photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas defensive end John Larson, left, pressures Texas A&M quarterback Stephen McGee. The Jayhawks defeated the Aggies, 19-11, Saturday in College Station, Texas. KU's depth on defense - on the line, in particular - has allowed it to soar to new defensive heights.

Sporcle.com has a series of random sports quizzes but before you go there, consider that you might become addicted because racing the clock to fill in all the answers can really get the adrenaline flowing, at least as much as sitting in front of a computer can do that.

Anyway, I stumbled upon one quiz with 24 answers that I found quite interesting. Name the 2008 Orange Bowl starters, including the kicker and punter, for Kansas in eight minutes. With apologies to right guard Chet Hartley and defensive end John Larson, I was able to come up with 22 of them. I do remember Hartley, whose family has a fish farm in Kingman, and Larson, frequently cited as one of the brightest people in the athletic department during his career. I also remember Larson showing rare agility for a defensive lineman when he intercepted a pass in a victory against Toledo.

Now that you have a pretty good head start, give it a shot to see how many you can name. Sporcle lists the position and jersey number and if you type the last name, it will supply the first. It’s interesting to look at from what states the starters on the 12-1 Jayhawks came to KU.

If you want to take the quiz, don’t read the rest of this blog until you have taken it.
Now, let’s look at the home states of the starters then and now.

Orange Bowl team:

Texas: Dezmon Briscoe, Ryan Cantrell, Anthony Collins, Dexton Fields, James McClinton, Todd Reesing, Aqib Talib, Kyle Tucker.

Kansas: Caleb Blakesley, Chet Hartley, John Larson, Adrian Mayes, Brandon McAnderson, Mike Rivera, Darrell Stuckey.
Oklahoma: Russell Brorsen, Derek Fine, Chris Harris, Marcus Henry, James Holt, Scott Webb.
California: Joe Mortensen, Cesar Rodriguez.
Missouri: Justin Thornton.

So 21 of the 24 starters came from three states: Eight from Texas, seven from Kansas, six from Oklahoma. In all, five states were represented.

Now, let’s look take a geographic look at the starters on the current roster.

Texas: Corey Avery, Michael Cummings, Ben Goodman, Nick Harwell, Jimmay Mundine, JaCorey Shepherd.
Kansas: Joe Gibson, Ben Heeney, Pat Lewandowski, Michael Reynolds.
California: Ngalu Fusimalohi, Trevor Pardula.
North Carolina: Isaiah Johnson, Nigel King.

District of Columbia: Larry Mazyck.
Illinois: Tony Pierson.
Iowa: Mike Smithburg.
Maryland: Cassius Sendish.

Michigan: Matthew Wyman.
Mississippi: Tedarian Johnson.
Missouri: Dexter McDonald.
New Jersey: Tevin Shaw.
Oklahoma: Jake Love.
South Carolina: Keon Stowers.

Six from Texas, four from Kansas and then a little of this and a little of that. In all, 13 states plus the District of Columbia are represented among the 24 starters.
Just one recruit from Oklahoma, which used to be such a fertile recruiting ground for Kansas and can become so again.

If you have a connection and like the player and person, absolutely offer him a scholarship if he’s from Mars. But the lack of concentrated recruiting is a function of lack of stability on the coaching staff and of a heavy emphasis on juco recruiting and also suggests too much last-minute scrambling took place.

The next staff needs an assistant coach with strong ties to Oklahoma high school coaches. Plus, Kansas walk-ons need to become a big part of the program to keep the numbers high and to improve relations with Kansas high school coaches.