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News and Notes Comments from Brent Venables on KU's program and the game

JK

Hall of Fame
Staff
May 29, 2001
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I watched the Brent Venables press conference. Here are some things he said about KU’s program and the game.

His opening comments…

Got a lot of respect for what the Kansas program is today. The transformation that's taking place there in Lawrence under Coach Leipold and his staff. What a great job and example of development and great schemes putting their players in position to be successful.

They've gotten incrementally better each year that they've been there and they've got a veteran football team that's had a lot of success playing with a lot of confidence right now. And the quarterback Bean, has really played outstanding this year in the games that he has started. They’ve got great skill, really well coached, offensive line, done a really nice job of developing their defense, their personnel on their roster.

They've got good length and speed (on defense) and they're playing with a lot of aggressiveness and playing with great effort in all three phases.

You see his fingerprints all over the program. So it’s going to be a great challenge for us. Another really highly ranked offense that does a lot of really tough, challenging things in their run game and their play action. So, looking forward to getting up to Lawrence and having a chance to try to find a way to win another one.


Being a Kansas have paid attention what the Kansas program has done since Leipold arrived…

I have known the different coaches that have been here, been there rather known personally and I've always paid attention. Sheahon Zenger was on our staff in a support role at Kansas State while I was there as a player and a coach. And again, from Mark Mangino to Gill, Terry Allen and so many other coaches. Again, I talked about this a few days ago with Coach Mangino and certainly Glenn Mason as being two of the most recent, very successful. But they've always had great support there in their sports and athletics and no reason that they can't be successful. And again, I love the base where they're at in the Kansas City area.

The depth of the players isn't necessarily there from a population standpoint in the state of Kansas or Missouri is obviously more populated. But I think when you look at the resources that they have and the success that they've had through their basketball program that they've shown they can be incredibly successful and then that's what they're doing now. And they'll come if you're successful, everybody wants to support and follow a winner. I love that there's pride restored and being a Kansas guy, that was a heated rivalry, right? Like all in-state rivalries the Sunflower State showdown. But I like that there's pride in success happening in Lawrence, Kansas. I think it's good for the Big 12.


What can you do to slow them down offense…

Well, again, you got to do a great job. There's a lot going on from an eye candy standpoint, and you’ve got to fit gaps, you got to whip people and get off of blocks and you got to tackle well. You’ve got to play with great discipline and aggressiveness, all the things that you would think every single week. They're averaging, I think, just under six yards a carry, but one of the most explosive offenses, explosive runs and explosive passes in all of college football.

We've got to do a great job of playing with discipline and gap integrity and then staying on top of everything, leveraging routes in the back end so that they don't have this great balance. And that's the challenge of all of that.

It's not like a really good option team that can't really throw the ball where you're playing option coverage. This is a team that can throw it really well as run it really well. Two weeks ago, they came up short at Oklahoma State and they averaged ten yards a play on the day, which just shows you their level of explosiveness that they're capable of. So, when they get hot, they're tough. They've done a nice job of getting the ball to everybody from their backs to their tight ends and they’re deep in the receiver core as well. And the quarterback is legit, dual threat quarterback, and they have design quarterback runs, and they have the triple option concepts. And then again, all the play actions off of that.

I think they're fourth in the country and third downs, so they've stayed on the field. They have a lot of manageable third downs, but they're good in all the third down situations. So, again, they're excellent at doing really everything and they're averaging 7.2 yards per play, which is really good. I think that's second in our conference and one of the best in college football.
 
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