Jayhawk Recruit Round-up: Sept.11 Weekend

As exciting and action-packed as last week was for Kansas football recruiting, this week was equally boring.  Two brand-new, shiny commits last week, and none this week.  Therefore, I will attempt to keep this week's version of the Jayhawk Recruit Round-up as short and concise as possible.

As was briefly talked about last weekend, current commits WR's Keeston Terry and Ricki Herod Jr., along with beast-child DE Geneo Grissom.  The game went well, obviously; the recruits had a great time, so these are three players that the coaching staff and "recruitniks" alike should all feel at ease about.  Reports are that Geneo was recognized by some fans in the stands and at the concession stands and they showed him a lot of love.  I'm sure it's rare that he gets recognized at his size and demeanor.  When I asked Geneo about being recognized earlier this week, he said he couldn't believe that so many fans knew who he was already.  He's quite a nice guy away from the field apparently.  It's a good thing, because if he wasn't, well...  Let's just say that he could rip you limb for limb.  All of you.  At once.  Just because you took the brownie that he wanted.

Also, of note, JUCO cornerback Dave Clark, who is currently out for the year with an ACL injury, was given a four-star rating by Rivals.  So, that's good.

****UPDATE: Just so I can say I was first to tell you, Justin Castor will be taking official visit to the Duke game this week.****

Now, on to the weekly round-up!!

As promised, this week is a little heavier on the numbers side of things.  When KC says he's going to deliver, you can count on me like you can count on Cris Collinsworth to say something insightful on Sunday Night Football all year long.

Offense - Week

Defense - Week

Offense - Season

Defense - Season

Jacoby Walker Video here

Video of Castor's TD and a few of his PAT's (second video on the media player - Arvada West v. Montbello)

(Committed) Performer of the Week:  The big "knock" on Jacoby Walker as the lone quarterback in this year's recruiting class is a supposed inability to throw the ball effectively.  Clearly, if you watched the above video of Walker, he may not be the most perfectly-formed passer, but he can chuck the rock.  A 65 percent completion percentage with 233 yards, with touchdown passes of 22, 26 and 28 yards is good enough to nab the (C)PotW Award for Jacoby.  Oh, yeah...  Did I forget to mention that he can run a little, too?  11 rushes for 36 yards and another score.  Tally it up for 269 yards of total offense and four touchdowns in a 67-35 win.
(Special consideration goes to running back James Sims)

(Prospective) Performer of the Week:  For those that love the high-scoring shootouts, surely you noticed the score of the Ryan HS game.  70-63.  That's not a typo.  That was done in only twelve minute quarters, by the way.  When you think about it, Bud Sasser's three touchdown catches, while sounding very impressive, only accounted for 30 percent of his team's touchdowns.  Only kidding.  That's impressive.  One other receiver had three, as well, with another hauling in two, respectively.  Sasser scored on receptions of 22, 29 and 18.  Now, if we can just get him to agree to rockchalk's proposition of giving his commitment to the school that wins the Big 12 North, as he has Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska in his Top 3.

It is with great sadness that I inform you that there will be no Closer Look: Edition this week.  I spent the bulk of the week (attempting to) contact head coaches and assistant coaches of many of these players in an effort to bring together more stats, so I guess it all evens itself out.  I was rather successful, actually.  But, in place of the Closer Look: Edition this week, I bring to you the promised Video Time: Keeston Terry Edition (minus the video still...)**, which was teased last week, but was held off due to techical difficulties.  Actually, this was going to be its own past this last week, but has been merged with this one to form what is, in essence, the 8th Wonder of the World.

**Still no video, as I am waiting on a special cord to finish the mini-DVD so that I can put it on my computer.  As soon as I get that done, I will post the video, though.  It will be worth the wait.  Just read about the game and my thoughts on Keeston instead.

So, without any further ado, I bring to you:

When Blue Springs HS wide receiver Keeston Terry verbally committed to the Kansas Jayhawks on August 1, he immediately became the highest ranked recruit to ever do so during the Mark Mangino era.*  Surely you know the story of how his commitment came about.  If not, though, here's a little refresher.  Then, a couple weeks later, he spoke directly with Rock Chalk Talk about his change of heart.  It goes without saying that assuring the Terry legacy continues at Kansas is nothing but good news for the program.

* Maybe ever, too.

So, given my plethera of free time due to unemployment and a total lack of anything interesting to do, ever, I decided to make the convenient ten minute trip east to Blue Springs to check out the four-star wide receiver.  Being a member of numerous sites, message boards, premium boards, etc., I had read plenty of things about Keeston - some positive, some less so.  One of the biggest questions about Keeston's game is his speed.  Some that follow Kansas recruiting closely feel that he might lack top-end speed to be a consistent threat at the next level, but I would counter by saying that maybe that was last year, and you haven't seen him play this year...

