Todd Reesing (born September 20, 1987) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. He played in college at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

. After graduating from Kansas, he briefly spent time with the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in 1 ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

during their 2010 off-season. After his career was over, he began doing color commentary for the Jayhawk Television Network. Reesing led the Jayhawks to their best start in school history, winning their first 11 games of the 2007 season. The Jayhawks finished the season 12–1 and won the 2008 Orange Bowl, the schools first and only BCS Bowl victory. Reesing owns Kansas career passing records in several categories.

High school career

Reesing attended

Lake Travis High School Lake Travis High School is a public high school located in unincorporated Travis County, Texas, United States, approximately 20 miles west of Austin, near Lake Travis. The preparatory is accredited by the Texas Education Agency and rated as an ...

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

and was a good student and a letterman in football and baseball. In football, Reesing was named the Texas 4A Player of the Year as a junior. As a senior, Reesing passed for 3,343 yards, 41 touchdown passes, and threw only 5 interceptions. He added 756 yards and 8 touchdowns running the ball. In baseball, he was a second-team All-District honoree as an outfielder. Reesing graduated from Lake Travis High School in 2006 and was in the top one percent of his graduating class. Despite his success, Reesing was not heavily recruited by in-state programs

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

due to his short stature. Kansas coach

Mark Mangino Mark Thomas Mangino (born August 26, 1956) is a former American football coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Kansas from 2002 to 2009. In 2007, Mangino received several national coach of the year honors after leading ...

invited Reesing to visit the school while Reesing was in Kansas for a visit to

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

. Shortly after, Reesing committed to the University of Kansas Football team.

College career

2006 season

Injuries and inadequate play at the quarterback position forced coach

to remove Reesing's redshirt through a conference game against

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. Reesing led the Jayhawks with three touchdowns to a 20–15 come from behind win. Shortly thereafter,

Kerry Meier Kerry Meier (born November 12, 1986) is a former American football wide receiver who played in the National Football League. He was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the fifth round of the 2010 NFL Draft. He played college football at the Univ ...

returned from an injury, and Reesing served as the backup quarterback through the end of the season.

2007 season

Despite not starting a game the previous season, Reesing competed for the starting position for the 2007 season. He then beat out Kerry Meier for the starting job. On November 3, Reesing passed for 354 yards and 6 touchdowns while the Jayhawk offense scored 76 points against

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, the most points ever scored in one game against Nebraska. Reesing led the Jayhawks to a school-best 11–0 record before falling 36–28 to the 10–1

Missouri Tigers The Missouri Tigers intercollegiate athletics programs represent the University of Missouri, located in Columbia. The name comes from a band of armed Union Home Guards called the Fighting Tigers of Columbia who, in 1864, protected Columbia fro ...

in the

Border Showdown Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ca ...

. Despite this loss, Kansas was selected to play in the 2008 FedEx Orange Bowl against 11–2

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

. In the Orange Bowl, Reesing was 20 for 37 for 227 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He led Kansas to victory over Virginia Tech 24–21 and the Jayhawks capped off their best season in school history at 12–1. He finished the season ranked 14th in the NCAA and fourth in the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

in passing efficiency (148.82). Reesing also threw for a school-record 3,486 yards and 33 touchdowns, while completing 61.9 percent of his attempts. He was named a semifinalist for the

Davey O'Brien Award The Davey O'Brien Award, officially the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award, named after Davey O'Brien, is presented annually to the collegiate American football player judged by the Davey O'Brien Foundation to be the best of all National Co ...

, which is awarded to the best collegiate quarterback each year. By the end of the season, he had already broken the career passing touchdown record for Kansas.

2008 season

Reesing opened the season with a 37-of-52 performance against the

FIU Golden Panthers The FIU Panthers (also known as Florida INT Panthers) are the athletic teams representing Florida International University, an American public university located in Westchester, Florida. The Panthers currently compete in National Collegiate Athl ...

, setting career highs for passes completed and attempted. During week three against

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...

, Reesing threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns, but his interception in the final minute put South Florida in a position to win with a field goal. In a win against Kansas State, Reesing completed 14 of 23 passes for 162 yards and a touchdown. Additionally, he rushed for a season-high 47 yards and a touchdown. Against rival

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, Reesing completed 37 passes for 357 yards and four touchdowns including a late touchdown pass to Kerry Meier late in the fourth quarter. Following this win, the Jayhawks earned an invitation to the

2008 Insight Bowl The 2008 Insight Bowl was a college football bowl game played at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. The game, in its 20th year of existence, was played on December 31, 2008. The game, which was telecast on NFL Network, featured the Kansas Jay ...

to play the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

. In this game, Reesing completed 27 of 35 passes for 313 yards and 4 touchdowns. Reesing finished the season with 329 completions for a school-record 3,888 yards and 36 touchdowns.

2009 season

The Jayhawks entered the 2009 season ranked 25th. After the first five games, Reesing helped lead the Jayhawks to their second 5–0 start in three seasons. Through the first five games, Reesing threw for 1,579 yards 13 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions. After the 5–0 start the Jayhawks were ranked 17th. Their first loss came on the road against Colorado. The Jayhawks went on to lose seven consecutive games finishing the season 5–7, making the Jayhawks ineligible for a bowl game for the first time since 2004. Reesing finished the season with 3,616 yards 22 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Career statistics

Legacy

Reesing broke several Kansas football records, some of which he broke by a large margin. He owns the records for passing yards, passing touchdowns (which he broke in just 16 career games), quarterback rating (minimum 200 attempts), completions, attempts, and completion percentage (minimum 200 attempts), as well as single-game record for passing touchdowns. He is also top 10 all-time in the Big 12 in passing yards and passing touchdowns.

Professional career

On May 26, 2010, Reesing signed with the

of the

. On June 8, 2010, Reesing was released during training camp.

Personal

Reesing graduated in December 2009 with degrees in finance and economics. He was honored by the University of Kansas as its male senior scholar athlete of the year. He also earned an NFF National Scholar-Athlete award, academic all-district honors and academic All-Big 12 Conference honors for the third straight year. On May 4, 2010, Reesing was named to the 2010

National Football Foundation The National Football Foundation (NFF) is a non-profit organization to promote and develop amateur American football on all levels throughout the United States and "developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the dr ...

Hampshire Honor Society.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reesing, Todd 1987 births Living people American football quarterbacks Kansas Jayhawks football players Players of American football from Austin, Texas