Kansas State’s 2017 season came to a fitting conclusion in Phoenix as Tuesday night’s Cactus Bowl win over UCLA represented a microcosm of the last three months. Let’s break it down.

REASONS TO HOPE

1. The Wizard still has a little magic left.

At halftime, more than a few K-State fans headed to bed. I don’t totally blame them. The Wildcats weren’t only trailing by 10; they were doing all the things that drove those same fans nuts: Throwing the ball against a bad rush defense, calling weird timeouts, and giving up a lot of passing yardage.

But Bill Snyder and his staff adjusted, and the second half was as well-coached as any half of football K-State played this year. The ground game was prioritized, which made things easier on the defense.

2. Alex Delton is determined to make spring ball interesting at the QB position.

Most fans, myself included, were assuming Skylar Thompson had officially taken over as K-State’s quarterback of the future. I still believe he will be, but Delton’s performance against UCLA (and his performance this season as a whole) will keep him in contention for the starting job in 2018.

Thompson is the more talented player and has a higher ceiling. But Delton has something going for him, too — his skill set is a better fit for the Wildcats’ brand of offense.

That brand, by the way, could change as K-State replaces Dana Dimel. So we don’t really know how important Delton’s edge is there.

But how often does a non-senior quarterback get named MVP of a bowl game and then not start the following season?

3. Dalton Risner is coming back.

Risner was a Second Team All-American this season. He’s undoubtedly the glue of the offense, even if the team didn’t need him to beat UCLA.

After the game, he announced on Twitter he will return next season. That isn’t shocking news, but it does confirm K-State will have one of the most experienced offenses in the country next year. The Wildcats’ new offensive coordinator, whoever it is, will have a lot of toys to play with.

REASONS TO MOPE

1. The halftime adjustments shouldn’t have been necessary.

While K-State’s ground game took UCLA behind the woodshed in the second half, the fact it took so long to establish Barnes and Delton is puzzling. It was no secret that the Bruins’ rush defense was awful this year. Skylar Thompson throwing the ball seven times on K-State’s first four drives is three or four times too many, even for someone with his arm talent.

One wonders if K-State could have won this game by 30 had the Wildcats pounded the ball for all four quarters.

2. Bill Snyder’s future remains a mystery.

Whether you want Snyder to return next season or not isn’t the focus here. That’s a different conversation. But the 78-year-old legend remaining mum on his decision, one way or the other, keeps K-State in a limbo that can really hurt with recruiting and with the fan base.

I didn’t expect Snyder to have a definitive answer last night. It would have been out of character for him to make that kind of announcement right after a game, before he can sleep on it or talk to his family. But I do hope we get one in days rather than weeks or months.

3. K-State’s defense has a lot more to replace than originally thought.

Time will tell on D.J. Reed’s decision. He would likely get drafted if he left school now, but he’s a player who could improve his stock by returning next year. And Reed isn’t even the player I’m really talking about on this one.

Jayd Kirby, for all the criticism he took early in the season, became a really solid linebacker for the Wildcats in 2017. He led the team in tackles this year with 99 and tied for a team-high in the Cactus Bowl. He will be missed to a much higher degree than I would have thought.

Oh yeah, and K-State is also losing Will Geary and Trent Tanking. The Wildcats need to be better on defense next year, and it won’t be an easy task.

Cole Manbeck

Let’s go ahead and make this clear right away regarding Brett McMurphy’s report on Thursday — Kansas State’s administration didn’t force Bill Snyder to do anything. If McMurphy’s report is accurate (I have no reason to doubt its accuracy, as I know John Currie had zeroed in on Jim Leavitt to take over for Snyder when he did retire), the administration simply put a proposal in front of the K-State head coach and asked for his input. They did not force it on him. If they had, Jim Leavitt would already be on the coaching staff and be set to take over as the head coach. So let’s please put an end to any accusations or suggestions that K-State tried to force Snyder out. That did not happen.

Snyder is 78. He’s the head coach and essentially the CEO of K-State football. Like it or not, college football is a big business that involves  millions of dollars. Any successful business or company will typically have a succession plan put in place for its CEO when they’re close to the point of retirement. That’s what K-State’s administration was seeking to do — to build out a plan for the future. It’s smart business. Snyder going year to year on how long he’ll coach does no one any good at this point. The fans and administration want a plan in place. And they deserve one. The endless speculation surrounding when Snyder may or may not retire is only going to damage the program and divide the fan base the longer this goes on.

It’s not as if K-State’s administration approached Snyder with someone he wasn’t familiar with. The verbal agreement would have brought in Leavitt, someone Snyder trusts from his coaching tree.

The most important part of McMurphy’s report reinforces that Snyder continues to push for his son, Sean, to take over for him. And while I think Sean could spark a positive change to the culture within the Vanier Football Complex right now, and would make some key changes, he should not and can not be just handed the job.

Some believe Bill Snyder should be able to determine who takes over for him — that this responsibility is owed to him. I disagree. We all appreciate and are extremely grateful for what Snyder did for K-State and the Manhattan community. His loyalty to stay and never take another job through all these years is something you rarely see from coaches in sports nowadays. There are no words to thank him for all that he has done and the lives he has positive affected.

But K-State does not owe it to him to decide his successor. Snyder has done so much for K-State and the community, but what is often failed to be mentioned is that K-State and Manhattan have rewarded him as well. He and his family have been financially taken care of, the stadium is named after him, a statue of him sits in front of the stadium, and a highway is named after him. Getting to decide his successor is for the athletic department to handle, not Snyder.

Simply promoting Sean to head coach without a thorough coaching search is insulting to all the donors and K-State employees who worked so hard to raise the nearly $200 million in renovations to the football stadium the past several years. Those renovations not only help K-State remain in a position to stay in a Power-5 conference long term, but also to attract a quality head coach when the time comes.

It’s my belief that Brent Venables is the best fit to take over for Snyder.  But Leavitt is a solid hire who has the capability to get rid of the stigma that someone other than Snyder can win at K-State. Because it can be done. K-State’s facilities are in great shape. The fan base cares. There are talented pieces on the roster.

All of that is because of Bill Snyder. Because of everything he has done, someone from outside the Snyder family can win at K-State. The time has come for Snyder to recognize this and stop trying to control who succeeds him.

Kansas State’s first of two opportunities to really turn its season around was as uninspiring as it could have been, a 26-6 loss to No. 6 TCU. Let’s take a look at where the Wildcats’ program is at, both on the field and off of it, as the 2017 campaign reaches a crossroads.

REASONS TO HOPE

1. Much better effort from the defense, especially the front seven.

A week ago, K-State got torched by a freshman quarterback. Yesterday, the Wildcats did a very nice job against a solid offense overall, and the best rushing offense in the Big 12. TCU totaled only 98 yards on the ground.

It was nice to see athleticism get the nod over experience (See: A.J. Parker), and the move paid off. We’ll see if the step forward can carry into next week against an even better offense.

2. The drop rate from receivers is finally falling.

Receivers dropping passes seems like a problem from centuries ago at this point. The current status of the quarterback position and the continued struggles in the run game have both taken center stage instead. But it’s worth noting that K-State has gotten better at holding onto the ball in the last couple weeks.

Isaiah Zuber had a nice game against the Horned Frogs. Byron Pringle, the most criticized wide-out, made a couple good grabs as well. The Wildcats’ backup quarterbacks need all the help they can get.

3. The pressure is (mostly) off for K-State’s players, even if it’s growing for the coaches.

This one cuts both ways. K-State is not winning the Big 12. K-State is not going to a major bowl game. Those goals are out the window, plain and simple. The bright side is this  — The Wildcats remain a very young team with a lot of potential for the future.

The vast majority of K-State’s two-deep is expected to return next season. If nothing else, maybe the next couple months will help build toward a strong 2018. That’s not what anyone wants to hear right now, because last season was supposed to build toward a strong 2017, but it’s still true.

REASONS TO MOPE

1. As long as Jesse Ertz is out, frustration with quarterback usage is going to be a “thing”.

Alex Delton looked solid against Texas last week, but he was unable to build on that performance against TCU. Bill Snyder placed a lot of the blame on himself for the offense’s struggles. In the end, though, Delton just looked like your average second-string quarterback, and not the potential superstar some thought he could be a couple years ago. Granted, it was his first start, and I’m not saying he can’t ever get there. He just has a lot way to go.

In other news, Snyder doesn’t seem close to giving Skylar Thompson a shot, based on his postgame press conference. Some fans don’t like that, and if Delton doesn’t improve, that noise will get louder.

2. The ground game has struggled long enough to wonder if K-State will ever find it this season.

It’s worth noting that TCU has the Big 12’s best rush defense. I want to make sure that statistic is mentioned. So, it wasn’t realistic to expect Alex Barnes, Justin Silmon or anyone else to have a career day against the Horned Frogs. But the overall confidence in K-State’s ground game reached a new low on Saturday.

Barnes and Silmon have combined for 404 yards after six games. That just won’t get it done. Is it them? The offensive line? Both? Regardless of the answer, it’s officially a problem.

3. Less excitement about the present leads to more uncertainty about the future.

When K-State has been really good in the last 6-7 years, it’s been easy to completely ignore the “How long do we have with Bill?” and “What are we gonna do next?” questions. Fans have done what they should be doing – figuratively put their fingers in their ears and enjoyed the moment.

The “moment” right now is a frustrating 3-3 start. That makes it harder to ignore those big-picture thoughts. If the Wildcats can’t turn things around, prepare for those whispers to become shouts by the time the season ends.

It looked like Kansas State was headed for a blowout in Saturday’s Big 12 opener against Baylor, but a lackluster second half left Wildcat fans mixed on the victory as a whole. Let’s break down both sides.

REASONS TO HOPE

1. The D-Line has improved a lot from Week 1.

A well-deserved tip of the cap to K-State’s defensive tackles and defensive ends in this game, particularly Will Geary and Tanner Wood. A couple weeks ago, pass rush was a concern for this team, but getting 3 sacks and making Baylor quarterback Zach Smith’s life difficult showed big strides have been made.

If Reggie Walker can get going, the Wildcat defense will truly cement itself as one of the Big 12’s best.

2. Matt McCrane didn’t let the Vanderbilt miss get to him.

There’s no better way to put a costly miss behind you as a kicker than going 4-for-4 your next time out. McCrane was critical to K-State holding on down the stretch Saturday. As long as the offense is sputtering, he’s going to be even more important than usual, and he looks up to the task.

3. The defense passed its first test against a competent spread offense.

Holding Vanderbilt to 14 points is one thing. Limiting Baylor, who torched Oklahoma a week ago, to 20 points is even better. Yes, there were a couple broken plays in the second half, but I thought a big factor in those was not having starting nickel back Cre Moore on the field.

Tougher tests lie ahead, but the early returns on Tom Hayes’ group are good.

REASONS TO MOPE

1. The drops haven’t stopped.

Many hoped a week off would benefit K-State’s receivers, who had too many dropped passes in the loss to Vanderbilt. Unfortunately, the issue only grew Saturday, with at least a score or two being wiped out as a result. This is officially something to feel nervous about.

What makes it more frustrating is that Byron Pringle and the rest of the group have been very good at running routes and creating separation from their defenders. They need to do a better job of cashing in on it.

2. Still no mojo for the running backs.

While Alex Barnes and Justin Silmon have shown their capability to break out big runs of 20+ yards, the frequency with which they’re held to short gains is a little troubling. Against Baylor, 50 percent of rush attempts by K-State running backs went for 3 yards or fewer.

To put it another way: There is going to be trouble if Jesse Ertz is asked to be the Wildcats’ leading rusher in every game this season.

3. The Big 12’s middle tier is better than expected.

Matchups with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were enough for K-State to worry about, but the Big 12’s depth this season may be an even bigger issue. TCU, West Virginia and Texas Tech all look better than predicted. The Wildcats may even be an underdog next week at Texas.

Getting through the league season with fewer than 2 or 3 losses isn’t impossible, but it’s going to require K-State to improve a lot from what we’ve seen thus far.

Kansas State’s offense looked stunningly impotent in Saturday’s 14-7 loss at Vanderbilt. While there were certainly negatives to dwell on, it wasn’t a completely hapless performance. Let’s dig into it.

REASONS TO HOPE

1. The defense had its best performance of the season.

It wasn’t flawless, but holding any Power 5 opponent to 271 total yards and just 11 first downs is an admirable effort. The Wildcat defensive line finally got some pressure on an opposing quarterback for the first time this season.

Oh yeah, and the defense also scored a touchdown. Kendall Adams’ scoop-and-score in the second quarter was reversed after a review, but there were no angles that showed Vandy quarterback Kyle Shurmer down by contact.

2. Justin Silmon is alive and well.

While most K-State fans were only excited about Alex Barnes’ sophomore campaign, Silmon had to wait a couple games to make his debut. He looked great against the Commodores, albeit in very limited action.

K-State needs both of them to be at their best in order to sustain a ground game in Big 12 play. Silmon appears ready for it.

3. Vanderbilt’s defense is better than most Big 12 defenses.

The Commodores’ reputation as an SEC bottom-feeder led to some dismissiveness from K-State fans about their capability. Vanderbilt is a solid team, and will be headed for a bowl game. The SEC East is not very good and Vanderbilt may have a chance to contend for a spot in the conference title game.

Vandy’s overall style is very different to what K-State will face in the Big 12, on both sides of the ball. Not necessarily better or worse — just different. K-State has two weeks to work on things, and I believe Bill Snyder will find some buttons to push.

REASONS TO MOPE

1. K-State’s receivers came crashing back down to earth.

After an offseason full of hype, the Wildcat receiving corps had two excellent games to start the season. But Saturday night was a different story. Byron Pringle had multiple drops at costly moments, Isaiah Harris had a couple as well, and there just wasn’t the consistent separation from cornerbacks that K-State will need moving forward.

There’s no reason to panic about this yet, but in the first test of the season, the Wildcat wideouts struggled.

2. Sophomore Alex Barnes just doesn’t look like freshman Alex Barnes.

It’s early, and the offensive line has contributed to the problem at times, but Barnes certainly isn’t the “automatic 7-yard gain” that he was a year ago. I believe this will be one of K-State’s biggest priorities during the bye week. Barnes is too talented to go all season averaging less than 5 yards per carry.

3. Barring a fairytale-ish run, K-State isn’t going to contend for a national title.

It was a long-shot from the beginning, but there was some buzz about K-State being a dark horse for the College Football Playoff. Those hopes are virtually extinguished, and the Wildcats one and only focus at this point should be getting to the Big 12 Championship Game.

That objective, by the way, is still very much within reach. A new season starts next week for every team in the Big 12.

It was a rather easy and workmanlike blowout victory for No. 19 Kansas State against Charlotte this weekend. Here are some positive and negative takeaways. For a full recap of the game and a video wrap-up from our crew, click here.

REASONS TO HOPE

1. K-State’s running game is back.

Even though it came against a lesser opponent, there was a lot to like with how the Wildcats ran the ball Saturday. They totaled 304 yards on the ground, led by Alex Barnes’ 99. What I liked was that K-State managed to average six yards per carry without the benefit of a “huge” run — Jesse Ertz’ 35-yard touchdown was the longest of the day.

Justin Silmon is expected to make his season debut next week, which will add another dimension to an already deep group.

2. The secondary may have more depth than we thought.

Duke Shelley did not play against Charlotte (more on that later), but his replacement, AJ Parker, did a very nice job filling in for him. In the Big 12, you can never have too much depth at cornerback.

Also, backup safety Eli Walker looked like the real deal. He played in the 4th quarter for a second straight game, and delivered some of the big hits that Bill Snyder told us he likes to make.

3. So far, Jesse Ertz has done exactly what great quarterbacks do.

As pointed out by our friend D. Scott Fritchen, the only two quarterbacks in K-State history that have led their team to 50 points in the first two games of the season were Michael Bishop and Collin Klein. You can now add Ertz to that list.

He’s been composed, accurate, and — maybe most importantly — healthy. He also didn’t seem to miss his No. 1 receiver on Saturday, Byron Pringle.

REASONS TO MOPE

1. K-State simply hasn’t been put to the test yet.

Central Arkansas was a solid FCS team that could give a couple Big 12 squads some trouble. Charlotte, however, was simply bad. So far, all we know for sure is that K-State might be good. The Wildcats’ first real opportunity to prove it comes next week. K-State is favored by 3.5 points over SEC foe Vanderbilt.

2. Whether injuries or suspensions, the team’s arsenal isn’t at full power.

The following players have missed at least one of K-State’s two games this season: Justin Silmon, Dominique Heath, Alex Delton, Byron Pringle, and Duke Shelley. We haven’t received much concrete information as to why they’ve been out, but no matter the reason, it’s not ideal.

Additionally, Dalton Risner was injured in the first quarter Saturday and did not return. His status moving forward is also unknown.

Kansas State opened its season with a blowout win that featured plenty of things to feel good about, while still leaving fans nervous about a couple other aspects. Here’s a breakdown of both sides. To read about the game and watch the Powercat Gameday crew’s video wrap-up, click here.

REASONS TO HOPE

1. The reports of Jesse Ertz’s deep ball appear to be true.

Bill Snyder praised his quarterback during the summer, saying he was throwing the ball better than he’d ever seen Ertz throw it. The senior delivered on the hype Saturday night, passing for a career-high 333 yards and four touchdowns on just ten completions. The performance set a new school record for passing efficiency in a game.

Ertz didn’t put every throw on the money, but he clearly has very good chemistry with his athletic receivers. That bodes well for K-State’s chances to be a dynamic offense.

2. Isaiah Harris looks like the real deal.

Perhaps this one could be filed under “1B” along with Ertz, but I’ll give Harris his own listing. The kid can simply fly, as shown by his three catches for 118 yards last night.

Harris was praised throughout the offseason, and at K-State media day a few weeks ago, many players told us that fans should be on the lookout for him.

3. K-State is still ‘Special Teams U’.

What a debut for the Wildcats’ premiere units. D.J. Reed and Byron Pringle looked unstoppable on kick and punt returns. Big 12 coaches are very frustrated by how hard it is to beat K-State on special teams, and it looks like that will be the case again this season.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t surprise me if almost every punt against K-State went out of bounds from now on, and every kickoff pooched up to the 35 yard line.

REASONS TO MOPE

1. The Wildcats’ new linebackers have a long way to go.

I mentioned this a lot last week, but UCA is not a bad team. Their offense was by far the most experienced unit on the field for either team last night. That said, K-State should have done a better job stopping the Bears’ offense, and the Wildcats struggled in the second level of their defense, giving up 4.1 yards per carry.

Bill Snyder joked that his team would practice defending the option at midnight. To me, the biggest issues appeared to be over-pursuit from some players, and lackluster speed from others. We’ll have to see if these things can be fixed before the schedule picks up.

2. The running game left something to be desired.

How many people expected Skylar Thompson to be K-State’s leading rusher last night? That’s what happened, as Thompson finished with 49 yards.

The holes weren’t big enough on the offensive line, and both Alex Barnes and Jesse Ertz just weren’t quite what we saw from them last season. I wouldn’t call this an alarming issue yet, but it’s something to monitor.

3. A few notable players were nowhere to be found last night.

Running back Justin Silmon, receiver Dominique Heath and quarterback Alex Delton didn’t play against UCA. After the game, Snyder was asked about Silmon in particular, and said he is likely to miss two games. Nothing is official regarding if the absences were due to suspensions or injuries, but neither would be ideal.

K-State is finally the basketball team its fans wanted it to be. So, now what?

On Feb. 25, less than three weeks ago, Kansas State lost by 30 points to last-place Oklahoma. The defeat, which was the Wildcats’ eighth in their last ten games, appeared to be the final piece of evidence that change was coming for the program.

In the process, nearly all remaining supporters of head coach Bruce Weber finally concluded that his time had run its course. Overwhelmingly, according to polls on social media, K-State fans were ready for the next chapter.

And here we are. Just 18 days later, K-State is not only in the NCAA Tournament, but has a win under its belt already, and has a realistic chance of advancing again.

Over its last five games, K-State is 4-1, with three of those wins coming against solid teams. And the loss, a 51-50 setback to No. 11 West Virginia in the Big 12 semifinals, was not exactly disheartening.

It’s not the results alone, however, that have many people rethinking their position on K-State’s leadership moving forward. It’s the way the Wildcats have won.

Player development is visible, at long last. Isaiah Maurice has emerged as a decent post option off the bench. Xavier Sneed is improving on the defensive end.

More importantly, the Wildcats are showing a toughness rarely seen in Manhattan since the last of Frank Martin’s players left. Instead of playing the role of the victim, K-State finds anger and energy when things don’t go their way.

