Some thoughts…from Stillwater

Ryan Wood, Journal-World KU football beat writer

“Kansas is winning with an amazing amount of strength in the area of intangibles, which is maybe one reason why skeptics still lurk.

The Jayhawks don’t make mistakes, they don’t have health issues and they are just awesome when the going gets tough. Along with their versatility, it’s a wicked combination.

This is a special team, and the 10-0 record is just one reason why. Kansas might be the underdog against Missouri and perhaps Oklahoma the week after that. But the on-paper matchups don’t matter. You can never, ever count this team out.”

Tom Keegan, Journal-World sports editor

“Todd Reesing was too short. Marcus Henry was too skinny. Brandon McAnderson was too slow. Mark Mangino didn’t look like a head coach and was best suited to continue doing his work in the shadows. Throw this band of football misfits together and what do you get? A 10-0 football team that is the only undefeated team in the nation from a BCS conference.”

Ryan Greene, KUSports.com editor

“The legend of Todd Reesing simply continues to grow. In fact, I think I saw him lift the rear end of the team bus out of a huge pool of mud with one hand so they could make it to the airport on time after leaving the locker room.

Just playing (or am I?), but once again, his huge numbers (326 yards, 4 TDs, no picks) wouldn’t have been made possible without a supporting class as much of a collective underdog as he is. And like any good leader did, he made sure that was said in the postgame locker room, citing that he’d rather have 22 regular guys who love playing football than one or two superstars (see quote below).”

Inside the numbers

199: Marcus Henry’s 199 receiving yards were the fourth-most ever in a single game by a KU receiver. What made his immaculate evening more of a feel-good story was that he bounced back after dropping an open pass on the game’s opening drive which would have resulted in a first down rather than a three-and-out. This offense loves giving guys chances to make up for mistakes. Here was the biggest dividend so far this season from that investment. Henry now has 885 receiving yards and seven touchdowns on the year. The 199 yards, eight catches and three touchdowns were all career-highs for Henry.

155: Oklahoma State’s Dez Bryant was just as impressive as Marcus Henry, drawing 155 yards on eight catches with a touchdown. He had two very impressive jump ball grabs in the first quarter, one of which resulted in a 19-yard touchdown. But he was forced into added duty due to the absence in the second half of…

22: …Adarius Bowman, who finished with just 22 yards on four catches. His fourth grab came on a bubble screen late in the second quarter on which he was pasted right away by Aqib Talib. After limping off the field, he never reappeared on the sideline. It wasn’t the encore he probably had in mind against KU after going for 300 yards and four TDs on 14 grabs in 2006’s 42-32 OSU win at Memorial Stadium.

4: Todd Reesing still has only thrown four interceptions on the season, tonight making it five-plus games he’s gone without being picked off. He was brutally efficient, completing 27 of his 40 pass attempts, and in the second half was just as flawless as in the first despite playing with what looked like a bit of a limp lingering from a first half play.

142: The push towards 1,000 yards for Brandon McAnderson continued, as he was huge, picking up 142 yards on 25 carries with a pair of touchdowns. The second touchdown was a five-yard run in which he cut sharply and froze a defender at the line of scrimmage. His biggest runs, though, came in response to Okie State’s final touchdown of the game, cueing KU’s final blow to the OSU comeback hopes. McAnderson now has 949 yards and 15 touchdowns on the season.

195: OSU finally cracked the code on KU’s run defense, piling up 195 yards on the ground, mostly between Zac Robinson and Dantrell Savage. But thanks to big stops and a huge interception by Talib, the Jayhawks were able to make the number moot for the most part.

2(?): With the win, coupled with Ohio State’s 28-21 loss to Illinois and Oregon playing idle this weekend, who knows how high KU could jump in the polls Sunday. The ideal spot would be third, but second may not be completely out of reach if enough of the voters took notice of the Jayhawks Saturday night on national TV.

Just in case you missed it…

It was going to come at some point, and tonight it was busted out – the trick play involving Kerry Meier throwing the ball upon receiving it from Todd Reesing. In the first half, the play worked as well as could be expected, with Meier striking Marcus Henry for 44 yards to set up a score.

Hopefully, you didn’t miss it…

No matter what teams do to try and chip back in against KU, the Jayhawks continued the trend of always responding right away on offense. Tonight, after Zac Robinson topped off a lightning-quick 89-yard drive with a three-yard touchdown run to pull OSU within five, Brandon McAnderson took three straight inside gives up near midfield following the kick return pinning KU at its own 10-yard line. People have to start wondering what it’s going to take to crack this KU team from behind.

