Why did Doug Meacham leave TCU for Kansas?

A lot was made of the confusing move Rhett Lashlee made, taking a pay cut to go from Auburn to Connecticut. Doug Meacham’s also decided to drop a headscratcher, abandoning Gary Patterson and the TCU Horned Frogs to take over as offensive coordinator at Kansas. Our pal Melissa Treibwasser over at Frogs O’ War discusses what it all means for our purple cousins.

There are some reasonable speculations one can make regarding Meacham’s decision. In Fort Worth, he was sharing the job with Sonny Cumbie; in Lawrence, he’ll be The Guy. After having his name tossed around last off-season for head coaching gigs, his stock may have dropped along with TCU’s offensive output this year. And while UConn has to be considered a program going nowhere fast until Randy Edsall actually makes them go somewhere, David Beaty at least seems to have Kansas heading in a direction other than “further into the abyss”.

If Meacham is able to make the Jayhawk offense go — and considering his recruiting ability in Texas, that’s not a bad bet — he’ll rekindle the fire under his potential head coaching future.

But more importantly for us, the Meacham hire is not good news for K-State. Not horrible, hair-pulling and shirt-rending news, but for those of us accustomed to the annual in-state beatdown it’s a potential problem.

Other Football News

K-State commit Elijah Walker is not longer a K-State commit. The top-ranked JUCO strong safety in the class, out of Cerritos College in California, announced his decommitment yesterday on Twitter. Scuttlebutt suggests he’s flipped to... our purple cousins. WE JUST CALLED YOU OUR FRIENDS AND NOW THIS? Alternatively, he may be headed to California, who just offered him early this week.

On the other hand, on January 21 the Wildcats will welcome a big-time visit. Andrew Nemec of the Oregonian reports that Madison (Ore.) senior Daniel Green, the top-rated middle linebacker in the west according to Scout and a four-star talent, will visit Manhattan as one of his three scheduled stops this month. Green, who backed out on a commitment to USC in December, will also visit Utah and Oregon State. With Elijah Lee’s departure for the NFL draft, landing Green would be a coup indeed.

Over at ESPN, in their weekly roundtable the Big 12 writers are all confused over Elijah Lee’s decision, while Jake Trotter’s post-season report card on the Wildcats is perfectly cromulent.

Track and Field

At the KSU-KU-WSU Triangular, hosted this year by Wichita State at the Heskett Center, the Wildcats had a 28-point lead on Kansas but allowed it to slip away over the final batch of events. The Jayhawks ended up claiming the title, outscoring K-State 242 to 231. The Shockers tallied 217 points during the event.

The stars of the show for K-State were sprinters Terrell Smith and frosh Wurrie Njadoe, both of whom took first in both the 60m and 200m. Also on the track, Ranae McKenzie added a gold in the women’s 400, Kurt Loevenstein claimed the men’s 1k, and Lukas Koch won the men’s mile.

In the field events, naturally, K-State also excelled. Njadoe added the women’s long jump title to her collection, making her K-State’s highest individual scorer in the event. Christoff Bryan and Kim Williamson both won the high jump, and Brady Grunder and Janee’ Kassanavoid also swept the weight throw. Shardia Lawrence finished first in the women’s triple jump, and Brett Neelly won the men’s shot by over a meter.

Men’s Basketball

We’re all mad about The Travel and The Technical, but Bruce Weber and the Wildcats are taking a broader view. The team knows full well that those losses were the result of allowing themselves to be in position to lose, reports Ken Corbitt at the Capital-Journal.

Tennis

It’s freezing rain in our neck of the woods, but please don’t be mad at the Wildcat tennis team. Why would you be mad? Because they’re in Hawai’i, where they will take on the Washington Huskies this afternoon at 3pm CT. They’ll also take on the Rainbow Wahine tomorrow at the same time.

High Schools

Last week, we told you about the KSHSAA proposal to modify private school classification. Taylor Eldridge at the Wichita Eagle reports on how the private schools feel about this now that the KSHSAA executive board has... not exactly shot down the idea.