Let’s be clear: It is more than fair to wonder where this K-State team has been, both earlier this season and over the last couple years. Criticism for that is justified. And if the recent trends don’t continue, Weber will be right back where he was a few weeks ago very quickly.

But as far as next season is concerned, it appears Weber will get another shot, no matter when or where this season ends.

That opportunity will come with a caveat, however.

The leash will be short. Patience will be thin. There will be no tolerance for a “rebuilding year” as Wesley Iwundu, D.J. Johnson and Carlbe Ervin depart, and K-State has big holes to fill if the Wildcats are going to be better next year.

Weber’s final chance will not just be the result of his team’s recent play, but also K-State’s fluid athletic director situation and a rather underwhelming cast of legitimate coaching candidates.

K-State is finally the basketball team its fans wanted it to be all along. As the clock struck midnight, Weber found a way to change to status quo.

When and if it changes back, the outcome will probably be different.

For the first time in five years, Kansas State basketball fans appear to be in sync.

Bruce Weber, so far as anyone can tell right now, is not going to return the Wildcats to national prominence.

Reaching that conclusion took longer for some fans than others. But this isn’t about finger-pointing or I-told-you-so’s. For my part, I was entrenched in the “Wait and See” camp longer than I should have been, and I’ll come back to that later.

When K-State lost to Oklahoma State Wednesday night, sentencing the Wildcats to a losing record in Big 12 home games for a second straight season, the K-State fan base seemed to be, in a backwards way, more united than it’s been in a long time.

Change appears to be on the horizon. And those calling for it are no longer a minority, nor are they doing so without credible ammunition.

As this unification happened — over a months-long period of time, not just Wednesday night — I did notice much of the negative energy from K-State fans was directed toward the wrong place.

After a lengthy locker room conversation with his team, Weber emerged from the tunnel at Bramlage Coliseum to a few boos from fans still in the arena. It was the second straight game in which this has happened; the first being after K-State defeated Texas in Austin last weekend. On social media, Weber’s Twitter mentions were aflame.

The jeers and the tweets and the comments written on Aggieville bathroom walls are disrespectful, but no one really cares about that. More significantly, the jeers are misdirected, and that’s what this is about.

Bruce Weber is a first-class citizen and father. He is heavily involved in the fight against cancer; he donated $12,500 to Coaches vs. Cancer just three years ago, a charity for which he is a regular advocate.

As the negativity around him increased in recent months, he never lashed out at any critics, even though some of them have been firmly against him since the day he was hired in March 2012.

Heck, his response to a fan standing and booing just five feet from him in Austin, a fan wearing a “Fire Bruce” t-shirt, was to give the guy a high-five.

Weber may take this program to the next level. But he deserves better than the vitriol he’s taking right now.

That negativity should be directed toward the people who decide what happens next.

Weber was hired to coach basketball. He doesn’t sit in his office ten hours per day wondering how he can make his product worse. His work ethic is exceptional; he is just not the right man to lead the program anymore, so it appears.

At the end of the day, Weber delivered a Big 12 championship and at least two seasons of solid basketball. That’s probably more than some K-State fans deserved after the way his hiring was received. He’s coached every day with a smile on his face and will continue to do so for as long as he is asked to.

*****

When Frank Martin left K-State for a lesser program at South Carolina, the Wildcat fan base was split in two. Those two sides have been tectonic plates ever since, crashing into each other after every game, no matter the result.

On one side sit the loyalists who support K-State in every possible way, to an almost blinding degree. They thought Martin left as a traitor and crybaby, and jumped aboard with Weber immediately.

The other side, just as committed to its cause, believe K-State sports changed forever when Martin left, thinking that the university was more committed to its perception and reputation than results on the court or field.

Both sides are right. And both sides are wrong. But, again, that’s not what this is about.

The dozens, maybe even hundreds of “earthquakes” that have occurred since then did more than hurt K-State as a whole. It slowly chipped away at each side’s respect for the other.

This is relevant to Weber’s situation because of the timeline that 2012’s divide set in motion. As fans bickered, the actual product K-State put on the floor mattered less and less. There are now plenty of fans who don’t mind seeing the Wildcats lose, in hopes that it will force change. And on the other side, there are fans who don’t believe Weber is the right man for the job, but are supporting him out of spite toward their adversaries.

All of this has become rather childish, and yes, I’ll admit I’m throwing a stone from a glass house. But it’s become clear that fan unity is a key ingredient in fixing what’s been broken.

Through the Wildcats’ recent failures, it seems some unity is finally occurring, albeit in painfully frustrating fashion.

That unity just needs to be steered in a slightly different direction, with Weber no longer in the line of fire.

K-State concludes the 2016 season in the Texas Bowl. The Cats face off against the Aggies of Texas A&M in Houston on Wednesday the 28th at 8:00 p.m.

Come join the @PowercatGameday crew before the game at @3rdFloorHouston for the live broadcast of the biggest pregame show in the Big 12 starting at 4 p.m. If you aren’t making the trip, make sure to tune into the show on KMAN or stream the show live.

Offensive Player of the Year:

John: QB Jesse Ertz

It’s a tough call for me here between the offensive line and Ertz, but let’s give the signal caller some love. I know there were plenty of Ertz doubters early in the season, but he has been very steadily mentally and physically all year and helped mold the identity of the offense. He’s only 55 yards away from a 1,000 yard rushing season and his 5.94 yards per carry this season is fourth all-time in K-State history for someone at any position. The biggest thing that sticks in my mind is how much of a dip the offense took when he was out of the game. The Oklahoma and Kansas games come to mind immediately in that department. To me, those made it clear just how much he means to the offense.

Cole: The entire offensive line

I’m cheating here because I’m not naming a single player but rather an entire position group. The Wildcats’ offensive line had arguably the biggest question marks coming into the 2016 season, and they answered the challenge, helping pave the way for the highest yards-per-carry average by a K-State rushing attack in school history. If I had to pick a single player from the line, which is difficult to do, I’d say Dalton Risner, who made the switch from center to right tackle and has been terrific on the edge.

Stanton: QB Jesse Ertz

After seeing what the offense looked like last year without Ertz, it’s clear that he’s as much of a key to making this offense go as any. Battling through multiple injuries throughout the season, he never missed a start and steadily improved every week. He has a chance finish the year with over 1,000 on the ground and, with a victory, complete the season winning 6 of the last 7 and 9 wins overall.

Defensive Player of the Year:

Unanimous: DE Jordan Willis

Willis emerged this season as a dominant force in the Big 12, nabbing conference Defensive Player of the Year honors. The senior has been one of the best defensive ends in college football this season. Not only has he tied the school record for sacks in a single season with 11.5, he has also been terrific against the run. Willis has 26.0 career sacks, landing him 3rd on the All-Time K-State record list. He needs 2.0 sacks to pass Nyle Wiren in 2nd place and 4.0 to take sole possession of 1st over Darren Howard.

Special Teams Player of the Year:

John: WR Byron Pringle, WR Dominique Heath, and CB DJ Reed

I’m sort of cheating here by including all the return men, but I didn’t feel like it was fair to separate them all out. Both Heath and Pringle each had return TDs during the season. Pringle wound up leading the Big 12 in kickoff return yardage, but got passed up by DJ Reed late in the year. Reed had one of the biggest returns of the season himself with the 76-yarder against Baylor when the Bears were making a late push. As usual, the Wildcats return unit was stellar no matter who was back there.

Cole: LB Trent Tanking

I thought I was going off the grid here by picking Tanking, but Stanton also had the same thought. This award typically goes to a returner or place kicker, but Tanking has been tremendous in special teams coverage. I love to watch the former walk on run down the field on the kickoff team, as he typically decleats one of the guys trying to block him.

Stanton: LB Trent Tanking and LB Colborn Couchman

Tanking leads the team in special teams tackles and is a strong contributor on the return units. He has been punishing opposing returners all season long. Colborn Couchman has quietly put together another excellent year on all the special team’s units. He and Tanking have been anchors for K-State’s top ranked special teams units throughout their careers.

Assistant Coach of the Year:

Unanimous: Charlie Dickey

Dickey has taken an offensive line that had a combined total of less than 20 starts and turned them into a dominant force. One of the biggest question marks in the off season was turned into one of K-State’s most significant strengths. Dickey once again took an inexperienced unit and developed them rapidly. With much of the line returning next year, the future is bright for this group.

Most Improved Offensive:

John: WR Dominique Heath

Heath quietly led the Wildcats in receptions this year with 41 and was a valuable asset when the offense started to change due in part to Jesse Ertz’s shoulder issues. Midway through the season we saw a lot more short, down the line passes and most of those seemed to go to Heath. He’s on his way to becoming a Tramaine Thompson clone (which is a very good thing).

Cole: OG Terrale Johnson

Johnson has been a road grader at right guard for K-State’s offensive line. He has turned himself into an NFL prospect, in my opinion.

Stanton: WR Dominique Heath

Heath made strides this year in his understanding and knowledge of opposing defenses. This was most apparent in his comfort level when catching bubble screens with his back turned to the defense. Throughout the year he displayed an ability to run to where defenders were not in situations where he had little to no time to read the field after he caught the ball. This ability comes from a maturity of knowing where the defenders will be through film study and pre snap scans of the field. This year we saw a young player improve his game mentally, resulting in increased production.

Most Improved Defensive:

John: LB Elijah Lee

There are a lot of options here, but let’s make sure Lee gets his due. You could easily tell Lee was going to be a stud from the moment he stepped on the field in 2014, but he really put it all together this year. Lee was a consensus 1st Team All-Big 12 pick and even got a vote for defensive player of the year from one of the coaches. Barring injury, he’ll hit the 100 tackle mark in the Texas A&M game. He’s an ideal linebacker to be able to handle the spread offenses that K-State sees week in and week out in the Big 12.

Cole: DE Jordan Willis

This probably sounds strange considering Willis had nine sacks last season and was solid. But he has taken his game to another level this season in both defending the run and pressing the quarterback.

Stanton: S Kendall Adams

A young player who K-State knew they would need to rely on this year has solidified himself opposite Dante Barnett. He has made large strides from last season and has a bright future ahead of him.

Newcomer of the Year:

Unanimous: CB D.J. Reed

So many options to choose from here as D.J. Reed, Reggie Walker, Alex Barnes and Scott Frantz are all viable choices. But Reed has been a great, late find on the recruiting trail. The sophomore has terrific ball skills and has really solidified the spot opposite Duke Shelley at corner. Reed saw a lot of passes thrown his way as the lesser known of the two commodities K-State had at cornerback this season. He wound up leading the league in passes defended (18) and helped the Wildcats triple their interception total as a team from a year ago by snagging three of his own. Not only that, but he showed how physical he can be in stopping the run. It might surprise you to find out that he was third on the team in tackles with 66. With more of the spotlight initially on Cal transfer Cedric Dozier this offseason, Reed wound up being a steal for the Wildcats in the recruiting process. Reed has the potential to be a lockdown corner over the next two seasons.

Breakout Player of the Year:

Unanimous: RB Alex Barnes

The freshman rushed for back-to-back 100-yard games late in the season, the first running back to do so since John Hubert in 2013. Barnes has the potential to be do some very special things if he continues to progress over the next couple of years. His ceiling is very high.

Unsung Hero:

John: RB Charles Jones

I’ve got to give Jones some credit for his attitude during the running back carousel that was 2016. He’s a senior who was a starter two years ago on a nine win team, and he had to take a back seat at times to a freshman and sophomore depending on who had the hot hand. When K-State turned to Jones, he was still pretty effective. He ended up with 577 rushing yards on 110 carries, an average of 5.2 yards per rush. Jones has also consistently been the most reliable back in passing situations because of his hands and pass blocking ability. I know we all wanted to see more Alex Barnes, but Jones played his role very well throughout the year.

Cole: TE Dayton Valentine

Going off the grid here a bit. Valentine is essentially an offensive lineman playing as a tight end in K-State’s offense. The sophomore has only caught a couple passes in his young career, but he has been a very good blocker for the Wildcats.

Stanton: S Dante Barnett

Barnett returned from a season ending injury in the first game of 2015 to lead the K-State defense. While he has flown under the radar, due to modest individual statistics, his impact on this year’s defense has been invaluable. Barnett’s experience and leadership permeated through the entirety of the defense and improved everyone’s play around him. Dante deserves more credit than he has been getting for the success of the defense this year.

Welcome to another installation of the Powercat Gameday panel, where we answer your questions about K-State football. The regular season finale sends K-State to Fort Worth, TX to face the TCU Horn Frogs. As always, Powercat Gameday will be on the road broadcasting live at the place to be for K-State fans making the road trip.

This week, Powercat Gameday and the K-State Alumni Association will be hosting a Wildcat Welcome Party on Friday night before the game. Frankie’s Sports Bar will be hosting the party from 4-10 PM for all K-State fans making the trip down to Fort Worth. There will be a live broadcast of KMAN’s daily sports talk show, The Game, starting at 4 PM, we would love to see you there.

With another early kick, we’re throwing a purple party on Friday night in DFW at @frankiesdfw with the @KStateAlumni. #kstate pic.twitter.com/jw0YRApCBW

— Powercat Gameday (@PowercatGameday) November 28, 2016

Saturday morning you can join the crew again at Frankies for Powercat Gameday, where we will be on the air bright and early starting at 7 AM. If you can’t make it down for the game, you can tune to Powercat Gameday on KMAN to get you ready for what should be another exciting K-State football matchup.

Thanks as always to everyone who submitted a question to this week’s Powercat Gameday Panel. To submit a question tweet us at @PowercatGameday or to any of the panelists: @jlkurtz, @Cole_Manbeck, or @StantonWeber.

Cole Manbeck is out this week due to his wife delivering a baby, let’s all wish him luck on being a first time Dad. With that being said, let’s get to it:

@PowercatGameday at 7-4 are you surprised they have 7 wins so far? Or are they where you expected them to be through 11 games?

— Marcus (@KSU_LYNCH_MOB) November 28, 2016

John: I certainly wouldn’t say I’m surprised. At the beginning of the year we did a segment on our daily show on KMAN with 7.5 wins being the over/under and I was wrestling with which way to go. Now the final game of the regular season will determine one way or the other which side of the fence was the correct one in that regard. The vegas over/under was 5.5 wins, so I’m sure a lot of people from a national perspective are somewhat surprised. Not those of us who are used to Bill Snyder surpassing expectations, though.

Another factor here is how much differently the season has turned out for Baylor and TCU. At the beginning of the year, those games looked like almost certain losses. We now know that Baylor has imploded and TCU is probably the most erratic team in the conference.

In the end, if K-State gets to 8-4 they will have beaten every team below them in the conference standings and lost to every team above them. It’s remarkably similar to what the 2013 team was able to do when they finished 8-5.

Stanton: Before the season, I predicted K-State would get 7 wins in the regular season so I guess you could say they are on track with what I expected. After seeing how the first 11 games played out, 7 wins could have very easily been 9 and as disappointing as that is, I am encouraged by what I’ve seen in the development of this young team. K-State still has a chance to finish the season with 9 wins if they win the bowl game, a number in which I said was “optimistic” before the season began. The fact that 9 wins was realistic makes me feel very good about this team’s development and what’s to come from many who are returning next year.

@PowercatGameday Who is the most surprising newcomer in 2016?

— Mitch Fortner (@MitchTheFort) November 28, 2016

Stanton: There are a handful of good candidates for this one: Alex Barnes, DJ Reed, Tre Dishon, Byron Pringle, Abdul Beecham and more. I will give it to Alex Barnes. He started the year behind three running backs who each had experience in the program. The fact that he emerged from under the radar to become K-State’s best offensive weapon certainly qualifies as “surprising.”

John: I’d take one on each side of the ball and go with Alex Barnes and DJ Reed.

Barnes has already shown that he is probably the most talented skill position player that K-State has on offense. I’ll admit that I was slower onto the Barnes bandwagon than most going into the season. I knew that there was plenty of chatter about his ability, but I just didn’t expect that much from a redshirt freshman who was going to have to fight his way past three veterans in front of him at running back (insert joke about his lack of carries here).

It became pretty clear in fall camp that DJ Reed was likely going to be the starting corner opposite Duke Shelley. Much like Barnes though, I didn’t expect him to have quite the impact that he has. He’s been a huge part of a secondary that has helped the defense nearly triple their interception total from last season. Reed has three of the Wildcats 14 interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, and leads the team (by far) in pass break ups with 15. Not only that, but he’s physical enough to be a big factor in stopping the run and short passing game of spread offenses in the Big 12. He’s actually tied for third on the team in tackles with 58.

@PowercatGameday total hypothetical but let’s assume this is Snyder’s last regular season game. Name three candidates and who would u hire?

— Jacob Yingst (@JacobYingst11) December 1, 2016

Stanton: I hope Coach Snyder coaches for as long as he lives. A couple weeks ago on Powercat Gameday when we discussed this topic, I predicted he had at least 5 years left at the helm. That being said, to entertain your hypothetical situation, I think it’s disrespectful not to start the list internally. There are a handful of guys who could do a nice job: Sean Snyder, Dana Dimel, and Tom Hayes would all be candidates.

An internal guy who may not be getting much attention but I think will be a great coordinator and potentially head coach someday is Andre Coleman. He gets a lot of well deserved credit for his ability to recruit but he brings so much more to the table. Coach Coleman is a high energy guy who has a great football IQ and puts a strong emphasis on doing the little things the right way (next time you watch a K-State game pay attention to what the receivers are doing on run plays, they are tough blockers). He will do great things in the future and is an asset to this K-State staff.

Next you have to look at the obvious, there is a short list of great assistant coaches in college football who either played or coached under Coach Snyder. The list includes Broyles Award finalists Brent Venables and Jim Leavitt.

I will throw this in there too, Collin Klein is going to be a great head coach someday and I sure hope it’s at K-State. He is currently the quarterbacks coach at Northern Iowa but I hope whoever is the head coach at K-State next year or in the future, they find a way to get Collin Klein on their staff.

If I had to choose a coach this January I would like to see Brent Venables get a chance in Manhattan. Having a home grown, Snyder guy, will increase the chances that the core values, that Coach Snyder has made the foundation for the success of the football team and university, will continue to be instilled in the players. Again, I hope Coach Snyder sticks around forever but Brent Venables would be my first alternative if I was forced to choose.

John: The top of my list is Mike Leach. I’d love to see K-State take a shot at him. I’m not sure it’s the most realistic choice given John Currie’s track record of coaches hired, but I think he could absolutely get it done here. He’s had lots of success with programs in Lubbock, Texas and Pullman, Washington, both similar places to Manhattan, Kansas and schools that aren’t traditional powers by any means. He won at least seven games in all ten of his seasons in Lubbock and has now put together back-to-back eight win seasons with Wazzu.

His style is also the exact opposite of Bill Snyder, and I think in some ways that’s a good thing. It’s not a knock on Snyder at all, we all know the miracles he’s worked with his coaching philosophy, but I think the fan base could use some excitement in the form of a spread offense and a coach that attracts attention with his colorful personality.

Would he view a move from Washington State to K-State a lateral move? Possibly…but the selling point here is a chance for him to stick it to Texas Tech after the messy divorce that they had.

Outside of that, if somehow P.J. Fleck is still at Western Michigan I think that would make some sense if K-State could convince him that this is the place for him (again I’m not sure how realistic of a name this is with his stock continuing to rise). I’d also be fine exploring the line of guys from the Snyder coaching tree (Leavitt/Venables).

@PowercatGameday with all of the rules on college athletes, how is it okay for coaches to leave schools/recruits so abruptly without penalty

— Korby Anderson (@k_andyson) November 28, 2016

John: I’m definitely not a fan of the stark contrast in rules when it comes to coaches and student athletes. I’ve always been on board with getting the athletes paid, letting them transfer without restriction, etc in theory. However, I do realize that they’re really complicated issues seemingly without perfect solutions.

We already have a transfer epidemic in college sports (especially college hoops). If you gave athletes free reign to transfer without any kind of penalty all the time, it’s pretty obvious that it would get way more out of hand.

Stanton: The NCAA puts a lot of time into delicately selecting rules to regulate just about every aspect of the college football player’s experience. These rules are very detailed, and the regulation starts during recruitment. ‘Liking’ a recruit’s tweet is acceptable, but a ‘quote retweet’? Violation! Once the players on campus, the rules amp up. My first two years as a player there were some rules about food that were just laughable. The weight staff was permitted to provide us with bagels, but if they provided crème cheese? Violation! What calculated study by the NCAA came up with that one?

