🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Thompson has 120 yds rushing to our total team yardage of 74. Sheesh.

@Texas-Hawk-10 I'm not sure a Jayhawk is ever going to be too intimidating. It's kind of a goofy mascot. Historical, but goofy. Maybe, we have always used a goofy looking bird instead of a ferocious fowl. A change is fine with me.

How is it possible we don't have a linebacker spying Thompson? He's able to run at will.

KSU has 160 yds rushing to our 40. I don't count sacks in the rushing yardage

@BShark And can't stop the pass. It's time to dump the defensive coordinator.

It's great to see the stadium full. But all those empty seats behind the beer garden look bad. 8,000 fewer seats sold due to that two story beer garden.

I was looking at KU stats awhile back and only saw Stanley; I guess if the other QBs didn't throw or rush, they wouldn't show up in the stats. Can MacVittie and Kendrick redshirt; otherwise it seems like a completely wasted year for those two.

This is a big game for both schools. Full stadium. Fun. Now if KU could just put it together on both sides of the ball for 4 quarters. The defense and special teams must step up to get this win. Hey, who can name our number 2 QB? I can't believe Stanley has taken every snap this year. Unless coach Miles finds time to insert a couple of the other QBs soon, KU will be playing next year with a QB with no recent playing time.

Dok's FT form looks fine. Now he must develop touch. I learned touch by shooting 1000's of FTs.

@Kcmatt7 You say lucky fumble recovery; I would call it fortunate. Even without the fumble recovery and successful FG, the game is tied and we go to overtime. I view the first half offense as our offensive strength, rushing being successfully defended by TT putting 9 defenders at the line of scrimmage. With the focus on stopping Pooka and our running game, that opened up the passing game. KU's offensive strategy seemed to be show the run, keep running, then take shots downfield. We have really good receivers, who provide a great compliment to our running game.

Like the necessary change at offensive coordinator, isn't it time to give special teams coordinator, Mike Ekeler his walking papers? There are just too many breakdowns in all phases of our special teams. Maybe it's too late in the season to improve special teams, but something needs to be done. Liam Jones doesn't seem to have the leg strength for kickoffs and his FG accuracy is disturbing. Out of 6 KO's, Jones only had one touchback and if my math is right, averaged kicking only to the 11 yard line on kickoffs. Texas Tech seemed to start each drive on their 30 or better.

I thought Texas Tech was getting improper leverage on other players' shoulders while successfully blocking our kicks, but our line must block better. I'm sorry to spoil all the good cheer here, but special teams is a really weakness and is costing us W's.

Sweet victory. Finally. RC

Time of Possession: TT 28 min/ KU 16.. Tough to score without being on the field.

Tough start: 2 TO's and an ejected player for targeting. I wonder about attendance. I notice the TV view seems intentionally focused on the field and not the stands.

No points surrendered on the TO. Let's go offense.

@jayballer73 I looked at Tech's stats and they rely on the pass way more than rushing. Their passing yds is twice the amount of rushing yds. So, if our doggone secondary will show up, maybe our rushing offense will outscore Tech.

Sadly, I always have a bad feeling before every football game. Perhaps, KU is feeling some confidence from the offense's success against Texas. But, the defense must play better to give us a chance.

@jayballer73 Did you get to watch the BB exhibition game? We had a few people commenting during the game and I don't recall seeing your observations. RC

I'm not going to the game, but I'm interested in it. After last week's offensive explosion that was reminiscent of the Boston College game, it will be interesting to see how the offense does against Tech. Secondly, will the defense even bother to show up today? KU just needed one defensive stop in the second half to pull off the win against Texas, but couldn't do it. Special teams has not been a plus for us all year. That blocked extra point kick that turned into two points for Texas really was a heartbreaker. I sure hope KU puts all the pieces together this evening and gets a solid Big 12 home win. RC

@DanR I'm giving Dok a pass tonight because it's been a long time since he played in a game.

What's the deal with the Fort Hays set shots on 3 balls? I haven't seen men shoot set shots since the 60's.

Prison Mitch now has the haircut to match.

How's everyone's ESPN+ link. Mine stops every one or two minutes.

I would sure like to see Dok's playing time limited in the exhibition games and all games when the game is decided. He's proven himself to be injury prone, so why risk playing meaningless minutes. Maybe, even limit some of his time during practice scrimmages. Didn't both his season ending injuries happened during practices?

