Hawk Talk: UTEP the Morning After

by Owen Kemp on Sep 13, 2009 8:39 AM CDT in Football Comment 13 comments

Hawk_talk_medium

A look at news and notes about the game...

Jayhawks win but the team is still looking to improve.
Defensive line finally puts it together in an impressive performance against UTEP.
Position changes in the secondary help out in UTEP win.
Miners say, "We just couldn't stop them."
KC Star story about the game.
Box Score
Game Report

Denver's Take...

While the offense still ended up with nearly 600 yards in total output the defense was the story in El Paso and that is a very good sign.

Chris Harris back to corner, Justin Thornton to the Nickel spot and Phillip Strozier at safety seemed to solve any concerns in the defensive secondary and the coverage led to a few sacks up front.

On the defensive line the front four to their credit was also making it happen themselves. Maxwell Onyegbule and Jeff Wheeler the two most talked about defensive ends in terms of potential throughout their careers finally seemed to realize a little bit of that at the Sun Bowl.

Sure UTEP shot themselves in the foot at times but regardless of who you are playing, when a team that can't break the century mark in total yards for the better part of three quarters you are doing something right.

Even the linebacking corps seemed solid with both Arist Wright and Drew Dudley providing excellent run support as well as playing pretty solid in coverage when called upon. If you need a stat to show what these guys did, UTEP only put together 4 yards rushing and numerous times I saw Drew Dudley meeting the Miner backs in the holes or in the backfield.

Lastly on the defensive side of the ball the game plan itself was much improved, far less vanilla and at times did look to disrupt the rhythm of the UTEP offensive game. All in all this was a big confidence builder on the defensive side of the ball and something we all needed to see.

From an offensive perspective Jake Sharp and Dezmon Briscoe showed up to play, both having tremendous outputs. The team as a whole as I said was near 600 yards but it still looked a mess at times. Todd Reesing was battling some bad snaps at times which might have led to some of his questionable play making but I'll cut the guy some slack as he's usually a warrior out there for us. It might have even felt good for him to know he didn't have to win every game for us.

Our two headed monster of Jake Sharp and Toben Opurum combined for 166 of the teams 255 rushing yards behind a modified offensive line that saw Thorson move back to center, Capra to LG and Trevor Marrongelli enter the game at right guard and count me among those impressed by this guy. Ultimately I really want Hatch back in the game and his snapping concerns addressed but it's good to know we have some solid depth on the interior. The competition in this area is stiff and it's going to get harder and harder for the coaching staff to keep a guy like Marrongelli off the field.

In terms of pass protection it did seem that Todd Reesing was scrambling less, most of his jitters in the pocket seemed more a result of either his own indecision or a lack of open receivers. Tanner Hawkinson again protected the backside but Jeff Spikes did stumble a bit at the right tackle and at this point might be the one weak link up front that has shown through 2 games.

Finally, the third phase of the game on special teams. Kick return game looked good as Daymond Patterson nearly broke two punt returns for touchdowns. Jacob Branstetter and Alonso Rojas continue to look pretty solid in terms of kicking when it comes to the kind that determines field position. The biggest concern that was exposed today was hands down the kicking accuracy of Branstetter. It's early and I'm hoping those were jitters but right now this is an area that could lose a game for us and that's scary.

Overall, Kansas dominated this one and the reality is we still are far from putting together our best game. Duke next week and then another decent test in Southern Miss before Iowa State and Big 12 conference play. There's a lot of football to go but if there is one thing the first two weeks have shown it's that this year is wide open in the Big 12. Put the pieces together and there's no telling what Kansas might accomplish.

Postgame Quotes and Notes after the jump...

- With the win KU: Started a season 2-0 for the seventh consecutive season... Won its fourth straight game dating back to last year... Stopped a three-game non-conference road losing streak... Improved to 18-2 in its last 20 non-conference games... Improved to 25-7 in its last 32 games overall...

- KU Head Coach Mark Mangino tied for second among KU coaches for career victories with his 47^th win (47-41 overall). He is tied with Glen Mason (47-54-1) and behind A.R. Kennedy (52-9-4).

- New starters from last week included RB Toben Opurum (first career start for the freshman as KU started two running backs) and WR Dezmon Briscoe on offense and DT Caleb Blakesley and S Phillip Strozier on defense. Chris Harris started at cornerback this week after starting at nickel back in the first game.

- KU recorded three sacks in the first quarter to extend its streak of recording at least three sacks in a game to four straight dating back to last year. The first-quarter sacks were by Max Onyegbule, Jeff Wheeler and Patrick Dorsey.

- Jake Sharp's 30-yard run from the KU six-yard line in the first quarter, was the second-longest rush of his career (47 vs. Kansas State last season).

- Sharp moved into 10^th place on the KU career rushing list as he entered the game with 1,933 yards and moved past Kerwin Bell (1,970).

- Sharp tied for fifth place on the KU career rushing touchdowns list after entering the game with 20 scores on the ground.

- Sharp moved into third place on the KU career receptions by a running back list after entering the game with 54 career grabs.

- Sharp scored a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown in the same game for the fourth time in his career.

- Sharp recorded the fifth 100-yard rushing game of his career, including his second in two games this season (had 123 in opener against Northern Colorado).

- Sharp has rushed for 15 touchdowns in the last 11 games.

- KU junior Justin Thornton recorded his eighth career interception in the second quarter after a deflection by Daymond Patterson.