“According to our 3-year investigative study, if we permit the schools to provide the student athletes with crème cheese it will create an unfair advantage to schools who can afford to provide both plain and strawberry flavors compared to the schools who can only afford plain.” (Sarcasm)

What!?

If your teammate needed some money to pay the rent because he had to send his scholarship check home to his family, could you help him out? Nope, that’s a violation too.
My point is, there are many rules to regulate the players but I think the NCAA is failing them in one big way. The NCAA’s mission is to “integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount.” The head coach of a football team probably has the most direct influence on a student-athlete’s experience. So it shocks me that the NCAA doesn’t offer protection to student athletes when the unfortunate event of a coaching change occurs.

I get it, the mission statement is a bit of a façade, college football is about winning and the astounding amount of money and excitement that a winning football team produces for a university (If it isn’t than explain to me how Charlie Strong was fired after three years ­for doing everything right but winning). But, the original premise of college athletics had nothing to do with money, or TV contracts, or multi-million dollar facilities. It started as student run groups that could loosely be considered organizations and grew into university sponsored teams that gave prospective students an opportunity to get an education.

Then money got involved.

The SEC said “pay the players,” the Big 10 said “maintain academic standards,” and the Ivy League stuck their nose up and said “we’re too good for you low lives,” and proceeded to dramatically exit, slamming their ivory gate behind them. Thus, the NCAA was formed to regulate, fast forward a handful of decades, and here we are. Players receive about what they did back then and the coach’s salaries have inflated dramatically.

The coaching market is the Wild West and even if the NCAA implemented a penalty on coaches for leaving, the school that was hiring them would just pay the penalty, it would be ineffective. My issue with all of this is where it leaves the student-athlete. Many players have to choose between staying at a school that they chose based on a coach who is on their way out, or, losing a year of eligibility for transferring. The student athlete experience is being compromised at no fault of their own and they have no good option. The answer to this is not necessarily penalizing coaches but taking steps to protect the student-athletes. What those steps are is above my pay grade but I think discussions should happen.

@PowercatGameday does the B1G Champ, Ohio St., or both get in to the playoff?

— Nathan Enserro (@nenserro) December 1, 2016

Stanton: In my opinion, Ohio State is in. They are one of the best four teams in college football and, despite a road loss to Penn State (where the Nittany Lions caught a few lucky breaks), they check many of the boxes: elite coach, blue blood program, big time win in their last game of the season. They hold the #2 spot in the College Football Playoff rankings and have for three straight weeks, I don’t see how they could be uprooted from the top 4 by anyone below them.

A second Big 10 team making the playoff is a better discussion. With Clemson at #3 and Washington at #4 both playing in their respective conference championship games, I would have to assume that if they both win decisively they are in. However, if one of them falls, a team outside of the current top 4 will be in the playoff. If you asked me to pick the next best team out of the bubble teams I would have to say it’s Michigan. They beat Colorado early in the year essentially blocking the Buffalos if they beat Washington in the Pac-12 Championship and they just took Ohio State to the wire on the road in their last game. I think they are head and shoulders above both Wisconsin and Penn State which is discouraging because the Big 10 champion would be deserving to go, except for the fact that they are the third best team in their conference (!!).

This all just reinforces the argument that the CFP should expand to 8 teams, give the 5 major conference champions an automatic bid, and let both the most deserving and best teams into the playoff.

John: Right now, I don’t really expect much chaos on championship weekend. That means you’re most likely looking at just Ohio State. Alabama and Ohio State seem like virtual locks at this point, and if Washington and Clemson hold serve I don’t see any way somebody jumps them.

Having said that, if there’s one thing we know about the committee it’s that they love them some Big Ten. It sure seems like Barry Alvarez has more influence than anybody in that room…which is ridiculous.

Welcome to another installation of the Powercat Gameday Panel, where the hosts of Powercat Gameday answer your K-State and College Football questions every week. The Sunflower Showdown heads back to Manhattan this Saturday for another 11 AM kickoff.

Kansas State and Kansas meet for the 114th time as Bill Snyder goes for a historic 200th career win. Gear up for the in-state rivalry by tuning your radio to KMAN bright and early as Powercat Gameday will be broadcasting live in Cat Town starting at 7 AM.

Thanks as always to everyone who submitted a question to this week’s Powercat Gameday Panel. To submit a question tweet us at @PowercatGameday or to any of the panelists: @jlkurtz, @Cole_Manbeck, or @StantonWeber.

Here we go:

@PowercatGameday was last week’s defensive performance the best effort we’ve seen out of K-State during Big 12 play?

— Jeff Burkhart (@jeff_burkhart) November 23, 2016

John: It’s definitely in consideration. Holding West Virginia to 17 points on the road might be more impressive though all things considered. The Mountaineers weren’t down their first string quarterback like Baylor was. The Bears also seemed like they had already started to throw in the towel on the season. There wasn’t a whole lot of energy in McLane Stadium.

Having said that, it was still a very impressive performance in Waco. The biggest difference between the K-State defense from last year and the K-State defense this year is their ability to force turnovers. That was on display against the Bears as the Wildcats got three interceptions and recovered a fumble. They also wreaked havoc with their pass rush and wound up with seven TFLs and four sacks. The point total allowed could have been even lower had it not been for two K-State turnovers in the first half.

Cole: I think so. We know Baylor was without Seth Russell at quarterback, and that certainly made the Bears easier to defend. Taking that into account, I’d still rank it as the defense’s best effort in conference play and here’s why:

– The Wildcats held Baylor to a season-low 368 yards of total offense. The Bears had at least 400 yards of offense in every game this season entering last Saturday.
– Baylor rushed for a season-low 110 yards against K-State. The Bears had rushed for 200 yards or more in seven of their previous nine games on the season. K-State held Baylor to 3.3 yards per rush, the third-lowest yards-per-carry average over their last 23 games, dating back to the start of the 2015 season (K-State held Baylor to 3 yards per rush in 2015).
– The Bears averaged a season-worst 4.7 yards per play against K-State (technically TCU held Baylor to 4.7 yards a play so it’s a tie).
– K-State forced four Baylor turnovers. Baylor hadn’t turned the ball over more than three times in a game this season. In addition, the Bears’ three interceptions thrown were a season-high by the Baylor offense.

Numbers aside, K-State did a great job of limiting the big play, something that has been a staple of the Baylor offense over recent years and a weakness of the K-State defense this season. The Wildcats also generated a solid pass rush against a good offensive line.

K-State’s defense gave up 21 points, but two K-State turnovers on the Wildcats’ side of the field put the defense in a bad spot on two of Baylor’s touchdowns. So only 7 of Baylor’s points came from a long, sustained drive.

Stanton: The 21-point defensive performance against Baylor has a strong case to be considered the best outing of the year. The wildcats gave up only 110 yards rushing on 33 carries for 3.33 yards per carry. Through the air, Baylor gained 258 yards on 27 of 46 passing (58.7%, 5.61 yards per attempt). K-State sacked Baylor quarterback Zach Smith 4 times and turned the Bears over 4 times, 3 Interceptions and a key fumble at the Baylor 1-yard line. A contending game, for the best defensive performance, would be holding Texas to 21 points. D’Onta Foreman and the Longhorns rushed for only 122 yards on 38 carries for 3.21 yards per carry. Texas threw for 222 yards on 17 of 24 passing (70.1%, 9.25 yards per attempt). The Wildcats had 4 sacks on the day but no takeaways. At the point in the season where K-State needed it the most, the defense came through big.

The Texas game looks less impressive after how the rest of their season has transpired but the Longhorns averaged 38.7 points per game before facing K-State. I’ll also note that the Baylor game could have been worse if the Baylor receivers didn’t drop more than a handful of Zach Smith’s passes. If I had to choose, I would say the Baylor game was the defense’s best performance because of all the turnovers. It was a great win, and the defense deserves a lot of credit for their contribution to it.

@PowercatGameday is Alex Barnes the clear starter now at running back after last weeks performance?

— Andrew (@andrew_eilert31) November 21, 2016

Cole: He should be, and honestly I’ve thought he should have been the starting running back for a while. I don’t want to ignore the fact that Charles Jones has had a nice senior season, averaging more than 5.4 yards per carry. And Justin Silmon has been solid too. But Barnes is at another level.

Consider this: K-State running backs not named Barnes have 185 carries on the season. Of those 185 carries, 31 (17%) of them have gone for 0 yards or for a loss. Barnes has 46 carries this season. All 46 have gone for at least 1 yard or more. His physicality and vision are great. And he’s the type of player who can take some of the hits off your quarterback in short-yardage situations.

He’s also physical as a blocker. For the second straight week, he put an opposing defender on his back as a lead blocker on a running play. I think he should start going forward and get 15-20 carries a game at minimum.

Stanton: All the running backs have been producing this season but Alex Barnes has officially separated himself from the pack as the most talented runner on the team. While running the football is the most apparent aspect of a running back’s performance, there are other elements to the position (pass protection, audibles, run blocking) that have likely slowed down a transition from veteran Charles Jones to the Freshman, Alex Barnes. I have been impressed with Barnes’ blocking ability and it is far enough along in the season that he should be comfortable with the audibles and pass protection. If it was not senior day this weekend, I would predict that Barnes gets the start, but Charles Jones deserves the start as a senior who has had a solid career as a Wildcat.

John: If you take what Bill Snyder said earlier this week at his press conference as gospel, then Barnes is now the starter. Here’s the full quote:

“He’ll start kind of depending upon what we do,” Snyder said. “But we’ll still utilize our backs interchangeably.”

Whether he actually starts the game or not, he needs to be getting 15+ carries per game. It’s been clear for weeks now that he brings a lot more explosiveness to the table than the other backs. He was averaging 7.8 yards per carry before the Baylor game, but hadn’t gotten more than eight carries in a single game.

I’d make the argument that he’s the most talented skill position player that K-State has on offense. If there’s one thing the offense has been missing since Tyler Lockett left, it’s explosiveness…so there’s not really much of an excuse to keep Barnes off the field in that case. Snyder pointed out how well he’s been blocking earlier this week, and there’s no issue with attitude at all as Barnes comes across as one of the most humble guys on the team. It’s hard to find the reason as to why it took so long to feed him the rock.

It really makes you wonder what would have happened if the Wildcats would have used him more often throughout the entirety of the Big 12 season. If Barnes gets a carry on 3rd and 1 against Oklahoma State the play before K-State controversially punted it away, what are the odds he picks up the first down and the Wildcats kill more clock with a nine point lead? As Cole pointed out earlier, Barnes doesn’t have a single carry this year that hasn’t gone for at least one yard. I’ll let you do the math on that.

@PowercatGameday Alex Barnes is the __________ in the Bill Snyder Era.

— Paul Harris (@palexharris) November 23, 2016

Stanton: “Next man up.” Look, I am very impressed with Alex Barnes, I think he is the best runner out of the backs K-State has on their roster. I knew he was going to be good before the season began but I couldn’t predict that he would be producing at this level, this quickly. That being said, he is still a freshman and doesn’t deserve to be anointed “the 2017 Doak Walker Award winner” just yet. Is that out of his reach? Absolutely not, Barnes’ ceiling is very high. I just want to emphasize that college careers are long and lots of things can happen from now until then. If Alex Barnes continues to improve, he could be one of the best running backs in K-State history, but as of today he is the “next man up” and needs to continue that daily improvement to get there. Which, knowing how humble and hardworking he is, I expect that’s his mindset as well.

John: It’s tough to pin down a specific moniker for Barnes in the context of the entire Snyder-era. However, I will definitively say that he’s the most exciting offensive skill position player K-State has had since Tyler Lockett left. There are some decent pieces on the offense that, like Barnes, are still young (Byron Pringle, Dominique Heath, etc.), but none seem to have the potential of Barnes.

I don’t want to hype him up too much this early in his career, but he’s certainly earned a lot of praise with his play so far. He’s also seemingly a very down to earth kind of guy, so I don’t worry as much about him getting a big head as I would with some.

Cole: Oh man, that’s tough to say. I want to try to rank him here but it’s difficult since he’s a freshman. There are a lot of good running backs in the Bill Snyder era, including Josh Scobey, Darren Sproles, Daniel Thomas and John Hubert. Barnes running style compares to Daniel Thomas, and I think he’s the most talented back K-State has put on the field since Thomas (discounting Bryce Brown’s 10 or so plays he saw the field). Hubert was a very good running back. But I’m looking at potential here and I would say Barnes has the potential to be the second-best K-State running back in the Snyder era, behind Sproles.

@PowercatGameday what unit has made the most progress from Week 1 to now?

— Jeff Burkhart (@jeff_burkhart) November 23, 2016

John: There’s no doubt that it starts with the offensive line. Think of how frazzled and scattered the offense looked in Palo Alto compared to what it’s been over the last month or so of the season. The Wildcats have been able to carve out an identity that’s very similar to that of the 2011 offense. They’ve dominated time of possession and have been able to assert their will with the run game. In fact, it’s the first time since 2003 that K-State has rushed for 200 yards in four straight league games.

I do think that it’s fair to mention two groups that would be a somewhat close second. That would be quarterback and running back.

Jesse Ertz at quarterback has continued to develop along with the rest of the offense. Taking into consideration how much his shoulder injury has affected the passing game, Ertz has still found ways to make plays and consistently move the offense.

Mainly based on the recent emergence of Alex Barnes, the K-State running backs have certainly elevated their ceiling as a group. It’s hard to tell how much of that is based on the offensive line improvement, but I think we’d all agree the running backs seem more formidable now than they did in September.

Cole: I think it’s the offensive line, without question. The Wildcats gave up eight sacks in the season-opener at Stanford and they rushed for just 92 yards while averaging 2.9 yards per carry. Since then, they’ve only allowed two sacks a game and over the last four games, the Wildcats are averaging more than 260 rushing yards per game on the ground.

K-State entered the season inexperienced upfront but this unit has really come together. It’s really encouraging as four of the five starters are underclassmen. Technically, K-State should return five starters on the line next season, as Tyler Mitchell also has started three games at guard and should be able to slide into the right guard spot, replacing the lone senior Terrale Johnson, who has been terrific.

The most telling statistic for this offensive line: K-State is averaging 5.02 yards per carry this season. It’s the highest-yards-per-carry average by a K-State offense since 2002, and if the season ended today, it would be is the second-highest yards-per-carry average by the Wildcats’ offense in the Bill Snyder era.

Stanton: Before the season began, one of the points of emphasis was how inexperienced our offensive line was. Offensive line coach Charlie Dickey has outdone himself again this year. His unit has gone from a big question mark to a strength for K-State’s offense. K-State is averaging 5.0 yards per carry, the second best in school history, and has rushed for over 200 yards in their last 4 games, the most consecutive games in conference play since 2003. The O-line has gained confidence throughout the year and have earned my vote for most improved unit.

@PowercatGameday Combining UT’s athletic department $$$ with their top tier recruiting, how can one make sense of their loss last weekend?

— Korby Anderson (@k_andyson) November 21, 2016

Cole: It really is shocking, isn’t it? Texas should never lose that game when you consider the state of the KU football program.

The only answer I have is bad coaching. I hate to advocate for Charlie Strong to be fired, but he’s 16-20 overall and 12-14 in Big 12 play in his three years in Austin. Ron Prince was 17-20 and 9-15 in conference play and K-State fired him after three seasons. When you consider the circumstances, firing Strong certainly seems justified. You can’t tell me what he was taking over at Texas was any worse than what Prince took over at K-State and he was justifiably fired in three seasons. Strong should have been able to show progress by now with the resources Texas has. But the fact is, there never has been any progress when it comes to wins and losses.

Stanton: I have no explanation for Texas. They consistently bring in some of the most talented players in the country, their facilities are top notch, and they have one of the most renown histories in college football, they have no excuses for handing Kansas their first FBS victory in 24 games. With Houston coach, Tom Herman, reportedly in talks with LSU, Texas faithful likely aren’t having the best Thanksgiving holiday.

John: Listen Korby, you don’t just waltz into Kansas Memorial Stadium (track no longer included) and walk out with a win. Well, unless you’re any power five team not named Texas or Iowa State.

On second thought, you’re right that was a brutal loss.

Rank the jobs in order: Baylor, Kansas, Texas @PowercatGameday

— Paul Harris (@palexharris) November 23, 2016

Stanton: While Texas has their high expectations, Baylor has their scandal and Kansas has their blatant disinterest in football, so I would take the Texas job first out of those three. Charlie Strong has likely dampened Texas fans’ expectations by at least enough to let the next guy have a fair shot at bringing Texas back to relevance. Baylor is messy right now, but they have a brand new stadium and recent success that should still resonate with Texas recruits, so I’d put them second. As for the Kansas job, I don’t envy anyone who has to take on that job.

John: I definitely think Texas has lost some of its luster in terms of where it ranks nationally, but it’s still at the top of the list of jobs in the Big 12. It might still be at the top of the list of jobs in the country if it wasn’t for all of the misguided influence that boosters seems to have with the program. When Nick Saban took the Alabama job, he demanded that those types of guys needed to stay out of his way if he was going to be the head coach there. Texas needs to adopt that strategy.

As for Baylor v. KU, the Bears have a beautiful new stadium and recent success after winning the Big 12 in 2013 and 2014. Combine that with the fact that they’re in the most fertile recruiting ground in the country and I’d still easily rank that job ahead of Kansas despite the scandal.

Cole: Texas, Baylor, KU.

@PowercatGameday @stantonweber K-State gets Snyder his 200th win Saturday vs ku? How much?

— Marcus (@KSU_LYNCH_MOB) November 21, 2016

John: There was a lot of talk this week about how much better Kansas looks this season from the K-State players. Jordan Willis said he thinks this will be by far the best Kansas team he’s played against in his career. I think KU’s win over Texas has made this game a little more intriguing for both K-State players and K-State fans.

That’s probably a bad thing for the Jayhawks. Any chance of them sneaking up on the Wildcats has likely gone out of the window. If you buy into having external motivators, K-State has senior day, Snyder’s 200th and beating their in-state rival on the table this week. Snyder has beaten Kansas by an average of 34 points per game since coming back in 2009, and I don’t expect this one to be much different.

Cole: I’ve heard a lot of talk about KU making progress this season, and I do think they’re somewhat better. But they’ve played five road games this season and have been outscored 251-57 in those games, an average defeat of 50-11. This is a program that hasn’t won a Big 12 game on the road in more than eight years and has lost 40 consecutive contests away from home overall. In addition, over their last 36 road games, the Jayhawks have been outscored by a combined score of 1,546-468, an average margin of defeat of 43-13 per game. KU’s closest game on the road this year was a 27-point loss at West Virginia. There’s a reason K-State is favored by 27.

KU will come in fired up after defeating Texas. But I don’t think that helps them much. If anything, it gets the attention of K-State’s players even more. The Wildcats, like always, will be up for this game. K-State wins 38-10.

Stanton: It’s only fitting that Coach Snyder gets his 200th win against Kansas, I think K-State wins 42-3.

Welcome to another installation of the Powercat Gameday panel, where we answer your questions about K-State football. After a much needed bye week, K-State heads to Waco to face the Baylor Bears. As always, Powercat Gameday will be on the road broadcasting live at the place to be for K-State fans making the road trip.

Come join the crew at The Salty Dog Sports Bar and Grill where we will be on the air bright and early starting at 7 a.m. If you can’t make it down for the game, you can tune to Powercat Gameday on KMAN to get you ready for what should be another exciting K-State football matchup.

Thanks as always to everyone who submitted a question to this week’s Powercat Gameday Panel. To submit a question tweet us at @PowercatGameday or to any of the panelists: @jlkurtz, @Cole_Manbeck, or @StantonWeber.

Let’s get to it:

John: It’s pretty simple. Unless you’re a big brand like Texas or Oklahoma, you’re not going to get the primetime slots when you’re hovering around .500. For instance, the game this week is a fading Baylor team that no longer has any relevance in the league title or college football playoff races against a 5-4 K-State team. That’s not going to command a whole lot of TV sets outside of the respective fanbases.

I suppose the one that could frustrate you is the fact that Texas-Kansas is on at 2:30. That’s the power of the Texas brand at work. Not only do they bring a lot of eyeballs, but there’s the storyline of Charlie Strong’s job status. Honestly, ESPN/ABC may be hoping that Texas gets beat or at least pushed to the brink so that the job security talk is really at the forefront.

Cole: Unfortunately, this is what often happens when you aren’t a top-25 team. The Big 12 is down this year so many of the matchups aren’t as intriguing nationally compared to previous years. The Wildcats haven’t really had many matchups that would be considered big games. I honestly can’t complain about any of the games that were selected for 11 a.m. kicks. They’re not ideal, but I don’t mind them on the road as the opposing crowd isn’t as into the game.

