Saturday Football Fever

I’m watching the Kansas-South Florida game and I don’t understand something.

The announcers have said that Reesing was not heavily recruited by “the big boys”.   Why?

Reesing, Joe Hamilton, Pat White, Doug Flutie and others have proved time and again that height is not as important at the QB position in college as it is in the pro game.  You don’t have to be tall to be a successful QB in the NCAA.  That being the case, why don’t schools like Georgia take a shot on Reesing (5-11, 200, stats) rather than Matthew Stafford (6-3, 237, stats)?  To this point, Reesing has been the better QB, despite being 4 inches shorter than Stafford.

At some point, someone will be able to explain to me why height is such a big deal in college, despite evidence to the contrary.

Filed under: Misc News and Thoughts

Tags: doug flutie, georgia bulldogs, joe hamilton, kansas jayhawks, matthew stafford, pat white, south florida bulls, todd reesing

Normally, I wouldn’t care about what happens in the Kansas spring game. But given their success last year on the gridiron, a little more attention will be paid to the Jayhawks this year.

I don’t think that you’ll see the same level of success from Mark Mangino and the Jayhawks again. For starters, they have a much tougher schedule this year. Their conference slate is much more difficult this season, as they play at Oklahoma and Texas and Texas Tech at home. Throw in a game at an improved (and pissed off) Nebraska and a tough game against Missouri and the Big 12 schedule is brutal. Add non-conference opponent South Florida and you can guess that Kansas won’t be 12-1 again next year.

You also have to consider that they lost a ton of talent on both sides of the ball. First team All-Americans Aqib Talib and Anthony Collins; second team All-American James McClinton; receiver Marcus Henry and leading rusher Brandon McAnderson. Even the USC’s and Ohio State’s of the world don’t bounce back easily from player attrition like that.

Finally, Reesing will have the weight of the offense and the team on his shoulders. If Reesing fails to deliver (like he did in the spring game), then Kansas will crumble. Their fate rests on his ability to take his game to a higher level. Not an easy feat.

Even if all goes poorly for Kansas this season, they’ll always be able to say they won the basketball national championship.

Filed under: Conference News, Spring Practice

Tags: anthony collins, aqib talib, big 12, brandon mcanderson, james mcclinton, kansas jayhawks, marcus henry, mark mangino, missouri tigers, nebraska cornhuskers, ohio state buckeyes, oklahoma sooners, south florida bulls, texas longhorns, texas tech red raiders, todd reesing, usc trojans