Kansas vs. Texas Team Analysis

by Owen on Nov 12, 2008 7:32 PM CST in Kansas Jayhawk Football

This week the Mark Mangino led Jayhawks welcome their 2nd top 10 team of the season to Lawrence. The Texas Longhorns are very much in the mix for a national title bid this year and at this point the Jayhawks are looking to play the spoiler role.

Why Kansas?	Edge	Scenario	Edge	Why Texas?
Once again the running game has dissapeared for the most part and if the Jayhawks are going to take this mathcup Jake Sharp will need room to run early and often affording Todd Reesing the luxery of not having ends tee off on every play. If Kansas can balance the offense and get a quick start the offense could be effective this week.		KU Offense vs. Texas Defense		This will be the toughest defense Kansas has faced all season. Yes OU is a good team but Texas managed to shut down Chase Daniel and the Tigers and despite the loss gave the Texas Tech machine it's most trouble all year. Yes they have some youth in the secondary but don't look for this defense to show any signs of weakness against the Jayhawks
The Jayhawk defense has given up 37 points per game in conference play and the 500 yards of offense let up against Nebraska doesn't instill a lot of confidence. If Kansas can get inspired play from the entire D, a couple of turnovers and avoid major breakdowns they might be able to gain an advantage against Colt McCoy and the Longhorns.		KU Defense vs. Texas Offense		Colt McCoy is as dynamic a duel threat quarterback as Kansas has faced and they haven't faired well against them period. I expect McCoy, Shipley and Co. to effectively negotiate this Kansas defense that clearly still needs a different type of player at some key positions to compete against the current spread happy Big 12.
I'm not really in the mood to dignify why Kansas might gain an edge here. This has been a very frustrating unit all year and I don't look for that to change this week because we've been asking for it all year and nothing happens. No way Kansas gains and advantage here.		Special Teams		I started to do some research here then I thought what's the point. #2 in net punting, #26 in punt return, #23 in Kick return, need I say more.
Mangino is the reigning coach of the year but has lost a little luster of late due to what seemed a poor game plan against a beatable Husker team. Not to mention this week the opponent is coached by an coach that owns a NC.		Coaching		If there is one thing we can respect at Kansas it's success and in the case of Mack Brown he is to Texas what Bill Self is to Kansas a National Championship head coach and that gains you an edge any day of the week.

Unfortunatly there aren't a lot of areas if any where Kansas looks to have an advantage in this one. I'm a glass half full type of person when it comes to the Jayhawks but I find it very difficult after last weeks loss to the Huskers.

Kansas might come out and shock the world but I look for what I hope to be a competitive game with Texas ultimately winning due to superior talent and coaching. That said Rock Chalk Jayhawk I'll be ready and waiting in front of the TV fully prepared to cheer to victory. Give em hell.

Tweet Comment 5 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Running game

I don’t think it’s disappeared. Jake still ran well last week, it just took us a half to figure out that we needed to get him on the outside. I have no idea why, considering the shittiness of Nebraska’s linebackers, but that’s how it went down.

My worry is that we won’t have that luxury against a Texas team whose linebackers have both speed and the ability to tackle. Nebraska’s had neither.

by hiphopopotamus on Nov 13, 2008 9:24 AM CST reply actions

Statistically it apeared back...

but from the standpoint that it wasn’t truly contibuting to the success of the team I think it was a failure again. We weren’t able to use it to open things up.

Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.

by Owen on Nov 13, 2008 12:09 PM CST up reply actions

I agree to an extent...

On the one hand, you’re right – the field was never opened up and we were never able to just grind out a drive on the ground. I think Nebraska just decided that they had enough of an athletic advantage that they knew we couldn’t break the game open on the ground so they decided to cover in mass and stop the run as need be.

However, after the coaches realized this and began exploiting them on the outside things got a lot better. In the second half, Jake had 10 carries for 58 yards. We’ll take that all day.

And broken down:

Up the middle he had 6 for 16
Off tackle he had 4 for 5
And outside he had 11 for 67
(and I must be missing one somewhere, b/c box score says 22 for 90 and this adds up to 21 for 88)

Unfortunately, I think the success we had running up the middle against K-State maybe went to the coaches heads a bit and they forgot that our real running strength is getting out on the edge and letting both our tackles and Jake operate in space.

by hiphopopotamus on Nov 13, 2008 12:56 PM CST up reply actions