By Wendell Barnhouse
Big 12 Sports.com Correspondent
LAWRENCE, Kan. - If you build it, he will come. In Field of Dreams, it was built and he showed up.
They have built it. Will they (continue) to win? That's the reality and the question for Kansas football.
Just before preseason practice started, the school's athletic department opened the 80,000-square-foot Anderson Family Football Complex (cost: an estimated $32 million). The building is KU's answer to the facilities race in college sports.
"To tell you the truth, our philosophy has not changed one bit,'' said Kansas coach Mark Mangino, who acknowledges the football complex will be a boost. "For us, it's people that make the program, not a building.''
After a surprising 12-1 season that ended with a BCS victory in the Orange Bowl, the Jayhawks are a popular choice by the "experts" to have a drop off in the victory column.
"We're not worried about preseason rankings," said junior quarterback Todd Reesing. "People aren't expecting us to win it all. That's normal ground for us."
The new facility was built to the side of the south end zone and partly underground so as not to block the view from Mt. Oread. It has a number of snazzy features.
Mrkonic Auditorium can seat 136, which will accommodate team meetings. The seats are designed to hold up to 500 pounds. The podiums at the front of the room are equipped with telestrator screens to help with diagramming plays.
Each of the 115 lockers could easily store a full-size refrigerator.
The players lounge has Xbox 360's and PlayStation 3's which can hooked up to the three 35-inch flat-screen TVs.
There are 58 televisions throughout the building. Text messages from a command center can be displayed on the televisions.
The weight room is mostly underground which helps save on energy costs.
Reesing likes the fact that the showers work and the shower heads don't fall off. Linebacker Joe Mortenson is a "weight room guy. It's first class." Fellow linebacker Mike Rivera likes the locker room that has areas grouped by position.
"(The new facility) sends a message that KU is very serious about its football program," associate athletic director Jim Marchiony told the Kansas City Star. "It sends it to our players, our alumni and to recruits.
"It’s the way you become a successful program. That’s what we’re trying to do."
Kansas has six starters returning on offense and nine on defense. The Jayhawks' only loss in 2007 came to Missouri in a game that decided the Big 12 North Division title. The Tigers are favored to win the North again and are in national title discussions.
"Ever since I've been here, we've been doubted, picked last,'' said Mortenson, a senior. "It's nothing new to us. We're up for the challenge. In the off-season, we worked harder than we ever have.
"We want to go back to the Orange Bowl ... we all know which game that is.''
That would be the BCS championship game on Jan. 8.
Running away: In just three weeks, Kansas has gone from seven running backs on scholarship to just four. Sophomore Donte Bean said on August 11 he plans to transfer. On August 10, sophomore Carmon Boyd-Anderson said he was leaving the team for personal reasons. Freshman Sean Ransburg is not academically eligible after the NCAA Clearinghouse failed to certify his high school grades.
Upwardly mobile: Two years ago, Mark Mangino was making $650,000 per year. Following the 12-1 season and the Orange Bowl defeat of Virginia Tech, the school extended the contract through 2012 with a raise to $2.3 million per year.
Kick start: Kansas must replace its kicker (Scott Webb) and punter (Kyle Tucker). Tucker averaged 38.9 yards per punt last season while Webb made 18-of-26 field goals and finished as the second-leading scorer in KU history.
Utility player: Kerry Meier, a former quarterback who switched to wide receiver last season, might wind up as the team's punter ... and punt returner.
Reclining seats: Kansas will have leather recliners for sale in the endzones at this year's home games. In addition to wait service and flat-screen TVs, the fans get to keep the chair after the season is over. The new seats will be six feet off the ground and 10 yards behind the end zone. The cost? $2,500 per recliner for the season (season tickets are $300).
BIG 12 FOOTBALL SKYWRITERS TOUR
Prior to the formation of the Big 12 Conference, sportswriters and sports broadcasters covering football in the Big Eight and Southwest conferences would gather in a central location and take off on the annual Skywriters Tour...an eight-day trek from campus-to-campus around the respective conferences to cover the preseason football practices. The tour provided fans with unprecedented daily coverage from each school. In the early years the tour consisted mostly of writers traveling by charter air service and thus was dubbed as the Skywriters Tour. In an effort to bring Big 12 fans additional insight into the fall camps from around the Big 12, we have dispatched Wendell Barnhouse and Melanie Weiser on the 2008 Big 12 Virtual Skywriters Tour.