Some positive news from Jayhawkland. It appears Chris Harris is slated to start tomorrow for the Denver Broncos. Harris has earned it big time. He was the ONLY undrafted free agent to make the Broncos roster after an impressive preseason and then last week he was instrumental in the Broncos comeback win over Miami. Very happy to see a Jayhawk overcoming some long odds in the NFL.

Pick 'em reminder: Games are up, sorry for the delay. Last weeks winner was PlayingwithSquirrels...keep an eye out for your email to claim your prize.

"KU-Missouri is a great rivalry. The University of Kansas is a great Midwestern school, loyal to our Midwestern conference and to our Midwestern roots. The KU-Missouri rivalry belongs in the Big 12 Conference. Should Missouri decide to leave the Big 12, we would wish them well."

Is anyone else having the issue with SB sites of only seeing the top 2 articles and no Fanshots or Fanposts? This happens often to me and on different machines...

The only way to overcome is to hang in. Even I'm starting to believe that.

- Dan OBrien

The NCAA deemed Anderson to be a partial qualifier, which would make him eligible for financial aid and possibly earn the right to practice second semester with no competition. However, due to Big 12 Conference policy, all partial qualifiers must be approved by the league’s faculty athletic representatives and Anderson’s case was not approved for aid and therefore will not attend KU.

"but no matter what happens we're going to continue to work in the best interests of the University of Kansas. That's our number one priority and it's what we've been focused on throughout the process as we've looked at all our options when it comes to conference realignment,"

From Tait's FB Notebook
Adds some articulation to the depth chart.

Gill announced Tuesday that three players had been suspended for violating team rules. Sophomore wide receiver Erick McGriff and red-shirt freshman tight end Jimmay Mundine will miss the next two games to serve their suspensions, while sophomore defensive end Tyrone Sellers will sit out Saturday’s game against McNeese State. In addition to those three players, the Jayhawks will be without senior defensive tackle Patrick Dorsey, red-shirt freshman linebacker Jake Farley and sophomore wide receiver Chris Omigie, who all will miss Saturday’s contest because of injuries.

Interesting question from the Big12 Blog at ESPN:
S. Mo in Atlanta, Ga., asked: Don't let bowl season fool you about what conference is better. The teams who run the ball more will win a majority of bowl games. The 3-5 week layoff between the last game and the bowl game will always benefit the running teams because the timing of the passing game takes 2 Qts. and sometimes longer to adjust to game speed. Look at the regular season records between the conferences, it's a better gauge. Also, remember what the "running" Big 8 used to do to the passing SEC in bowl games? See Tommy Frazier vs. Danny Weurful. A playoff will change that. All teams can remain sharp, and you will see who truly are the best teams. Some years it would be the SEC, but not as oftern as you think.

DU: Interesting sentiment. I don't think it's a universal truth, but I agree there's some validity to it. There's not a lot of rust, considering teams do practice plenty heading into the bowl games, but practice isn't games, and the timing definitely has to be at least a bit off.

Your case is a weak one in favor of a playoff, but we also saw teams like Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Missouri look great passing the ball, maybe even better than they did during the regular season. I'm interested to hear from the fans, though. Is our man's idea legit? Do bowl layoffs favor running teams?

It is initially interesting considering the 'Hawks movement towards a more balanced/rn oriented O.

Anybody out there with the access/interest in this data? It would seem that a simple analysis would just split teams into categories of whether they threw or ran the ball more (than the national average?) during the regular season, and then what is their bowl results? A really geeked out approach would be to run a regression analysis on the rate/% at which they ran the ball during the season vs. the probability of success in the bowl game.

"There's a lot that goes into it that's on them. You've got to want to put the work in, the attitude, the investment. It's not easy to show up intense for the game," OU coach Bob Stoops said. "When you come in, you're one of 80 guys, so you can hide. You don't tell anyone, but it can happen. So have you invested the emotion it takes to play at your best. Those are things that players have to do."

"It's working hard every day, it's doing the little things like you have something to prove to everybody, like you came in last in your conference and you're looking to win more ball games," linebacker Travis Lewis said. "It's having that mentality that you're going out there every day looking for a way to improve yourself. Like, you're ranked last. Carry that mentality with everything you do and never get complacent."

That sounds a lot like what Coach Gill has been talking to our players about; about becoming a winning program.