Stanton: John and Cole cover why the Big 12 keeps scheduling K-State for the early kicks. I’ll give you a taste of the player’s perspective. The majority of the team really likes the 11 AM kickoffs. In a long season where the players have practice on Thanksgiving and Christmas, down time comes at a premium. A game that kicks at 6 PM means the players sit in a hotel all day anxiously waiting to play. When the game ends, their whole day has been taken up with football versus an 11 AM kick where they are finished before dinner. I always loved having half a Saturday off to see family, be a regular college student, and have a little time to recharge. I also feel like the road team has an advantage when the game kicks at 11. The visitors are excited to wake up, win the game, and get home. While the home team and the home crowd usually take a quarter or two to wake up. So while fans may not love them, I don’t mind it this weekend for the sake of the team.

@PowercatGameday @stantonweber what’s the biggest difference between this year’s Baylor teams and the Briles coached Bears?

— Jacob Yingst (@JacobYingst11) November 17, 2016

Cole: Aside from all of the off-the-field distractions at the university, I would say it’s the passing game. The Bears are averaging 5.2 yards per rush this season. From 2010-15, they averaged 5.2 yards per rush. So there’s not much of a difference there. Here are some numbers that show the difference in the Baylor passing attack:

• From 2010-15, Baylor’s average pass efficiency rating was 165. During that time, the Bears on average ranked No. 7 in the country in pass efficiency offense. Baylor ranked in the top 20 nationally in each of those 6 seasons in pass efficiency. This season, the Bears have a pass efficiency rating of 130, ranking No. 61 in the country.
• From 2011-15, Baylor averaged 9.9 yards per pass attempt. This season, the Bears are averaging 7.6 yards per pass attempt, well below their previous averages.
• Baylor is completing just 52% of its passes, ranking 116th out of 128 FBS teams and last in the Big 12.

The numbers indicate the Bears aren’t as explosive in the passing game.

Stanton: The biggest difference I see is what I would call “edge.” When an Art Briles Baylor team took the field, they had a sort of intensity that let you know, as an opponent, you were going to have to bring your best every play of the game.  It was part of the culture of that football team. When it comes to the culture of college football teams I’m a strong believer that it comes almost entirely from the head coach. Even with Briles’ assistants still there, I see a Baylor team that’s missing that edge, in large part due to the absence of Briles and the contrasting style of current head coach Jim Grobe.

John: Love Cole’s numbers there to illustrate the drop off in the passing game. It’s obviously a big deal that Seth Russell got knocked out for the season last week, but it really hadn’t been a banner year for him throwing the football already anyway.

I’ll take the angle here of the eye test. Baylor just doesn’t seem to have quite the same swagger to them that they did under Briles. This is the same program that had become known for having guys bouncing up and down dancing and wearing masks on the sidelines before kickoffs. Like it or not (seemingly most around the league didn’t), they had developed the reputation of being perhaps the most cocky group of players in the conference. I don’t mean that as a slight either…it worked. They won the league in back-to-back seasons.

To me, they don’t seem to have that same edge to them anymore. There’s flashes of it here and there, but it’s just not consistent. You have to think about everything that’s been weighing on those players for the last six months. They’ve dealt with losing their head coach, the media constantly coming after them, assistant coaches that still stick up for Briles and feel as though they’ve been wronged too and now the first three game losing streak for the program in four years. Eventually, the weight of all of that is going to get to you. It takes enough focus away from football that it’s just impossible to have everything clicking like it was during their glory years.

@Cole_Manbeck how is kstate -3?!

— Not a real person (@lifeofmamafitz) November 13, 2016

Stanton: I was honestly a little surprised to see K-State favored in Waco, even if Baylor appears to be on a tail spin. A true freshman making his first start at quarterback for the Bears, Baylor losing 3 straight, an 11 AM kick time, any of these could have swayed the lines makers to turn a toss-up game into one where the Cats are favored. One aspect of this game that I think deserves more credit is the fact that its Baylor’s senior day. They will be honoring one of the most successful classes of Baylor football players in the school’s recent history. The emotions involved with many players playing their last game in Waco may inspire a Baylor team, which has dealt with immense adversity off the field, to focus on winning a ball game Saturday.

John: I’ll admit that I was very surprised to see this line when it came out. However, if you do really dig into the matchup there’s a lot to like for K-State fans.

Baylor’s big weakness on defense has been stopping the run. They’ve allowed 250+ rushing yards in three straight games and K-State has rushed for 230+ in each of their last three games. The Bears biggest strength offensively, especially with a true freshman quarterback stepping in this week, is the run game. K-State’s defense leads the Big 12 in rush defense. Baylor also lost by 40 the last time they played in Waco and K-State is 8-0 against the spread coming off of a bye week since Snyder came back in 2009. I can definitely see how you’d build the case that K-State should win this game.

The real wildcard here is going to be what the mental state of Baylor is. Do they band together on senior day after seeing their unquestioned leader (Seth Russell) go down last week? Or is their season really coming apart at the seams? Baylor head coach Jim Grobe said earlier this week that the team wasn’t as focused as it should have been against Texas and TCU but banded together and put forth a good effort in Norman. Was that the last real push they had left in them? We’ll find out Saturday.

Cole: This has been a reaction by many K-State fans since the betting line came out. KMAN’s Tyler Dreiling had an interesting tweet earlier this week that it’s the first time in Baylor’s last 24 games that the Bears are underdogs at home.

I don’t see an issue with K-State being favored. Here’s why:

• The Wildcats are coming off a bye week and should be fresh. Baylor is reeling, having lost three straight games and giving up an average of 47 points a game the last three weeks.
• The Bears have less than 65 healthy scholarship players available.
• The Bears just lost their starting quarterback in Seth Russell and have a true freshman making his first start of his career.
• Baylor is giving up an average of 314 rushing yards a game and 6 yards per carry over the past three weeks. K-State’s offense is averaging 6.2 yards per carry and 277 rushing yards per game over the past three weeks.
• Baylor’s strength is running the football. The Wildcats’ strength on defense is stopping the run.
  It’s an 11 a.m. kick, which helps the road team in my opinion.

It’s impossible to know what Baylor’s mindset will be going into this game. Will they be motivated for Senior Day and come out and play inspired football? If the Bears are motivated, they certainly have enough talent to win and justify being favored. But they’re reeling, and I think that’s a large part of the reason why K-State is favored.

@PowercatGameday if Kstate wins out what bowl do they go to?

— McCain ® (@IamAustinMcCain) November 15, 2016

John: You’re probably looking at the Texas Bowl depending on whether or not a Big 12 team can backdoor their way into the college football playoff. Which would bring back fantastic memories of Ron Prince getting run into the ground by Ray Rice and Rutgers!

I suppose there’s an outside chance that if Oklahoma, West Virginia or Oklahoma State made the playoff you could take basically the fourth bowl slot in the conference which would in that case be the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando.

Right now I’m seeing a lot of projections that have K-State going to the Cactus Bowl at Chase Field in Phoenix. That would seem to be a likely landing spot if K-State finishes 7-5.

Cole: If a team like Oklahoma could slide into the college football playoff, the bowl landscape would change. But that’s a longshot still. If the Wildcats win out, they’d likely finish fourth in the conference. That would likely mean they’d end up in the Texas Bowl in Houston, where they’d play an SEC team.

Stanton: If K-State wins out they will finish 4^th in the Big 12. The 4^th place team this year goes to the Texas Bowl. I think it’s a long shot that a Big 12 team makes the playoff, but it’s not impossible. If the Big-12 sneaks a team in, K-State would be heading to Orlando for the Russell Athletic Bowl. I would enjoy a trip to Florida.

@PowercatGameday What’s your favorite gameday smell? (it’s okay to say sweat/body odor). Mine might be sunscreen. Or hamburgers.

— davegladow (@davegladow) November 16, 2016

Cole: Interesting question, and not sure my answer will make sense. But football really starts to feel like football to me when you wake up on gameday and there’s that chill in the air. I love when the colder weather starts to come and to me, there’s a certain smell about a Fall, chilly day on gameday. I don’t associate sunscreen with gameday, but the smell of the grills going during tailgating is something I certainly enjoy.

Stanton: This is a great question. I would have to go with funnel cakes being freshly fried. There was a funnel cake tent near the top of the section in Bill Snyder Family Stadium that I sat growing up. As a player, when we would run stairs at the stadium in the summer. I was one of the fastest guys on the team getting up those stairs because I had years of practice running to those funnel cakes as a kid.

John: I don’t mean to dodge the question, but I’m going to utilize a different sense here and give you a sound. Hearing the “Snyder Soundtrack” of Queen, Asia and Van Halen really gets me going and into the football mood. It brings me back to getting to games early when I was a kid and sitting in the stadium watching warm ups and hearing all of those same songs.

@PowercatGameday Does the fact that KSU should/could be 7-2 rather than 5-4 persuade Snyder to stay another year, or convince him to retire?

— Tom Fontana (@tfon611) November 13, 2016

Stanton: I don’t think that the record of the team would be the main reason that Coach Snyder would retire or stay another year. He has always said that the reason he coaches is to develop young men into becoming their best and that is something that he was certainly still achieving when I graduated. As long as he feels he is doing that, I don’t see the record being a factor.

John: It might have some impact. I’d think the greater factor here will be how the season finishes. Snyder has always said that if he feels like he isn’t doing a good enough job anymore (I’m paraphrasing) he would step down. Maybe if the team finishes the regular season at 6-6 and loses a bowl game it would make him consider stepping away?

All of us get asked this type of question about Bill Snyder frequently, and my answer is always the same. I really do believe him when he says that he’s not thinking about it during the season. I’m not sure that there’s any kind of inside information to be had by anyone on the topic of when Snyder will retire. I’m sure he’ll take some time to evaluate things in the offseason and go from there.

Another thing to consider is that this was the youngest two-deep Bill Snyder has ever had, so there’s a lot coming back next season.

Cole: That may help persuade him to stay seeing how close they were in those games. I do think K-State could be a Big 12 contender next season with everything the Wildcats have coming back, although I’m not as confident in that as I was going into the season.

Will Snyder return and try to make another run at a Big 12 title? Or would he like to leave behind a team with some talent for the next head coach? I don’t think anyone can accurately know what he’s thinking. He may not know yet.

@PowercatGameday Should a 2 loss Big10/SEC team be selected over a 1 loss BigXII team for the CFP?

— Korby Anderson (@k_andyson) November 16, 2016

John: Absolutely. No offense to West Virginia, but they’re the only one loss Big 12 team left. I think both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have a better resume/case to be included than the Mountaineers assuming any one of those teams win out.

Not only does West Virginia not have a win over a top 25 team, but they just don’t really pass the eye test to me. K-State was a Byron Pringle drop away from handling the Mountaineers in Morgantown and that’s been hard for me to get out of my mind. Lots of people had a big issue with WVU being put behind USC in the college football playoff rankings, but if you put those two teams on a neutral field right now I’d take the Trojans by at least two touchdowns.

I’m typically a Big Ten hater, but this year it’s hard to deny that the group of Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Penn State all have much better resumes than anyone from the Big 12. There would be no argument here from me with any of those teams getting in ahead of one-loss West Virginia.

Cole: West Virginia is the only option as a one-loss team, and honestly, I was looking at their resume last night, and there’s just not enough there. If the Mountaineers go 11-1, their lone win against a top-25 team will likely be Oklahoma. I don’t think one top-25 win should get you in. Although it’s not West Virginia’s fault. The Mountaineers tried to schedule well. They played Missouri and BYU in the non-con, but those teams haven’t had very good season and the Big 12 is down, which doesn’t help their cause.

Oklahoma has the best shot if it wins out because the committee values strength of schedule, and the Sooners went out and played two very challenging games in the non-conference.

I will vent here and state how it’s a joke that Michigan and Clemson both lose to average to below-average teams that are unranked, and don’t even drop out of the top four. And Colorado at No. 10 with just one win over a team with a winning record?

Stanton: The College Football Playoff Committee should pick the best 4 football teams to play in the playoff regardless of if the team has one or two losses. Since the only 1 loss Big 12 team could be West Virginia, that’s where the answer to this question needs to start. I like West Virginia, but they are not an elite team. From the Big 10 I would take a 2 loss Michigan or Ohio State team over West Virginia. In the SEC, the only potential 2 loss team (assuming Alabama doesn’t have a meltdown) is Florida. I don’t like the Gators but if they end the season with two losses they will have beaten Alabama in the SEC championship game, in which I think they would deserve to be ranked above the Mountaineers.

I think the Big 12’s best shot at the playoff is a 2 loss Oklahoma team. The Sooners would finish the year with ten straight wins, satisfying the unwritten “is the team hot?” requirement for the committee. If Oklahoma State can go unbeaten until Bedlam, the Cowboys will be a top ten victory for the Sooners in the last week of the year, satisfying the unwritten “impressive win in the last week of the season” requirement for the committee. Finally, the Sooners satisfy the unwritten “blue blood program” requirement giving them a chance to jump some schools (say, Washington) in the final rankings. Still a lot of football left to be played, but we can’t count the Sooners out.

Welcome back to the Powercat Gameday Panel, where the hosts of @PowercatGameday answer your K-State football questions every game week. This week, the 5-3 Wildcats host the 6-2 Oklahoma State Cowboys, in what should be one of the best games on this week’s Big 12 slate.

To submit a question, tweet the panel at @PowercatGameday or any of our panelist: @jlkurtz, @Cole_Manbeck, or @StantonWeber. Thanks to everyone who submitted a question this week, we appreciate your involvement and hope you have as much fun with it as we do.

Powercat Gameday will be live in Cat Town, just Southwest of Bill Snyder Family Stadium, at 10:30 AM on Saturday. Stop by or tune in on KMAN while you tailgate or drive to the game.

Let’s get to it:

@PowercatGameday do you think after last week at Iowa State that Alex Delton will see more action on the field verses OSU?

— Andrew (@andrew_eilert31) November 1, 2016

John: I think it’s certainly possible. Bill Snyder and some of the players after the game were very complimentary of the job that Delton did when he was in the game. Dalton Risner went out of his way to mention that Delton had great command of the huddle, which should mean something coming from a team captain. Then Snyder said this Tuesday at his press conference that they trust Delton to do much more than he was asked to do on Saturday in Ames. There seems to be plenty of confidence from the coaching staff and team in letting him get increasingly more involved.

It was encouraging in general to me that the offensive coordinators opted to get Delton some snaps in a road conference game when the outcome was still very much in doubt (Delton first got in the game with the score just 10-3 in favor of K-State). We’ve heard for years about different wrinkles that the offense could possibly use to become more explosive, but rarely do we ever see them put into action. It’s clear that his explosiveness and athleticism can be an asset to the offense, now let’s just hope their package for him continues to evolve.

Cole: Yes, particularly against teams who struggle against the run, which Oklahoma State does. Iowa State’s defense was yielding 5.3 yards per rush heading into last Saturday’s game. The Cowboys are allowing 4.9 yards per rush, ranking 94th nationally. So there will be some opportunities to insert Delton into the game Saturday and I would be surprised if he doesn’t see the field for at least a few snaps. At worst, Delton playing a few snaps in Ames gives Oklahoma State something else to prepare for this week.

Stanton: I think it’s safe to assume that we will see Alex Delton used again against Oklahoma State. Will he be given more snaps? I don’t know but I would guess no, I think he’ll probably get a similar number of snaps. Now will we see the package used more dynamically? That’s a more interesting question. Spending a season practicing with Alex Delton, I can tell you this, he can throw the football. In the Wildcat package we will start to see some more creativity, Coach Snyder even alluded to this in his press conference.

I was happy to see Delton get an opportunity to contribute, he is one of the hardest workers on the team who will do whatever the coaches ask of him to help the team win. The quarterback run game is often countered by the defense bringing an extra guy into the box, meaning one less defender in the secondary, forcing the defense to play a much simpler coverage. The simplicity in the back end of the defense will give an inexperienced Delton the chance to have straightforward reads in the pass game. He has the ability to throw, and when K-State shows this, opposing defensive coordinators will be allocating valuable practice time to preparing for a dual threat Wildcat package.

@PowercatGameday A frustrating win. Four games now with a 4th Qtr collapse in all phases of the game, one cost us a win against WVU. Why?

— Scott Carrigan (@SACWLDCT87) October 30, 2016

Cole: It’s unusual for a K-State team to struggle after halftime. We all know Snyder’s tremendous career record when the Wildcats are leading at the half. Not only that, but one thing you could typically count on from Snyder-coached teams is to make great adjustments at the half and come out firing on all cylinders in the second half. That hasn’t been the case this season or in 2015.

Here are the numbers: K-State’s offense against FBS opponents this season is averaging 20 points per game in the first half, ranking 25th in the country and fifth in the Big 12. In the second half, the Wildcats’ offense is only averaging 10 points on the season, ranking 102nd nationally and ninth in the Big 12. These numbers are particularly concerning when you take into account the number of times K-State defers and gets the ball to start the second half, so the offense has an extra possession in the second half more often than not. The offense in the second half is the bigger issue. It’s almost like K-State plays not to lose in the second half.

Defensively, K-State is allowing 11 points per game in the second half against FBS opponents, ranking 34th nationally and second in the Big 12. The defense allows 13 points in the second half, so not a huge disparity. Although the defense really struggled in the second half against Iowa State.

To sum it up, I’d lay more of the blame on the offense for the late collapses. It’s certainly frustrating for all three Big 12 victories to come down to having to recover an onside kick to seal it.

Stanton: As players, we always prided ourselves on finishing strong. It was a theme that was emphasized from the first summer workout to the bowl game, and every day in between. I can still hear Ryan Mueller yelling at the team as we put our hand down to run what felt like our 100th sprint of the workout, “Finish!” This year has been disappointing in that department. Cole does a nice job breaking down the numbers above. I have no doubt that Coach Snyder is addressing the lack of finish in this team.

I think the possible reason for the lack of finishing stems from last year. Winning is a culture, something that is passed along through experience of not only players who are out on the field but also those who are next in line. For many of the players out there, their only experience at K-State was last year. These young players are seeing success for the first time. Football teams need to learn how to win, and the dip in success that K-State experienced in 2015 may have left a void in the development of confidence for the next guys in line. This year’s team is taking steps to reintroduce that winning culture but not without growing pains.

John: We’ve now seen all three of K-State’s Big 12 wins come down to an onside kick, and in all three cases the Wildcats had those games in control. Bill Snyder has been frustrated with his team’s ability (or lack thereof) to play an entire sixty minutes the whole season. If you think back to the FAU game, Snyder was even upset with the way K-State came out in the 2nd half after a dominating first half. This certainly isn’t a new trend with this team by any stretch of the imagination.

A theory that I would subscribe to is simply that this team is very young. The season-opening depth chart had more underclassmen (24) on it than any Bill Snyder team ever at K-State. More underclassmen started the season opener than any other K-State team since 1997. Linebacker Trent Tanking showed up to the press conference this week and mentioned that he got the feeling that a lot of guys relaxed too much after the Wildcats went up 31-10 in Ames. I’m sure there’s more of a tendency for this team to do that than some others in the past because of all of the youth. This team isn’t talented enough to simply show up and dominate, so it’s easy to see how they could let teams back into it if their focus isn’t into it for a stretch of the game.

Stanton: “Slow down,” is a good way to ask this question because I don’t think anyone could stop this group completely. Oklahoma State’s passing game is lethal and K-State’s defense has been susceptible to just that this season. Cole goes very in depth with the numbers below. As for my take, I have been very impressed with the ball skills from our corners this year. DJ Reed and Duke Shelley have done a really nice job of taking chances and capitalizing with pass breakups and interceptions. I think the key to slowing down the Cowboy offense this weekend is those two guys, along with Dante Barnett and Kendall Adams, forcing turnovers. We could use a performance like Allen Chapman’s against Oklahoma State in 2012, where he hauled in 3 picks.

John: K-State’s secondary has certainly had their struggles this year, and they’re obviously not the strength of this defense. What this defense does have going for it though is a great pass rush. This is a game where Jordan Willis and company have to shine. Mason Rudolph isn’t a real mobile quarterback by any stretch of the imagination, so the opportunity should be there to disrupt him. It may take a second quarter at West Virginia type of effort from the front seven to generate pressure on the Cowboys if the Wildcats want to win this game. That quarter of football was about the most dominant stretch of Jordan Willis’ career. He was constantly getting into the backfield and making Skyler Howard uncomfortable. Willis was actually pretty quiet as far as the pass rush was concerned last Saturday in Ames, and that can’t be the case this week.

