BY DON WILLIAMS
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Texas Tech’s never lost a football game at Kansas. Now would not be a good time to start.
The Red Raiders (7-0, 3-0 in the Big 12 Conference), ranked as high as sixth in the USA Today coaches poll and eighth in the initial BCS rankings, try to keep their perfect season alive today when they serve as the homecoming opponent for No. 19 Kansas (5-2, 2-1).

If the Red Raiders win, it sets up showdown games at home the next two weekends with No. 1 Texas and No. 6 Oklahoma State, the teams with whom they share the Big 12 South Division lead. A trip to No. 4 Oklahoma comes two weeks after that.

“From the beginning of the season, we noticed these four games coming up,’’ Tech offensive guard Brandon Carter said. “We’re all excited about it, because this is the time of the season that’s going to make or break us.’’

Though Tech is 5-0 all-time in Lawrence, the Raiders played a couple of nailbiters on their last two trips — 31-30 in 2004 and 45-39 in 2000. It wasn’t easy then, and few expect this time to be different.

Today is the first time this season that Tech has not been favored. Kansas has won 13 games in a row at home and, with this being homecoming weekend, was closing in on a sellout crowd.

The Jayhawks lack the top-10 ranking of Tech’s next three opponents, but they have a majority of their starters back from last year’s team that started 11-0 and ended with a win over No. 5 Virginia Tech at the Orange Bowl.

“Some people look past them because of their past and things like that,’’ Carter said, “but I think they’re a really good team. They’re an up-and-coming team. I think they’re just as good as teams that are ranked higher them. They play hard, they have really good players, and they’re coached well.’’

Kansas, in its biggest game of the season last week, lost 45-31 at Oklahoma. OU quarterback Sam Bradford lit up KU for 468 yards and three touchdowns through the air. The Jayhawks have allowed seven touchdown passes in their first three Big 12 games.

One of the few defensive starters gone from last year’s team is Aqib Talib, an NFL first-round draft choice by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Jayhawks miss his play at cornerback.

“We have to get better fundamentally,’’ KU coach Mark Mangino said. “Our corner play has to get sharper with reads and understanding what is in front of them. We certainly would like to get more pressure with the four-man rush, and we will never give up on that. We are not alone in defense in not playing the pass as well as we would like. In our conference, with the spread offense, nobody is really playing exceptional defense.’’

Indeed, whereas Kansas is ranked No. 99 in pass defense, Tech is at No. 103. The Red Raiders have no simple task, trying to harass KU quarterback Todd Reesing long enough to disrupt his rhythm with receivers Dezmon Briscoe and Kerry Meier.

Reesing, the junior from Austin Lake Travis, already is KU’s career total offense leader and has five 300-yard passing games this season.

Reesing is the kind of quarterback Tech coach Mike Leach appreciates. Standing only 5-foot-10, he was easy to dismiss or overlook entirely coming out of high school, no matter how many games he won.

“He’s got a lot of intangibles,’’ Leach said. “He’s a really good quarterback. He’s kind of a leader of their offensive unit, kind of makes some unexpected plays when they need them at key times. I think he’s really the key to their offense.’’

Reesing has the advantage of working with many of the same receivers he had last year, and they seem to have gotten better.

Between Sept. 12 and Oct. 11, Meier had three straight 100-yard games — against then-No. 19 South Florida, Sam Houston State and Iowa State — followed by a 94-yard day against Colorado. Briscoe, a Texan just two years removed from playing on Cedar Hill’s state championship team, stole the show last week with 12 catches for 269 yards against OU. Both were school records.

“I think Reesing feels good with both of those guys,’’ Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill said.

Meier leads the Big 12 in receptions per game. Tech’s Mike Crabtree and Briscoe rank second and third in receiving yards per game. Crabtree was limited in practice this week after he suffered a left ankle injury in last week’s 43-25 victory at Texas A&M.

That was overshadowed in Tech’s camp this week by another development. Matt Williams, the Tech student who was invited to join the team a month ago after he made a kick for a promotion, was cleared on Monday to play this season and will kick extra points. Scholarship freshman Donnie Carona will kick off and do field goals.

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