ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin

A few weeks ago, Mark Mangino took to the bully pulpit in the Big 12 coaches’ teleconference to extol Todd Reesing as a potential Heisman Trophy candidate.

On Monday, Mangino made the announcement that Reesing would still be his starter Saturday at Kansas State -- a decision that was up in the air after the senior quarterback was benched late in the Jayhawks’ 42-21 loss at Texas Tech last week.

What a difference three weeks can make.

	Douglas Jones/US Presswire
	Will Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing rebound from his demotion last Saturday?

The Jayhawks’ quarterback conundrum has been the biggest fallout of Kansas’ three-game losing streak in conference play that has dropped them into the oversized basement of the Big 12 North Division.

Reesing has struggled with a groin injury that occurred late in the Jayhawks’ loss to Colorado on Oct. 17. He continued to play with the injury during losses to Oklahoma and Tech during the last two weeks.

And while Mangino didn’t blame Reesing or his injuries for the recent losses, he still thought that sitting him down at the end of the Tech game would be beneficial for his senior quarterback and the team.

“I think it was the appropriate thing to do,” Mangino said. “Number one, he wasn’t getting great protection from his offensive line and we didn’t want to see him get beat up. Number two, things weren’t in synch for our offense. I thought it was in his best interest and our best interest to take him out of the game for the last two series.”

There’s no doubt that Mangino’s team bears little resemblance to the Kansas team that started the season 5-0 and soared as high as 16th in the Associated Press poll earlier this season.

Reesing told reporters after the Tech loss that he had been struggling with a groin injury, but was OK to play.

“I’m not one to make excuses,” Reesing said. “It’s been a hard time practicing during the week because of it. I’ve got to do what I can to get ready and then play through it on Saturday. But I’m not going to say that that has anything to do with the last three weeks, because it hasn’t. It’s just something that you deal with as a part of football.”

His performance has dropped appreciably during the last three weeks when he’s been responsible for seven turnovers -- five of which led directly to touchdowns by opposing teams.

In his first five games, Reesing completed 69.2 percent of his passes for 13 touchdowns and three interceptions with a pass efficiency rating of 157.57. But in his last three games, those figures have dipped to a 56.3 completion percentage, three touchdowns, four interceptions and a 110.63 pass efficiency rating.

Mangino replaced Reesing with redshirt freshman Kale Pick late in the game. The Jayhawks were trailing by two touchdowns at the time in a game that appeared winnable if Reesing could conjure up some heroics akin to earlier in his career.

"I was (surprised). I’m not going to lie,” Reesing told reporters about the benching. “At that point, we were two possessions down, and by no means was the game over.”

Reesing will go down in history as one of the most significant football players in the history of the Kansas program. He led the Jayhawks out of football obscurity in 2007, directing them to a record-setting 12-1 season, a share of the school’s first Big 12 North title and a victory over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. He followed that with a better statistical season last season as a junior, culminating with a stunning upset victory over Missouri in the regular-season finale and a triumph over Minnesota in the Insight Bowl.

But those earlier achievements appear to have been pushed aside during the Jayhawks’ recent offensive slump.

As much as the turnovers, Reesing seemed strangely hesitant in his performance against Tech. He uncharacteristically fumbled a snap and threw balls into the dirt. The injury also seemed to ground him as he was hesitant to continue his normal scrambling and improvisational skills on pass plays.

The Jayhawks have turned suddenly unproductive as their schedule has toughened. The Jayhawks were ranked second nationally before the Oklahoma game on Oct. 24. But in losses to the Sooners and Tech, they have averaged 281.5 yards per game.

The offense’s lack of production isn’t all Reesing’s fault.

"We're not running the ball well, we're not protecting well and we're dropping balls all over the place," Mangino said. "They've come at crucial times and they've hurt us and that has nothing to do with Todd."

But the Jayhawks’ offense needs to make a dramatic transformation immediately. They have road games at Kansas State and Texas, a home game against Nebraska and a season-ending game against Missouri in Kansas City.

If Kansas can win three or four of them, they might be able to fulfill the preseason hype and play in the first Big 12 championship game in the school’s history. But they just as easily lose them all and miss a bowl game entirely.

"I don't see any problems with [Reesing] about anything," Mangino said. "I think the least of his worries ought to be coming out of the game. He is going to focus on getting himself better and getting back into sync."

That may be true. But it will be interesting to see if Reesing employs the strange demotion as inspiration, or allows it to act as an albatross to drag down the rest of his senior season.