It’s interesting to see how diehard fans react towards their favorite team. Some channel their inner nerd on forums and daily blogs (this may be you). Some fans adorn themselves in all their favorite teams’ paraphernalia and some just get rip-roaring drunk, scream profanity, and throw their empty beer cans at the plasma—some do all three.
The latter trait certainly applies to Kansas fans. Not winning a game for over 300 days tends to sour a fan base. But what also happens is they get overly excited when anything positive comes out about their program. When Charlie Weis walks into town towing a hand full of Super Bowl rings and a 5-star quarterback it creates a generous amount of expectation.
So what happens when that 5-star quarterback is made the star/captain of said team and comes out his first game and lays an egg?
It mostly depends on how head strong that quarterback is but luckily for Kansas fans, quarterback Dayne Crist is an oak.
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Being Dayne Crist seems like an easy gig. He’s a 5th year transfer from Notre Dame who is the star quarterback of a FBS school likely trying out to be selected in next April’s NFL draft. For the most part, Dayne would probably agree he lives in an enviable position but it doesn’t come without its pitfalls.
For starters: expectations.
At schools like Florida, Ohio State, and even Notre Dame, expectations are through the roof. Some might even say those kinds of lofty assumptions placed upon a STUDENT athlete might be a little pretentious.
Then there is the other side of the coin. At a place like Kansas nobody really expects much from the football program. As long as the Jayhawks basketball team is dominating the hardwood, most fans of the university can live with a subpar football program—that is until a 5-star quarterback comes to town.
So much had been built up about Crist leading up to this past Saturday against South Dakota State that anything short of breaking the Kansas All-time passing record was not going to be good enough.
Sure Kansas boasted the first rushing tandem to each rush for over 100 yards a piece (Taylor Cox and Tony Pierson) but all anybody noticed was that Crist struggled.
Crist completed just 17 of his 36 pass attempts while converting just one touchdown with a interception to boot. On top of that, Crist missed several wide open receivers that if completed, likely would have changed the game from a narrow escape to a landslide victory.
Though the backlash from a skeptical yet presumptuous Jayhawk fan base should be expected, Coach Weis explains that with all the glory comes a steep learning curve.
“No one gets graded harder than the quarterback”, said Coach Weis on Tuesday. “His parents would not have been happy if he brought that grade home.”
“{Dayne} can get a minus on a running play. Even though you are just handing off because if you don’t carry out your fake, it’s a minus.”
With such little room for error, it is not surprising that Crist had a serious case of the Yips on Saturday night.
“To be perfectly honest with you I think my biggest concerns going into the game for {Crist} was he going to be scared?”, said coach Weis in defense of his QB.
“I can correct the other things. I can create better chemistry in the passing game. But I can’t do it if he’s looking at the rush. I can’t do it if he’s nervous. I can’t do it if he loses his composure. And he passed all those with flying colors.”
Though it may seem a bit like the ol’ ball coach just defending his player, Coach Weis has a point.
Crist looked calm and collected in the pocket. He rarely failed to make his second or third read and he was a presence both behind the center and in the huddle. His footwork was solid and anyone that has watch this Kansas team in recent years had to be in awe of the strength of Crist’s arm.
The problem for the most part was that he just put too much zip on the ball which led to way too many overthrown balls.
But what makes Crist a coach’s quarterback is that he makes no excuses.
“There were a lot of throws left on the field”, said Crist on Tuesday. “I’ve just got to practice better.”
“At the end of the day I know I can play much better than I did Saturday. I’m excited for the opportunity to get better in practice this week and have a better showing this Saturday”.
But it’s unwavering confidence like this that inspired Weis to make one of his first moves after arriving in Lawrence anointing Dayne Crist the leader of his inaugural season at Kansas.
“He knows what I expect at this point”, said Weis. “He knows not to walk around like we lost a football game. We only get 12 of these regular season games and the first one was a win”.
The Jayhawks will host Rice at 2:30pm inside Memorial Stadium.
