I haven't done one of these for awhile, I have a hard time doing them without a lot to go on, but news relevant to the 'Hawks is abound, making this an easy one.
First off, a little more background on our most recent commit, Zach Stadther, virtue of Ryan Woods' Football Notebook:
Even more insightful commentary is provided by a commenter over at KU Sports, made by greatabu:
That is about as optimistic as you can get regarding a kid who only receives 2 stars from Rivals, but if he is even a part of our tackle rotation by his junior season I would consider it a successful committment. It is unrealistic to expect each and every commit to play a role on the team, much less become an impact player. Stadther isn't going to earn any All-Big 12 honors or anything of the sort, but if he sees the field more often than Bradley Witherspoon did this past hoops season I consider it a success.
Furthur along in Woods' Notebook is a tidbit on former Jayhawk and current (sort of) Chief Nick Reid. The former Kansas standout is playing in the NFL Europe Championship game on Saturday as a part of the Frankfurt Galaxy. He has been very impressive over in Germany and has a slight chance to make the Chiefs if he has a tremendous training camp.
In other football news, former running back-turned-wide receiver Angus Quigley has switched back to running back full time. As opposed to quarterback, you can never have enough running back depth and it is nice to be able to add Quigley's big frame (6'2" 215) to the mix along with expected starter sophomore Jake Sharp and senior FB Brandon McAnderson. Quigley, also a sophomore, has been criticized in the past because of his upright running style, a style that has given him a classic case of "Fumblitis". If he can hold on to the rock he could be a very valuable short-yardage guy for us and see plenty of action as McAnderson, despite being a FB, is a smaller back. Plus, this could enable freshmen Carmon Boyd-Anderson and Steven Foster to redshirt and make a bigger impact in future years, specifically Boyd-Anderson. I think that he will be our starter by his junior season (if he redshirts) and could be the best we've had since Jon Cornish.
On to basketball, we get Bedore's Take on the signing of prep guard Travis Releford. It is an MP3 file and received less-than-stellar reviews to say the least. It provides nothing insightful that I couldn't have said myself, my favorite line is:
"I don't know, I've never seen him play but..."
So then why are we listening to you blabber on? Oh well, I didn't even listen to the whole thing. Couldn't take the boringness. I don't really care whether that is a word, to everyone who actually took the 4 or 5 minutes to listen to it you know exactly what I am referring to.
Anyways, I will get more into the signing either tonight or tomorrow but I am a big fan. With 5+ scholarships to give (likely at least 7 with Rush and DA departing to the NBA) we can't reasonably expect to get 7 McDonald's All-Americans, but Releford is a solid player and will likely be a good bench player for 4 years in Lawrence. Recruits like Releford simply provide the class some depth and give us a few thing or two to fall back one dpending on how we fare with more highly sought recruits such as the #1 overall recruit, Greg Monroe. Of course, The Sporting News is apparently Travis' biggest fan, ranking him as the 28th (!) best recruit in the Class of 2008.
The SB Nation Aggies blog (yuck!) provided a very insightful preview of the 2007 Jayhawks season. It is a must read for any Jayhawks football fan and well worth the time. Especially after bearing through the boringness (it'll catch on, just wait) of "Bedore's Take".
Dallas Morning News columnist Chip Brown gives his predictions for the 2007 Big 12 football season. He predicts the 'Hawks to finish 5th in the North, having this to say about them:
League losses: at K-State, at Colorado, at A&M, Nebraska, at Okla. St., Mizzou (in Kansas City)
Bottom line: Last year, KU lost five games in which it led in the second half. Coach Mark Mangino is struggling to find a quarterback, as he has the last four years. Cornerback Aqib Talib is the real deal on a defense with lots of questions.
I would view that as the worst case scenario, something Chippy apparently advocates. Of our predicted league losses, we can conceivably win all of them besides the roadtrips to College Station and Stillwater. Winning 6 games in conference is tremendously optimistic and probably unrealistic, winning 2 of @ Kansas State, vs. Nebraska, @ Colorado and vs. Missouri is very possible. That would leave us at 8-4 and 4-4 in Big 12 play. As I have said before, that is my prediction for this upcoming season (as of now) as well as a very impressive accomplishment for Mangino and Co. For my prediction, I will say we lose @ Oklahoma State, @ Texas A&M, vs. Nebraska and @ Kansas State.
This isn't neccessarily Jayhawk-related, but for the past couple of years I have always enjoyed it so get over it. Over at Fox Sports they spit out a team preview each and every day of the week, including the weekends, starting with their take on the worst (in this case Buffalo) and ending with the best (USC this year). We slide in at a mildly respectable 57th, pegging our preview date as July 6th. Our position is an interesting one, sliding in immediately after (meaning they like our team better) than the Al Groh-led Virginia Cavaliers and sitting slightly behind fellow Big 12er Colorado. I think we are a better team than the Buffaloes and we will even win in Boulder this year, but I am in the minority in that regard.
Finally, it is always fun to look at bowl projections on June 21st. Always. We don't receive a bowl bid but do receive an honorable mention being considered for the Texas Bowl, 4th in line behind the Texas Tech Red Raiders who are already in the game. If we win 7 games we will make a bowl, simple as that. The problem lies in the fact that most people agree with Chippy from the DMN, we will go 2-6 in conference and only go 6-6 on the year. I wouldn't expect a bowl in any circumstance if we go 2-6 in conference, fact is teams that can't win a third of their conference games don't deserve to play in the postseason.
That is all I could scrounge up right now about the 'Hawks, I should talk more about the Releford signing sometime in the near future.
ROCK CHALK!