A somewhat interesting or depressing exercise depending on how you look at it. Anyway, here’s ranking the post Mangino era.
Ranking the teams:
1 - 2014 : This team definitely had the most talent/experience of any of the post MM teams. If they could have gotten Short eligible and Martin to stay out of trouble, who knows, they might have snagged a few more wins to at least have a shot towards the end of fighting for a bowl.
2 - 2012: Probably will get some disagreements on this choice. Yeah, they won one game, but they were competitive in a decent amount of games. Their o-line anchored with Hawkinson was imo one of the top o-line units in the Big 12 that year. Also had a lot of players who had played in a lot of Big 12 games(Sims, Patterson, Pick, Beshears, Hawkinson, Zlat, TM, Opurum, Greg Brown). They probably left 5 wins on the table(Rice, Northern Illinois, OSU, Texas, Texas Tech).
3 - 2010: This year probably had the best win of the post MM era (Georgia Tech) and the most exciting win(the comeback win against Colorado) which will give them the push over the ’13 team. Defense had a few talented pieces in Chris Harris and Justin Springer. They weren't really competitive in any of the games that they didn’t win.
4 – 2013: For as solid as the win over WVU was(top 3 post MM win), it’s somewhat amazing they weren’t really even competitive in any of the other Big 12 games, especially the ISU game.
5 – 2011: That year probably started out with the most optimism – Pierson and Darrian Miller showed a lot of promise in the opener. The last second win over Northern Illinois was impressive and I thought Webb looked good early in the year. Things fell completely apart during conference play. Still can’t believe they took RGIII and Baylor down to the wire.
6 – 2015: It appears that the kids are fighting hard, just outmatched.
Top players:
QB – Michael Cummings. Kind of amazing how many qbs he has had to compete against. Still, he has had probably recorded the most above average games of anybody from that position.
RB – James Sims. Probably a top five running back in KU history.
WR – Nigel King, Nick Harwell – Kind of disappointing KU only got one year out of this duo. Feels like King was one of the least hyped of the Weis transfers, but ended up being the best one.
OT – Hawkinson
OG – Zlatnik
C - Trevor Marrongelli: Putting him over Hatch. It seems TM was a smart player who had a good command of the offense.
OG – Brad Thorson
OT: Jeff Spikes: Not sure about the last two. Not an oline expert. Maybe we can get ramblood to weigh in on his choices.
TE: Jimmay Mundine
Defense
DE: Josh Williams: Solid player who didn’t get a lot of credit but helped make the ’12 defensive line a huge improvement over the ’11 version.
DT: Keon Stowers: Probably improved more than anybody during the Weis era.
DT: Jordan Tavaii: Solid DI tackle.
DE: Toben Opurum
LB: Steven Johnson
LB: Ben Heeney - As much crap as Aaron Stamn got on this board, he should get a little credit for getting the best recruit of the post MM era.
LB: Justin Springer
CB: JaCorey Shepherd, Dexter McDonald: Well, not exactly the ’07 Orange Bowl cb tandem, but still probably one of the better KU cb duos in the last 30 years.
S: Chris Harris, Cassius Sendish. Still surprised Harris wasn’t first team all Big 12 his senior year. Sendish was solid his senior year.
Ranking the teams:
1 - 2014 : This team definitely had the most talent/experience of any of the post MM teams. If they could have gotten Short eligible and Martin to stay out of trouble, who knows, they might have snagged a few more wins to at least have a shot towards the end of fighting for a bowl.
2 - 2012: Probably will get some disagreements on this choice. Yeah, they won one game, but they were competitive in a decent amount of games. Their o-line anchored with Hawkinson was imo one of the top o-line units in the Big 12 that year. Also had a lot of players who had played in a lot of Big 12 games(Sims, Patterson, Pick, Beshears, Hawkinson, Zlat, TM, Opurum, Greg Brown). They probably left 5 wins on the table(Rice, Northern Illinois, OSU, Texas, Texas Tech).
3 - 2010: This year probably had the best win of the post MM era (Georgia Tech) and the most exciting win(the comeback win against Colorado) which will give them the push over the ’13 team. Defense had a few talented pieces in Chris Harris and Justin Springer. They weren't really competitive in any of the games that they didn’t win.
4 – 2013: For as solid as the win over WVU was(top 3 post MM win), it’s somewhat amazing they weren’t really even competitive in any of the other Big 12 games, especially the ISU game.
5 – 2011: That year probably started out with the most optimism – Pierson and Darrian Miller showed a lot of promise in the opener. The last second win over Northern Illinois was impressive and I thought Webb looked good early in the year. Things fell completely apart during conference play. Still can’t believe they took RGIII and Baylor down to the wire.
6 – 2015: It appears that the kids are fighting hard, just outmatched.
Top players:
QB – Michael Cummings. Kind of amazing how many qbs he has had to compete against. Still, he has had probably recorded the most above average games of anybody from that position.
RB – James Sims. Probably a top five running back in KU history.
WR – Nigel King, Nick Harwell – Kind of disappointing KU only got one year out of this duo. Feels like King was one of the least hyped of the Weis transfers, but ended up being the best one.
OT – Hawkinson
OG – Zlatnik
C - Trevor Marrongelli: Putting him over Hatch. It seems TM was a smart player who had a good command of the offense.
OG – Brad Thorson
OT: Jeff Spikes: Not sure about the last two. Not an oline expert. Maybe we can get ramblood to weigh in on his choices.
TE: Jimmay Mundine
Defense
DE: Josh Williams: Solid player who didn’t get a lot of credit but helped make the ’12 defensive line a huge improvement over the ’11 version.
DT: Keon Stowers: Probably improved more than anybody during the Weis era.
DT: Jordan Tavaii: Solid DI tackle.
DE: Toben Opurum
LB: Steven Johnson
LB: Ben Heeney - As much crap as Aaron Stamn got on this board, he should get a little credit for getting the best recruit of the post MM era.
LB: Justin Springer
CB: JaCorey Shepherd, Dexter McDonald: Well, not exactly the ’07 Orange Bowl cb tandem, but still probably one of the better KU cb duos in the last 30 years.
S: Chris Harris, Cassius Sendish. Still surprised Harris wasn’t first team all Big 12 his senior year. Sendish was solid his senior year.
