Memphis: The View from Section 5

PREGAME

Chilly morning in KC... but it's warm in the sun.

I'm going cargo shorts.

My Bill Whittemore #4 jersey still fits perfectly.

Best $50 I ever spent?

Yeah, probably.

Definetly one of the sharpest jerseys the Jayhawks have ever worn.

Called the KU ticket office on Friday to see what time the parking lots open.

They said 3 PM.

They were wrong - lots opened at Noon.  We got here at 1 PM.

Guess I'll be schlepping everything from the Mississippi Street parking garage over to the hill.  Criminy.

Glad I wore shorts.  That was a workout.

TAILGATE

A few people walking past.  Everyone who does seems to be checking out the sign.

Everyone thank Mrs. mikeville for the sign.

Guy on the other side of the tree setting up his tent now.

His radio doesn't work.  He wants to listen to the Royals game.  That's cool.  I oblige.

Couple of friends stop by.  Sweet, here we go.

Winmore comes up and introduces himself.  Now we're rocking.

A couple of lurkers come by and take a hot dog and hang out.  Sweet.

Tons of people around now.  URL is getting lots of eyeballs.

Got a pic with Big Jay (pictured above).

20 mins til gametime - time to pack this thing up.

Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. KUGrad08 and some RCT lurkers who helped haul everything back to the car.

BTW, Grad, you way outkicked your coverage.  Good job there.

First RCT tailgate was a success - maybe not a resounding success, but a success nonetheless.  Those who showed had a good time.

We still have lots of hot dogs left over, but we drank about half the beer.

And we drank almost all of the "kool-aid."  (That's probably a good thing.)

We'll do this again sometime this year, hopefully the TTech game, if it's not an 11 AM kick.

Gotta get rid of those hot dogs somehow.  (Probably buy fresh buns, though.)

Still have tickets to give away before we go in.

Damn, I can't give these things away.

Finally get them all handed out (along with my RCT business card).

I'm calling this a success.

FIRST QUARTER

Got into the game with about 10 minutes to go on the clock, just before KU scored a TD to go up 10-0.

Memphis with the ball.  KU has one turnover already, gonna need a few more if we're gonna hang with these guys.

That looks like an illegal forward pass... what the hell, ref?  Throw the flag.

Replay in the stadium sure looks like illegal forward pass.

I'm still a little drunk though.

They should have called that.

Now honoring the basketball team in the south end zone for their gold medal.  Cool.

Cozart overthrows Johnson on a 2^nd-and-13 - bummer, he had step on his man.

Cozart overthrows Taylor on the very next play - even bigger bummer, he had three or four steps on his man.  Probably would have been a touchdown.

Jayhawks gotta punt, 5 minutes left in the first quarter.

SECOND QUARTER

Memphis easily drives down the field and takes a 17-10 lead.

Momentum has definitely shifted over to the visitors.

KU offense really needs to answer, down 7.

Unnecessary roughness on the Jayhawks during the kickoff return.  Criminy.

David Beaty needs to fix this penalty problem.

Damani Mosby with a great play, 14-yard loss, sniffing out the wide receiver reverse run.  Memphis looking at third-and-18, can the Jayhawks hold?

4^th-and-5 for Memphis, they're gonna go for it.

Right?

No?

Ok, we'll take it.  Memphis punting.

Touchback.  Sweet.

#4 Tyler Patrick, the spring game favorite, picks up two receptions in a row, including converting a 3^rd-and-3.  Didn't see much of him last week.  Is he playing for Joshua Stanford this week?

4^th-and-1, 6:49 until halftime, KU really needs a touchdown here.  Offense has looked good on this drive.  Let's get this game tied up.

Ok, Beaty isn't listening to me, takes the field goal instead.  Jayhawks close the gap, down 17-13.

Jayhawks with a big fumble recovery, six minutes to go in the half.  Let's go get the lead!

Offense goes nowhere.  Of course.

FINALLY called Memphis for that illegal forward pass.  Sheesh.

3^rd-and-8 from the 17 for Memphis, a minute left.  Hold ‘em.

Defensive holding.  Of course.  First down Memphis.

Well I'm not sold that the Memphis receiver had control of the ball, but they aren't reviewing it, so whatever.

KU down 24-13 with 30 seconds to go until halftime.

HALFTIME

Band Day... field is packed full of high school bands.

Hey, that's MY high school!

Shout out to the Chaparral Roadrunners.  Go big blue!

Next year, talk the KU band director into doing "Rip City."  That would be SWEET.

THIRD QUARTER

Memphis scores on like, their third play from scrimmage.  Down 31-13 now, and the defense looks just terrible.

This game might be over now.

Not a good sign for the rest of the season.

KU offense answers right back.  Maybe there's some fight in this team after all?

The 10-year-old girl behind me knows the words to "Back in Black" and knows that AC/DC sings it.

Props to her dad (I'm guessing).

And Memphis matriculates right back down the field.  18 point lead with nine minutes left in the third quarter.

It's really not looking good for Kansas right now.  But I'm not really sure what to expect.  Let's see if the offense can respond again.

Since 10-0 Kansas, the Jayhawks have been outscored 38-10, in like, 20 minutes of gametime.

That's sobering.

Memphis does a lot of misdirection, a lot of spread, counters.  They've got the KU defense completely discombobulated right now.  They just can't handle it.

Yeah, I said discombobulated.  Deal with it.

Man, the defense has nothing this year.  Memphis just doing whatever they want.

And now defensive pass interference.  More penalties.  Less than two minutes until the fourth quarter.  This game is over.

FOURTH QUARTER

Jayhawks down 48-20 and no longer looking competitive.

Let's see if the offense can show us something...

She also knows that ‘Europe' sings "The Final Countdown."

Pretty cool.

Defense is just awful.

Mrs. mikeville just commented that the only two names she's heard called on defense are Fish Smithson and Marcquis Roberts.

Don't know what we're gonna do about this defense.

It's gonna be BRUTAL when we get to conference play.

It was a solid crowd to start, and a lot actually stuck around through halftime.  But by the start of the fourth quarter, it was a pretty sparse remainder.

Ten minutes left in the game, Deondre Ford has entered in place of Cozart.

Which is interesting - why not Willis?  If he only throws two passes all year, I'll be... disappointed.

So far so good for Ford, they're moving the ball again.

Wyman hits a 51-yard field goal with eight minutes left.

We're only down by 32 points now.

So... ya know?  Anything could happen?

I guess good for Wyman.

I saw somebody say that the road to 0-12 is filled with moral victories.

Memphis now has their backups in on offense, but I'm pretty sure that's still the first-string KU defense out there.  7:30 to go.

Unless I missed something, we're plus-3 in turnovers and still down by 32 points.  Four minutes left.

That's incredibly hard to do, btw - be plus-3 in turnovers and trail by five touchdowns.

Isn't it?

Ford still looking good, but no idea if that's Memphis first stringers or second stringers or what out there.

Mercifully, this game is over.

It's been a long day.

I saw that Wazzu beat Rutgers... maybe we'll have a chance.

Maybe.

I'd drink more kool-aid, but I gotta drive home.