KU Football Completes First Full Week Of Practice

Aug. 11, 2007

LAWRENCE, Kan. –

Kansas football completed its first full week of preseason practice with a long scrimmage at Memorial Stadium on Saturday morning.

The workout featured approximately 120 plays and head coach Mark Mangino found good things on both sides of the football.

“I felt like today our defense played zone really well,” Mangino said. “Our secondary and linebackers are coming around in that area and we made a lot of progress. We are getting a little more pressure on the quarterback. That is starting to develop.”

“On the offensive side, I felt we threw the ball well at times,” he said. “Some of the young receivers are starting to step up. We need to work on pass protection a little bit and we still need a lot of work on first and 10’s, picking up bigger yardage on first down.”

The practice was the 11th of the preseason for the Jayhawks, who will take Sunday off before holding two practices on the grass practice fields on Monday. The second Monday workout will be open to the public and will start at 4:45 p.m.

“Overall, it was a good day’s work,” Mangino said of the Saturday practice. “We had an intense scrimmage.”

After 11 practices Mangino said his team is coming along.

“We are about where we ought to be,” he said. “There have been a lot of good things. The younger guys are stepping up. The veteran guys are looking pretty sharp, but we still have a lot of work to do.”

Season, single-game and flex-pack tickets are currently on sale. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Allen Fieldhouse Ticket Office, by phone at (800) 34-HAWKS or online at www.kuathletics.com.

The Jayhawks will open the season hosting Central Michigan on Saturday, Sept. 1 at 6 p.m. The contest is the first of four straight home games for KU to begin the 2007 campaign.