Looking Ahead to the 2011 Football Season
By Editorial Staff
We all know it, last year was an awful season, even my most KU standards. Turner Gill didn’t look to have an easy road ahead of him when taking over after Mark Mangino but most didn’t think he would have the problems he did. After losing their opener to FCS opponent North Dakota St it seemed the sky was falling around Lawrence. All the hopes of a tormented football fan base had been placed in the hands of newfound savior Turner Gill and the offense sputtered to a ridiculously awful start and the season started off about as embarrassingly as you could have thought.
There were a couple bright spots throughout the season with a win against top 15 Georgia Tech and a 28 point comeback win against Colorado that was historic in its epic-ness for KU. However, besides that, there wasn’t much to cheer about in Jayhawk land throughout the season. That doesn’t mean that there is nothing to look forward to this season. My expectations are tempered but there are a few reasons that I am excited for the possibilities this season.
First would be the return of a few players that should be integral to any success KU has this season. KU gave up the most sacks in the Big XII last year and part of the reason would be because they went the entire season without right tackle Jeff Spikes who was out with an Achilles injury. I would expect the sacks to go down (even if only a little) and for RB James Sims to build upon the successes he had last year as a result of Spikes’ return.
The Jayhawks will also return their best linebacker who sat out all of last season with an injury, Huldon Tharp. Tharp was primed to have a big year in Carl Torbush’s defense last year. Torbush is not longer with the team, but Tharp is ready to come back to the team and pick up on the success he was having before the injury sidelined him last season.
Helping Tharp out will be LB Darius Willis, the transfer from Buffalo. After sitting out last season due to the transfer rules, Willis was named Scout Team player of the year for 2010 and looks to be a solid addition to the defensive front seven in 2011. The return of Tharp and emergence of Willis by no means is a guarantee that KU will get out of their 100+ defensive ranking from a season ago, but it is definitely a good start.
Besides players coming back from injury, there are also other reasons to be excited about the 2011 Jayhawk squad. Some of the players from a season ago were put into different roles or were young and had to learn on the fly. Players like Daymond Patterson, who switched from DB to WR, and Toben Opurum, who switched from RB to LB and then to DE, had to learn how to play a new position and a certain learning curve is expected. Even with that, Patterson grabbed 60 balls last year and Opurum began to come on a bit near the end of the year. I would expect both these players to take another step forward this year at their respective new positions.
Going beyond that there are some freshmen to be excited about as well. Anthony Person, ATH, is probably the biggest get from the class. The former Iowa lean signed with Gill and the Jayhawks and figures to be a big part of the offense this year as either a running back or a slot receiver type. He is flanked by 4 star local KC product RB Darian Miller. Miller was being recruited by Oklahoma and is a legitimate talent at running that should make for a nice tandem with James Sims. Assuming the Jayhawks can get their O-Line to improve, they should have a solid running back which will make life easier for their passing attack.
We will get more in-depth about what should be in store for KU this football season, but as for now, the expectations should be tempered. Turner Gill pulled in a good recruiting class finding himself the #34 ranked overall class nationally (which figures to #5 in the Big X XII). This is definitely good news for Gill and the KU faithful, but it’s only a start. Gill needs to put together 2 or 3 more of these types of classes in a row before we start to see real results on the football field. The season shouldn’t be as awful as last year, but it won’t be like a repeat of 2007 or 2008 either. This will be a fun season to see just how good Gill is when it comes to coaching up his players.