A look at news and notes about Jayhawks and upcoming opponents...

• Final Stats and Box Score.
• KU Athletics Recap.
• KU Sports game summary.
• A morning after wouldn't be complete without a Kerry Meier article.
• Gene Chizik and ISU perspective of the game.
• Column on Jake Sharp's big contirbutions.
• KC Star Story on Jake Sharp and the comeback.
• Kansas has poise Iowa State did not.
• KC Star recap and game report.

Full Postgame notes...here are some highlights...

• Improved Mark Mangino to 41-37 in his seventh year at Kansas.
• The come-from-behind victory tied the third-biggest comeback for victory in Kansas history.  It was the biggest comeback win since 1992, when KU trailed Iowa State in Ames by 26 (21-47), and came back to win 50-47. 
• By finishing with 107 yards receiving, Sharp became the fifth different Jayhawk to record over 100 yards receiving in a single game this season.  Additionally, Sharp is the first Jayhawk running back to achieve the feat going back to at least the 1974 season.
• Sharp finished the game with 186 all-purpose yards (79 rushing, 107 receiving) and a touchdown both on the ground and in the air.  Sharp has two other multi-touchdown games in his career, against Southeast Louisiana and Nebraska last season.  He also had one rushing and one receiving score in each of those games.
• Junior WR/QB Kerry Meier collected his third-straight 100+ receiving game to tie four former players for the most in KU history.  His seven catches, 125 receiving yards and two touchdowns gave him a total of 26 catches for 381 yards and three TDs over the last three outings.

 My Thoughts...Where to begin, this is becoming more and more difficult to have the glass half full view of things. 

First half...couldn't have been worse...uninspired, lack of toughness, zero focus.  The offensive line was getting beat over and over.  Todd was in fact trying to do to much today and even though many of us have acknowledged he may have to, today we saw why it can be a negative.  Defensively we were just too soft, sitting back letting Iowa State move the ball and getting pushed around.  I'll be honest if we play that half of football against any of our remaining 7 opponents I don't have the confidence that they will let us off the hook and only score 20.

Second Half...different half.  Spikes and Hatch seemed like different players.  Not sure if it was switching sides, ISU running out of steam, or just finding a mean streak we've been missing but they looked significantly improved and the offense reflected that.

Also the interior seemed to be getting a push and seemed to be staying on the blocks where they haven't in the past or in the first half.

Defensively...Mike Rivera and Joe Mortensen came to play and came pissed.  There was some serious hits being laid by these two and if Mike Rivera didn't earn his job back in the second half I don't know what else the guy has to do. 

Jake Laptad and Richard Johnson were very much improved on the defensive line.  The play many will remember was the interception by Onyegbule....me, I will look at the play of Laptad and Johnson and say this was a half where our defensive line looked like they could compete.

Jake Sharp...way to keep pluggin away.  800+ yard rusher a year ago and virtually written off by his coach this year and all he does is bust his butt in the second half and give this offense some balance and the ability to be explosive.  Iowa State had to respect the run in the second half because of Sharp.  He impressed me with his unwillingness to run out of bounds and instead turned every run up to get whatever he could.

Finally Kerry Meier and Todd Reesing are our favorite offensive players and most valuable offensive players for a reason and they showed it again.  Todd didn't have the best game but he brought the team back in the second half and still eclipsed the 300 yard mark for the game.  Kerry Meier...all I can say is in my opinion you could make a case for this guy for MVP of the team without taking Todd out of the mix.

Clearly this was a tale of two halfs and I focused on the positives here, but make no mistake this was a performance that raises concerns.  I'm still sticking with my 8-4 but I was worried.  The good news is if you can turn the ball over 4 times, not show up in the first half, give up an onside kick recovery at the end of the game and still win, you live to fight another day.  On to Colorado and here's to a victory next week(hopefully not so close).