New Year’s Eve 2008 marked the end of an exciting Kansas football season as the Jayhawks wrapped up their first ever back to back bowl wins in school history.  Already fans, media and players alike are looking toward 2009, but I thought I would take one last opportunity to look back at the 2008 Insight Bowl and discuss 2009 sometime next week.

Full story after the jump…

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#4

The 2008 Kansas football season had several question marks headed into the 2008 season.  How would certain losses impact the offense was  a big one and specifically how would the departure of Brandon McAnderson, Anthony Collins and Derek Fine affect the running game.  While those questions were not answered with resounding confidence early there was a time in the year where things finally seemed to click in a big way and Kansas fans saw a glimpse of what could be to come.

Once again performance #4 brings us to the Sunflower Showdown and the faceoff between the Jayhawks and in state rival Kansas State.  This time however the performance was a group effort.  While one player ultimately put up the big numbers, six Jayhawks were involved in performance #4.

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Entering 2007, the biggest question mark (this side of the QB race) was the interior offensive line, which was replacing three starters. Our solutions to the holes? Adrian Mayes at LG, Ryan Cantrell at C and Chet Hartley at RG. While successful as a group and part of an incredibly successful unit, the three individually had very different results.

Mayes was a mild success, a walk-on that provided decent stop-gap play. He could very easily be replaced sometime this season, although his main competition moved to RT (Jeremiah Hatch), so he just as well could be the starter throughout the entire season.

Cantrell was the biggest success of the group, playing well enough to be a fringe preseason All-Big 12 player. He is almost guaranteed of playing the entire year as the starter, with Sal Capra the odds-on favorite to succeed him.

Hartley, a JUCO transfer, was a good-but-not-great offensive guard who should have little trouble holding on to his job. However, he certainly isn't All-Big 12 worty. In essence, more of a success (and better lineman) than Mayes, less of a success (and worse of a lineman) than Cantrell.

However, since they all return as starters, senior starters I might add, this year the interior offensive line is being taken for granted. Right or wrong, nobody is mentioning the interior three as either a plus or a minus, they seem to be perfectly alright and acceptable to nearly everyone; voiced in nearly everyone's season preview of the Kansas Jayhawks.

With all of that said, here is a look at the depth chart over the next three seasons:

--- Italics denote projected redshirt year

--- Bold denotes EMPTY space in depth chart

Now, there are a couple of guesses on here. For one, I doubt that Capra will serve both as the primary reserve at LG and the starter at C, but I'm not sure which one he will be (if not the starter at LG, which is also a possibility), so I just put him at both. For another, I don't really know whether Williams will play LG or RG (I don't think anyone knows for sure, at this point) and Marongelli may or may not even end up making a guard. However, I figure he will be good enough to warrant getting on the field, and unless Spikes or Hatch drops off, they don't figure to be replaced next year.

Player-by-player previews after the jump...

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