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Reesing, second-quarter surge lift Kansas

Aug 31, 2008 - 5:25 AM LAWRENCE, Kansas (Ticker) -- Todd Reesing threw three touchdown passes as 13th-ranked Kansas benefited from a strong second quarter to cruise to a 40-10 triumph over Florida International on Saturday in the season opener for both teams.

After throwing for more touchdowns (33) and yards (3,486) last season than any quarterback in school history, Reesing didn't miss a beat in this one.

The junior quarterback completed 37-of-52 passes for an economical 256 yards and a trio of short-yardage scores to Dezmon Briscoe for Kansas (1-0), which scored 23 points in the second quarter to take a commanding 30-10 lead at the half.

"That is what Briscoe can bring to the table for us," Reesing said. "He is a tremendous athlete and he has a great feel for going up and catching the ball. I just kind of threw it to the back of the end zone and he went up and made an amazing catch."

Briscoe finished with nine catches for 55 yards with touchdown receptions of three, four and three yards for the Jayhawks, who posted a program-best 12-1 record last season and capped the campaign with their triumph over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

On Saturday, Kansas picked up where it left off.

After Jocques Crawford's 7-yard TD run gave Kansas a 7-0 lead with 5:09 remaining in the first quarter, Reesing finished the Jayhawks' next drive with a 3-yard scoring strike to Briscoe just four seconds into the second quarter.

The Jayhawks added a 47-yard field goal by Alonso Rojas and a 75-yard punt return for a score by Daymond Patterson to increase their advantage to 24-0.

"I felt that I was going to get one," Patterson said. "The punt return team was blocking real well and we have been working on it all week. The last two years we have returned a touchdown in the first two games, so we had to keep that going."

"That aspect I thought was good and we put a lot of time and effort in the punt return unit," Kansas coach Mark Mangino said. "Hopefully we can be consistent, but tonight was a big night for us with punt returns. There are areas of our special teams that need attention, and there will be some personnel changes for us this week on a few units."

After Ty Hilton responded with a 74-yard punt return for a touchdown in the second quarter for Florida International (0-1), Reesing led the Jayhawks on a 12-play drive totaling just under 2 1/2 minutes which culminated in another scoring strike to Briscoe.

"We played tough and obviously we're never going to compromise. We're getting better, especially against a great football team," Florida International coach Mario Cristobal said. "There were way too many opportunities given to them, things we could have prevented.

"But then we came back and showed improvement with Ty Hilton's punt return. There's a lot of stuff that we can benefit from as a team and as players and as coaches. That is stuff that hurts, and it has to hurt and it better hurt. We have some work to do."

While Kansas' offense was clicking, its defense held Florida International quarterback Paul McCall to 10-of-28 passing for 73 yards and a pair of interceptions.

In addition, the Golden Panthers were just 2-of-14 on third-down conversions and were held to 139 yards of total offense.

Following an interception by Phillip Strozier which gave Kansas the ball on its opponent's 19-yard line, the Reesing-to-Briscoe combination struck again with a 3-yard scoring strike in the third quarter to cap the scoring.