Looking ahead

Our Hawks or 5-0, ranked 17th or 19th depending on the poll and ESPN College Gameday in coming to Lawrence next weekend to put some attention on KU. We have a very tough test against TCU which appears to be a very good, well-balanced team. Explosive offense and a good defense. The addition attention through or success through the rankings and College Gameday con only help with recruiting. If you get a chance to listen to Couch Leipold's post game interview, it is worth the time. It should be available on KU Athletics website.

I've always thought it was pretty easy to acheive a decent season in basketball and REALLY tough to do so in football if you don't have a good program.

In basketball, if you surround 1 "star" player with 4 decent seniors, you can have some success. The number of times you see this formula work out for cinderellas in the tourney is off the charts. You may not build up a dynasty that way, but a good player surrounded by decent players, with a good coach, and you can make some noise.

Not so with football. You need a quarterback. You need a line. You need at least one decent reciever. You need somebody who can run the ball. And that's just offense, without a decently balanced defense, you're not going anywhere. There are just too many "need to haves" in football to make it easy.

These guys are playing well beyond their talent level which speaks volumes for coaching and instilling the right attitude.

College gameday is HUGE. This year and sellout crowds are HUGE. We're still not in a position to just pick the best HS players and assume they'll come, but we're definitely in a position where some really good HS players will have to consider going to some big football school and maybe never getting in a game, or coming to KU and getting to play. Huge first step for our program.

Now we just need to lock Liepold up. Slash his tires, steal his keys, set up border checkpoints. Oh, and also pay him a couple zillion dollars. He's earning it.