes in first game as a Jayhawk.

Mangino didn’t name an offense player after the Jayhawks mustered only 201 yards.

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Watkins’ status: Senior defensive tackle Travis Watkins, who didn’t play in the second half Saturday because of an undisclosed injury, is expected to play against Toledo.

“I think he’ll be fine,” Young said of Watkins, who has been hampered by injuries the last two years.

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Too many flags: Mangino said it was “totally unacceptable” that his team was penalized 12 times for 87 yards in the season opener.

“It didn’t effect the outcome of the game,” he said, “but it put us in some situations that we didn’t need to be in. We just have to be smarter.”

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More on McCoy: KU is playing without senior defensive end John McCoy, an Army Reservist whose 317th Quartermaster Supply battalion reported Aug. 18 to Fort Riley.

“We talked to John last week,” Young said. “They’re in training. They haven’t gone overseas yet. They’re talking about deploying them sometime in October. … He was upbeat.”