updated 12:04 a.m. ET July 23, 2008

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The scene: April 7, 2008. Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, Kansas. Thousands of college students and KU fans spill onto the roads to celebrate the Jayhawks' NCAA men's basketball championship.

Among them was the guy primarily responsible for the school's second-biggest (but perhaps more improbable) feat of the 2007-08 school year.

When Todd Reesing joined the block party that night, only a few people recognized him as the quarterback that pulled Kansas football out of its perpetual coma. He wasn't the Orange Bowl-winning quarterback, or the glamour position on a top-10 program. To most of the partiers, Reesing looked like just another skinny, 5-foot-nothing college guy.

It's safe to assume at a school obsessed with hoops, that the player at the end of KU's basketball bench gets more oohs and aahs on campus than its starting quarterback. And that's fine with Reesing — he's used to being overlooked.

"I'm not looking to get hype, get predicted to do this or that," Reesing said Tuesday at Big 12 media days. "I'm happy where I am. I have my Orange Bowl ring. It doesn't matter what anybody else says. It matters what you do on Saturdays."

In a conference that boasts big-name quarterbacks such as Missouri's Chase Daniel, Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, Texas Tech's Graham Harrell and Texas' Colt McCoy, it's easy to skip over Reesing.

He's unassuming, short by quarterback standards and wasn't a blip on the recruiting radar coming out of high school.

Of course, that makes him the perfect leader for this Kansas team.

"That's why we did so well last year," he said. "We didn't have a bunch of individuals who wanted the spotlight."

Reesing won the starting job in fall camp, but few expected such an impact. Kansas coach Mark Mangino had fallen into a disturbing trend of playing musical quarterbacks every year, every week, seemingly every series. The Jayhawks hadn't had a clear starter since Bill Whittemore in 2003, and they hadn't experienced much success, either.

Reesing, who grew up in Austin, Texas, but couldn't attract any attention from his hometown Longhorns, did send a signal that he might be different as a freshman in 2006. He entered the Colorado game in the third quarter, completed seven of 11 passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns, ripped off a 63-yard run and led Kansas to a win.

"I got thrown into the fire, not knowing what to expect," Reesing said. "I wasn't really prepared for that, so I had to rely on what I knew and just play football.

"When that was over, I realized, 'Wow, even though these guys are bigger, stronger and faster, I really can play with them.' After a few plays and you don't get killed, you realize you're gonna be all right and that confidence really shoots high."

Last year, Reesing and the Jayhawks feasted on a September buffet of cupcakes, and rolled that gained confidence into the Big 12 season. Reesing completed 276 of 446 passes for 3,486 yards, 33 touchdowns and just seven interceptions.

He established 21 school records along the way, as Kansas climbed to No. 2 in the nation before losing its only game in the regular-season finale against rival Missouri.

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Reesing and the Jayhawks silenced all the "fluke" talk with an impressive win over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

He was a Davey O'Brien Award semifinalist, but ask any college football fan outside the Sunflower State to rattle off the top five, maybe top 10 quarterbacks in the country and see if Reesing's name is mentioned.

Part of that is his height. Reesing is listed at an incredibly generous 5-11 and 200 pounds. When he finds himself in settings such as Tuesday's media event, Reesing fields as many questions on his size as he does his skills.

"It doesn't get tiring," Reesing said. "People want to understand how it works. There are not a lot of guys who are my size playing quarterback. It's out of the norm and anytime you're out of the norm, you're going to get questions about it."

But notoriety, no matter how slowly, is moving his way. Strangers have wished him good luck this season or congratulated him on 2007. The huddle of reporters gathered around him didn't measure that of Daniel's the previous day, but it still was sizable.

Mangino thinks Reesing's approach to becoming the BMOC from an unknown will dictate his future.

"For Todd, the challenge is to manage all the attention," Mangino said. "He's doing a good job of that. Everybody in Lawrence wants to say that they know him and that they pal around with him.

"If he continues to do a good job of managing going from being a player that was not well-known, who was competing for a position last year at this time, to being somebody that's highly respected as a player in our league, that's the key."

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