As expected, 25th ranked Kansas rolled over Northern Colorado 49-3 in their season opener in front of a capacity of crowd of 52,530 on hand in Lawrence. The Jayhawks led by just a 7-0 margin after one quarter as quarterback Todd Reesing ran in from the one on KU’s first possession. In fact, KU got their first two scores of the game from the legs of Ressing who had 79 yards on the ground for the contest.
A 10 yard pass to running back Jake Sharp made it 21-0 and a 16 yard strike from Reesing to Tertavian Ingram capped a 12 play 76 yard drive to give Kansas a 28-0 lead at the half as the Jayhawks piled up 298 total yards in the first half, 170 of those on the ground a fact that had to please coach Mark Mangino.
The Jayhawk offense stalled in the third quarter and allowed Northern Colorado scored its only points of the game with a field goal, but on the final play of the quarter, Reesing hooked up with one of his favorite targets Kerry Meier for a 71 yard gain followed by 2 yard Jake Sharp TD run to cap an 86 yard drive and make it 35-3.
Kale Pick came on in the fourth quarter to receive his first action at quarterback and the red shirt freshman engineered a 7 play 72 yard touchdown drive with freshman running back Toben Opurm scoring on a 10 yard run.
Opurum closed out the scoring with a 26 yard run for a 49-3 final. Kansas rolled up 547 yards in total offense with Reesing going 13 of 20 for 208 yards. Jake Sharp had 123 yards rushing on 21 carries and Opurum carried it 8 times for 79 yards. The Kansas running game piled up 328 yards for an average of 7 yards a carry.
While the defense held Northern Colorado to just 3 points and 246 total yards there were four pass interference calls on the secondary but that was really the only black mark. Mangino said after the game that he felt his team took care of business and took advantage of what they were given.
Dezmon Briscoe was one of four players who were suspended for the game. Mangino said Briscoe’s suspension was related to his suspension back in the spring and part of his reinstatement came with the knowledge he would miss the first game. Next Saturday Kansas goes on the road to take on UTEP in their only non conference road game.
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