They said it…

Mark Mangino on his team responding when OSU cut the lead to five points: “Well, the key thing is that they had momentum at that point. The fans were on their feet, the place was getting noisy, and the kids just kept their poise. They don’t panic, they listen to instructions. They talk to each other, they listen to each other, and that’s the sign of a good football team.”

Mark Mangino on his team’s key to success at this point: “Our team is 10-0 right now because we’ve taken care of the task at hand. We’ve focused on the task at hand. For the Kansas beat writers in here, they’re sick of hearing that, I understand they are, I’d be too if I had their job. It’s just the truth.”

Joe Mortensen on whether he cares if the Jayhawks rise in the polls: “Nah, I just want to win ’em all and see what happens at the end.”

Joe Mortensen on Aqib Talib’s play which ultimately ended Adarius Bowman’s night: “It was a big play. How fast he read that bubble screen, we watched last week on film watched some Texas guy read it pretty quick, but Aqib was in that backfield and made an awesome tackle. I hope Bowman’s okay and everything, but it’s nice not having him in the game.”

Aqib Talib on that hit on Bowman: “It was just a read for us. In the coverage we were in, that’s what we do. He threw it, I made a good break on it. I hate to see him go down like that, but I was just out there playing football…I kinda rung my own bell. I don’t even know where I hit him at.”

Aqib Talib on being 10-0: “Man, that’s different. I don’t think I’ve ever been 10-0 in anything. It just feels good. Better than 9-0.”

Todd Reesing on limping a bit during the second half: “A little bit? No, I’m 100 percent. I’m ready to go.”

Todd Reesing on the urgency to score after OSU cut the deficit to five: “I got in the huddle before the drive started and I told the guys we’ve got to score on this drive, we’ve got to get the lead back to the point where it’s not a one-possession game. And everyone knew that . They didn’t have to have me tell them that. We came out focused and knew that we had to score and that we had to move the ball all the way down the field, and that was a big drive in the game. ..I just think guys know when we have to score when things get tough. Guys get real focused in. They know they have to execute their assignments as best they can. Because it’s a critical drive – it’s a drive where we have to get points. I think that just shows how into the game guys are and how focused that we can be when we have to. And to be able to score when you have to in tough situations like that, it’s an attribute of a great team.”

Todd Reesing on Marcus Henry’s performance: “Marcus had a great game, and that just shows the capabilities he has. He has that big play capability with his size and speed, and he had an unbelievable game. And that long pass where he broke some tackles was awesome, and to have a guy play at that level at receiver makes my job a lot easier.”

Todd Reesing on this team’s makeup: “We’re not a bunch of superstars on this team. We’re just a bunch of regular guys who love to play football. And that’s how we like it. We’d rather have 22 guys that no one’s ever heard of that are winning every ball game than one or two superstars that everyone’s focusing on. I think that that’s a factor of a great team – you can’t have just one of two players, you’ve got to have a whole team, because it takes every single guy to win a ballgame. A lot of guys may have been overlooked in high school and weren’t highly rated, but they’re great players, they fight hard, and I wouldn’t trade any of these guys for anybody in the world.”

Notable…

…KU is 10-0 for the first time since 1899 (that team finished the year 10-0)…KU is on track for its fifth undefeated season in school history, and has won 10 games in a season for just the fourth time ever…KU has won six conference games for the first time since 1968…KU has four straight road wins in a season for the first time since 1968…KU stopped a five-game losing streak to OSU…KU improved to 4-14 all-time against the Big 12 South under Mark Mangino, including a 3-0 clean sweep this year…Mark Mangino is now .500 for his KU coaching career (35-35)…Five of the six times KU has fallen behind this season, the Jayhawks have scored to tie the game or go ahead on their next drive…KU has trailed just 27:15 all year…Todd Reesing’s 2,647 yards passing this year are the third-most ever in a single season by a KU quarterback…Aqib Talib’s interception was the 12th of his career, tying him for second on the KU career list…Brandon McAnderson has rushed for more than 100 yards in three straight games, and five times all season…Marcus Henry’s fifth 100-yard receiving game of the year tied a school record, also done by Bob Johnson in 1983…Henry’s 82-yard touchdown catch was the longest Knasas pass play since an 89-yard Willie Vaughn touchdown against Nebraska in 1988…Kerry Meier’s 44-yard pass to Marcus Henry was a career-long.