During the Kansas University coaching staff’s weekly film study of the previous day’s football game, a tally is kept to track how many passes the Jayhawk receivers dropped during the course of the day.

This week’s answer was a pleasant surprise, after Kansas blew out Central Michigan, 52-7, on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

“None,” head coach Mark Mangino said.

Not one. The Jayhawks caught 26 passes in the blowout – some in acrobatic fashion – without a single ball slipping through the fingers or clanking off a shoulder pad.

“I feel very good about it,” Mangino said Sunday. “That’s one thing we’ve got to keep going all season long.”

It was a promising start for a receiving corps with noticeable depth and offensive formations that need to use most of it.

Ten players were credited with receptions against the Chippewas, and five targets caught touchdown passes. Senior Marcus Henry led the way with seven catches for 103 yards, including a 46-yard touchdown catch.

“They’re really showing the kind of mental toughness we wanted to show at the receiver position,” Mangino said.

It was roughly three weeks ago when KU’s sixth-year coach addressed reporters after an open practice and – without solicitation – declared that the wide receivers were struggling and needed to clean things up.

The next week at fan-appreciation day, a thousand or so fans witnessed several dropped passes during 30 minutes of 11-on-11 work.

“I thought they were showing signs in the spring of being a good unit,” Mangino said. “When we got into two-a-days, we started out very well. When we started to get into long practices and two-a-day practices, we probably ran them into the ground a little bit.”

Some of the fundamentals of the position, like fighting through coverage and staying on route, became difficult with tired legs.

But KU coaches continued to press the unit, hoping tough love would get them back on track before Saturday’s game.

It worked – flawlessly.

“That’s part of developing that mentality,” Mangino said. “We pushed them hard to get through it, and to their credit they did.”