LAWRENCE | Daymond Patterson looks and sounds like your typical college freshman.</p><p>He&#8217;s 5 feet 9 inches tall, battling some minor facial complexion issues, and he thinks hurdling a defender on the way to a 75-yard punt return for a touchdown in Kansas&#8217; 40-10 victory over Florida International is &#8220;pretty cool.&#8221;</p><p>For Patterson, a wide receiver from Mesquite, Texas, it wasn&#8217;t the hurdle that made the play memorable.</p><p>&#8220;It ranks pretty high,&#8221; Patterson said, &#8220;not because of the hurdle, but because of my first college game. I just wanted to get out there.&#8221;</p><p>How do you reload after a 12-1, Orange Bowl-winning season and live up to a No. 14 preseason ranking? You recruit players like Daymond Patterson. From the moment he stepped on campus, according to his teammates and coaches, he was ready to play. He showed it on Saturday night in front of a KU-record 52,112 fans at Memorial Stadium by returning four punts for 135 yards and a touchdown.</p><p>&#8220;That kid, he&#8217;s the kind of guy that can change games,&#8221; KU quarterback Todd Reesing said. &#8220;He looks like he should be playing pee-wee football, but he can play with the big boys.&#8221;</p><p>A year ago, KU was busy trying to prove that exact thing. Reesing and the Jayhawks pounded Central Michigan in the opener, and Reesing said things like &#8220;We&#8217;re tired of being looked at as, &#8216;They&#8217;re going to be a 6-6, 7-5 team and finish in the bottom of the Big 12.&#8217; &#8221;</p><p>Now, the mission is not to go back there. To accomplish that goal and not take three steps backward, the Jayhawks will need players like Patterson who arrive on campus and simply <em>get it</em>.</p><p>But they also will need Phillip Strozier. Strozier, a Kansas City and Rockhurst High product, wasn&#8217;t ready right away like Patterson. He waited two years for the opportunity he got on Saturday night to play nickel back for the Jayhawks, learning as he went.</p><p>Strozier highlighted a terrific effort by the KU defense &#8212; the Jayhawks forced three turnovers and held the Golden Panthers to 139 yards &#8212; by picking off two passes in the second half.</p><p>Yes, for the Jayhawks to stay near the upper crust of the college football world, it will take all kinds. How about quick-fix help like punter/kicker Alonso Rojas, who transferred from Bowling Green to KU by way of Miami Dade College this offseason.</p><p>The Jayhawks, who lost their kicker and punter from last year, needed both. They brought in Rojas, and what did he do for a debut? He made field goals of 47 and 37 yards and averaged 46 yards per punt.</p><p>This was the first game, so of course, it was far from perfect. KU&#8217;s top running backs, Jake Sharp and Jocques Crawford, combined to run 20 times for 61 yards. The Jayhawks turned the ball over twice. And they gave up a 74-yard punt return for a touchdown.</p><p>But they also threw the ball a whopping 52 times with great success. Reesing connected on 37 of those for 256 yards and three touchdowns, all of which went to wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe.</p><p>Long term, the most important revelation from this game was the sellout crowd. KU&#8217;s previous high mark against a nonconference opponent was 4,000 fewer than Saturday night&#8217;s attendance. Florida International is not Nebraska, but the Jayhawks&#8217; bluebloods showed up.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s progress,&#8221; Mangino said. &#8220;That&#8217;s our program just keeping at it. As we get better, it seems like everything around us gets better.&#8221;</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> @ Go to <strong>KansasCity.com</strong> for a photo gallery from Saturday&#8217;s game.</p><p></div>