***** OFFICIAL 2014 KANSAS FOOTBALL THREAD *****

[ArrowheadHawk]

2014 is a new year with a couple of changes. It's time for this team to turn the corner.

New OC - http://cjonline.com/sports/2013-12-0...ve-coordinator

Pretty Sweet Recruiting Video -

[Bambi]

Top 5 pro-style QBs in 2010 class per Rivals...Jake Heaps, Philip Sims, Connor Wood, Brett Nottingham, Jesse Scroggins...Whoops

— Matt Smith (@MattSmithCFB) April 30, 2014

[George Liquor]

I remember being stoked about Heaps. Who wrong I was...

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

Report that Heaps has left the program.

Source: Frank Boal on Twitter

Nice.

[Braincase]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Nice.

And yet, he was at meetings today?

If Heaps chooses to leave, np. Truth? If he can't win a starting QB position at KU, where the F* is he going to go?

[RustShack]

Originally Posted by silver5liter

Oh leave the guy alone, with the retirement of the timberwolves coach he may lose his bball coach as well.

Lol keep dreaming.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Braincase

And yet, he was at meetings today?

If Heaps chooses to leave, np. Truth? If he can't win a starting QB position at KU, where the F* is he going to go?

True enough. I just assumed it was to be QBing the checkout line at Hyvee.

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by RustShack

Lol keep dreaming.

WTH is this? This is a KU football thread. Not a thread to discuss ISU basketball.

[Mr_Tomahawk]

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2014/m...dium-facelift/

KU has designs on Memorial Stadium facelift


Kansas University is moving forward on plans to renovate Memorial Stadium — seen here in a file photo from 2012 — but athletic director Sheahon Zenger says an actual facelift won't begin in the near future.



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Kansas University’s athletic department has hired HNTB, a Kansas City-based architecture firm, to draw up blueprints for Memorial Stadium’s future renovations, but there are no plans to break ground any time soon, according to KU athletic director Sheahon Zenger.

“We will have the designs in place,” Zenger said during a recent interview with the Journal-World, “so that when we have momentum and the deck is cleared, we’ll be ready to go.”

According to Zenger, HNTB is in the final stages of developing its renderings, and those plans currently are being vetted through the appropriate groups on campus, by members of the athletic department and outside stakeholders.

What’s the holdup?

“It’s not lost on me and shouldn’t be lost on anyone else that we need a little momentum in football to inspire the donors whose help we’re going to need,” Zenger said.

Kansas, which sits in the middle of a stretch of five consecutive losing seasons, has gone 9-39 in four seasons since the forced resignation of Mark Mangino. That mark includes a 3-9 season in 2013, Charlie Weis’ second season as head coach. Weis signed a five-year, $12.5 million contract that expires at the end of the 2016 season.

A 3-9 record does not qualify as momentum, but it did end a string of five consecutive seasons with diminishing victory totals (12, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1). The Jayhawks enter 2014 with their most experienced roster under Weis, particularly on defense, but will have relatively inexperienced sophomore Montell Cozart at quarterback.

Zenger isn’t waiting for football fortunes to turn around before tackling other facilities additions and improvements.

With major projects still ongoing at Rock Chalk Park and progress on the DeBruce Center, which will house James Naismith’s original rules of basketball, and the Fieldhouse Apartments right around the corner, Zenger said the focus was on finishing those so that all of the department’s attention — both in terms of fundraising and planning — could be devoted to Memorial Stadium.

Although no exact price tag has been determined because plans and possibilities for upgrades and renovations at Memorial Stadium vary and remain a work in progress, estimates put the first-phase value alone around $60 million.

Zenger has said all along that the project, whenever it gets underway, likely would be executed in steps.

The first phase, which could include lowering the field and removing the track, would be the most significant.

“The key is to bring the stands in and make it more intimate,” Zenger said. “Engineers are telling us we can lower the field. We don’t know if we would or how much.”

It’s questions like those that make up the vetting process of which Zenger spoke.

Once the first phase is past — again, at least a couple of years from now — the subsequent steps would address things like adding club-level seating to the east and west sides of the stadium and giving both the bowl and the south end zone a facelift.

“The track will come out regardless,” Zenger said. “Where we’re at is, which is the greatest priority? We know that the field and the west side are the first priorities, and they could be combined.”

Because of the stadium’s status as a true memorial, Zenger said the department and architects have taken great care to honor the past while moving the venue into the modern era.

