Waco, Texas — Embracing the safe, logical path of predicting the favorite to defeat the visitor in Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. kickoff at McLane Stadium easily can be defended. For one thing, one of the loudest unwritten rules of predicting sporting contests advises to never pick against a long ...
Counting sacks as negative rushing yards qualifies as one of the sillier statistical practices of college football. So, for the purpose of this exercise, let’s count sack yardage against the Kansas passing game, not against the rushing numbers. Given that adaptation, KU is averaging 5.57 ...
Kansas junior defensive end Azur Kamara remembers well the day he registered for his freshman year at Central High in Phoenix, a school known more for basketball than football. The memory is just as clear for Central's head football coach, John Clanton, a nose tackle for Frank Solich’s first ...
In the opening week of the season, the Kansas offensive line looked exactly like what it was — a collection of strangers thrown together at the last minute. Multiple bad snaps and general lack of cohesiveness made it look as if the unit had gone backward, if anything, from last season’s ...
If you feel like you learn something new every day about Anthony Williams Jr., better known as Pooka, don’t consider yourself out of the loop. Even fourth-year Kansas football coach David Beaty forever picks up fresh material about the sensational running back. Beaty revealed after Kansas ...
Hahnville, about 25 miles upriver from New Orleans, is in the region of Louisiana known as the River Parishes. Early in the 20th century, it was famous for being the 1891 birthplace of jazz trumpeter Thomas “Papa Mutt” Carey. Later in the century, it became known as a high school football ...
It took the 98th game of the post-Mark Mangino era for something to happen to make an awakening from a prolonged slump for the Kansas football program feel even possible. Freshman Pooka Williams Jr., the speedy running back from Louisiana, made such an amazing debut Saturday in Mount Pleasant, ...
No matter how great a new product looks on paper, it’s going to be tough to sell unless the salesman has that first satisfied customer to stand as proof of concept. For the Kansas football program's Louisiana recruiting plan, junior safety Mike Lee represents proof of concept. Associate head ...
Mount Pleasant, Mich. — Debuting Kansas freshman running back Anthony “Pooka” Williams killed more than a nine-year road losing streak late Saturday afternoon, so far from his hometown of Marrero, La. He also, at the very least, put on hold the apathy of a football fan base that had ...
Mount Pleasant, Mich. — In sports, long streaks of futility tend to end on a fluke play. Many a hitter has broken his batting slump with a swinging bunt single. A tipped ball that leads to an interception returned for a touchdown or a blocked punt is how football teams are supposed to score ...
Jon Kirby, who covers Kansas football for Rivals, said hello to Kansas punt returner Kwamie Lassiter II and told him he remembered watching his father play for KU as a defensive back. “He’d hit you,” Kirby said. Responded Lassiter II: “He said he was a hard hitter. I believe ...
A pair of curious substitutions that took starting quarterback Peyton Bender out of the game, as well as ill-timed timeouts, repeated troubles with the snap from center, a drop in the end zone by the team’s best receiver, Steven Sims Jr., and several other tough moments during Saturday’s ...
As the sun was setting on his tenure as University of Kansas head football coach, David Beaty was talking about the next morning’s sunrise. Somehow, that seemed fitting. For the record, the sun is still in the process of setting on the coach’s run as head of the KU program and hasn’t put ...
Try to slide into Peyton Bender’s shoulder pads and wonder what the past couple of weeks must have done to his chances of developing the swagger any team’s starting quarterback needs. Coach David Beaty announces you as starting quarterback and, a week later, says you have “done a ...
1 - Joe Dineen: Had 12 solo tackles, several in big spots, and four assists. Was flagged for a face-masking penalty early in Nicholls drive that resulted in the field goal that sent the game into overtime, one blemish on an otherwise impressive night. 2 - Stephon Robinson: Blocked a punt ...
Both Nicholls State from the FCS and Kansas had fallen on hard times and decided to make coaching changes shortly after the end of their 2014 seasons. Both schools hired position coaches who had worked at the school earlier in their careers and had built reputations as hotshot recruiters. Both ...
Alex Fontana’s passion for football has taken him from his hometown of Toronto to faraway places. Fontana spent his final two years of high school at a boarding school in Connecticut, his next two years at the UFO Capital of the World — otherwise known as Roswell, N.M. — and his next ...
Familiar names on a depth chart, particularly for a football team coming off a 1-11 season, can breed contempt in a fan base. Understandable, but before jumping off the Kansas football bandwagon — or is it a unicycle? — calm down and consider a few mitigating factors. Remember, this is the ...
Every starter except defensive end Dorance Armstrong returns on defense. Center Mesa Ribordy, tight end Ben Johnson and part-time starters Chase Harrell at receiver, and Zach Hannon from various spots on the offensive line, are the only significant losses to the offense. The returning players ...
Basketball and instant replay are two of the bigger contributions to sports that can be traced to Canada. Dr. James E. Naismith, inventor of basketball, was born in Canada. So was instant replay. It made its debut during a 1955 Hockey Night in Canada broadcast on CBC Television. Now is the ...