Saturday's Football Season-Opener To Air On AT&T Jayhawk All Access
Kansas Game Notes 
McNeese State Game Notes
Aug. 29, 2011
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LAWRENCE, Kan. – Jayhawk fans can watch Saturday’s football season-opener vs. McNeese State on AT&T Jayhawk All-Access.
The game, which kicks off at 6 p.m. Central time, is the first of more than 200 events to air in 2011-12 on KU’s online network via kuathletics.com.
Fans can subscribe to Jayhawk All-Access by going to www.kuathletics.com and clicking on the AT&T Jayhawk All-Access button on the right. Jayhawk All-Access subscriptions are only $9.95 per month or $79.95 per year
In addition to the football season opener, fans who subscribe to AT&T All-Access can also see:
– Late Night in the Phog, the annual tipoff of basketball practice,
– KU’s two men’s basketball exhibition contests,
– Football Coach Turner Gill’s weekly press conferences,
– Football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball coaches’ weekly television shows,
– Home women’s basketball games,
– The Kansas Relays and much more, including postgame interviews in many of Kansas’ 18 varsity sports.
Fans who subscribe may also listen to:
– The complete radio broadcasts of KU football and men’s basketball contests, including pre- and post-game shows and post-game interviews with the coaches,
– Men’s basketball coach Bill Self’s weekly press conferences,
– Weekly Hawk Talk radio shows with Turner Gill, Bill Self and women’s basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson, and
– Rock Chalk Sports Talk, a weekly hour-long radio show highlighting Kansas Athletics.
In addition, KU fans can watch home volleyball matches and baseball games free of charge.
Kansas returns 41 letterwinners, including 15 starters from last season. Kansas and McNeese State will be meeting for the first time in program history. For tickets access kuathletics.com, call 1-800-34-HAWKS or visit the ticket window on the southeast corner of Allen Fieldhouse.
What To Watch For …
– Kansas (0-0 overall, 0-0 Big 12) will open its 122nd season of college football and its second under head coach Turner Gill, when it hosts McNeese State on Saturday, Sept. 3 at 6 p.m.
– The Jayhawks boast an all-time record of 570-559-58 (.505 winning percentage).
– Kansas is 67-47-7 (.583 winning percentage) in season openers. The Jayhawks are also 86-31-4 (.727 winning percentage) in season openers at home.
– Kansas is opening its season at home for the ninth-straight year (6-2 in last eight home openers).
– The Jayhawks have won six of their last seven season openers dating back to the 2004 campaign.
– KU has won 22 of its last 24 non-conference home games dating back to the start of the 2003 season.
– KU is 21-7 in its last 27 home games, but went 3-4 in home games last year.
– KU is 22-4 in its last 26 games against non-Big 12 opponents, including bowl victories against Houston (2005), Virginia Tech (2007 season) and Minnesota (2008).
– KU is 1-1 all time in games played on Sept. 3 with a win against Florida Atlantic (2005) and a loss to Northern Illinois (1983).
– Kansas has never faced McNeese State, but is 3-3 all time against current Southland Conference members. KU owns a 1-1 mark versus Northwestern State, Sam Houston State and Southeastern Louisiana.
Kansas Head Coach Turner Gill
Turner Gill(North Texas, 1990) is in his second season at the Kansas helm, after being named the University’s 36th head football coach on Dec. 13, 2009. In his first year at Kansas, Gill took over a team that had lost its last seven games of the 2009 season. After a season-opening loss, Gill guided the Jayhawks to a 28-25 upset victory against then-No. 15 Georgia Tech. KU would win three games in his first year, including a thrilling 52-45 victory against Colorado in a game that KU trailed 45-17 in the fourth quarter. Gill came to Lawrence after spending the previous four seasons as the head coach at Buffalo (2006-09) where he turned a down program into a conference champion in his third year. Gill was a highly successful player and assistant coach at Nebraska for a combined 18 seasons before spending one year with the Green Bay Packers and then taking over at Buffalo.
McNeese State Head Coach Matt Viator
McNeese State head coach Matt Viator is beginning his sixth season as the leader of the Cowboys football team and his 13th overall season with the program. Viator, a 1986 graduate of McNeese State, has compiled a 39-15 overall mark in his first five seasons and has led the Cowboys to three Southland Conference titles. Additionally, Viator’s MSU teams have advanced to the FCS playoffs three times. Viator has earned numerous coaching honors including two SLC Coach of the Year Awards and a Louisiana Collegiate Coach of the Year honor. He has also been a finalist for the national Eddie Robinson Award twice.
