Go back about 20 days or so, and you would’ve heard Mark Mangino espousing the Heisman virtues of his starting quarterback, Todd Reesing.
Now, nearly three weeks later?
You would’ve heard Mangino explaining why he benched the very same quarterback in what was still a winnable game.
In a somewhat stunning turn of events, Mangino benched Reesing with seven minutes left against Texas Tech and the Kansas down just two scores. The coach said he was just looking for a spark when he turned to redshirt freshman Kale Pick, while Reesing didn’t hide his surprise at hitting the pine.
“The last series he was in there, (Reesing) short-armed two passes and had a fumble,” Mangino said. “More than anything, I thought maybe Kale would give us a little bit of a jump or something. I just didn’t feel good about the offense as a whole.”
“I was (surprised). I’m not going to lie,” Reesing said, and he looked like he meant it. “At that point, we were two possessions down, by no means was the game over.”
Even more surprising than the benching itself is the fact that Mangino refused to say that Reesing would be his starter next week in a must-win game against Kansas State.
And, for the record, Pick didn’t provide the expected spark; the Jayhawks fell to the Red Raiders 42-21.