For too long, Zenger said, athletic facilities at KU were left alone. While those that existed certainly served their purpose and were great sources of pride for the fan base even then, leaving them unchanged for so many years has made upgrading them now a greater challenge.

Zenger, who is in his fourth year as KU’s athletic director, said the task at hand would have been even more difficult had it not been for the proactive nature of his predecessor, Lew Perkins, and his staff.

“You don’t want to look backward,” Zenger said. “But we really went through a period of time here in the not-so-distant past of two to three decades of not really building much or renovating our facilities. I’m very grateful to the regime before me that was able to renovate Allen Fieldhouse, renovate and build more on the baseball stadium and then build the football practice fields and the football building. That was really a yeoman’s work.”

During his time at Kansas, Zenger and his staff have built upon that progress. But with football being king in the current landscape of college athletics, the Memorial Stadium makeover might carry the most weight, and Zenger appears to be well aware of that.

“We’re deeply embroiled in several significant projects at this time,” Zenger reiterated. “And we’re trying to clear the deck all of these very important projects so we can turn all focus and energy toward Memorial Stadium.”

[Lzen]

That's good news, especially the part about removing the track. Of course, I assume this means that if Weis and staff don't see major improvement in the team in the next couple of years that Zenger will be looking for a new coach (before Weis's contract is up).

[Braincase]

Originally Posted by BDj23

I remember being stoked about Heaps. Who wrong I was...

In the guys defense, it's hard to get a pass completed when you have no O-line and the receivers can't catch. Cozart can at least move, and with Harwell you have improvement with receivers, but our line isn't anything to write home about.

[Fansy the Famous Bard]

Originally Posted by Braincase

In the guys defense, it's hard to get a pass completed when you have no O-line and the receivers can't catch. Cozart can at least move, and with Harwell you have improvement with receivers, but our line isn't anything to right home about.

which is why having a mobile QB is needed.

[WilliamTheIrish]

This article in the Salina paper kind of ties in. Not much money out there is the impression I get. Donation boxes to maintain equipment is kind of desperate.


LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Lawrence officials are spending more than $22 million for the new Rock Chalk Park Sports complex in northwest Lawrence while also seeking donations at recreation centers in other parts of town to help maintain current equipment.

Tim Laurent, Lawrence recreation operations manager, says donation boxes at recreation centers aren’t a sign the city is struggling to fund the maintenance of existing facilities and equipment now that money is being devoted to Rock Chalk Park. He says residents who take Parks and Recreation classes pay a fee, while people who use the fitness rooms aren’t required to pay fees.

But Lawrence resident Anne Schulman told The Lawrence Journal-World that the donation boxes are “a slap in the face to residents who live in other parts of town.”

ttp://salinapost.com/2014/05/01/lawrence-seeks-donations-for-recreation-equipment/

[WilliamTheIrish]

2017 before a shovel is in the dirt? That is rough.

[Braincase]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

This article in the Salina paper kind of ties in. Not much money out there is the impression I get. Donation boxes to maintain equipment is kind of desperate.


LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Lawrence officials are spending more than $22 million for the new Rock Chalk Park Sports complex in northwest Lawrence while also seeking donations at recreation centers in other parts of town to help maintain current equipment.

Tim Laurent, Lawrence recreation operations manager, says donation boxes at recreation centers aren’t a sign the city is struggling to fund the maintenance of existing facilities and equipment now that money is being devoted to Rock Chalk Park. He says residents who take Parks and Recreation classes pay a fee, while people who use the fitness rooms aren’t required to pay fees.

But Lawrence resident Anne Schulman told The Lawrence Journal-World that the donation boxes are “a slap in the face to residents who live in other parts of town.”

ttp://salinapost.com/2014/05/01/lawrence-seeks-donations-for-recreation-equipment/

Donations are donations. Nobody is demanding a fee.
KU has 5 major projects going on for the AD alone, not to mention multiple projects for the engineering school, new business school, and several projects on the west campus supporting bio and pharma research. Add on the KU Med Center and Cancer research center additions, and you've got a whole lot of development.

Thing is, our big-money donors need to step up for the Memorial Stadium upgrades to happen. The KSU-leaning legislature is not approving any bonds for KU sports facilities. Either the alumni step up, or KU football goes the way of Wichita State football.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by Braincase

Either the alumni step up, or KU football goes the way of Wichita State football.

Maybe they shouldn't have fired Mangino. He didn't seem to have any problem fielding competitive teams in that stadium.