Kansas Football: 2013 Spring Game Highlights

Matt Gasper recaps the annual Kansas Football Spring Game.

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Kansas Athletics with a highlight package from the game:

Written recap from KUAthletics.

Quotes:

Kansas Head Coach Charlie Weis

On Saturday’s game:
“A lot of the guys we were hoping would show up, showed up. (There were some) questions last year: if we had a receiver that could play, and I thought that Justin McCay just had an excellent day; is (Jake) Heaps accurate, well it’s pretty obvious that he’s accurate. Jimmay Mundine had a couple of touchdowns, with Tony (Pierson) being used as a running back and wide receiver. Both the linebackers, (Ben) Heeney and (Jake) Love, were all over the place. I think both defensive fronts showed up today. We got a little banged up in the secondary because when Cassius (Sendish) went down early with a precautionary (injury) it caused us to do some tweaking on both teams in the secondary. I thought Michael (Cummings) playing with the second tier wide receivers and I thought he was respectable as well. I thought Brandon (Bourbon) ran hard but he laid the ball on the ground twice, that’s not what we are looking for. So overall there are a lot of positive on the day.”

On Justin McCay and Jake Heaps being Offensive MVP:
“Justin (McCay) has been out of playing for a couple of years because his last year at Oklahoma he didn’t really play, hardly at all, then he didn’t play here last year. It’s good to see him way past the rust stage. Now there’s some kind of communication between the two of them that’s good – like the fade in the back in the end zone.” 

On whether he liked what he saw in his expansion of Tony Pierson’s role:
“Yeah, Tony (Pierson) had a good day with the exception of the first play where we went through the swing play and we threw a swing pass to him out in the backfield to get the ball in his hands. That was about all his negatives wrapped up in one, the rest of the day you could see that every time he touches the ball in space that’s a problem (for the defense).” 

On Ben Heeney and Jake Love being picked Defensive MVP:
“I would think (Ben) Heeney would have been picked too but I was pleased with how athletic both guys look at linebacker. They showed up in a lot of plays. There were a lot of plays at the perimeter and very seldom were the linebackers out flanked.”

Junior quarterback Jake Heaps

On Tony Pierson:
“He is really kind of impossible to scheme for. When you have a guy like Justin (McCay) who comes out and you haveChristian Matthews and Jimmay (Mundine) and some other guys that will come in and compete for some playing time; guys that can hurt you all around the football field and then you have to worry about Tony, it’s tough. You can’t just decide that you are going to double him or in and out him, because if you leave one of the other guys one-on-one then it is tough. We can put him anywhere we want, so it makes it tough for people to game plan for.”

On the overall team picture:
“I think we mixed it up a little bit with our teams this year versus last year. If you look at the roster talent wise, there was a dominant team out there. With that being said, it was still a lot closer than what it was. The white team played us tough and they made a lot of plays out there. I think that it is a big thing for our program to have depth and talent on both sides. I think our team showed that we are competitive and we have a lot of fire and fun and we are going to continue to work on it. I am going to continue to say that we are going to have to keep chipping away at it. I love the progress we have made as a team.”

On his relationship with Justin McCay off the field:
“Justin and I have a really good relationship and we have a good time with each other. We don’t do anything exciting, but we hang out and we have a couple of classes together so we always talk it up.”

On his connection with Justin McCay on the field:
“We are still working. We made a lot of good plays out there today, but it is a constant work in progress. Justin will admit that there are things he could work on after today and there are things that I can work on and things that we missed today. It is a constant work in progress and we are going to get there. It’s definitely where I want to get with all my receivers. With Justin, we have been working together a long time, so we are maybe a little bit ahead of the game, but that is something that I want to work with everybody to get there.”

Junior Linebacker Ben Heeney

On how he played today:
“I felt pretty good. I had a few tackles, didn’t make any mistakes, so I felt overall it was a pretty good day.”

On whom he thought was the most improved player today:
“Justin McCay. He was making crazy acrobatic catches today. That one-handed catch he had was insane. He played well all around today.”

On his next step for the upcoming season:
“My next step is just to go out and continue to get better every day. We need to try and get this team where we think it can be and that is bowl eligible.”

Junior Transfer Wide Receiver Justin McCay

On his positive and negatives from today’s game:
“For me the positive was that I caught the ball well. My negative was definitely my routes. I kept running them short.”

On how Tony Pierson helps spread the offense:
“He’s so fast, he can do it all. He opens up the field so much. On a broader scale you have to double him because he is so fast. This allows me and the other receivers to get open.”