Some thoughts…from Memorial Stadium

Ryan Wood, Journal-World KU football beat writer

“Coach Mark Mangino was asked after the game which unit is performing better between the offense and the defense. Mangino didn’t have an answer.

That’s because it’s debatable, which is a great sign of overall team strength heading into Big 12 Conference play. Kansas forced five turnovers (one of which was returned 100 yards in amazing fashion by Aqib Talib) and had more than 600 yards of total offense.

Combine that with the fact that KU is a healthy team, and the Jayhawks’ will be taking their best shot into Manhattan in two weeks.”

Tom Keegan, Journal-World sports editor

“Why show Kansas State so much of the playbook? Why unveil Kerry Meier as a receiver? Why not wait until Manhattan? Because the Kansas coaching staff isn’t stupid, that’s why. KU has two weeks to get ready for the game, K-State one. The Jayhawks’ offense is so diverse, a week isn’t a lot of time to gameplan for it.”

Ryan Greene, KUSports.com editor

“Not gonna talk about the offense (though Derek Fine’s solid job slicing the middle of Florida International’s defense deserves credit). Instead, two other things:

1) Aqib Talib’s 100-(really 102)-yard interception return? Most thrilling KU defensive play I can recall having seen. He really covered more like 140 yards of turf on the highlight-reel gallop.

2) James McClinton pointed out that KU needs to improve against the run in conference play. From what I saw Saturday night, they need to get more consistent pressure on the quarterback.

But hey, who am I to say anything bad about a 55-3 win? KU is looking good – as good as they possibly could with Manhattan next up on the slate.”

Inside the numbers

100: On the play of the night – probably the play of both the non-conference season and his KU career – Aqib Talib set a new school record for longest interception return, taking a Wayne Younger failed deep ball 100 yards for a score the other way. For those who stuck around to see it, it was well worth the price of admission. It also made the fifth straight game in which Talib has found the end zone in one way or another.

368: Another ho-hum 300-yard performance for Todd Reesing under center. His 368 yards through the air were the ninth-most ever produced in a single game by a KU quarterback. It’s scary to think that at this point, he still has yet to take a fourth quarter snap. Through four games, Reesing has thrown for 1,199 yards, 11 touchdowns and just one pick, good for a quarterback rating of 166.9.

11: That’s how many different targets caught passes for the Jayhawks Saturday night. Making it even more impressive is the fact that Marcus Henry, who had gone for over 100 yards in the season’s first three games, caught just two balls for 39 yards. Derek Fine, Dezmon Briscoe and Dexton Fields each stepped up. Fine led the way with seven grabs for 70 yards and a score.

5: It was just two weeks ago when the talk was KU’s inability to take the ball away on defense in its first two games. After breaking out somewhat against Toledo, KU tore down the walls Saturday, forcing five turnovers, with two fumbles and three picks.

30: That was the amount of tackles racked up between KU’s three-headed monster at linebacker – Joe Mortensen, Mike Rivera and James Holt. On top of that, the trio also notched seven tackles for loss combined. Mortensen was accountable for 3.5 of those.

Just in case you missed it…

Kerry Meier turned heads by lining up at slot receiver for the Jayhawks for a couple of series in the first and second quarter. He caught a pass from Reesing for 15 yards, and also took an option pitch for a six-yard gain. Mangino put it perfectly, in saying that Meier is just too good of an athlete to not have on the field in some capacity. Plus, this was probably a nice strategic move in giving K-State something else to prepare for on Oct. 6.

Hopefully, you didn’t miss it…

No matter what, the talk of this non-conference season will be the way KU has dominated its competition for a combined 240 minutes of gametime. In the end, the Jayhawks outscored their first four foes by a combined tally of 214-23. Soak that in for a second. 214-23. That’s an average score of 53.5-5.75. Now, of course, don’t expect those numbers to hold up through 12 regular season tilts. But as Fine pointed out in the postgame press session, it’s a result of KU knowing it needs to close out opponents this year and not let anyone off the hook. They’ve certainly done it so far.

They said it…

Mark Mangino on Aqib Talib’s 100-yard interception return: “That’s one of the best plays I’ve seen from a defensive performer in my career. I’ve had the good fortune of being around a lot of quality defensive players, you know, All-Americans, first-round draft picks. I’ve got to tell you, that’s one of the most impressive plays that I’ve seen. For the people that were in the stadium tonight, they got to see a real treat, it was an awesome play, and you don’t get to see that everyday in college football.”

Mark Mangino on whether he wants to see his defensive backs regularly running back interceptions in the end zone: “Well, it depends how deep in the end zone they are. And if a guy wearing No. 3 for us out there tonight, he can run it out any time he likes.”

Mark Mangino on his team’s potential following four blowout wins: “We’ve only played four, I don’t want to get carried away, but so far it’s the best performance we’ve had for our first four games since I’ve been here. There’s no question about that.”

Mark Mangino on working Kerry Meier into the offense as a slot receiver: “We’ve worked on that for a considerable amount of time. The key was was Kerry healthy enough to do it? He was last week, we didn’t have an opportunity to get him on the field, just for situations we needed different personnel. But Kerry is too good of an athlete to spend all of his time on the sideline, and he will continue to play and grow into our program in a number of different roles. This is just one that you saw tonight.”

Mark Mangino on how much he feels his team has been tested so far: “I feel like we’ve been tested about as much as I wanted to be for the first four games. This is the way we planned it with our team. We wanted to be 4-0. There’s a lot of teams that got tested in games that they were supposed to win, and they ended up with the lower score, and we didn’t. And here’s the key – we’re winning the ones we’re supposed to. There was a time here when that didn’t happen. So overall, the progress is great.”

Kerry Meier on his new duties in the offense: “I don’t know if you call it a whole new role, but you know it’s just a new little fold that we’ve got in our package. It’s just another scheme that defenses have to plan against, and I think it can be effective down the road.”

James McClinton on where the defense needs improvement heading into conference play: “Stopping the run. We can’t let them big 40-yard, 30-yard, 20-yard runs get like that, man. We’ve got to stop the run, make them one-dimensional, and make them pass the ball. We get to the Big 12, these boys are gonna be bigger, running backs are gonna be much faster.”

Aqib Talib on his 100-yard defensive highlight: “As soon as I caught it, I said ‘I gotta score.’ I was in the end zone, I said ‘I gotta score.’ So we made it happen. Good blockin’ on that defense…That’s probably the best play I’ve ever made in my career, including everything – high school, junior high – period…I know I was dog-tired after it though.”

Todd Reesing on joking with Aqib Talib after his touchdown: “I told Aqib, you know, he kind of owed that to me to make up for what happened with the interception. But we were just kidding around. That was a great play, and it just really shows Aqib’s athletic ability and really the rest of the defense, how hard they were playing getting blocks for him.”

Todd Reesing on the advantage of having Kerry Meier on the field with him: “Obviously when there’s two quarterbacks on the field, there’s that extra threat, extra passing option. It presents more problems, but at the same time when we put him out there and line him up as a receiver, he’s still going to go out for some passes. He can catch the ball and he can make some plays.”

Derek Fine on what’s different with this year’s team through the non-conference season: “I think that last year when we didn’t go to a bowl game really set a sour taste in our mouth, and losing a lot of games at the end, that’s kind of something that we’ve really focused on. I think we’ve really focused on trying to finish games, not let up, and have that mindset to finish each game to get those wins that we should have gotten last year.”