I had concerns about playing away from The Booth just because of losing that home edge. I also wondered about logistics and how they would play out. But being around the program and listening to the coaches and players talk about it, I get the sense there is energy with the players for the venues. I think it has been a positive with the players.
I know the administration and off-field staff as KU has put a lot of research into the travel and coming up with a plan. I heard dating back to last spring they were making trips to Arrowhead/CMP to start mapping out how things would work.
The team practiced at CMP last night and some focus from that goes to the offensive line in this update. You can't always tell how a group lines in practice, but I thought the formations in the drills give a little sample size how things look through four practices.
I have said all along I like the depth of the OL and my thoughts on that continue to grow. Somebody brought up the point will this be a better line since the 2007-2008 era. My answer is I still want to see if it will be better than last year. You still have to replace Dominick Puni, who was really good and held down the LT spot. He graded out at 80.6 and I have never seen a KU OL come up with a score like that. It will be hard to replicate that. You just hope Brown can stay solid.
Then you lose a three-year starter and leader of the OL in Mike Novitsky. He did a lot of things that don't always show up just watching a game.
I do think this OL can be deeper, and there is still room for it to be as good and if everything plays out, maybe slightly better. But there are some questions that don't have answers.
At practice the OL quickly funneled through some groups, but to me it was telling for at least four practices how those groups were put together.
One of the groups had Nolan Gorczyca, Mike Ford, Shane Bumgardner, Kobe Baynes and Bryce Cabeldue.
Another group had Dre Doiron, Darrell Simmons, Bryce Foster, De'Kedrick Sterns and Calvin Clements.
The next group featured Amir Herring, Kael Farkes, Hank Kelly and James Livingston. I did not catch the fifth OL.
There were four groups total and the other I noticed was Carter Lavrusky, Harrison Utley, Myles Ewell, Kene Anene and Eli Richmond.
Before any speculation comes up I confirmed Logan Brown has an excused absence and could miss a couple practices and there is nothing wrong.
Looking over the bodies in the drills you can see Daryl Agpalsa has a lot of options and I will be interested to see that first two-deep when it is announced.
I know the administration and off-field staff as KU has put a lot of research into the travel and coming up with a plan. I heard dating back to last spring they were making trips to Arrowhead/CMP to start mapping out how things would work.
The team practiced at CMP last night and some focus from that goes to the offensive line in this update. You can't always tell how a group lines in practice, but I thought the formations in the drills give a little sample size how things look through four practices.
I have said all along I like the depth of the OL and my thoughts on that continue to grow. Somebody brought up the point will this be a better line since the 2007-2008 era. My answer is I still want to see if it will be better than last year. You still have to replace Dominick Puni, who was really good and held down the LT spot. He graded out at 80.6 and I have never seen a KU OL come up with a score like that. It will be hard to replicate that. You just hope Brown can stay solid.
Then you lose a three-year starter and leader of the OL in Mike Novitsky. He did a lot of things that don't always show up just watching a game.
I do think this OL can be deeper, and there is still room for it to be as good and if everything plays out, maybe slightly better. But there are some questions that don't have answers.
At practice the OL quickly funneled through some groups, but to me it was telling for at least four practices how those groups were put together.
One of the groups had Nolan Gorczyca, Mike Ford, Shane Bumgardner, Kobe Baynes and Bryce Cabeldue.
Another group had Dre Doiron, Darrell Simmons, Bryce Foster, De'Kedrick Sterns and Calvin Clements.
The next group featured Amir Herring, Kael Farkes, Hank Kelly and James Livingston. I did not catch the fifth OL.
There were four groups total and the other I noticed was Carter Lavrusky, Harrison Utley, Myles Ewell, Kene Anene and Eli Richmond.
Before any speculation comes up I confirmed Logan Brown has an excused absence and could miss a couple practices and there is nothing wrong.
Looking over the bodies in the drills you can see Daryl Agpalsa has a lot of options and I will be interested to see that first two-deep when it is announced.