I miss Jaybate. At first, when I see these old posts, I think he has finally returned.

@mayjay Thanks, MJ. I'm sure creating the schedules is difficult. Somewhere and some time ago, I heard or understood that the teams with the best records were assigned more difficult schedules the next year. Maybe that's not the case. It certainly isn't the case with NE's schedule this year.

I thought the defending super bowl champion was supposed to play the toughest schedule the next year. Not only do the Chiefs have to play at NE for the third consecutive year, but NE's schedule is really weak: Week 1, Steelers(1-3), Dolphins(0-4), Jets(0-3), Bills(3-1) and today the Redskins(0-4). Looking ahead, NE gets the Dolphins and the Jets again, but also the Giants(2-2) and the Bengals(0-4). Good grief, NE has a cakewalk to the playoffs. I understand that some teams on paper should be better than their current records and injuries to key players is always a factor. But, NE's schedule just seems too weak for a super bowl champion.

Our defense is playing well.

@Texas-Hawk-10 I wonder why Miles hasn't tried anyone else at QB? Everyone was in agreement with Miles sticking with Stanley through the first two rough games. After the BC game, Stanley hasn't done well. Does it surprise you that MacVittie hasn't played at least a few series. or even one of the other backups?

How bad must our offense be: SMU scored 41 points on TCU last week. We're struggling just to get back to the line of scrimmage. The fact that this game was decided in the first quarter really hurts.

Last year's team was much more competitive than this team. Our offensive line just can't match up with other lines. It's going to be a long, sad season from here on.

WV rushed for more yards than KU did, 192 to 142. That plus our 2 turnovers to 0 for WV sums up this loss.

KU defense is doing all it can. But, the offensive play calling has been horrible. Execution too. But, the offense took off last week in the second half, so I hope for the same positive results today. RC

@Texas-Hawk-10 What service do you use for your stats? I've been using CBSSports because it ranks 130 teams. That service shows WV's passing offense at 82nd and KU's pass defense as 38th. So WV's offensive strength, passing is going against KU's defensive strength of pass defense. KU's rushing is ranked 40th and WV's rush defense is ranked 99. So, based on these rankings, KU should have the advantage today.

This game is going to be very interesting for those few of us following KU football. First, will the KU offense progress after the BC explosion or regress to the ineffectiveness we suffered through during the first two games?

Second, the WV offense appears to favor the pass, so our D-line and D-backs will be tested. OU transfer QB, Austin Kendall is 69/107 for 669 yds. 6TDs, 3 INTs. His favorite target is WR, #13 Sam Jones, with 20 receptions. WV only has 237 yds. rushing through 3 games, most from #6 McKoy, who is also the second most targeted receiver.

I haven't been very successful with ESPN+; I was able to access it all day for other games, but when the CC started, I couldn't log in. All of us need to get used to ESPN+. I noticed that many of our BB games will only be seen there. Today's game will tell us if our offense has turned the corner and will help KU be more competitive in the Big 12. Our defense must shine today.

@Texas-Hawk-10 Thanks, THawk. I always appreciate your insights. I'm still at a loss to explain the CC loss. But, at least our coaches and players didn't dwell on the loss and found a way to be successful. Texas Tech at Arizona will be interesting today.

The surprising BC win in no way dulls the image etched in my brain of the CC coach taking pictures of himself and our scoreboard last Saturday. Or, the 20+ times the ESPN+ announcers felt the need to crow that CC was looking for its first win over a Power 5 opponent. Except for the 50+ point home losses to KState where the games were over by halftime, the CC loss goes down as an all time low for me. The Texas Tech game is really going to tell us which way our program is headed.

Ugh! I'm not seeing any improvement on either side of the ball. Way too conservative on offense.

Finally, it's game day. CC relied almost exclusively on #1 Marable at RB last week, 18 rushes for 49 yds. Marable is 5'10", 190 lbs. and a Junior. He was their leading rusher last year, 719 yds. Marable is also used as a receiver; last week-7 receptions for 84 yds. The QB is also used in the rushing game. With Pooka back, as long as the Oline does a better job, this should be a solid win for us. If we struggle against CC, like we did against ISU, it will be a very long year.