- WR Dezmon Briscoe recorded his fifth straight 100-yard receiving game dating back to last year and in fact had 121 yards by halftime. It marked his eighth career 100-yard receiving game which tied Willie Vaughn for the most in KU history.

- Briscoe moved into third place on the KU career receiving yardage list as he entered the game with 1,903 yards and Richard Estell had 1,997.

- Briscoe has now caught at least two passes in 20 consecutive games.

- QB Todd Reesing moved into ninth place on the Big 12 career total offense list as he entered the game with 8,392 yards and Josh Freeman of Kansas State had 8,421 in his career.

- DE Maxwell Onyegbule had a career-high tackle total (had five vs. Texas last year). His first five tackles were for loss, including two sacks.

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Comments

The note about the late hit might explain

Branstetter’s inaccuracy later in the game

by JayhawkTom on Sep 13, 2009 9:25 AM CDT reply actions

good and bad news on that...

good news is…maybe he’s more accurate then he showed.

Bad news is…hopefully he’s ok

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

by Owen Kemp on Sep 13, 2009 11:07 AM CDT up reply actions

Daymond Patterson did look pretty good

But I got awful frustrated at the couple times when he ran backwards to get more yardage, I think it worked once, and the other time he lost yardage.

"That pitch wasn’t down and in, that pitch was down and up." Tim McCarver

by wrigleyrocker12 on Sep 13, 2009 9:38 AM CDT reply actions

According to the LJW

Hatch had flu-like symptoms, which Mangino explained as the reason for Thorson being used at center, so perhaps some of the difficulties in snapping can be traced to that, and not something more fundamentally serious.

by hunter s. royal on Sep 13, 2009 10:34 AM CDT reply actions

hadn't caught that....

I do know the H1N1 flu was making it’s rounds on campus so hopefully he’ll be back in business next week.

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

by Owen Kemp on Sep 13, 2009 11:06 AM CDT up reply actions

I thought Thorson

struggled with snapping even more than Hatch.

The snapping needs fixed.

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's probably propaganda.

by labbadabba on Sep 13, 2009 1:00 PM CDT up reply actions

Reesing wasn't Reesing....

that time the DE came around Spikes and got to Todd without Todd even noticing what the hell was happening bothered me…usually he’d catch that and scramble away….that bothered the shit out of me…was Todd sick? Did he party it up the night before? Or was the problem that he didn’t party it up the night before?

by jco8394 on Sep 13, 2009 12:11 PM CDT reply actions

just think he missed it.

He was staring down Briscoe on the left and just missed the guy coming off the edge. They weren’t getting a huge push most of the game so he might have let his gaurd down. That being said, Todd was not on his game last night. It’s nice to have a running game so that we don’t have to rely soley on Todd.

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's probably propaganda.

by labbadabba on Sep 13, 2009 1:25 PM CDT up reply actions

Harris

Really impressed with that guy’s performance last night. He spent all summer working on the new nickel/safety/linebacker hybrid position, gets switched to corner in week two, and ended up having a terrific game (did his man even get a catch all night?).

During the Orange Bowl year, everyone had Harris pegged as the next one in the Charles Gordon/ Aqib Talib tradition of shutdown corners. Maybe he can still prove those predictions right this year.

by KennyGregoryRockThaCradle on Sep 13, 2009 3:51 PM CDT reply actions

Overall

The thing that has impressed me the most so far this season is that I feel like we haven’t even scratched the surface of our potential. We’ve shown flashes of a great running game, and some great defensive front 7 play. But we can definitely get the passing game going and be a 40+ ppg team this season.

You never know what could happen with injuries, but if we can add a Hot Toddy to last night’s performance, like Kevin Garnett- ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

by KennyGregoryRockThaCradle on Sep 13, 2009 3:58 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

Overall can't complain too much

- Definitely agree Todd wasn’t himself. Still efficient but some throws that really surprised me. He did what he had to do, though, so that is good. For next week, I really want to see some good and bigger passing numbers from him.

-I love Dezmon Briscoe

-Daymond Patterson’s couple punt return breaks were real nice. Very good to see.

- Defensive line pressure almost the whole game, so great. Plus, there were at least 2 coverage sacks there tonight. Corner’s were really locking it down.

-Utep bailed us out on more than a few occasions. Impressive defensive showing, but I think it easily couldv’e been a 37-17 game if they wouldn’t have shot themselves in the foot so many times. (What was the deal with the coach who got that unsportsmanlike penalty? I hope he was fired today).

-Jake looked great tonight, shifty as always. Opurum had some nice runs as well, running over people a few times.

-How about that last run by Pick. I know it was the last play but he has some serious speed. Always nice to look at the future a little, we should definitely have some crazy packages next season.

Good win, let’s beat the crap out of Duke.

by I need more Esteban on Sep 13, 2009 5:26 PM CDT reply actions

Just got to watch it on my DVR

Agree with many comments. We should have scored 50 but the offense was out of sync on many plays. Meier was dropping passes but couldn’t tell if they were thrown behind him from the camera angles. Much better game from Jon Wilson. Branstetter showed the same inconsistencies last year. He needs to get his angles down. 3 missed FG’s not counting penalties. Ugh. Much better showing from the Dbacks, thanks in part to the Dline. Oline dominated and Jake and Toben look solid. Overall poor play from the special teams. Poor decisions, missed FG’s, missed tackles. Daymond had problems judging the ball on punt returns. Not sure if it was him or the wind at the stadium. Plenty to work on. Keep getting better Hawks. It will pay off at the end of the season bowl wise.

by eastcoasthawk on Sep 13, 2009 10:00 PM CDT reply actions