Kansas offense, Virginia Tech defense is intriguing matchup
By ASSOCIATED PRESS | January 2, 2008 | 0 comments
MIAMI -- When Mark Mangino went to Kansas, he knew changing a woebegone program into a winner would be a major challenge.
He also knew similar turnarounds had been accomplished before.
The one Frank Beamer started a decade earlier at Virginia Tech, for example.
So Mangino modeled large chunks of his Jayhawks' regime after things Beamer did with the Hokies, like trying to be complete in all three aspects of the game, not just offense or defense or special teams.
Those parallels will be on display Thursday night, when No. 8 Kansas (11-1) - perhaps the biggest surprise in college football this season - makes its first Orange Bowl appearance in 39 years against the fifth-ranked Hokies (11-2), champions of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
''When I first arrived at Kansas, it was disappointing,'' said Mangino, who was 25-35 in his first five Kansas seasons before this year's big turnaround earned him the AP Coach of the Year honors. ''There were days that I was frustrated and said this ought to be better. The University of Kansas deserves better than this in their football program.''
An Orange Bowl trip certainly qualifies as something better, especially for a Kansas team that didn't even head to a postseason game last year.
''You know, they're for real,'' Beamer said.
Oddsmakers have listed the Jayhawks as 3 1/2-point underdogs and the total is set at 53.
When the Hokies and Jayhawks talk about the stakes attached to this game, they say the same thing - that even without a national championship on the line, this is the biggest game either program has played in a long, long time.
They might be right.
For Virginia Tech, this is about history, getting to the 12-win mark for the first time and giving fans one more reason to cheer a year that will be remembered as the one following the April 16 on-campus massacre in Blacksburg in which 32 students and professors lost their lives.
''It's just what needs to happen,'' said Beamer, who has the Hokies in their 15th straight bowl game. ''It's what needs to get done. Virginia Tech needed to rally around a football team. ... So we'll rally together and be stronger and tighter than ever. And I think that's what has happened.''
For Kansas, this is about silencing all doubters, the ones who said the Jayhawks only got here because their schedule was softer than a fresh bag of marshmallows and a school-record 11-win season still wasn't good enough to merit a spot in a BCS game.
''I don't think at this point in the season we have to prove ourselves any more,'' quarterback Todd Reesing said. ''We won 11 games this year. How many other teams in the nation can say that? Not many. So you can point to our schedule, but we play in the Big 12. That's a damn good conference.''
Add in the intrigue of a great Kansas offense facing a great Virginia Tech defense, and this might have makings of a classic.
''They're a solid football team and very well-coached and talented,'' Beamer said. ''They've got all the ingredients.''
Kansas' recipe starts with the nation's highest-scoring offense.
Hawaii held that distinction until managing only 10 points against Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, so now the Jayhawks - with their 44.3 points-per-game average - are in the top spot, and some of the stats they've put up this year are ridiculous.
Consider this, for starters: Kansas has 64 offensive touchdowns this year, against only 46 punts. The Jayhawks average 6.4 yards per play, have a two-pronged rushing attack in Brandon McAnderson and Jake Sharp (combined 1,838 yards and 23 scores) and elite receivers in Dexton Fields and Marcus Henry (who combine for 16 yards per catch). The offense is so good, very few people notice that Kansas' defense yielded only 16 points per game.
But it's Reesing who makes the Jayhawks' spread offense work. He completed 63 percent of his passes for 3,259 yards and 32 touchdowns, against only six interceptions in 409 attempts, yet Kansas knows the Hokies will represent the biggest challenge of the season.
''This is the best defense we've played against - by far,'' Kansas tight end Derek Fine said. ''I'm very, very impressed.''
Virginia Tech allows 15.5 points per game, second-best in the nation behind Ohio State, and believes it has enough athleticism in the secondary to keep pace with the Jayhawks.
Still, the Hokies may miss a vital part of their defense.
Linebacker Vince Hall injured his left knee during a jet-skiing outing organized by the game's host committee earlier this week, Beamer said, and may not be ready Thursday night.
With Hall or without, Virginia Tech's defense understands the magnitude of this one.
''People might think that we come to a bowl game every year, so we might not pay attention to this one,'' Hokies defensive end Orion Martin said. ''But we haven't won a BCS game in a while. Coach said this is probably one of our most important games since the '99 national championship game. So we know what's at stake.''
So does Mangino.
For years, Kansas football was the thing that Jayhawk fans did to warm up for basketball season. Not any more, and the coach - who quipped that the program was coming off ''a tough century'' - is relishing this moment.
''Our kids are smart. We're not going to try to fool them and just tell them that this is just another game,'' Mangino said. ''But it's still football ... just a few more people will be paying attention.''
