Sporting News' Top 100: No. 25 Kansas

Blair Kerkhoff, Sporting News Yearbooks Sporting News is counting down its top 100 college football teams for 2009, featuring one team each day leading into the season opener Thursday, Sept. 3. More countdown: Nos. 1-50 | 51-60 | 61-70 | 71-80 | 81-90 | 91-100 Wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe should help keep the Jayhawks' offense potent. A different kind of expectation greets Kansas in 2009. Last season's hopes were unrealistic. The Jayhawks started in the mid-teens in the preseason polls, and that was more of a comment on the previous year's finish rather than the reality of personnel changes and an upgraded schedule. The 2008 Jayhawks didn't lose many starters from their '07 12-1 Orange Bowl champion team, but every one of them was an NFL draft selection or all-conference performer. Coach Mark Mangino has improved this program remarkably in eight years, but it hadn't reached the point of replacing NFL talent with NFL talent. So, when Kansas ran up against simila...