Another big key would be to force a few turnovers. The Cowboys are leading the Big 12 in turnover margin right now. That’s partially because they always seem to have a very aggressive and opportunistic defense, but they’re also pretty good at taking care of the ball. K-State is actually the only team in the Big 12 that has fewer turnovers than Oklahoma State. Sometimes the aggressiveness of K-State’s corners can be a problem, but it can also produce plays like DJ Reed’s pick six against Texas Tech. A play or two like that would go a long way on Saturday.

Cole: This is going to be a big challenge for a K-State secondary that is really struggling. The Wildcats are 107th nationally out of 128 FBS teams in pass efficiency defense, and in Big 12 play only, are allowing 8.7 yards per pass attempt.

Iowa State’s 339 yards passing last Saturday were a season-high for the Cyclones, and the numbers could have been much worse had Iowa State not dropped a wide-open 50-plus yard pass that would have been an easy touchdown. The Cyclones attacked K-State’s secondary over the middle of the field and down the seams. Oklahoma State likes to do the same. I rewatched the Cowboys’ victory over West Virginia Saturday and they ran several quick slants over the middle of the field. If K-State plays soft in coverage, Oklahoma State will attack with that.

In addition, the Cowboys will challenge you with the deep ball and have one of the best passing quarterbacks in the country in junior Mason Rudolph. The following comes from a season preview of Oklahoma State from Pro Football Focus:

“Quarterback Mason Rudolph is far and away the star of this team. He’s a sleeper Heisman candidate and should be even better this year. His passing grade last year is the highest among all returning quarterbacks in the NCAA. Last season, only Connor Cook (Michigan State) was more accurate on deep throws than Rudolph’s 57.3 percent rate. He’s also very good under pressure, his 64.1 adjusted completion percentage when faced with pressure ranking third among returning Power-5 QBs in the nation.”

Rudolph’s numbers are staggering. He has 17 touchdowns and just two interceptions on the season. The Cowboys have the second-fewest interceptions thrown in the country this year. Over Rudolph’s last 14 games dating back to last season, he has 29 touchdowns and just four interceptions.

You mentioned Washington and he’s certainly a threat. No player in college football who had 40 or more receptions last season averaged more yards per catch than Washington (20.1). The junior receiver has 124 receptions in his career and has averaged 19.4 yards per catch on those receptions. He’s a great player and certainly a big-play threat.

Now, you asked how do you stop them? You have to generate a pass rush and make Rudolph uncomfortable in the pocket. The Cowboys have allowed 24 sacks on the season, an average of three per game, which ranks 112th out of 128 FBS teams. So you can get some pressure on him. But the Wildcats’ front four will have to be much better than they were at Iowa State and K-State’s safeties will have to be significantly better helping over the top in coverage.

@stantonweber @PowercatGameday with a former assistant coach on the sideline for OSU what adjustments do KSU coaches have to make?

— Jacob Yingst (@JacobYingst11) November 2, 2016

John: I’d guess Stanton will be able to provide a much more in-depth answer to this one. The only thing I would say is that Joe Bob Clements has been gone for four seasons now, so any adjustments in that department have probably already been made. Another thing to keep in mind here is that most of the players that Clements knew from his time at K-State have graduated, so any advantage he would have in that regard is probably neutralized.

Cole: I’ll defer more to Stanton on this one, but I would guess K-State’s coaches have taken care of this previously. This is Joe Bob Clements fourth season at Oklahoma State since departing Manhattan and this weekend will be the fourth time the Wildcats and Cowboys have played since he left. I would like to think all of the hand signals and other adjustments have been changed since he departed to account for this.

Stanton: With a coaching tree as impressive as Bill Snyder’s, he is no stranger to facing off against coaches who both coached and played under his system. As a player, we had a handful of games against former Snyder coaches, including coaches that had left the program while I was a player (Michael Smith at Arkansas and Joe Bob Clements at Oklahoma State). With as much film as college coaches watch, and the familiarity they have with conference teams, any specific advantage that the presence of Joe Bob Clements on the Oklahoma State sideline brings is nominal. Since there is very little turnover in the K-State staff, Coach Clements may have some familiarity with tendencies of the Kansas State coaches, but Coach Snyder takes this into account for all his opposing coaches.

Every year, the K-State coaches dive into an in-depth scouting project of themselves, breaking down their own coaching styles and play calls. Bill Snyder doesn’t take anything for granted, he has compiled all the information that opponents could possibly have on the Wildcats. This allows K-State’s decision making to take into account what the opponent thinks that Wildcats will do.

With a play clock of just 40 seconds, try coming to a definitive decision in that mental chess match.

The fact that this information is in the possession of the K-State coaches allows any kind of specific adjustment to the team’s preparation, due to playing a former coach, to be mininal.

@PowercatGameday @stantonweber K-State gets bowl eligible after Saturday?

— Marcus (@KSU_LYNCH_MOB) October 31, 2016

Cole: I believe they do. K-State is favored by 3, which surprised me a bit. The odds are against the Wildcats. They haven’t beaten a ranked team at home since defeating Texas in 2012. Since then, K-State is 0-6 against top-25 opponents in Manhattan. The Wildcats are also just 2-13 against ranked foes since the start of 2013.

Oklahoma State is 7-1 over its last eight true road games and have a 50-6 record against unranked opponents over its last 56 games. Despite all of these numbers, I have to go with my gut and do feel like the Wildcats get it done at home.

Stanton: Since 1988 Oklahoma State has only won in Manhattan one time (2010). Sounds a lot like what we were saying about Texas two weeks ago. The Cowboys struggle to win in Manhattan. Before the Texas game I predicted K-State would go 3-0 in the three game stretch ending with Oklahoma State. I stand by that prediction but this will be the Wildcats’ toughest test of those three. K-State has momentum, and the fact that the game is in Manhattan makes me go with K-State.

John: Wow…Cole has gone from predicting K-State to lose at home to Texas to now predicting a win against a ranked Oklahoma State team. Not sure if that’s a bad omen or not.

I realize that K-State is technically the favorite in this one, but this would be a much better win than any of the five that the Wildcats have to this point. K-State’s seasons over the last four years have basically consisted of beating nearly all of the teams they should beat, and losing to teams that appear better than them on paper. The only two ranked teams K-State has taken down since 2012 are #25 Texas Tech in 2013 and #11 Oklahoma in 2014. Make no mistake, Oklahoma State is much better than Texas, Texas Tech and Iowa State. K-State is going to likely have to play their best game of the season to win this one.

Having said all of that, the Cowboys don’t often win in Manhattan. Their only win in recent memory here was back in 2010, and the home team is 10-2 in the series since the Big 12 formed in 1998.

As for my prediction on the game, you’ll have to tune in to Powercat Gameday from 10:30 to 12:30 on Saturday to hear it…(how’s that for a plug)?

@PowercatGameday Do you think the BigXII’s decision to go without divisions increases national title possibilities for the league?

— Korby Anderson (@k_andyson) October 31, 2016

Stanton: First off, I don’t think a conference championship game is necessary when you already play a round-robin schedule. The money is good for the conference but, from a competitive standpoint, I don’t support something that deemphasizes the regular season when you play everybody.

The decision to have the top two teams play in the Big 12 championship game will result in the best matchup possible for a national audience. Although, will it result in the Big 12 maximizing their national championship possibilities? Some would argue yes, I am split, and since the other guys took the stance that it does help, I will play devil’s advocate.

When you look at the other major football conferences, the chances of their conference championship games being played between their two best teams are slim. Due to divisions, the best team in each conference plays a 13th game against likely the 3rd,4th, or, in the SEC’s case this year, 6th best team in their conference. From the perspective of the Big 12’s ultimate goal of getting into the college football playoff, their best team will have the toughest road in the conference championship week relative to the other major conferences. Upsets in the Big 12 championship game could leave the conference, once again, on the outside looking in.

John: I still don’t at all agree with the decision to play a conference championship game, but I do think going without divisions better accomplishes the league’s goal of adding another marquee game to help out potential playoff contenders.

It’s pretty simple: you’re ensuring that the top two teams in the league will play that game. If you went with divisions, there’s obviously no guarantee that you’re getting that matchup. I still think the addition of the championship game will do more harm than good in the long run with potential playoff teams getting tripped up in a game that they wouldn’t really have to be playing, but the damage has already been done.

Cole: Yes, I do. Divisional play is advantageous for K-State more often than not because it gives you a chance to play for a conference title and get to one of the big six bowl games if you win it. As an example, in 2009, K-State played its season finale at Nebraska and entered the game with a 6-5 record. Had the Wildcats won, they would have won the North Division and played for a conference championship with a 7-5 record overall. So in that sense, divisional play can help.

But by staying away from divisions and playing the two best teams in the championship game, you provide almost a sure-fire opportunity to earn another marquee win, something less likely with divisional play. Had TCU and Baylor played a title game against each other as the two best teams in the league in 2014, it’s almost a lock one of them would have been in the college football playoff. So I’m in favor of no divisions if you’re wanting a team in the playoff.

However, there are other viewpoints to this. I’ll point you to a column written by Dennis Dodd this summer about the prospects of a conference title game for the Big 12 and what divisional play would have meant for the Big 12 and hopes for getting in the college football playoff.

@PowercatGameday what impressed you the most in the win vs texas?

— Marcus (@KSU_LYNCH_MOB) October 25, 2016

John: It was no doubt the offense. The first two and a half quarters of the game were about as good as it gets with the 2016 version of the offense. They scored touchdowns on three of their five drives in the first half and should have scored points on the first two drives of the second half (a Charles Jones fumble is the only thing that prevented that). They did all of this while completely controlling the clock and keeping the dangerous Texas offense off the field. Time of possession wound up being almost 39:00 to 21:00 in favor of K-State.

Say what you will about the Texas defense, and they have had their struggles this year, but this is a defense that has been good against the run. K-State was able to rack up 234 rushing yards and control the line of scrimmage most of the game against a UT defense that was 33rd in the country in yards per carry allowed.

Going into that game, I’m not sure I would have believed that K-State could control that much of a game like that offensively against anybody not named Kansas. The second half turnovers were certainly problematic, but overall this game was absolutely a positive for the offense.

Cole: K-State’s defense played well, but I’ll have to go with K-State’s running game. The Wildcats’ 4.9 yards per carry was the second-highest yards-per-carry average against Texas this season. In addition, K-State’s 234 rushing yards were the second-most against the Longhorns’ defense this year. Only Oklahoma was better in both of those categories against a Texas defense that was only allowing 3.7 yards per carry on the season.

As John mentioned, the Wildcats’ ability to run the football enabled them to own the time of possession. As a result, Texas only had 62 offensive plays in the game. The previous low for the Longhorns was 75 plays in a game this season and they came into Manhattan averaging 82 offensive plays a game.

Stanton: I was impressed with the offense in general but, specifically, I was most impressed with how the wide receivers blocked in the screen game and Jesse Ertz’s toughness.

The down the line screen pass was utilized early and often against Texas. The key to that play’s success is the outside receiver’s ability to make a long block on the corner. One of the first things wide receivers coach Andre Coleman said when he arrived 4 seasons ago was that his receivers were going to be disciplined blockers. It’s one of the small things that most players at that position pay no mind to, but on Saturday coach Coleman’s emphasis was showcased. Dominique Heath should buy DeAnte Burton and Byron Pringle some dinner for how well they protected his blind side while he caught a handful of screens with his back was turned to the defense. Burton and Pringle, among others, stymied the corners and gave Heath room to run. The screen game was a real spark in the offense this week and helped quarterback Jesse Ertz get in a rhythm.

Ertz, who was questionable to start against Texas after leaving the game early at Oklahoma with an apparent shoulder injury, produced a gutsy performance Saturday. The dual threat quarterback didn’t shy away from the run game even though every hit he took couldn’t have felt very good. He marched the team up and down the field on the way the K-State’s most impressive offensive performance against a conference opponent. His toughness was highlighted on maybe Ertz’s worst play, an interception in the 4th quarter, where he sold out to tackle 228 lb Texas linebacker Edwin Freeman who had only Ertz to beat for a pick six. Texas would not score on that drive and may have been the difference in the outcome of the ball game.

@PowercatGameday what’s the team’s biggest challenge that could prevent them from a win in Ames?

— Jake Anderson (@ndersonJake) October 25, 2016

Cole: Seven of the last eight games K-State/Iowa State games have been decided by 8 points or less. So I expect this one will be competitive too, considering the Wildcats’ two Big 12 wins have come by 6 and 3 points. The Cyclones have been competitive and have led Baylor, Oklahoma State and Texas at the half but lost all three. Honestly, the Iowa State crowd is the biggest X factor in this game. It’s a tough place to play and the Cyclones will be excited for this one as it’s the first home game in Ames in four weeks. It will be key for K-State to get off to a quick start in this one and try to take the crowd out of the game.

Outside of that, my biggest concern is slowing down Iowa State’s offense, which probably sounds crazy considering the Cyclones only scored 6 points in their previous game vs. Texas. But prior to that, they’d averaged 39 points over their previous three games. Iowa State has a poor offensive line, but the offense does have playmakers on offense. I like both of their quarterbacks in Joel Lanning and Jacob Park, a talented four-star recruit out of high school. While running back Mike Warren is off to a slow start, he was a preseason All-Big 12 First-Team selection after rushing for nearly 1,400 yards while averaging 5.9 yards per carry last season. And Allen Lazard is one of the better receivers in the Big 12.

Stanton: K-State has been susceptible to the deep ball throughout the season and Iowa State will be trying to take advantage this week. Duke Shelley and DJ Reed will have their hands full with 6’5’’ wide receiver Allen Lazard streaking down the sideline. K-State needs to slow down an Iowa State offense that gashed the Cats for 35 points in the first half last year and nullifying the deep ball will be a good start.

John: There’s a lot that goes into playing Iowa State that typically makes it a tough game no matter what. I’ll cover some of that in the next response.

Outside of that, I’d say K-State’s offensive struggles this season make it hard to go into almost any game thinking that the Wildcats will have an easy time. I went on earlier about how encouraged I was by the offense last week, and yet they only scored 24 points. You’re going to have a hard time winning comfortably over anyone in the Big 12 when you only score 24 points. If Jesse Ertz really did aggravate his shoulder problem making a tackle late in the game last week, then there’s even more room to wonder how well the offense can play.

As far as the Cyclones are concerned, they’ve been very competitive in Big 12 play this year. They led Oklahoma State, Baylor and Texas at the half, but couldn’t finish any of those games. It appeared they ran out of gas against the Longhorns, but they’ve now had a bye week to recover. I’d imagine Iowa State will be rested and ready to go on Saturday.

@PowercatGameday what is it about Iowa State that always makes a tough match-up for us when we’re so much better every year?

— Jacob Yingst (@JacobYingst11) October 26, 2016

Stanton: I put on the film every year to watch these Iowa State teams and I don’t ask myself, “why is this always a tough game,” I ask myself, “how is this team 1-6, they look like a bowl team?” Every year, Iowa State produces a hard-nosed team that is tough to get a win against. Trouble is for the Cyclones, they are the 9th best team in a solid 10 team conference that plays a round robin schedule. Even in 2012, when they made a bowl game at 6-6, they finished 9th in the Big 12. It doesn’t matter who they are playing, to think that a victory over Iowa State is a sure thing is unwise. They play very good football teams to the wire multiple times a year, sometimes even sneaking away with a win (#2 ranked Oklahoma State 2011). Not to mention, Jack Trice Stadium offers the Cyclones one of the best home field advantages in the Big 12 (if you don’t believe me, take a trip to Ames for a game and then we can talk). I’m interested to see if Matt Campbell can get Iowa State over the hump, turning that handful of close games into victories. So to answer your question, K-State plays Iowa State close every year because Iowa State is a good football team, just not quite as good as eight other teams in the Big 12, so their record doesn’t show it.

John: It’s well documented how close the games in this series have been recently. Six of the last seven games in this series have been decided by a touchdown or less. Those include the 2011, 2012 and 2014 games when K-State was ranked in the top 20 and still had a heck of a time getting out alive. Even though K-State has won eight straight over the Cyclones, it never seems to come easy. Those wins have included a blocked extra point to get it done, a go-ahead touchdown with less than four minutes left, a go-ahead touchdown with 1:30 left and the miracle comeback last year when K-State trailed by 7 with under two minutes left and didn’t have the ball.

Playing in Ames is always tricky. My theory on that is that Iowa State isn’t a team anyone really gets up for, yet they’re always up for you when you walk into their place. On top of that, Iowa State fans do a great job of packing their stadium and making it loud no matter how much the team seems to be struggling. That can be a tough combination to overcome.

Cole: It’s a good question and not sure I have an answer. It’s always tough playing in Ames. Iowa State fans support their team no matter the win/loss record. I do think the Cyclones get up for K-State. I really wish I had a better answer for you but it’s hard to explain.

@Cole_Manbeck @jlkurtz @stantonweber @PowercatGameday who keeps the draft streak alive? Willis, Barnett, other?

— csaunders87 (@csaunders87) October 25, 2016

John: There’s a legitimate discussion to be had right now as to whether or not Jordan Willis is the best defensive player in the conference. He’s leading the Big 12 in sacks and tackles for loss and is the reigning Big 12 defensive player of the week. Obviously he has great size at 6-5, 258 pounds which allows him to be a great power rusher off the edge. I’d guess there are some questions about his speed at the next level, but he should still get drafted. Right now CBS Sports projects Willis as a third-round pick.

I don’t see as much buzz about Barnett right now. He’s actually had a fairly quiet senior season so far. It’s not totally fair to judge him based on that observation, I’d be curious to know how he has graded out according to the coaches this year, but in some ways I think we expected a little bit more.

Cole: I don’t think there’s any question that Jordan Willis gets drafted. As John mentioned, he could be considered the best defensive player in the league and is the best defensive lineman in the league in my opinion. Willis ranks third in the country in sacks and is in the top 10 nationally in tackles for loss. And he has the prototypical size to play defensive end in the NFL.

I agree with John on Barnett. He has been quiet this season and I’m not certain he would get drafted as of now. But as long as Willis stays healthy, the draft streak will live on.

Stanton: I think the draft streak is safe this year thanks to Jordan Willis. I think the question is will any other Wildcats be drafted? With the team being relatively young at many positions, Willis may be the only player taken in this year’s draft from K-State’s roster. I could see Mike Moore as a sleeper to sneak into a late round if he puts up some big numbers in the second half of the season.

@PowercatGameday Do you agree with the way BigXII leaders handled expansion? Is the league strongest with the current teams like they say?

— Korby Anderson (@k_andyson) October 25, 2016

Cole: I have no issue with staying at 10 teams and think it’s the right move. It’d just be nice if it wasn’t made into a public circus. One of the reasons I didn’t want to expand is I don’t think you want to give more money and credence to schools like Houston, BYU or Cincinnati. Because if college athletics does eventually evolve to four 16-team conferences, you don’t want those schools to have a shot at getting in one of those over a current Big 12 member due to the Big 12 propping that school up by inviting it to the conference.

Now, all that being said, I don’t think the four super conferences occurs. We discussed expansion on the panel some last week and I have grown tired of the talk of the Big 12 being dead. So much can change over the next seven to eight years before the Grant of Rights ends. Stanton mentioned last week the possibility of an eight-team playoff in college football at some point before the Grant of Rights ends. If that occurs, I don’t see the Big 12 going anywhere. And the conference could also have a dominant couple of years in football before that time ends and that talk of the conference going away will start to die down.

Stanton: I agree with the league’s eventual decision to stay at 10 teams. There weren’t attractive enough options out there and I think that the College Football Playoff will expand to 8 teams and the Big 12 will receive an automatic qualifier for their champion. If that occurs, I think the Big 12 will be stronger, due to the fact that Texas and Oklahoma will be happy with a defined path to the playoff.

How it was handled, I don’t necessarily agree with. What started with a loud mouthed David Boren fabricating the idea that the Big 12 was at some kind of disadvantage, ended like a pitcher who catches a batted line drive right back at their face. A “look what I found” moment. In the pitcher’s case, an out, and in the Big 12’s case, $10 million from ESPN in a restructured contract.

Maybe, the Big 12 knew what it was doing the whole time, it jumped into the deep end of the pool when it couldn’t swim, like Squints from The Sandlot. The $10M from ESPN was the Big 12’s Wendy Peffercorn. Just picture David Boren being asked, “did you plan that?” He tilts his chin up, leans back in his chair and says, “course I did, been planning it for years.”

