Improper sendoff
Senior running back James Sims, who is perhaps the best player to come through the Kansas football program since Todd Reesing, ended his season with an unfortunate performance. Sims was responsible for two of the six turnovers in Saturday afternoon’s Sunflower Showdown against Kansas State, and was unable to find the endzone during his last game in crimson and blue.
Unluckily for Sims, a 9-39 record will overshadow his record book accomplishments. In his college career, Sims rushed for the third most yards in school history and is second in the Kansas record books for career rushing touchdowns and 100-yard rushing games.
“Without knowing all the candidates in Kansas history, he’s probably one of the better running backs that’s ever come through,” Weis said. “But because the team hasn’t won very many games, he’ll be underappreciated. I’m a big fan of James Sims. I feel bad for him.”
Sims has apologized to Weis after games in which he fumbled in the past, and after Saturday’s game he went to apologize to Weis again.
“He came up to me after and I said ‘Don’t even start. I don’t want to listen to you start apologizing. We’re not going there. You got a lot of football to play yet. So you can feel sorry for yourself for a short amount of time, but let’s pick it back up and get ready to go.’ Like I said, I’m a big fan of James Sims and I don’t think you’ve seen James Sims play football for the last time,” Weis said.
Not much progress
Another horrid, losing Kansas football season is in the books. The rough ride is over, and Kansas has three wins to show for it. And anyway you slice it, wins are the only way to compare seasons. So for Kansas, that means progress from a year ago. It makes for four total wins in the Charlie Weis era, but Kansas and Weis are a bit off pace on turning the program around.
Four wins in two years isn’t exactly what most fans had in mind when Weis came to Lawrence two seasons ago, and he hasn’t managed to build much confidence in the program since he arrived either.
Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger was adamant that the program will “stay the course” with Weis and the rebuilding process, but the pressure on Weis is mounting. Two seasons down and “one Big 12 win” is about all that can be written on Weis’ body of work at Kansas. Weis deserves at least one more season, there shouldn’t be a question about that, but another season like this one should put Weis on the hot seat.
Offensive line coach out
After two years as the offensive line coach, Tim Grunhard has stepped down from the position. The former Bishop Miege Catholic High School head coach cited the job as being too demanding for him.
“With the time commitment and challenges of major college football, I felt I was being delinquent in my responsibilities to my family,” Grunhard said in a statement released Wednesday night.
Weis has confirmed the hiring of a replacement.
“We have already hired a replacement for Tim. When that coach becomes available, we will provide more details,” Weis said.
On Wednesday, the Lawrence Journal-World reported that Kansas has plans to hire current Rice offensive coordinator John Reagan to assume the role as Kansas’ offensive coordinator.
At Rice this year, Reagan helped coach the unit that ranks 53rd in the country for total offense, averaging 431 yards per game. That’s plenty more than the 301 per game that Kansas averaged this season.
