Rocky Times for Jayhawks, Reesing

A few weeks ago, Kansas head coach Mark Mangino was touting senior quarterback Todd Reesing as a should-be Heisman Trophy candidate.

The 5-0 Jayhawks, themselves, were looking like the best team in the Big 12 North and maybe as a team that could give the South division a run for the conference championship as they ran roughshod over the likes of Northern Colorado, UTEP, Duke and Southern Miss.

But three weeks later, Kansas is stuck in reverse on a three-game losing streak and Reesing found himself yanked during Saturday's 42-21 loss to Texas Tech.

It's fair to say much has changed and none for the better in Lawrence, Kan. these last few weeks as the competition has stepped up considerably. The Kansas Jayhawks, who figured to challenge Nebraska for the North title, began the three-game stretch ranked 17th in the country and now are nowhere to be found in the polls after disappointing losses to Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas Tech.

"We've been in this position before," Mangino said during Monday's Big 12 football teleconference. "We just need to get on track and do a better offensively and do a good job of just maintaining good attitude, good work ethic. The character of our team will be tested, there is no question about that."

But what has been questioned in recent weeks is the performance of Reesing, who has not been himself since entering conference play. During the Jayhawks three-game losing streak, he has thrown more interceptions (five) than he has touchdowns (three) and Reesing has been responsible for seven turnovers that have led to 42 points for Jayhawk opponents during this three-game losing streak. He's also been sacked 14 times during that span.
With Reesing and the offense struggling Saturday, Mangino finally pulled his senior late in the fourth quarter in favor of redshirt freshman Kale Pick. Reesing had completed 20 of 35 passes for 181 yards and one touchdown while being sacked six times. The final straw seemed to come when a Reesing fumble led to a 31-yard touchdown for Texas Tech's LaRon Moore.

Mangino declined immediately to say Reesing would be the starter for the upcoming game against rival Kansas State, but on Monday said Reesing was indeed the starter. But Mangino still believes benching Reesing Saturday was the right thing to do.

"No. 1, he wasn't getting great protection from the offensive line and I didn't want him taking any more shots," said Mangino, whose team is 5-3 (1-3 in the Big 12). "No. 2, things just weren't in synch for our whole offense, not just him but the whole offense. I felt it was in his best interest and the team's best interest to take him out of the game."

Reesing, however, was caught off guard by the benching because at that point still felt there was a chance for the Jayhawks to get back into the game.

"I was [surprised]," Reesing told the Kansas City Star. "I'm not going to lie. At that point, we were two possessions down, but by no means was the game over."

Now Reesing will have to respond to the adversity of being benched for the first time in his career. Pick came in for Reesing, but a lot of Jayhawks fans would like to see if quarterback-turned-star-receiver Kerry Meier still has anything left in his arm.

Mangino squashed any of that speculation Monday by saying Meier is the No.3 quarterback.

"[Reesing] is absolutely fine," he said. "He's ready to go, he wants to win. He's looking forward to playing against Kansas State and wants to win the game. I don't see any problems with him about anything.

"I think the least of his worries ought to be coming out of the game. He is going to focus on getting himself better and getting back into sync."

During Saturday's loss, Mangino just saw his offense completely unravel while the defense tried to hold its own. The offensive line couldn't hold its blocks, running back Jake Sharp just seemed a step slow and the much-celebrated receiving corp that includes stalwarts Dezmon Briscoe and Meier dropped several passes.

"The problems were not Todd Reesing," Mangino said. "He shares part of the problem, but we are not running the ball well, we are not protecting well and we are dropping balls all over the place. We've had drops that are uncharacteristic for us and they've been at crucial times and that hurt us. That has nothing to do with Todd."

Yet, as badly as the Jayhawks have played in recent weeks, they still could climb into the wacky North division race with a win over the first-place Wildcats this week in Manhattan. But Mangino said that is not a subject he will broach with his team this week.



"They will read all the papers and listen to all of you guys so they will know that, but they are not going to hear that from me," said Mangino, whose team had to hold off Iowa State in a 41-36 win in the league opener for its only Big 12 win this season. "My message is we've got to get ourselves better. We've got to improve fundamentally, we've got to improve in assignments and we've got to improve in a lot of areas in all three phases of the game. When you do that you have a chance to win and when you don't do that, it's for not.

"All that other stuff doesn't mean anything if you don't take of your business out on the field."