It’s back

To prepare for the road environment at Texas A&M, Kansas practiced Wednesday at Memorial Stadium and had crowd noise piped through the sound system.

It’s been a Wednesday ritual at KU for years, though it was washed before the Colorado game last week because of rain.

Of course, KU’s use of the silent count while in the shotgun, coupled with the sideline play calling that uses hand signals, has made the noise less of a factor than in year’s past.

“The crowd noise really has no effect,” running back Jake Sharp said. “We’ll just look left or right, or I’ll get a signal from Todd (Reesing), and I’ll go run the play.”

Harper’s progression

KU junior cornerback Kendrick Harper continues to wear a hard cast over his right wrist in games despite being almost healed from an August injury that kept him out of KU’s first four contests.

Harper recorded an interception against Kansas State and recovered a key fumble against Colorado. He’s working as the team’s No. 3 cornerback behind Aqib Talib and Chris Harris.

“He has worked hard to catch up on both the mental aspect of the game and the physical aspect,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “I’m really pleased with the way he’s coming along.”

Getting better

Texas A&M quarterback Stephen McGee is spending part of this week recovering from a 35-carry, 167-yard effort against Nebraska last week.

“I felt pretty bad at the end of the game, to be honest with you,” McGee said earlier this week. “Sunday I was pretty sore, and (Monday) I was really sore. But (Tuesday) I felt better.”

Texas A&M is in the midst of a brutal five-game stretch, and before the season it appeared Kansas would be the breather among games at Texas Tech, at Nebraska, at Oklahoma and at Missouri.

Of course, the 7-0 Jayhawks are nobody’s breather anymore.

“To have as consistent success as they’ve had : has shocked us all a little bit,” McGee said. “They had the right first four games, and they’ve played the right first three teams (in Big 12 play).

“They’ve proven they can beat good teams and play consistent. That’s probably what’s so shocking about them compared to year’s past.”

McGee was then asked if he’s ready to run the ball 35 times again.

“If it means we’re going to win,” he replied, “I’ll run it 40.”