Kansas Football: Baylor Preview

Conference play starts this week for the Kansas Jayhawks. KU kicks off against Baylor at 11 am on Saturday morning.

Radio: Jayhawk Network

(Bob Davis, David Lawrence, Nate Bukaty, Bob Newton [producer])

www.kuathletics.com (All Access)

Sirius – ch.154

TV: FSN (Bill Land, Dave Lapham, Emily Jones)

Last time out: The last time the Jayhawks faced Baylor, Kansas rushed for 236 yards and had four rushing touchdowns to win 58-10. Marcus Herford also had a 88 yard touchdown return. Baylor also had five turnovers. If Kansas can win the game on Saturday, they’ll probably need similar results in the running game. Baylor gives up about 150 yards per game rushing. I don’t think KU is going to blow out the Bears by any means, but they’re going to need Sims, Sands and Beshears to be playmakers.

Key to win the game: Kansas needs to contain Robert Griffin III. He is their most dangerous player as he’s thrown for 971 yards and eight touchdowns in their first four games. Last time out, he completed 71.4% of his passes and threw for three touchdowns.  He’s also a running threat, as he’s had three rushing touchdowns this season.  If the Jayhawks can contain him, they really have no other offensive threats. Jay Finley, a running back has 43 carries and 239 yards with two touchdowns but he’s put up games of 51, 76, 56 and and 56 rushing yards this season.

Before I give you some notes from KU, make sure you check out the Gridiron – Week 4. It’s a great miniseries each week that highlights (or in losing weeks, lowlights) the happenings in Kansas football.

Here are some notes from KUAthletics.com:

QUICKLY — Kansas (2-2 overall, 0-0 Big 12) hits the road to open Big 12 Conference play traveling to Baylor (3-1, 0-0) Saturday at 11 a.m. in a game televised on FSN.

• KU is 42-56-4 in conference openers all-time.

• KU is 6-8 in Big 12 Conference openers all-time.

• KU has won three straight Big 12 Conference openers with wins at Kansas State in 2007, at Iowa State in 2008 and at home vs. Iowa State last year.

• For the 10th time in 15 years in the Big 12 Conference, the Jayhawks will open league play on the road (3-6 in previous such games).

• KU is opening Big 12 play against a team from the South Division for the first time since opening 2005 with a loss at Texas Tech.

• KU is 0-6 in its last six Big 12 road games since winning at Iowa State in 2008.  KU had won five straight Big 12 road games before the 0-6 streak.

• KU is 0-1 on the road this season and was 1-4 last year.

• KU is making its 21st straight television appearance.

BACK TO TEXAS — Saturday’s game will be homecoming for the 38 Texas natives on the Kansas football roster.  KU starters from the state of Texas include S Lubbock Smith (Dallas), WRDaymond Patterson (Mesquite), WR/RB D.J. Beshears (Denton), RB James Sims (Irving), NB Tyler Patmon (Cedar Park), S Olaitan Oguntodu (Mesquite), LB Justin Springer (Los Fresnos), LB Drew Dudley (College Station), OG Trevor Marrongelli (Austin), OC Jeremiah Hatch (Dallas), WRJohnathan Wilson (Houston), and DT Patrick Dorsey (Houston).

KU-BAYLOR SERIES — Kansas trails the all-time series against Baylor 5-4 with six of the meetings coming since the formation of the Big 12 Conference in 1996 (series is tied 3-3 since then).  The teams have not played since KU posted a 58-10 victory in Lawrence in 2007.  KU won the first meeting 22-0 in 1971 and then lost three straight (1988, 1989 and 1998).  The home team has won this matchup in each of the last seven meetings.  KU is 0-4 in Waco losing in 1989, 1998, 2002 and 2006. KU head coach Turner Gill is 0-1 all-time coaching against Baylor losing 34-21 to the Bears in Buffalo in 2007.

KU-BAYLOR LAST TIME — QB Todd Reesing threw two touchdown passes and RB Jake Sharprushed for 110 yards on 18 carries as 20th-ranked Kansas improved to 6-0 with a 58-10 rout of Baylor in Lawrence on Oct. 13, 2007.  The teams faced a one-hour and 38-minute delay due to lightning prior to the game.  Then with 4:08 left in the first quarter, the teams faced another 30-minute delay due to more lightning after KU’s Marcus Herford returned a kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown to put KU up 10-3.  After the delay Kansas came out and scored 31 consecutive points in the second and third quarters to put the game out of reach.

CURRENT JAYHAWKS VS. BAYLOR — Here is a look at current Jayhawks with stats from the 2007 game against Baylor: Angus Quigley (8-47 rushing and 2-14 receiving), Tertavian Ingram (2-15 receiving), Chris Harris (six tackles, one interception and two passes broken up), Jake Laptad(three tackles, including one sack), Justin Springer (two tackles), Dakota Lewis (one tackle),Olaitan Oguntodu (one tackle and one fumble forced), Drew Dudley (one tackle).

KU BAYLOR LAST TIME IN WACO — Despite leading 35-17 with less than 10 minutes left in the game and getting a then career-rushing high 196 yards from Jon Cornish, Kansas fell in the final minutes to Baylor 36-35 on Oct. 21, 2006.  The 35-17 margin held until Baylor scored with 9:22 in the fourth quarter.  The Bears would add a touchdown at the 4:42 mark and then scored the game winner – a 10-yard pass from Shawn Bell to Dominique Zeigler – with 1:08 left.  Kerry Meier threw for 62 yards and rushed for 62 more for the Jayhawks.  Baylor’s Bell threw for 394 yards as the Bears racked up 460 yards to KU’s 383.

KU-BAYLOR CONNECTIONS — As mentioned on the first page of the notes, Kansas boasts 38 players from the state of Texas… KU DC/LB coach Carl Torbush was a graduate assistant at Baylor in 1975… KU co-OC/WR coach Darrell Wyatt was the WR coach at Baylor in 1996… KU director of strength and conditioning John Williams was the director at Baylor from 2002-09… KU DL coachBuddy Wyatt and BU ST coord./WR coach Dino Babers were together on the coaching staff at Texas A&M in 2001 and 2002.

THINGS TO LOOK FOR AGAINST BAYLOR:

• WR Johnathan Wilson (96) needs four catches to become the 14th player in KU history to record 100 career receptions.

• Wilson (1,247) needs just six receiving yards to pass Charles Gordon (1252) for 18th on the KU career receiving yardage list.

• PK Jacob Branstetter (175) needs just four points to pass Jeff McCord (179) for seventh on the KU career scoring list.

• Branstetter (24) needs one field goal to become the seventh player in KU history to make 25 career field goals.  He would tie Jeff McCord (25) for sixth place on the KU career field goals list.

• DE Jake Laptad (16.5) needs one sack to move into fifth place on the KU career sack list.

• LB Justin Springer (97) needs just three tackles to reach 100 in his career.

• P Alonso Rojas has at least one 50-yard punt in all four games this season.

• Two Jayhawks have recorded at least five tackles in every game this year in LB Steven Johnsonand S Olaitan Oguntodu.

A KU win would…

• Give KU a 1-0 start in Big 12 Conference play for the fourth straight year.

• Stop a seven-game Big 12 losing streak as KU’s last league win was the 2009 conference opener against Iowa State.

• Stop a five-game road game losing streak.

A KU loss would…

• Be KU’s first 0-1 start in Big 12 play in the last four years.

• Be KU’s eighth straight loss against Big 12 opponents.

• Be its sixth straight road loss.

• Be less good than a win.