John: My firm position on the Big 12 in just about everything they do is that there’s way too much business that should be handled behind closed doors that makes it way out to the media. I’m fine with the Big 12 choosing not to expand. I don’t think you’re adding any real long-term stability to the conference by adding (for example) Houston and Cincinnati. That’s not going to do much to convince Texas and Oklahoma to stay on once the grant of rights is up in 2025. We all know that’s the best case scenario for all of the schools outside of the big two.

The problem is all the media leaks about what teams were considered, whether or not individual teams were discussed, etc. It gives the perception that the league is desperate and dysfunctional. We’ve even seen conflicting reports from David Boren and Bob Bowlsby that have come out in the days after the Big 12 expansion (or lack thereof) press conference. Other conferences are so much better at keeping their business behind closed doors.

The biggest problem of all has been David Boren trying to speak on behalf of the league multiple times. That “psychologically disadvantaged” quote has stuck with the league for a long time.

Hello and welcome to another installation of the Powercat Gameday Panel. Kansas State welcomes Texas to Bill Snyder Family Stadium Saturday for Homecoming at 11:00 a.m. CT.

The crew will be broadcasting live in Cat Town, just southwest of BSFS. Come stop by or tune into Powercat Gameday live on KMAN starting at 7:00 a.m. CT.

Thanks as always to everyone who submitted a question to this week’s Powercat Gameday Panel. To submit a question tweet us at @PowercatGameday or to any of the panelists: @jlkurtz, @Cole_Manbeck, or @StantonWeber.

Let’s get started:

First off, I know we haven’t specified this in the past but just so everyone knows for future reference, none of us are therapists.

@PowercatGameday @jlkurtz @stantonweber @Cole_Manbeck Why do the cats make me feel the way they do?

— kstatenation (@kstatenation) October 17, 2016

So we can’t be much help with this one.

@Cole_Manbeck @PowercatGameday @jlkurtz @stantonweber is it time for a new staff? Is kellis okay? Why does @TylerDreiling hate kstate fans?

— kslim (@kslimlb3) October 16, 2016

Again, questions that are very deep. We can confirm @KellisRobinett survived the press conference, though.

Ah, this is better:

@PowercatGameday @jlkurtz @stantonweber @Cole_Manbeck what happened to just pounding the ball over and over? CJ and JS both were effective.

— Justin Hall (@BallerStatusCat) October 16, 2016

John: I’d say a combination of falling behind early and the injury to Jesse Ertz had an impact on this. Getting in a 14-0 and 21-7 hole isn’t really conducive to K-State being able to control the game on the ground. They did get it to 21-10, but then Ertz was knocked out of the game. His incompletion to start the first drive of the 3rd quarter helped doom the first drive of the second half. Then Joe Hubener is the quarterback and I think there’s a temptation there to try to use his big arm down the field against an Oklahoma secondary that had really struggled heading into that game.

I really would still like to see Alex Barnes and Dalvin Warmack utilized more too in the run game. We saw earlier this week that Pro Football Focus rates K-State’s offensive line as the third best in the country. Seems crazy, right? I think part of that is that Silmon and Jones aren’t quite dynamic enough to take full advantage of what the offensive line is doing. Therefore the yards per carry numbers don’t look as good as they could.

Cole: K-State running backs have 125 carries for for 659 yards this season, an average of 5.3 yards per carry. We can all agree that’s solid. Over Jesse Ertz’s last four games, he has 233 yards on the ground on 32 carries (including sack yardage), an average of 7.3 yards a rush. So the numbers look good when the Wildcats run it. Unfortunately, K-State was playing from behind the entire game at OU and went to the pass more than it probably would have liked.

I still agree that they should have run the ball more. And like John, I want to see Alex Barnes get more carries. He’s the Wildcats’ most physical running back and always falls forward. It’s time to get the freshman on the field more. Just speculating here, but I would look for K-State to start sprinkling in Byron Pringle at the Wildcat position soon as well.

Stanton: John does a nice job of covering why we got away from the run at Oklahoma above. I will add, in general, K-State needs to get more out of its run game. The designed quarterback run is something that we have missed this season and, in my opinion, would help improve the offense if it was utilized more. We have seen Jesse Ertz in the open field and he is dangerous. If K-State wants to minimize the hits the quarterback position takes, they can run the wildcat in normal down and distance situations (lots of options there). Dana Dimel and Charlie Dickey are a great run scheming combination and having an extra blocker on every play can only expand their ability to draw up successful plays. I want to see that staple of the offense return.

@PowercatGameday @jlkurtz @stantonweber @Cole_Manbeck what’s the morale of the team like after the last two weeks?

— ew (@ew2x4) October 16, 2016

Cole: I think the morale is fine for now. But lose to Texas this weekend and it may start to spiral downward. This is a game the Wildcats really need to win, especially with a road test against a hungry Iowa State team next weekend. Remember, the Cyclones are coming off a bye and will be motivated to get their first Big 12 win. So this Saturday could be the game that swings the morale up or down.

Stanton: Last year the team went through a six-game losing streak and it was miserable. Throughout the losing streak, though, the attitude of the team never wavered. The players showed up every day and bought into Coach Snyder’s 16 goals. The leadership on this year’s team has been quoted talking about how imperative their leadership is to avoiding these kinds of losing streaks. Due to last year, I think everyone on the team is more prepared to respond to loses and bounce back. I have no doubt that this team’s morale won’t be shaken by losing one at Oklahoma thanks to the combination of the culture that Coach Snyder has instilled in the program and the strong leadership.

John: They continue to say all the right things when talking to us in the media. This is a team that went through a six game losing streak last year, so they have some experience in having to deal with disappointing losses. Some of the leaders, Jordan Willis in particular, continue to mention that they learned some valuable lessons from that experience last year and they won’t let their effort and attitude dip like they feel like it did at times last year.

Having said all of that, this is a huge game this week. I think the players understand they’ve played three very difficult road games against teams with a combined 13-4 right now. There’s no real shame in losing three games in which you were clearly the underdog. However, if you lose a home game against a team that you’d at least think K-State is about even with, much more doubt would have to creep into your mind. The Wildcats really need to get two of these next three games to keep some positive momentum going into the home stretch of the season that includes road trips to Baylor and TCU.

@PowercatGameday I would love to see what Delton could contribute to the improvement of this struggling offense. Why haven’t we seen him?

— Korby Anderson (@k_andyson) October 16, 2016

Stanton: It took me roughly 2 years before I felt completely comfortable with the offense as a wide receiver at K-State. As a receiver, that understanding of the offense was only a fraction of the information that the quarterback is required to know to run the offense. We can’t forget Alex Delton is only a redshirt freshman. I think we can all agree that his physical tools are more intriguing than senior quarterback Joe Hubener, but if Alex Delton is not ready mentally, Hubener is the better option. Hubener’s understanding of the offense and experience made him the predictable choice to enter Saturday’s game in relief of Jesse Ertz, not to mention it was in one of the most intimidating environments in the Big 12. If Ertz can’t go Saturday, I would love to see what Alex Delton can do if he gets a shot against Texas. The friendly confines in Manhattan and a week to prepare a game plan tailored specifically to Delton would remind me a lot of the 2010 Texas game, Collin Klein’s first start of his career (39-14 win, 4 pass attempts).

John: Much like the Stanford game, I don’t think it would have been very fair to throw Alex Delton into the fire for his first real significant action on the road against a top 25 team (in this case with 82,000 fans bearing down on him). Bill Snyder said earlier this week that if Jesse Ertz weren’t able to play this week at home, there’s a good chance both Delton and Joe Hubener would play. It makes sense that the coaching staff would be much more willing to give Delton his shot at home when crowd noise wouldn’t be a limiting factor in what he can do with the offense.

I can definitely understand any frustration someone would have over not seeing him when Hubener clearly still struggles to consistently move the offense. However, I can also understand rolling with the guy who has 11 career starts in a situation where someone is getting totally thrown into the fire.

Cole: This is a frustrating thing for K-State fans, as the Wildcats’ coaching staff tends to rely heavily on experience over talented, younger players. Delton is still just a redshirt freshman, is still learning the system as well as developing his arm. He’s certainly gifted, and I’d like to see some packages created for him to get on the field and at the very least, run the ball with him.

I’m personally in favor of playing the younger guy for the future and taking the lumps of the growing pains now. Because let’s face it, K-State isn’t contending for a Big 12 championship this year. If they were, I’d be in favor of playing the veteran.

Still, it’s important to remember the only two times we have seen Hubener have been on the road against good teams playing from behind. If he were to start this Saturday and be on the field from the get-go, maybe we see an improved senior quarterback.

@stantonweber @PowercatGameday what is the single biggest factor in our success vs Texas?

— Jacob Yingst (@JacobYingst11) October 19, 2016

John: It really seems to me like this will come down to K-State finding some way to improve their passing attack. Much like Oklahoma, Texas really struggles to defend the pass and is pretty good against the run. Cole has some great numbers to illustrate this. Whether it’s a banged up Jesse Ertz, Joe Hubener or Alex Delton, the Wildcats are likely going to have to find a way to move the ball through the air to win this game. This is going to be the third straight week that K-State has played a bad pass defense, and so far the Wildcats are averaging just 164 yards per game against those defenses. Bill Snyder seemed intent on improving K-State’s passing game at his press conference this week, so you’d have to hope for a decent jump here.

Cole: K-State is going to have to find a way to successfully move the ball through the air against a Longhorns secondary that ranks 123rd out of 128 FBS teams in pass efficiency defense, the worst mark among all power-five teams. Texas also allows 9.1 yards per pass attempt, ranking 122nd nationally and second-worst among all power-five teams. One of the challenges will be giving whoever is behind center time to throw. Texas ranks third nationally in sack rate, sacking the QB on 11.1 percent of the time an opponent drops back to pass. K-State’s offensive line ranks 112th in the country in sack rate allowed, giving up a sack on 9.3 percent of its drop-back attempts.

Texas holds opponents to 3.7 yards per carry, ranking in the top 35 in the country. It’s one of the strengths of its defense. The Wildcats will still need to effectively run the football, and I think they can. But K-State will need improved play at quarterback if it’s going to win against a Texas defense that I believe is about to hit its stride with Charlie Strong taking over the unit two weeks ago.

Stanton: Kansas State needs to find a way to jump start their offense first and foremost but I will look to the defense for my key to success. Texas’ running back D’Onte Foreman has been on a tear lately, rushing for over 100 yards in his last 7 games dating back to last season. K-State’s rush defense is ranked 4th nationally, and will need to win the battle of strength on strength to break Foreman’s streak. That will be a good start to having an improved performance by a defense that was gashed last week.

@PowercatGameday @jlkurtz @Cole_Manbeck @stantonweber next 3 games are winnable for K-State, what will their record be after these games?

— Marcus (@KSU_LYNCH_MOB) October 18, 2016

Stanton: It’s fair to say that the next three games are critical to K-State’s run at bowl eligibility. In my opinion, Kansas State needs to go at least 2-1 in these next three or they’re looking at an uphill battle to the six-win mark. Fortunately, all of the next three are winnable games. Texas and Oklahoma State have consistently struggled in Bill Snyder Family Stadium, in fact, since 1989 the two teams have left Manhattan victorious only one time each (Texas 2002, Oklahoma State 2010). Looking at Iowa State, I think Ames, Iowa is one of the toughest places to play in the Big 12, but Bill Snyder hasn’t lost to the Cyclones in his second tenure as head coach.

I think the Texas game will determine how the following two contests go. If K-State gets a victory on Saturday, I think K-State will go 3-0 and, if they don’t, I think they will likely go 1-2. When Bill Snyder-coached teams get a win under their belt like this week’s matchup with Texas, they tend to build on the momentum but, as we saw last year, it’s tough to get that first win to get the ball rolling.

John: There’s no doubt K-State needs to go at least 2-1 to feel good about bowl eligibility. That would put them at 5-4 with a home game against Kansas still on the schedule. If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on the Wildcats finding a way to win two of the next three. Take that with a grain of salt though because my college football lock of the year Indiana let me down last week (though we all know Nebraska really fumbled that ball late in the game).

It’s well documented how much Texas has struggled in Manhattan. Despite the fact that they’re clearly dangerous, Iowa State is still a one-win team right now. Plus, Oklahoma State will have only played road games at Baylor (a loss) and Kansas before heading to Manhattan on November 5th.

I know everyone seems to be panicking right now, but I still think this team is better than the 2015 squad and should be able to get to 6 or 7 wins. All three of the home games left are winnable, and I’d certainly put the road trip to Iowa State in that category too. This defense should be good enough to keep K-State in most of the games left on the schedule, and the offense still seems to have a higher ceiling than last year’s if Jesse Ertz can stay reasonably healthy.

Cole: Four weeks ago, I thought K-State would all three of its upcoming games. I no longer feel that way. As of right now, I’m picking Texas and Iowa State to defeat the Wildcats over the next two weeks. I hope I’m wrong. There’s a good chance I am. But if that occurs, I don’t see K-State making a bowl. But these are winnable games over the next three weeks, so as of now, I will play the percentages and say K-State will make a bowl.

@PowercatGameday @jlkurtz @Cole_Manbeck @stantonweber with all this alignment talk,what conference will Kstate be in when the big 12 dies?

— McCain ® (@IamAustinMcCain) October 19, 2016

John: Well according to Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard, a conference that’s on par with the Mountain West. I know it’s popular to unload on the Big 12 right now, but I’m still going to hold out some hope that the league can continue beyond the 2025 expiration of the grant of rights. It’s still only been six years since Missouri and Nebraska started the Big 12 mass exodus. Think of how much could change between now and 2025.

One take I really agree with coming out of Big 12 expansion (or lack thereof) is that the league should make a push to get the playoff expanded to eight teams. If that happens, and the Big 12 gets an automatic bid to the CFB playoff, there’s a reasonable case to pitch to Texas and Oklahoma that their easiest/best route to the playoff is to stay in the Big 12. It’s also still a conference where they’re clearly the top dogs and can push their agenda successfully most of the time. I’d have to think that’s a fairly compelling case.

Apparently I’m the optimist now…not sure what exactly happened there.

Cole: I am really tired of all the Big 12 is dead talk. The landscape eight years from now could be drastically different. In a couple of years, the Big 12 could be a power in football again with multiple teams competing for a playoff spot. Also, as a Stanton mentions below, there very well could be an eight-team college football playoff by the time the grant of rights expires. If that occurs, the Big 12 is always assured a playoff spot, which calms the realignment talk.

All of this talk is coming out during a year that the Big 12 is down in football, and because David Boren never shuts up. Remember, Boren will likely be retired by the time the grant of rights is up. I think the move to stay at 10 teams is fine. And I think the Big 12 will survive past 2025.

Now, if the Big 12 were to dissolve and there were four 16-team conferences, I could see K-State in the Pac-12. Here’s how I could see that happen:

Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to the SEC (assuming those two can’t part ways due to political pressure).

TCU and Baylor are in trouble as they are private schools, which the Pac-12 has always been reluctant on adding.

So I could see Texas Tech, K-State, Texas and possibly KU to the Pac-12.

Stanton: First of all, for the sake of my already broken heart in the realm of conference realignment, I am going to act like you asked where K-State will end up “if” the Big 12 dies. I grew up watching K-State compete in the Big 12 North, a division with great rivalries and tradition stemming from the old Big 8. Running around the backyard as a kid and dreaming of playing football for K-State was a pastime at my house. Those imaginary games weren’t taking place in Morgantown, West Virginia. I was dreaming of playing in Lincoln, Nebraska against the Huskers or Missouri at Faurot Field. Unfortunately, times changed.

I think it’s only a matter of time before the college football playoff expands to eight teams, and along with that, an automatic bid will be awarded to the Big 12 conference champion. If that happens, I think Texas and Oklahoma can be satisfied with the Big 12 as a vehicle to the playoff, bringing stability to the conference. For K-State’s sake, I hope this sense of security comes sooner rather than later, because if another major shuffle occurs, K-State could potentially be left out in the cold by the remaining power conferences.

Welcome to another installation of the Powercat Gameday panel, where we answer your questions about K-State football. After an impressive win over Texas Tech, K-State and Powercat Gameday are on the road again this weekend in Norman, Oklahoma.

Come join the crew at O’Connell’s Irish Pub and Grille, just a half mile walk from the stadium. The Powercat Gameday crew will be on the air bright and early starting at 7 a.m. If you can’t make it down for the game, make sure to tune in to the biggest pregame show in the Big 12.

Thanks as always to everyone who submitted a question to this week’s Powercat Gameday Panel. To submit a question tweet us at @PowercatGameday or to any of the panelists: @jlkurtz, @Cole_Manbeck, or @StantonWeber.

Let’s go:

@PowercatGameday how good were the defensive adjustments in the 2nd half? How bad was that pass inference call on DJ that took 2nd int away?

— Marcus (@KSU_LYNCH_MOB) October 10, 2016

John: The defense in the second half was lights out. They basically held Tech, a team that was averaging 59.5 points per game, to just three second half points (if we take away the awful pass interference penalty you mentioned). When asked about it after the game, Bill Snyder did mention that there could have been some coverage changes that affected Patrick Mahomes just enough to make a difference.

The biggest thing you can point to statistically that led to the turnaround was the third and fourth down defense. Tech started the game 8-for-9 on third down and finished just 1-for-7. K-State
also successfully defended Tech on all three fourth down attempts they had. After the first half, I’m not sure anybody saw that coming.

As for the pass interference call, it was bad enough to make Sportscenter.

Cole: Over the final eight possessions of the game, Tech scored 10 points, an average of 1.3 points per possession. Take away the awful pass interference call on D.J. Reed and K-State only allowed 3 points over the final eight Texas Tech possessions. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Tech still got its yards, but as John mentioned, the biggest difference was K-State’s ability to get off the field on third and fourth downs in the second half. They also got some hits on Mahomes and I think it started to take a toll on his throwing arm as the game went on.

Stanton: When the K-State football players cat-pack into the locker room after the first half of a game, a very calculated regimen is set into motion. Just like everything else Coach Bill Snyder does, halftime is scheduled down to the second. Another item added to a long list of things that he puts extra emphasis on that most coaches take for granted.

A white board set in front of a formation of chairs awaits the players. Special Teams are always first (this is no coincidence, reference that list I mentioned earlier). Special Teams Coordinator Sean Snyder starts the meeting, firing questions at his core of cover and return players. Their answers turn into an open discussion amongst the group about what they are seeing, Sean Snyder listens intently, calculating how they can exploit the opponent in the second half.

No more than 30 seconds into the Special Teams meeting Defensive Coordinator Tom Hayes has snuck behind Sean Snyder and began very neatly writing his list of halftime adjustments on the whiteboard. Once he is satisfied with the list, he begins drawing an array of X’s and O’s. Play after play of what he wants to emphasize in the meeting that is about to begin. Before the two minute special teams meeting is over, the board is covered with green ink and Tom Hayes is impatiently waiting to start his meeting. He knows how important the half time adjustments are and he is as good as it gets at making them.

If the questionable PI is not called against DJ Reed, and K-State doesn’t give up that last touchdown to Tech, Tom Hayes and his defense have given up an average of only 7.2 points in the second half of games this season. Speaking of the pass interference, the contact that may have merited the flag occurred very early in the route, I have seen worse calls. It was unfortunate to see such a great play on the ball negated by a penalty.

@Cole_Manbeck @PowercatGameday is it our o-line that’s preventing our offense from scoring more? We are improved at all skill positions.

— Ben Mense (@benmense) October 12, 2016

@Cole_Manbeck @PowercatGameday and what’s our points per possession comparison this year vs tech compared to last year vs tech.

— Ben Mense (@benmense) October 12, 2016

Cole: To answer Ben’s first question, last season K-State allowed 59 points on 16 Tech possessions, an average of 3.7 points per drive. This past Saturday, K-State allowed 38 points on 14 possessions, an average of 2.7 points per drive, a significant improvement against an offense that was leading the country at 4.30 points per possession coming into Manhattan. And if you take away the bad pass interference call, K-State actually only allowed 2.2 points per possession. There aren’t going to be many teams to hold Tech to that low of a points per drive rate this season.

As far as the offensive line, I actually think they’ve been OK, outside of giving up too many sacks. Abdul Beecham is an upgrade at left guard and will be a very nice player over the remaining 2 ½ seasons of his career. Terrale Johnson has played well at right guard and freshman Scott Frantz is improving at left tackle. Dalton Risner has also been steady. Could the line be better? Absolutely. However, many of the sacks allowed have been the result of the quarterback holding the ball too long or the receivers not getting separation and getting open.

