Max Falkenstien will have a rare Saturday off when Kansas University’s football team plays Appalachian State as the legendary broadcaster recovers from emergency intestinal surgery performed Wednesday at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

“I anticipate a four- to six-week recovery period,” Falkenstien said in a statement, “after which I hope to return to the broadcast booth.”

The news affected about everyone associated with KU athletics. Falkenstien is in his 60th year broadcasting KU athletics, and Saturday’s call certainly won’t have the same feel.

“We want to send our best to Max,” KU football coach Mark Mangino said on his weekly radio show. “We’re going to miss him this Saturday. It’s hard to just think about playing a football game without Max upstairs calling it.”

To cover for Falkenstien’s absence, normal sideline reporter David Lawrence will move upstairs and do color commentary next to Bob Davis. Nate Bukaty, who does play-by-play for women’s basketball games and helps with Kansas City Royals broadcasts, will be the sideline reporter.

Mangino had a message for Falkenstien on his radio show.

“Get well,” the fourth-year coach said, “because we’ve got a lot of work to do and a lot of exciting plays for Max to call this season.”

¢ No truth: Mangino pretty much buried a weird Internet message-board rumor that freshman wide receiver Marcus Herford was transferring to Ohio.

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“If you rely on message boards for information, you’re in deep trouble,” Mangino said, adding that Herford had been practicing with the team all week. “If you say you got it from a message board, I certainly don’t care about it.”

¢ Special teams importance: Special-teams coordinator Clint Bowen went through film and found out that special teams took part in 336 snaps last season, further adding to the KU coaching staff’s creed of the importance of putting the best players out there.

“Why wouldn’t you have your best players out there for those snaps?” Mangino said. “We kind of changed that culture of thinking when we got here.”