October 11, 2007

Kansas fans are finding room for football
No. 20-ranked team has caught the attention of basketball-crazy Jayhawks

By J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH
The Kansas City Star

LAWRENCE | Josh Kenney and Hunter Ketcherside were 7 years old the last time the Kansas football team was ranked in the top 25. Eleven years later, they’re freshmen at KU, wasting time on a Tuesday morning at McCollum Hall.

Kenney has a Math 104 midterm at 5:45 p.m., but you wouldn’t know it watching him play pingpong with friends in the dorm’s lobby. In between points, they’re talking about girls, bad cafeteria food and — yes — Jayhawk football.

“I think Kansas is the team to beat in the Big 12,” Kenney says.

How long can the football chatter last in this town? Outside, the leaves are beginning to yellow. That means a new season — the one they’ve been looking forward to since late March — is coming soon. Friday is “Late Night at the Phog,” the Kansas basketball team’s first practice, and Kenney and Ketcherside will be there. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be up at 8 the next morning to tailgate for KU’s football game against Baylor.

“I guess it’s going to have to be shared equally,” says Ketcherside, a native of Wichita. “Actually it’s even more football now. Usually at this time, it’s like, ‘(Forget) football. It’s basketball season.’ ”

Not this year. Not this team. Basketball season will have to wait. It’s funny; both Kenney and Ketcherside, who met this summer at orientation, say they didn’t grow up following Kansas football, only hoops. Kenney was an Oklahoma fan until this fall.

“Honestly,” Kenney says, “coming into the school year I didn’t think we’d have a good football team.”

But now, he says, “It’s the highlight of my week.”

All over Lawrence, students, alumni and fans are rallying around their 20th-ranked Jayhawks, who appeared on the national radar with a 30-24 victory over Kansas State last Saturday.

The KU players are already noticing the increased attention that has come with a 5-0 record.

“I have one class, and I don’t really speak a lot,” KU running back Brandon McAnderson says. “I just kind of sit and take notes, and nobody really talks to me. Well, I guess five or six people came up to me and were like, ‘Good game.’ I didn’t even know they knew who I was.”

The Jayhawks are feeling the love normally reserved for the basketball team.

KU senior point guard Russell Robinson can see that there’s something different about his football counterparts these days.

“Just on campus, the players have got a nice little confident swagger about them,” Robinson says.

“Everyone’s behind them, and that’s a good thing.”

Robinson says the basketball team is willing to share the spotlight for a few months.

“We all wear KU on our chests,” Robinson says.

Sure, that’s true. But right now, more KU fans are buying and wearing football apparel than ever before, according to Ryan Owens, the manager of Jock’s Nitch Sporting Goods in Lawrence.

“It’s the best September we’ve had here — ever,” Owens says. “We look for October to be just as good.”

Owens says that cornerback Aqib Talib’s No. 3 jersey is the top seller and that quarterback Todd Reesing’s No. 5 is running a close second. Owens expected Kerry Meier to be the starting quarterback, so the Reesing shipment didn’t arrive until the third week of the season.

They’re sure selling now.

Speaking of sales, how about tickets? KU announced this week that its home game against Nebraska on Nov. 3 is a sellout and that the school has sold its allotment for the Nov. 24 game against Missouri at Arrowhead Stadium.

Carlyn Fogle, a KU junior from Overland Park, is one of the lucky fans who snagged a ticket for that one before the rush began.

“I’d really like to see us beat Missouri at Arrowhead,” Fogle says. “But who wouldn’t, right?”

Curtis Marsh would. He’s a KU alum, class of 1992, and now works for the university. Because he’s seen so many disappointing football seasons, he didn’t quite know what to think when the Jayhawks were 4-0 with no quality wins. But 5-0 with a win at K-State? Consider him on board. And, like many others, he is making room for football.

“It’s ingrained into our culture that basketball season is the beginning of an awesome time on campus,” Marsh says, “and that won’t diminish at all. But just the fact that we get to share that excitement with what’s going on on Saturdays is so cool.”

Marsh has some advice for freshmen like Kenney and Ketcherside, who are new to this.

“Certainly, cherish this season,” Marsh says.

“But there’s no reason to think it’s going to be a one-shot deal.”

The freshmen, back at the ping pong table, are thinking big. The season isn’t even half-over, but Kenney expects a 10-2 finish.

“No, three losses,” counters sophomore Justin Blair.

“No, two,” Kenney says.

“There’ll be an upset, man,” Blair says.

“Oh, right,” Kenney says. “There’s always an upset.”

They’re thinking it will come at Texas A&M on Oct. 27. Wait a minute … since when did Texas A&M beating Kansas become an upset?

“To us,” Kenney says, “it would be an upset. But to the college football world, probably not.”

J. Brady McCollough - jbrady@coveringsports.com (email) - 816-868-2621 (cell)