Against West Virginia, the Mountaineers were stacking the box trying to take the run away from K-State. Ertz and the receivers weren’t able to capitalize against a lot of one-on-one matchups and that made running the football difficult for the o-line.

K-State is certainly improved athletically at receiver, but they’re still inexperienced at that position and learning. They’ve dropped several catchable passes this season.

Stanton: It is fair to say that K-State is improved at all the skill positions and, after losing four out of your five starting offensive linemen (including an NFL second round draft pick), it is fair to assume that the O-Line unit is going to have growing pains. Even though they haven’t been perfect, this unit has not given me any reason to believe that they deserve any more of the blame for the slow offensive start than any other position.

When it comes to the question of if the offensive line is some kind of governor on the potential of our offense, I don’t think that’s the case. Offensive Line Coach Charlie Dickey is just too good at what he does. Year after year I saw him take a group that many doubted and push each and every guy in his room to be their absolute best. Along with Co-Offensive Coordinator Dana Dimmel, the two coaches do an excellent job of understanding the front five’s strengths, as well as weaknesses, and then putting them into situations where they can be successful.

As for the success of the offense I look to Jesse Ertz, the offense will go as he goes. If he develops into the player that he has the potential to be, K-State’s offense can be very good. Last week against Texas Tech he took steps forward, every week he is looking more and more comfortable and I look for that improvement to continue.

John: I think it’s still a combination of everything. Yes, theoretically K-State has upgraded the talent at all of the skill spots. However, K-State still has a brand new starting quarterback and two of the top four receivers right now are getting their first action as well. Bill Snyder has mentioned on multiple occasions that receivers have contributed to some of Jess Ertz’s struggles. In the game Saturday, Isaiah Zuber dropped multiple passes that were certainly catchable. Byron Pringle dropped maybe the most important pass of the game at West Virginia that seemingly was the difference between a win and a loss.

I’m not saying the offensive line is completely free of any blame. K-State has already gone to the measure of moving Abdul Beecham from tackle to guard. That tells you that they weren’t feeling great about either Will Ash or Tyler Mitchell who had each made starts at left guard this season. I think Beecham at this point is the most talented of those three and will probably keep the position moving forward. That should help with continuity as the season goes along.

The entire offense is a work in progress and frankly needs to improve a lot if K-State wants to accomplish anything beyond merely being bowl eligible this year, but the blame for that can be split pretty evenly across the board.

@PowercatGameday where does Kliff Kingsbury sit on the list of Big 12 head coach hot seats?

— Korby Anderson (@k_andyson) October 10, 2016

Stanton: Watching a Texas Tech game makes me wonder what their practices are like. Football teams are interesting organizations because they are a group that is essentially split down the middle (with the exceptions of the kickers, punters, and long snappers, those guys are in their own world), half offense and half defense. These two groups are always competing against each other, trash talk happens, fights occur, bad blood can certainly exist.

The head coach presides over this interesting dynamic, if the offense has a good day of practice naturally that also means the defense has room to improve. How does a given coach approach these kind of situations, specifically Kliff Kingsbury? I could see Texas Tech’s defense being treated like a scout team for the past four years: Every time the offense throws an incompletion or an offensive lineman misses a block, the coaches line every one back up and repeat the play emphasizing that it is paramount that it be run to perfection. When, on the flip side, the defense is hearing their opposing unit receive praise every time one of Tech’s 15 receivers beats them on a fade route, and the coaches move practice along.

A head coach instills a culture in his team and I perceive that Coach Kingsbury’s offensive background influences everything they do: fast paced, flashy, free spirited. This is good for recruiting, fun to watch, and leads to having one of the top offenses in the country. But if you were going to describe what it takes to be successful in football you would use words more like discipline, toughness, and consistency, adjectives in stark contrast of the ones I used to describe Texas Tech.

Kliff Kingsbury has proven he can be a great offensive coordinator, but until he stops acting like an offensive coordinator and starts acting like a head coach, Texas Tech will continue to finish in the middle of the pack in the Big 12. I don’t think he is in danger of getting fired this year but, moving forward, it will be an interesting to see if he can mature into a coach that emphasizes defense and minimizing penalties as much as his high flying offense. Many great coordinators found their success as head coaches emphasizing the unit opposite of their expertise (see Bill Snyder Defenses). Can Kingsbury make this transition before Texas Tech fans get tired of winning 7 games a year? Time will tell.

John: Well considering he looks exactly like Ryan Gosling, I’m not sure there’s a “hotter” seat in the country. That’s what you meant, right?

Cole: I know my wife hopes he doesn’t go anywhere. She’s a big Kingsbury fan and I’m beginning to think it’s not because of the offense he runs.

As far as him being on the hot seat, he should be. He’s 22-21 in his first three-plus seasons. But he started 7-0 in his first year and is 15-21 since. In addition, he’s 11-18 in Big 12 games, but 4-18 against every team not named KU and Iowa State.

It has to be frustrating to be a Tech fan over all these years. They’ve always had a great offense and if they could just put an average defense on the field one of these years, the Red Raiders would be a true Big 12 title contender.

@PowercatGameday how does the win over Tech translate into the possibilities of success against OU? Apples and oranges?

— JR (@jmbhrapp) October 10, 2016

John: Well it was a win that K-State absolutely had to have as far as bowl eligibility is concerned and the confidence of the team moving forward. As far as what will translate to the Oklahoma game, the biggest thing is just the defense showing an ability to limit an elite offense. The Sooners certainly bring that to the table, but it is a much different offense than Tech. OU not only has a very good passing attack, especially with the recent emergence of wide receiver Dede Westbrook, but they also have maybe the best combination of running backs in the country with Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon. That makes it a much different challenge than what K-State saw in Texas Tech.

The good news is that a team that wants to run the ball more plays into the biggest strength of the K-State defense which is the front seven. The bad news is that the balance of the Sooners offense gives them more options with which to find success against the Cats.

I know that Stanford doesn’t look good offensively at all right now, but we’ve seen K-State play very well against a run-based attack that features an elite running back (Christian McCaffrey). We’ve also seen them play pretty well against two spread offenses that rely heavily on their quarterback and athletic wide receivers (Texas Tech and West Virginia). The question now becomes what happens when you combine both of those aspects into one offense.

Cole: They’re such different teams that I don’t see it translating. Tech is one of the worst running teams in the country. So K-State was able to make the Red Raiders’ offense essentially one-dimensional. Oklahoma, meanwhile, is the most balanced offense K-State will face this season. The Sooners are averaging 215 rushing yards a game and 313 passing yards. Oklahoma averages 6.8 yards an offensive play, ranking 10th in the country. And Baker Mayfield’s 10 yards per pass attempt ranks 2nd-best nationally. So this is a more complete offense than Tech’s.

In addition, Tech has a terrible run defense. The Sooners do not. They’re holding teams to 3.7 yards per rush this season, ranking 30th in the country. Oklahoma’s weakness is its pass defense. The Sooners rank 117th out of 128 FBS teams in pass efficiency defense. However, K-State has struggled in the passing game thus far this season. If the Wildcats are going to have any chance of pulling off the upset, they’ll likely need their best passing performance to date.

Not to mention OU’s success at home under Bob Stoops. The Sooners have the best home winning percentage in the entire FBS under Stoops. K-State has handed him two of his nine home losses, both coming in the last two trips to Norman. But those were veteran K-State teams with an experienced quarterback. This Wildcats squad is still relatively inexperienced and this will be the toughest road game of the season.

Stanton: Every win is big, and last week’s win over Tech was especially important to the momentum of K-State’s team moving forward. As the season progresses and this young team’s comfort level rises, each one of these types of wins affirms to the players what their coach and tireless preparation has wired them to believe, that they are good enough to compete in the Big 12. That affirmation leads to confidence, and a confident Bill Snyder football team is hard to deal with. You can look into the details of matchups and statistics but when it comes to Bill Snyder teams, wins translate into more wins. When his teams get rolling, they are a force to be reckoned with, the win over Tech makes me think anything is possible against Oklahoma this week.

@PowercatGameday KSU went to the run game against Tech. Do you expect continued dedication to running or is it back AirDana against OU?

— Doug Cramer (@rdcramer) October 12, 2016

Cole: I went ahead and hit on this in an earlier question, but Oklahoma’s strength is its run defense. The Sooners have been awful against the pass. So does K-State try to go strength against strength or attempt to exploit OU’s weakness in its secondary? I’d look for a balanced attack. If the Wildcats are going to win, they’ll have to also be able to run the ball with relative success. If they can average 4 yards per rush or more, I think they can stay in this game.

Stanton: As we saw against Tech, when K-State can establish the run the offense will have success. I was encouraged by Jesse Ertz’s 8.3 yards per carry against Texas Tech and would look to see K-State counter the stout Sooner run defense by adding an extra blocker to the run game through running the quarterback. If Oklahoma does decide to load up the box, K-State will have to try to exploit the one on one matchups of the receivers against a beaten up Oklahoma secondary. Dana Dimmel will get K-State into situations where they can be successful. Just as the young players are getting a feel for the game, Coach Dimmel is getting a feel for who he can trust to execute in certain situations. He is adjusting and working to improve every week and we saw that against Texas Tech.

John: The problem here is that the weakness of the Oklahoma defense is their secondary. The Sooners have battled a number of injuries on defense, and their pass defense is 113th in the country (288 yards per game allowed). K-State’s offense doesn’t seem very well equipped to take advantage of the biggest achilles heel of the Sooners defense. I’d expect Oklahoma to load up the box and do whatever they can to force Jesse Ertz to beat them through the air. K-State absolutely still has to try to establish the run, but I fear that will be much easier said than done.

Also if you look back to last year, K-State came out trying to throw the ball a bunch early before they fell into a huge hole. The Wildcats first six offensive plays were passes. That resulted in a punt and an interception that helped spot the Sooners a 14-0 lead.

There are a lot of things that point towards K-State likely trying to throw the ball quite a bit.

@stantonweber @PowercatGameday will the Wildcats go to Norman with a huge chip on their shoulders? They should! We owe OU a manhandling!!!

— Gary Segraves (@CobraGT44) October 10, 2016

Stanton: In my five years at K-State, last year’s Oklahoma game was the worst loss that I suffered as a player. It was K-State’s first shutout at home since 1991. We were embarrassed. I still have a bad taste in my mouth about it and there is no doubt that all the players back from last year do too. They players will be talking about it often this week to motivate each other and I am interested to see how they respond.

John: I can tell you that one of the things we heard over and over from K-State players immediately after the Texas Tech game was that they absolutely haven’t forgotten how brutal that game was last year in Manhattan. They said Bill Snyder brought up the 55-0 loss in the locker room after they took care of Texas Tech.

This also isn’t the Oklahoma of a month ago. The Sooners, at least in Big 12 circles, seem to have again established themselves as the Big 12 favorite. It’s a big game on ESPN against a traditional power that now seems to be playing it’s best football and K-State is a double digit underdog. I don’t think you need to worry about this team lacking motivation in this game.

Cole: K-State had scored in 234 consecutive games dating back to 1991. And then the Sooners ended that streak last year, completely humiliating the Wildcats and handing them their worst home shutout loss in school history. K-State had 110 yards of offense and averaged 2.1 yards per play.

There should be plenty of motivation for the players on this K-State team who were a part of last year’s contest. OU will be fired up as well. K-State has defeated the Sooners in two consecutive trips to Norman and Oklahoma appears to have refocused itself on a Big 12 championship after two losses to Houston and Ohio State in the nonconference.

@PowercatGameday @stantonweber what’s more likely to happen. A 55 point blowout like 2015 or a 3rd straight win in Norman?

— Jacob Yingst (@JacobYingst11) October 12, 2016

John: If it’s literally between a 50+ point blowout or a K-State win, I’d definitely go with a K-State win. All of the recent history in Manhattan would indicate that for whatever reason, the Wildcats really struggle against the Sooners at home. In 2011 we all campaigned for College Gameday to come to Manhattan, but the 7-0 Cats got rocked in the second half and lost 58-17. In 2013 K-State was in the midst of a four-game winning streak and taking on an OU team that was a disappointing 8-2 coming off of a blowout loss to Baylor. Yet the Sooners still controlled the game and won 41-31. In 2015 K-State was not only in a rebuilding type of season, but they were extremely beat up mentally and physically after heartbreaking losses to TCU and Oklahoma State. I’d say it’s somewhat fair to chalk up losing that badly to all of those factors adding up.

On the other side of that coin is K-State’s recent success in Norman. We all know K-State has won two straight at Oklahoma, but they even came close to stealing one the last time they played there before that in Bill Snyder’s first year back in 2009.

Combine all of that with the fact that this is definitely a more talented K-State team than last season and I’d have a hard time seeing the Wildcats losing by anywhere near 55 points.

Cole: I don’t see any way OU blows K-State out by 50-plus points. So I’ll go with a K-State win as much more likely vs. the other option.

Stanton: There are not many places in college football like Gaylord Family Stadium in Norman, and as a player, it brings out the best in you. This has been the case the last two times K-State has made the trip down to Oklahoma. I am excited to see what this K-State team does with their opportunity. I think one of the keys to victory for K-State is starting fast and keeping Oklahoma’s offense off the board early. I think the 11:00 am kickoff on the road plays into the hands of the Wildcats, the home team may need some time to wake up while the road team is ready to play a football game and get home. I think a victory for K-State is much more likely than anything resembling a blowout. It will be tough, Stoops has never lost to a team three times in a row at home but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a K-State win.

The Powercat Gameday Panel is back again to field your questions about K-State football. Kansas State welcomes Texas Tech to Bill Snyder Family Stadium Saturday for its home Big 12 opener at 6:00 p.m. CT.

The crew will be broadcasting live in Cat Town, just southwest of BSFS. Come stop by or tune into Powercat Gameday live on KMAN starting at 2:00 pm CT.

Thanks as always to everyone who submitted a question to this week’s Powercat Gameday Panel. To submit a question tweet us at @PowercatGameday or to any of the panelists: @jlkurtz, @Cole_Manbeck, or @StantonWeber.

Let’s get started:

@jlkurtz @PowercatGameday Have Big12 DCs figured out Dimel’s audible tree, “if we show this, KSU will audible into that” to their advantage?

— ksuhamburglar (@ksuhamburglar) October 3, 2016

John: I’m sure there’s some truth to this, but I don’t think it’s unique to just K-State. As Stanton mentions, everyone is pouring over film for hours and hours to find these types of advantages. I highly, highly doubt that this is anywhere near the main reason K-State has struggled on offense. I’d venture a guess it has much more to do with the fact that right now K-State is far too hurried the majority of the time that they are getting snaps off. There were a number of plays on Saturday that seemed doomed from the start because the offense was in such flux trying to get the ball snapped on time. You have to keep in mind that there’s basically three new offensive linemen and a new quarterback out there trying to figure this all out. Not an excuse, because the offense clearly has to get much better than it is, but just pointing out the reality facing K-State right now. The bottom line is the offense needs to strike a balance between finding the perfect play and finding a good play that can be executed consistently.

Cole: Terrific question, and I’ll point to Stanton on this one as he has a little better idea than me. But I also agree with John. K-State has to stop changing plays with less than 10 seconds on the play clock. It really puts your quarterback and offensive players in a bad situation when you’re scrambling to change a play, get everyone in the right spots and get the snap off in time — especially on the road with the crowd noise. I think K-State tends to overthink itself at times trying to get in the best play possible.

Stanton: This is a great question, one that head football coaches around the country are asking themselves. It’s the reason that coaches watch hours of film. “If our defense shows them ‘this,’ they always go to ‘this.’”

With game weeks being bunched together in the fall, there is intensive preparation for the next opponent set into motion the morning after games. There is more work to do than there are hours in the day just to prepare for the opponent. Despite this, coach Bill Snyder and his staff find a way to dissect weaknesses of their opponent week after week. But something that coach Snyder thinks of that many coaches may not is that he takes time in the offseason and during each game week to take an extensive look at his own team. He employs his staff to “self scout,” or try to pick apart trends that K-State has shown throughout the previous weeks and tailor its game plan to minimize the weaknesses and keep their opponents on their toes.

Make no mistake, with the trend in college football of no-huddle offenses and calling plays from the press box that get signaled in after the defense has shown its hand, college football coaches across the country are looking for any kind of advantage to win the chess game that checking at the line of scrimmage has become. Fortunately, K-State fans can rest assured that the coaching staff is taking every precaution to eliminate the possibility of an opponent taking advantage of their tendencies.

@PowercatGameday With Tech’s sluggish defense, what are some key aspects our offense can focus on during game time to improve?

— Korby Anderson (@k_andyson) October 5, 2016

Cole: K-State attempted 11 passes of 25 yards or more against West Virginia last Saturday. I’d suggest not doing that again. As Stanton mentions below, throw some shorter passes to get Ertz some confidence early in the game — maybe a screen pass, if that exists.

The Wildcats should be able to do anything they want against this Tech defense. The Red Raiders allowed 301 yards rushing and 5.7 yards per rush against Arizona State. Louisiana Tech rushed for 263 yards and 7.2 yards a carry against Tech. Those two teams also combined to completed 70 percent of their passes for 662 yards, five touchdowns and zero interceptions. If the Wildcats are going to be an average offense at the bare minimum, then they better be able to dominate Tech’s defense or it’s going to be a long season.

Stanton: Among other things, I think It’s going to be very important for K-State to improve its passing efficiency. The 10-for-30 clip against West Virginia is not going to win you many ball games. I would like to see Jesse Ertz and the receivers get into a rhythm early with shorter, high percentage passes. As the shorter passes are established K-State can take its shots down the field with play action. K-State getting back into its game is something that I want to see this week after it felt like the Wildcats got away from what they do best (establish the run, control the clock, and pick their spots in the passing game).

John: I’ll take all of the above. It would be nice to see the run game get going against a Power 5 opponent. The Cats have averaged just 2.9 yards per carry in games against Stanford and West Virginia. Especially in a game where the offense can help the defense out so much by controlling the clock against a fast-paced, spread offense, the run game should be crucial.

At the same time, this has to be a game where Jesse Ertz establishes that he can definitely be the guy at quarterback. Bill Snyder already fielded questions this week at his press conference about if he would make a change if Ertz continues to struggle. I’d have to think winning the job two years in a row has given Ertz a fairly long leash, but Snyder made sure to point out that any position is a constant competition.

Stanton: I think the most important thing you can do as a defense against a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes is don’t allow him to dictate the game. Mahomes and head coach Kliff Kingsbury are lethal when they are in a rhythm. Kansas State must force incompletions, sack Mahomes, and hit him so hard that he regrets every time he tucks it down to run. Easier said than done but this will be a fun matchup to watch.

John: I’m glad that you used the word “contain” instead of “stop.” He’s a guy that put up an average of 393 total yards per game last season and is already averaging 412 yards per game this season in four games. The good news is, with a sprained AC joint in his shoulder he should be less willing to run the football. That’s essentially the same issue that Jake Waters had in 2014 when he became much less willing to take off and run. Mahomes’ ability to run is one thing that seems to set him apart from the average Texas Tech quarterback. If he’s forced to become more one-dimensional, it gives K-State’s bend but don’t break style of defense a better shot at being successful. I think you basically look at the blueprint from the West Virginia game and apply it to this one. Force a few turnovers, force field goal attempts and perhaps some turnovers on downs.

Cole: One of the things that makes Mahomes different than previous Tech quarterbacks is his mobility. In his three years at Tech, he has rushed for 725 yards (including lost yardage from sacks). So K-State will have to keep him in the pocket as best as they can. That being said, I’m not sure he’s going to be looking to run much if he plays as he’s coming off a shoulder injury last Thursday against Kansas.

One of K-State’s strengths is its pass rush from the front four. Unfortunately, Tech quarterbacks typically get rid of the ball quickly so getting consistent pressure will be a challenge. The Red Raiders have allowed a sack on 4.6 percent of their passing attempts this season. To compare, K-State’s offensive line is allowing a sack on 13 percent of its passing attempts — a significant problem going on two seasons now, but that’s not what you asked.

Mahomes is completing a career-best 73 percent of his passes for 10.7 yards a pass attempt. But a couple things going in K-State’s favor is Mahomes hasn’t faced a defense as good as K-State’s yet, and he also struggled on the road last season. The junior quarterback recorded 26 touchdowns to just four interceptions at home last year, but had 10 touchdowns to 11 interceptions on the road.