McNeese State Scouting Report
The Cowboys enter Saturday’s game at Kansas ranked No. 20 nationally in the Football Championship Subdivision Coaches pre-season poll. Heading up a list of 48 lettermen returning from last year’s team are all-conference returnees offensive guard Miguel Gauthreaux, tailback Andre Anderson, place kicker Josh Lewis, defensive end Desmund Lighten and safety Malcolm Bronson. Those five were also named to this year’s pre-season all-conference team as selected by league coaches, while offensive guard Jonathan Landry, defensive tackle Pat Williams and defensive back Darrell Jenkins were named to the second team. The Cowboys are coming off a 6-5 season and a second place showing in the league standings (5-2).
Kansas-McNeese St. Connections
McNeese State Co-Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receivers Coach Broderick Fobbs is the son of KU Director of High School Relations Lee Fobbs. Both Kansas and McNeese State raid the state of Texas for its players with the 39 Jayhawks hailing from the Lonestar state and 27 Cowboys calling Texas their home.
Team Captains
On August 28, Turner Gill announced the team captains for the 2011 season. This year’s permanent team captains include: on offense, C Jeremiah Hatch and TE Tim Biere and on defense, LB Steven Johnson and DE Toben Opurum. Hatch, Biere and Johnson are seniors, while Opurum is a junior.
Baby Jays
Kansas will field one of the youngest rosters in the country in 2011 as it counts 71 one of its players as underclassmen. The 71 players who are either freshmen, redshirt freshmen or sophomores account for 70 percent of the squad. Of the 22 players listed as starters on offense and defense, seven Jayhawks are underclassmen, including sophomores DT Kevin Young, DE Keba Agostinho, LB Darius Willis, QB Jordan Webb, RB James Sims and FB Nick Sizemore along with redshirt freshmen S Keeston Terry.
Early TV Slate
The time for Kansas’ first three games of the 2011 season have been set by the Big 12 Conference office. Kansas’ season-opener versus McNeese State will not be televised, but will be streamed live on AT&T Jayhawk All-Access, and kicks off at 6 p.m. The Jayhawks’ Sept. 10 game versus Northern Illinois will also have a 6 p.m., start time with a live broadcast on Fox College Sports. KU will then kick-off at 11:30 a.m. (Central), when it plays at Georgia Tech on Saturday, Sept. 17. The KU-Georgia Tech game will be televised live on selected Fox Sports Net affliates.
Potential First Time Starters
According to the depth chart, several Kansas players could be making their first career starts Saturday. Among them are FB Nick Sizemore, DE Keba Agostinho, LB Darius Willis, LB Tunde Bakare and FS Keeston Terry.
Potential Freshmen Starters
In addition to redshirt freshman Keeston Terry potentially making his first career start at free safety, true freshman Alex Muellertops the depth chart at place kicker and could be seeing his first action of his Kansas career.
Beshears’ Happy Returns
Kansas junior wide receiver D.J. Beshearshad an outstanding sophomore season handling the kickoff return duties for the Jayhawks. Beshears finished the 2010 season with 36 returns for 922 yards, both of which rank as the top single-season mark in KU history. Beshears earned Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week honors versus New Mexico State after returning a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown. He went on to earn All-Big 12 Honorable Mention honors as a kickoff return man and was named to the Phil Steele Magazine All-Big 12 Third Team as a kick returner.
Son Of A Gun
Several members of the Kansas football team come from extremely strong football bloodlines. Two Jayhawks are the sons of current collegiate head football coaches and a third player’s father is an assistant coach at the collegiate level. Redshirt freshman WR Connor Embree’s father Jon is in his first year as the head coach at Colorado, while fellow redshirt freshman LB Jake Farley is the son of Mark Farley, who is beginning is 11th year as the head signal caller at Northern Iowa. Additionally sophomore RB Ryan Burton’s father, Ron, is the defensive line coach at Air Force. Also to be noted is special teams quality control coach Kyle Breyis the son of Notre Dame head men’s basketball coach Mike Brey.
Up Next
The Jayhawks will host Northern Illinois on Saturday, Sept. 10, at 6 p.m., in a game televised by Fox College Sports. Prior to taking on KU, the Huskies will open the season on Sept. 3, when they play host to Army.
