Shocking, eye opening and the exact opposite of what was is expected. That’s just a few different ways to describe the reaction of Kansas fans after the Jayhawks lost to North Dakota State in the first game of the 2010 season.
The game wasn’t what first year coach Turner Gill was hoping for, but according to Gill, the game did produce some positives.
“I want to start off with some positive things that we too out of this game. Obviously I think the first thing that jumps out is our defense. When you hold someone to six points in a ball game, that’s outside, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is,” said Gill. We held them to 168 yards, 15 percent on third-down conversions, and 3.1 yards per play. On special teams, I thought the area where we stood out was kickoff returns. I think we averaged about 42-43 yards per return. Kickoffs were excellent.We put the ball deep and putt the ball close to the sideline. Offensively, the only thing that I can say is a positive is that we got a chance to know where we’re at. You really don’t know anything until you go play a football game. I think the positive is we know where we’re at and how we need to move forward. I know our staff is going to be the ones to help us move this program forward. They’ve coached over 123 NFL players. We have experience. We have guys who have been through the ups and downs. That’s why I feel very, very good about out staff and moving forward,” he added.
The Jayhawks now have to turn their attention to Georgia Tech, who is considered to be an early favorite to win the ACC.
We’re well aware that they’re an outstanding opponent. Their record speaks for itself. (GT Coach) Paul Johnson has done a tremendous job there and he’s done a tremendous job wherever he has been. They run that spread option, everybody tunes into that triple options. That’s just one play that they run,” said Gill. “It’s more of a multiple type of offensive scheme that they run. They’ve got a whole lot of different things that they do out of it. We have to be very disciplined. We have to make sure that our guys are in-tune with their particular assignments. Coach Torbush played against them last year, so there is some familiarity with them. Vic Sheely, having been involved at Air Force, knowing a little bit more about that kind of offense, also gives us experience defending that. Their quarterback is a key guy in their offense. He is an outstanding player with size and good speed and he can run their offense to precision. Defensively, they’ve made an adjustment. They’re running a 2-4 scheme. There’s going to be a little different look that what we were practicing with for NDSU. The keys to the game-first of all, we’ve got to score a touchdown. We’ve got to score and we’ve got to score often. We’ve got to be extremely efficient. You’re only going to have to have so many possessions on offense just because of their running attack, you’re going to have less time on the clock. We definitely need to limit their big plays on offense. I think we have to come of of there with a +2 turnover margin. If we don’t do that, it could be a very tough situation for us. We are here to improve and we are here to put us in a situation where we can win football games,” Gill added.
On the injury front – Tyrone Sellers will be out 3-4 weeks due to a leg injury, and Deshaun Sands also suffered a leg injury and is questionable for Saturday’s game.
