Kansas vs Virginia Tech

rock chalk...oh wait. I'm 2 hrs from blacksburg, I better watch what I say.

Anybody want to explain to me where "rock chalk jayhawk" came from?

That is a great but ugly win for Kansas. Coach Mangino was on the hot seat going into this season. They put a lot into this season. I was lucky enough to get to know Coach and his staff in 2006 through the recruiting of one of my players. My player made what at the time was an interesting choice in going to KU over some of the other schools interested. I think his choice looks pretty good now...lol VT did some things that confused Ressing and KU's Defense and Specials kept them alive. Wild game. Nice win for a team no one thought should have been in the BCS.

As a guy who lived in Lawrence for 12 years, coached at KU, and taught at KU I cannot tell you how big this season is for the program. Ever since Bob Frederick left as AD, KU has gradually been doing the things necessary to become a football school. This is not a slam against b-ball, which will always be huge there, but the economics of athletics dictates that KU be a player in football.

Mangino was on the hotseat, but he has done an excellent job since he has gotten there. Lou Perkins has been looking to fire him because Mangino was not his hire; however, MM has always done just well enough to save himself. This season changes everything. For the first time, MM and his staff will be able to recruite with a marqee season behind them.

In all honesty, there is no reason why KU should not be a football power. It is a great school with a phenomenal campus - one of the most picturesque in the nation and located in a wonderful community. Sure, HS football in Kansas is not great, but the school, campus, and facilities are there to attract top tier talent. Of all the schools in the Big 12, I think only CU perhaps has a better campus - maybe UT, as well.

What will help them is that MM wants to stay at KU. When I was there we had a breakthrough year that was overshadowed in part by GM's iniital desire to go to Georgia, which totally killed what was shaping up to be a bumber recruiting class.

BTW, one thing that has always hurt KU, particularly in regards to Kansas State are academics. KU is a very good school and does not have a lot of places to hide academically/intellectually challenged players. Academic support has improved immensely, but its not like the have places for players with special education needs like some programs.

I might be offbase here, I don't care one way or the other about KU. However, I watched the entire game last night and I came away thinking KU's offense was alright, not special. VT's defense didn't play nearly as great as I expect from them every game. KU's defense played well, but it was more about how poor VT's offense played. Poor might be harsh, but their offense just didn't seem to be that good. Just my thoughts. I am sooo sick of hearing about them (sitting here in Kansas), so I might just be biased...but I don't think it was very impressive. I would say VT didn't play well and probably isn't very good overall.

Whether intentionally or not, the kid at the end of the game made a good play by getting tackled at the one. I couldn't tell if he was really going for it though, but then the announcers started saying how he should have REACHED THE BALL OUT to score. I mean, let's recap: KU up 3, only about 40-50 seconds remaining, VT no timeouts, and the guy had just gotten a first down. VT's offense wasn't looking pretty, but their only prayer of winning would have been a frantic 40-50 seconds of throwing the ball downfield, which they could only do if KU scored. VT did have some big athletic receivers, they just didn't have the schemes/QB to get them the ball on anything other than jump balls.

Or imagine if the kid had "reached the ball out" and had it knocked away and out of the back of the end zone? First down VT at the 20, down only 3. Anyway, moot point anyway but those announcers blew me away with saying the kid should have tried to reach the ball out to score. Like I said, I couldn't tell if he just got tackled or knew he didn't need to score (maybe he saw Brian Westbrook a few weeks back), but the announcers totally blew it.

And anyway, I didn't get to see every minute but KU played well. VT had some horses on O and D, and they make you play their brand of football. KU rose to the challenge, blocked the FG, made a lot of plays on D, and did enough on O to win without making big mistakes. I could be wrong but if I was HS coach looking to maybe go spread I'd have to think that's a staff I want to visit, since their offense has had such success with an undersized, young QB, and they are able to handle much of the playcalls from the sidelines.

Thanks for that Coach Huey.

I only watched a little bit of the game, but it seems like to me VT just thought they were going to be more physical then KU and they expected KU to back down. Every time I watched some of the game VT was not form tackling they were just picking guys up and throwing them down. I could be totally wrong like I said I only got a chance to watch a little bit of the game.

Hemlock, who said "smash mouth"?

The best defense is the one sitting on the sideline.

Superpower, speaking of Gatorade baths, I too thought that was a very classy move. I would love to see that disapear from football.

I never really had a problem with the Gatorade bath, but I never really thought about it since it has gone on for ever. I would like to hear your guys reasoning behind not liking it. Not saying your right or wrong I just like looking at things from different points of view's.

Just think about all of the after game stuff you gotta do. Shake hands, talk to the media, accpet an award, talk to the team in the locker room, ride a bus. And to do this with wet clothes? Seems to be the opposite of a reward. I personally would hate it. I can't stand wet clothes, especially during football season in Idaho .

I do not recall who was doing analysis for the game, (Riggins?) but they kept pointing out that Va Tech was fundamentally unsound (or something) because they walked people out to defend quads and trips....leaving them -1 weak. When KU runs weak option, they were remarking at how 'wrong' it was to not have enough bodies there (which is WHY weak speed works).

That's the point. KU was better prepared. They are very well coached team. In many ways they embody the core values of football - teamwork, unselfishness, etc. Every player on that team has submitted to the system. They understand their roles.

Regarding VT's offensive problems, they have never been a well coached unit. Very basic and remedial. Going back to the Ricky Bustle days on offense, Beamer has never sought stray from the type of football he knows. This is fine, but great coaches learn to re-invent themselves. Consider Gary Pinkel at MU. Hardly a spread guy, but he realized that this was perhaps a better way of playing football.

I'm not trying to sing an ode to KU or anything. It's just that they play as a complete team. I would agree with spreadattack. For those wishing to learn the spread offense, I would visit KU. However, we should all note that their spread is a particularl type of spread. They really don't run a lot of option, or at least inside and outside veer, or zone read from the gun. Similar to Northwestern from a number of years ago, they are pretty basic in terms of what they do scheme wise. The key though is that Reesing is a perfect point-guard for this offense.

Their passing game is predicated on option routes with flare control, post-dig combos, and the very rare shallow. Most of their concepts are premised upon vertical stems. Also, they do a nice job with stacked formations. They are also a very good Smash team. They run lots of Smash concepts from different packages and launch points.