Jesse Newell has become overly critical of our football program since he started writing for the KC Star. Yes, Jesse it's really easy to write about flaws and mistakes in a struggling program. That's about the same level of journalism as standing on a Florida beach and reporting about the wind and waves. In a recent article Newell dissected and analyzed the two flawed offensive plays in the fourth quarter, all of which were obvious to everyone. Thanks for adding nothing to the discussion, Jesse. Oh yeah, Newell has KU losing to CC. We'll see, hack.

I rewatched our winning drive and was impressed with the protection the O-line gave Stanley on that drive. Maybe that's a sign of better line play going forward. Also, Stanley's goal line play the previous series should have been called an incomplete pass; Stanley was in the process of passing when the ball was knocked loose. It sure seemed like the refs were very quick to call that a fumble. The stadium announcer called it a backwards pass, but of course there wasn't a receiver behind Stanley.

Apparently, a chanticleer is a rooster and is derived from a rooster character in Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales." The name reminds me a bit of the mighty Ichabods from Washburn.

My first impressions of CC are young players, first year coach, and second year in the FBS. But they played very well against E. Mich, ranked 89 by CBSSports. KU is ranked 104 and CC is 121. This is a pass first offense. RS/FR QB Peyton, 29/43 304 yds. 2 TDs 4 INTs against E Mich. Less than 80 yds. rushing for the team.

The offensive line is young, one SO, one RS/SR, and three RS/SOs. The defensive line has two RS/SOs and a GR transfer from Clemson at NT. In the two deeps, most are FR.

One sports book has us favored by 9.5. So, overall a great matchup for game two for a KU offense that struggled to protect the backfield and didn't open enough holes to allow us to rush for more than 103 yds against ISU. But, ISU is going to win a lot of games this year. ISU has big and experienced lines.

Besides both lines getting out played against ISU, my second biggest concern is Stanley's weak passes on the outside throws. We are going to see some pick 6's, unless our coaching staff has the receiver come back to the ball or makes other necessary adjustments. Our experienced DBs are no doubt looking forward to attacking the CC passing game.

This is going to be a fun game to watch to see if Pooka can find some room to run and if our lines play dominant football like they mentioned during fall practices.

If you come to a game, try to get your tickets in advance. The ticket windows were horribly slow. Many people were still waiting to get tickets at kickoff. I was about 30 people back when I got in line. I waited at least 45 minutes. It was ridiculous.

@BShark From Section 26, Row 28, I saw ISU defenders in our backfield on almost every play. Our backs were being met with a defender 5 yards into the backfield. Maybe that's correctable. On our side of the ball, our defense rarely put any pressure on the QB or running backs. I just expected a lot more from our experienced offensive line and the defensive line is as weak as many predicted.

Hey, we've got some terrific receivers; all the other parts, especially the offensive line were pretty poor. I'm looking forward to getting Pooka back and seeing the post-game one improvement that sometimes happens.

@jayballer73 I always thought Ryan Willis was going to be a good QB for us. I didn't really respond to your original post about Willis because I try to keep my posts short. I thought Willis was going to lead us back to respectability. I'm glad he is doing well.

@jayballer73 I've always thought KU fans were too tough on Peyton Bender. I wish he had one more year of eligibility left given our QB options this year.

Bender passed for 1899 yds on 183/321 attempts; 57%. QBR 118.2. 13 TDs/3 INTs all while being sacked 23 times. I very much respect Bender's play last year. RC

@Texas-Hawk-10 Are you surprised that KU is barely favored over a FCS opponent?

@dylans Thanks for posting about football. Jeez, our first game is two weeks away and no one is posting about the upcoming season. If we had a starter at QB with the confidence of the coaching staff and the staff was talking positively about the starter, it would improve the impression of our team. Unfortunately, Coach Miles is taking the same approach we've seen in the past of not naming a starter. I thought MacVittie looked good enough in the spring game to be named the starter. Then, if someone else steps up and beats him out so be it. But, to still be sitting on the fence or just not be willing to announce the decision that's been made makes the team and coaching staff look weak.

But I agree with you, Dylans, that much will be known after the first game. I still expect KU to easily handle ISU.

I just saw that the oddsmakers only have KU as a 3 1/2 point favorite over the mighty Indiana State Sycamores. YIKES. KU football sure has a long way to go to claw itself back to respectability. All summer, I've thought of the ISU game as a scrimmage for Coach Miles to get a look at a lot of players. I suppose that means we will be underdogs to Coastal Carolina?