More News and Notes: KU - South Florida

More news and notes while wondering if we’ll see Marcus Hereford on the side of a milk carton anytime soon.

• If you saw an unfamiliar #76 on the field last week, that’s because C Brad Thorson dressed for the game and played on special teams. The 6-3, 290-pound sophomore is a transfer from Wisconsin. Yah, you betcha.
• A win against South Florida Friday night would improve KU’s record against ranked teams under coach Mark Mangino to 5-8. It would also make them 3-0 for the second year in a row under Mangino.
• A win would give the Jayhawks, long known as a brutal road team, a five-game road winning streak.
• A KU loss would suck.
• KU opponents continue to struggle on the offensive side of the ball: Kansas has held its last 29 opponents to less than 200 yards rushing.
• QB Todd Reesing continues to treat the KU passing record book like a baby treats a diaper. He is fifth on the all-time Kansas completions list with 359. Barring unforeseen weirdness, he will pass Mike Norseth (363) this Friday night.
• Reesing needs 231 passing yards to move past Chip Hilleary (4,598) for fifth on the KU career list.
• Reesing needs one more 200-yard passing game to tie Bill Whittemore (13) for first on the KU career list.
• Speaking of Whittemore, he was responsible for 50 touchdowns, running or passing, in his injury-plagued career – more than any other Jayhawk. Reesing needs just four more to pass him for the top spot on the list.
• Reesing holds the school record with seven consecutive 200-yard passing games.
• Reesing doesn’t get the attention some other Big 12 QBs who are festively plump do, but it’s worth noting that he leads the NCAA in pass completions per game (34.5). He’s also second in total offense (343 ypg); seventh in passing ypg (334); and eighth in passing efficiency (158.79). For active NCAA players, he is the fifth in career passing ypg (242.1); fifth in career passing efficiency (150.30); and eighth on career pass completions per game (19.9).
• WR Dexton Fields needs eight receptions to pass Richie Estell (117) for fifth on the KU career receptions list. He also needs one more touchdown catch to tie Marcus Henry (13) for fifth on the career touchdown receptions list. Fields has caught at least one pass in 25 consecutive games.
• Kansas is 13-2 in its last 15 games when ranked in the Associated Press poll.
• The Jayhawks have recorded 48 first downs through the first two games. The individual leader for producing first downs has been WR Kerry Meier: 13 of his 18 catches have been for first downs.  He also leads the team with five first downs produced on third down (also has one on fourth down).  Other Jayhawks who have a habit of moving the chains are RB Angus Quigley, WR Daymond Patterson and WR Dezmon Briscoe. All three have six first downs to their credit.
• Two weeks into the 2008 college football season, Kansas ranks first in the NCAA in pass efficiency defense (51.84); is tied for first in red zone defense (0.00 percent, as opponents are 0-of-4); is fifth in time of possession (36:33); and is tied for sixth in first-down defense (10.50).
• Meier ranks third in the NCAA in receptions per game (9.00) and Briscoe ranks 10th (8.00).
• Kansas is playing in the Eastern time zone for just the fourth time in the last eight years. All of those roadies have occurred under Mangino (2003 Tangerine Bowl vs. North Carolina State; at Toledo, 2006; 2008 Orange Bowl vs. Virginia Tech; and this week at South Florida).
• Kansas is 3-1 all-time in games played on September 12. Other big doings on September 12: Hong Kong Disneyland opened (2005); Stefan Edberg beat Michael Chang in what is believed to be the longest tennis match in U.S. Open history (5:26, 1992); Carl Yastrzemski recorded his 3,000th major league hit (1979); the expansion Seattle Seahawks played their first regular season game and lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 30-24, and Minnie Minoso became the oldest player in major league history to get a base hit at age 53 (1976); and John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier (1953).
• Happy September 12 birthday to Olympic sprinter Jesse Owens (1913) and really tall guy Yao Ming (1980).
• Johnny Cash left this world on September 12, 2003.