I may have been trigger happy with my first impression of Keeston during warmups.  He is certainly every bit of the 6'4" that he is listed at.  He was at least four or five inches above nearly every one of his offensive teammates.  When a player, especially a receiver, is that much bigger than everyone else, you expect him to be physical and have his way on the field.  Such expectations were left unfulfilled during pregame warmups.  In his very first bit of action of which I witnessed, what I saw Keeston do was run a nice fade route to the corner of the endzone with a defender on his inside hip, seperate at the goal line, go up for the ball and stone-hand an easy what-would-have-been, during a game, touchdown catch.

Instantly, I feared that somewhere along the way, the "rating experts" at Rivals had been more wrong than this.  He certainly looked to have the physical ability and know-how to be a big time talent.  But, as Coach Mangino has showed us, it's not about the guys with the most stars, the biggest stats or the most outright talent.  It's about the "want-to", having a chip on your shoulder and wanting nothing more than to prove everyone wrong.  I feared that Keeston didn't have that.  All over one stinkin', stupid, meaningless drop in warmups.  Don't ever listen to me again.

The real game started.  The Real Keeston Terry took the field and I nearly didn't have my camcorder set up in time to catch what he did next.  Kid.  Is.  A.  Player.  On the first play from scrimmage, he burst off the line of scrimmage, beat his defender, broke wide oped and coolly welcomed a perfectly thrown deep ball down the right hash into his hands, high-stepped a diving tackle attempt and waltzed into the endzone.  BOOM!  One play, 60 yards and a score.  I had seen him play one down and he had already done more than my high school team during its entire four years worth of games.  So, you would expect a seventeen year old kid to showboat, thump his own chest and do some incredibly awesome touchdown dance, no?  Wrong.  He tossed the ball to the ref and chest-bumped nearly every one of his teammates racing down field to congratulate him.  I liked him already.

Come Blue Springs' second possession, Keeston was a target again.  He ran another great route (this will become a theme) on a corner route, complete with a hard fake inside, into wide open space and made a textbook leaping catch for a 23 yard gain.  Being the big threat in the passing game that he is, a wise coach will use that to his advantage even when not throwing the ball Keeston's way.  On numerous occasions (and, I mean numerous), Keeston was run in motion and used as a decoy on the fake end around handoff, something that worked a couple times last week and helped him compile 82 yards rushing on just a pair of carries.  Keeston only took the rock directly from the quarterback's hands once on this night.  He gained three yards.  Nothing exciting to report there.  He did, though, make a catch out of the backfield on a pass into the flats, put his head down and gained eight yards.  No nancy running out of bounds here.

His next reception, a 16 yard gain on an eight yard out-route, was missed by both yours truly and camcorder.  Thanks for that go to the small child standing near the right leg of my tripod who felt the need to bump it right as the ball left the quarterback's hand.  As if I need any help breaking expensive electronics.

Keeston's final big contribution of the game came on the very next play and was yet another piece of beauty.  With thanks to another perfectly thrown fade route by quarterback Jared Lanpher, Keeston glided under another rainbow right on the money, hauled it in and found the endzone once again.  The play covered the final 44 yards of the field and all but put the game away for the BSHS Wildcats, now 2-0 on the season.  Disappointingly, there were four balls thrown Keeston's way that he didn't end up with.  Although, none of which were really to be blamed on Keeston.  A goal line jump ball out of reach, a low and away swing pass, agoal line slant two yards behind him and a badly underthrown ball for an interception (in which he raced back and made the tackle) round out the list of passes thrown Keeston's way.

And, by the way, he does block, too.  I caught a couple pancake blocks on his part, which is always impressive for a receiver.  Also, anytime somebody else on his team scored, he seemed to always be at their side as they raced toward the endzone and was ALWAYS the first to greet his teammate in the endzone after they scored.  What a swell guy.  That's about it now, though.  Oh... He also wears some really sweet eye black.  As if I need another reason to like him...

The lone thing that is pretty apparent to anybody that knows anything about football is that Keeston  needs to put on some extra padding.  6'4" is plenty long for a college receiver, but at a supposed 185 lbs. (probably more like 170 if you ask me), that's murder across the middle waiting to happen.  All in all, though, in my humble opinion, Keeston should be an important contributor to the Kansas football team after a likely redshirt year to bulk up.  But, if that happens, Big 12 defenses watch out!!  This kid can play!!