He will present a lot of challenges for K-State’s defense, but making Mahomes and the Tech offense one-dimensional will be a start. The Red Raiders were terrific at running the football last year but not so much this season. In 2015, Tech averaged 5.4 yards per carry, ranking 14th in the country and its 191 rushing yards a game ranked 40th nationally. This season, Tech is averaging just 4 yards per carry against FBS opponents, ranking 94th nationally and just 117 rushing yards per game, ranking 117th out of 128 FBS teams. K-State needs to eliminate the Red Raiders’ running game.

@PowercatGameday will the defense be the best in the big 12?

— Marcus (@KSU_LYNCH_MOB) October 4, 2016

John: They took a big step towards legitimizing themselves in that regard on Saturday as far as I’m concerned. I wanted to see them back up what they’d done so far against a legitimate spread offense, and they definitely did that against West Virginia. It was bend but don’t break defense at it’s finest in the world of high-flying Big 12 offenses. They forced a missed field goal early, got a turnover on downs and forced two turnovers as well. This resulted in holding West Virginia out of the endzone until early in the fourth quarter.

Statistically right now K-State is leading all the major defensive categories by a substantial margin. That can definitely change, especially with the top-ranked scoring offense in the country coming to Manhattan this week, but I seriously doubt K-State finishes outside of the top three in the conference by the end of the season.

The two things they continue to do consistently that really legitimize their efforts are forcing turnovers and getting to the quarterback. It was impressive to see the three sacks they got on Skyler Howard, but that doesn’t even tell the whole story. They were clearly disrupting a majority of the pass plays for the Mountaineers during the first three quarters.

Cole: I certainly think it’s possible. K-State’s defense had a stretch where it allowed just one touchdown in nine quarters of football prior to the fourth quarter at West Virginia. The Wildcats are only allowing 1.32 points per opponent possession, ranking 15th in the country and No. 1 in the Big 12. That number is going to increase as Big 12 play continues, but it’s still quite an improvement from the 2.60 points per possession K-State allowed last season.

K-State’s ability to get pressure with its front four is my favorite thing about this defense. Jordan Willis is a stud, Tanner Wood is solid, and Reggie Walker is going to be a stud. The Wildcats sacked Skyler Howard three times Saturday. He’d only been sacked once all season heading into last Saturday’s contest, and that single sack was a 1-yard loss. Not only that, but K-State forced Howard into several rushed throws with its pass rush.

Stanton: K-State’s defense passed another test this past weekend. The front seven found success against an offensive line that had only given up one sack all season, they forced turnovers, and kept their team competitive throughout the game. What more can you ask for from a defense living in the world of the high flying offenses of the Big12? This week will be their toughest test of the season thus far as, statistically, the top offense in the country comes to Manhattan. The game against Texas Tech will be a good gauge of whether they are just a good defense or among the elites. If K-State can stay healthy throughout the entirety of the season, I like their chances of finishing in the top three.

@Cole_Manbeck @PowercatGameday Worse no call – Byron Pringle at Stanford or Jordan Willis at West Virginia?

— Kellis Robinett (@KellisRobinett) October 5, 2016

Cole: A very astute question. I know holding calls occur all the time and many are missed. But I have no idea how Cooper Castlebury missed the hold on Willis Saturday. First of all, holds on the interior of the line tend to get missed more frequently than on the outside. In this instance, the quarterback is rolling to the right and is outside the tackle box. So the tackle is on an island against the best defensive end in the Big 12. Willis was not only held once on the play, but twice. It was an obvious call that should have been made.

West Virginia may have still scored a touchdown, but it would have been 2nd-and-17 and remember, the Mountaineers may have kicked a field goal if K-State forced them into a fourth down. There were 7 minutes remaining in the game, West Virginia had two timeouts, and a field goal would have made it a 3-point game. Considering the way K-State’s offense was playing, I have to figure West Virginia would have taken the 3 points if K-State held them and the Wildcats would have still led.

Stanton: The Jordan Willis call hurt more but there are not many missed calls more blatant than the MMA style takedown that Stanford defensive back Alijah Holder executed on Byron Pringle. I am going to answer this one as if I was the director of officials, and I can’t find an excuse for the back judge that was standing in the corner of the endzone to miss that call. I don’t know what else he could have been even looking at. You could argue that Jordan Willis was being held right in front of the referee but I think holding calls get missed much more often than the kind of contact we saw on Pringle.

John: I know the Pringle call was much more obvious, but I have to go with the hold on Jordan Willis. That’s simply because it was a very impactful play in the game. It was 2nd and goal from the seven yard line. A 10-yard penalty from the spot (a few yards behind the LOS) all of the sudden makes it 2nd and goal from around the 20 yard line. That’s far from a given that West Virginia punches it in at that point, especially the way the K-State defense played most of the game.

Alas, we’ll never likely know how and why that call was missed. Willis didn’t get any kind of explanation himself when he tried to plead his case and I wouldn’t expect any kind of definitive answer from the league to come back to K-State.

@PowercatGameday Bill Snyder has not lost to Texas Tech in Manhattan in 4,357 days. Does this streak continue come Saturday?

— Patrick Hines (@patemaw7) October 3, 2016

Stanton: Texas Tech is one of the teams in the Big 12 that just never seems to play very well in Manhattan. That is the biggest reason that I think K-State gets it done Saturday. If this game were in Lubbock I would be on the fence. Offensively, K-State has a lot to prove this week, they need to find an identity and a rhythm that they can move forward with. On the defensive side this is a really intriguing matchup of potentially the best offense K-State will see this year against what appears to be one of the best defenses in the Big 12. A victory for the Wildcats this week is critical and, with the help of a loud home crowd, I think Coach Snyder’s streak continues.

John: I’d imagine so. Vegas certainly likes K-State…they’ve pegged the Cats as 7 to 7.5 point favorites in this one. Much like the West Virginia game, these teams seem to be fairly similar in terms of where they fall in the Big 12 pecking order this season. The big difference here is that K-State is the home team.

It has all the makings of a get right game for the offense. It’s hard to decipher whether it’s purely a matter of the competition or not, but for what it’s worth the offense has been much sharper at home. Combine that with a porous Texas Tech defense that 68 points to Arizona State, 45 to Louisiana Tech and even let Kansas’ offense look like it has a pulse, and I think the Wildcats should have plenty of success.

Cole: I see what you did with the numbers there. Of course, Snyder has only faced Tech at home twice since 2005 — a game K-State lost 35-25. But to answer your question with a simple answer, K-State will win this game.

The Powercat Gameday Panel is back for their fourth week of fielding your questions about K-State football. Kansas State heads to Morgantown for their Big 12 opener against West Virginia Saturday at 2:30 pm CT.

The crew will be broadcasting live in Morgantown at Fat Daddy’s Bar and Grill, just a short drive from the stadium. If you are making the trip to West Virginia, come stop by. If you’re watching from home, tune into Powercat Gameday live on KMAN starting at 10:30 am CT.

Thanks as always to everyone who submitted a question to this week’s Powercat Gameday Panel. To submit a question tweet us at @PowercatGameday or to any of the panelists: @jlkurtz, @Cole_Manbeck, or @StantonWeber.

@PowercatGameday how does this game remind you of the game in Morgantown in ’12. Potential launchpad for much bigger things?

— Jacob Yingst (@JacobYingst11) September 27, 2016

John: There’s no doubt that this game has the potential to be a springboard for the rest of the season. If you get this one, three of the next four look very winnable (Tech, UT, @ISU). That means you could be looking at a 4-1 start to conference play.

However, I don’t think I’d really compare it to the 2012 game. K-State was already 6-0 at that point with a win over top-ten Oklahoma on the road. That OU game was really what springboarded the 2012 team. I will admit though, that West Virginia game was almost just as much fun as the Oklahoma win.

Credit Stan Weber for this comparison, but I think a better example of a similar springboard game is the 2011 Miami game.

Cole: I agree with John and I’ll take it a step farther. If K-State can win in Morgantown, I could see this team getting off to a 5-1 start in Big 12 play as I view the Oklahoma State in Manhattan as a very winnable game for the Wildcats. If that were to occur, K-State would be a 7-1 football team heading into its final bye week of the season and would be a legitimate contender for the Big 12 championship.

I don’t view this as comparable to 2012 as K-State was ranked No. 4 in the country and the Mountaineers were ranked 13th. This is a big game for both teams this Saturday, but not as significant as 2012. The Wildcats were a legit national title contender heading into that game. That’s unlikely to be the case for this team.

Stanton: While the 2012 game launched Kansas State further into the conversation for a National Championship run, the type of Launchpad game we are talking about this year is much more comparable to a game in 2011. John mentioned it above, the Miami game in 2011, among others, was pivotal to the success of K-State’s program for the rest of that season and the three seasons to follow. If the Wildcats lose that game, the “cardiac cats*” of ’11 may never have earned that nickname. The 2011 team was a team with potential, much like this year’s team, that flourished once it was given a reason to believe it was good. The momentum of that season was a tidal wave that K-State rode until last year. The Wildcats are looking for that next big wave to catch, and a win in Morgantown has the potential to lead to just that.

*The 2011 Kansas State team won 8 games by 7 points or less: Eastern Kentucky 10-7, @ Miami 28-24, (17) Baylor 38-34, Missouri 24-17, Texas Tech 41-34, Texas A&M 53-50 4OT, @ (23) Texas 17-13, Iowa State 30-23.

What does KSU have to improve on to get a win at West Virginia this week? @PowercatGameday

— Andrew (@andrew_eilert31) September 26, 2016

Cole: I’d be nitpicking at this point because K-State has been very good the last two weeks, but it occurred against weak competition. John mentions the passing game below and that’s probably my biggest concern heading into this game. Jesse Ertz has been efficient each of the last two games, but the Wildcats are going to likely need to start hitting on some big plays through the air, something I think they’re certainly capable of.

West Virginia will do everything it can to take away the running game from K-State. Since joining the Big 12, no team in the conference has done a better job at defending the Wildcats’ running game than the Mountaineers. West Virginia has held K-State to below 4 yards per carry in each of the four meetings between these two teams since 2012. The Wildcats are averaging 2.5 yards per rush in those four matchups, and since Tony Gibson took over as the Mountaineers’ defensive coordinator in 2014, K-State has had 78 rushes for 99 yards, a meager 1.3 yards per rush.

Now, this West Virginia team is not as strong defensively as last year’s squad. The Mountaineers allowed 7 yards per rush last weekend against a BYU team that came into last Saturday averaging just 3.8 yards per carry. So teams have proven you can run on West Virginia. Still, I imagine Gibson will do everything he can to take away K-State’s ground attack. It will still be important that the Wildcats run the ball with success, but I expect there will be some opportunities to pick on a West Virginia secondary that had to replace every starter from last season.

One other thing to keep in mind: this will be a more difficult atmosphere to play in on the road compared to Stanford. I’ll be interested to see how K-State’s offensive line plays against a unique West Virginia defense in a tough environment to play.

Stanton: Kansas State did a better job in the penalty department against Missouri State than the previous two weeks, I emphasized that last week as the most important thing for K-State to improve on. I still want to see the Wildcats do it consistently before I’m convinced that they have recalibrated back to Bill Snyder, penalty free, football.

Looking forward to West Virginia one of the keys to victory for K-State will be staying out of obvious passing situations on third down. West Virginia has held their opponents to less than a 50% conversion rate on 3rd down in 27 of the last 28 games they have played, the majority of those games holding opponents to closer to 30%. The reason for their success, I believe, is the defensive scheme the Mountaineers’ secondary will run in obvious passing situations called “Cover 3 Cloud.” It’s a defense that is very difficult to pass against because it combines principles from multiple pass coverages, but it commits so many defenders to the zone coverage that it can only be used effectively when the defense knows the offense must pass. Cloud coverage forces receivers to find holes in the secondary and stay disciplined enough to maintain spacing to influence defenders to open up passing lanes for their fellow wide receivers.

The best way to beat this coverage is to stay out of situations where the Mountaineers can use it. This week K-State needs to be good on 1st and 2nd down, keeping them in 3rd and short to medium situations, so when the offense does get to third down Jesse Ertz and Dana Dimel can keep West Virginia on their toes, not knowing if the Wildcats will run or pass. Listen to our show this weekend where I will break down Cover 3 Cloud with more specifics.

John: It’s really tough to say that there’s something specific they need to improve on right now. They’ve been great the last two weeks in just about every category. It’s going to be a matter of making all of those good things happen against a quality Big 12 opponent on the road.

Perhaps you could point out the passing game. K-State simply hasn’t had to do a whole in the passing game the last two weeks. West Virginia is likely going to load up the box and make K-State throw the ball. The last time K-State was in Morgantown, the Wildcats had only one yard rushing in a 26-20 win. Last year, K-State was held to just two yards-per-carry on a whopping 49 carries in a 24-23 win. West Virginia will likely go with the same type of strategy with the Wildcats breaking in a quarterback who has never started a Big 12 game. Jesse Ertz will have to make some plays through the air to win this game.

@PowercatGameday with Big12 season opponents looming, what can K-State’s offense do to avoid the slow starts that haunted them last year?

— JR (@jmbhrapp) September 27, 2016

Stanton: This was something that Coach Snyder stressed every week last season, but as a team we could not seem to put it into practice and the 6-7 record was certainly a product of that. K-State teams seem to always do a nice job of finishing but, as we saw last year, sometimes the clock runs out before the Wildcats can overcome the deficit that was created from the slow start. Bill Snyder coached teams are 178-6 when leading at half, an impressive clip of 96.7%, and two of those losses came from last season. Without a doubt there is a strong correlation between fast starts and winning. I completely agree with Cole’s breakdown of this point, the defense is always out their first and “starting fast” involves every facet of the game not just the offense. When the defense starts fast the offense will be more likely to follow suit.

John: This is a great thing to point out. It seemed like K-State was always in a 10-plus point hole from the first quarter on in Big 12 games last year. The same thing happened at Stanford to open the season. By the time it was 17-0 Stanford, K-State had just 60 yards of offense, a punt and a turnover on downs.

Starting fast should just be merely a matter of having more weapons offensively to choose from and having a new signal-caller to distribute the ball to those weapons. K-State loved to take deep shots with Joe Hubener’s big arm last year, but those are low percentage passes and often seemed to leave the Wildcats with some quick three-and-outs. Remember the Oklahoma game? K-State missed on a deep ball to Deante Burton early, and things spiraled out of control quickly from there. With Jesse Ertz running the offense and a running game that looks rejuvenated, I’d expect there’s a much better chance that K-State sustains some drives early on.

Cole: It’s not just the offense. K-State almost always defers to receive until the second half. And the defense has consistently given up points on the opening drive to start games, putting the Wildcats’ offense in a hole right off the bat. I think that’s part of the problem. Let’s examine last season’s K-State defense on the first possession of the game in Big 12 play:

Oklahoma State: Touchdown
TCU: Touchdown
Oklahoma: Touchdown
Texas: punt
Baylor: Touchdown
Texas Tech: Touchdown
Iowa State: punt
KU: punt
West Virginia: punt

So K-State gave up a touchdown on the opening drive of the game in five of its first six conference games — all losses. It’s likely not a coincidence that in three of the games K-State won, the Wildcats forced a punt on the first drive (admittedly those three offenses weren’t nearly as high-powered as most of the other Big 12 teams).

Now let’s look at the offense’s first series in each Big 12 game last season:

Oklahoma State: Touchdown
TCU: Touchdown
Oklahoma: punt
Texas: punt
Baylor: Touchdown
Texas Tech: Touchdown (this occurred on a kick return. Technically K-State punted on its first offensive series).
Iowa State: punt
KU: Touchdown
West Virginia: punt

So technically, K-State scored points on its first offensive series in four of its nine league games. Look for K-State to establish the running game Saturday and set up the pass. Hopefully the slow starts will be a thing of the past.

@PowercatGameday is Dana Dimel showing favoritism towards Winston Dimel,Cause it appears he does

— McCain ® (@IamAustinMcCain) September 26, 2016

John: Like it or not, this is likely going to be around for the foreseeable future. Because of that, I’ve taken the liberty of creating a nickname for the Dimel Wildcat package. Texas has the 18 Wheeler with Tyrone Swoopes, Oklahoma had the Belldozer with Blake Bell and now I present to you: K-State’s 38 Special. Don’t just take my word for it, the name 38 special won in a twitter poll voted on by internet users far and wide earlier this week.

Cole: Dimel is a physical runner and as long as it works, I won’t criticize it. I’m not opposed to it as of now because it’s taking potential hits off the quarterback.. Big 12 teams will likely adjust and I’m sure this won’t be a package K-State uses all the time in the Red Zone in conference play.

Stanton: Winston Dimel’s role in the offense is to be a bruising blocker up and down the field, slip out of the backfield for passes down the seam, and be a powerful goal line back. Very similar to any other team that uses a fullback. He averages 4 carries a game, consistent with his role, and leads K-State in scoring through 3 games with 6 rushing touchdowns.

When you look at the numbers the guy is flat producing. Although, his value goes beyond just the numbers, he is a great teammate and as tough as they come, playing through multiple injuries last year. In fact, in my opinion he is more dynamic than he gets credit for, his coordination and athleticism as a pass catcher is a weapon that K-State is yet to fully utilize this year (last year he averaged 32.6 yards per catch on 8 receptions). I don’t buy the favoritism argument and, as long as he keeps producing, like the amount of touches he is getting.

@PowercatGameday Does K-State make the playoffs with an 11-1 record?

— Patrick Hines (@patemaw7) September 27, 2016

Cole: I would say yes. Oklahoma got in with an 11-1 record last season with its loss coming to a 5-7 Texas team on a neutral field. Now, K-State isn’t the brand name OU is, but K-State’s one loss would be against a good Stanford team on the road. And even though the Big 12 is down, winning at OU, Baylor, TCU and West Virginia would be too hard to ignore.

Stanton: Yes, this is a long shot and very hypothetical but it’s fun to talk about. I think that there would be a few factors that would keep K-State out of the College Football Playoff if they went undefeated the rest of the way, but if a lot of things that the Wildcats can’t control went their way, they would have a chance. You’re going to have an SEC team in the playoff, period. I think Ohio State and Michigan in the Big 10 are too good to not have one of them taking the second slot. The last two spots are a little more up in the air for me, there is a long list of potential teams and it’s way too early to predict.

I think what it’s going to boil down to for K-State, or any one loss Big 12 team for that matter, to get into the playoff would be Houston losing a game. K-State would be criticized because the Big 12 is having a “down year” and that the conference does not have a championship game, leaving the door open for an undefeated Houston team, who beat the Big 12’s feature program (Oklahoma), to earn a spot in the CFP.

John: Woah there…slow down Patrick. Let’s see if K-State can win a game against a quality Big 12 opponent before we start talking about the playoff.

IF, and that is a huge if, that scenario were to play out, I think K-State would have a shot. That’s especially true if Stanford is in the playoff mix once again. The Big 12 has already seen nearly all of its main contenders suffer at least one loss, the PAC 12 may be headed for the same scenario and Notre Dame isn’t sniffing the playoff this year. At the same time, the Houston-Louisville winner could be a thorn in the side of any K-State playoff hopes if it came down to it.

@PowercatGameday chances that K-State lands Les Miles?

— Korby Anderson (@k_andyson) September 28, 2016

Stanton: It’s sad knowing that a coach who averages 10 wins a season over 12 years of coaching in the toughest division in football, wins a national championship, and is beloved by all his players gets run out of town for “underperforming.” The “Mad Hatter” is a great coach who couldn’t quite figure it out offensively at LSU. He seems like a guy who could get anyone to want to play for him and will likely be at the top of all the major job openings this offseason. K-State, though, has one of the greatest coaches to have ever lead a football team out onto the field, and he has far from lost his edge. So as long as that is the case, I am thankful every day that we don’t have to answer these kinds of questions seriously. Someone is going to land Les Miles and that team will be competitive very quickly, but I’m very happy it won’t be K-State.

John: I would love to see it if the timing somehow worked out post-Snyder, but I’d put the percent chance at approximately 0%. K-State still has a coach right now, and I don’t see Bill Snyder retiring again until health issues force him to or K-State has multiple poor seasons in a row.

Beyond that, Miles is going to have a lot of potential suitors. The guy won 77% of his games, a national championship and recruits at a very high level. There also could be a bunch of major programs looking for a head coach this off-season. Baylor, USC, Texas, Auburn and maybe even Notre Dame could all be in the market.

Cole: I would love this hire, as long as he actually hired a competent offensive coordinator. Miles would bring serious talent to Manhattan and if he could be convinced to adjust his offensive strategy, it’d be a home-run hire in my opinion. Miles knows the Big 12 well, having been the head coach at Oklahoma State. In terms of location, recruiting to Manhattan isn’t all that different from recruiting to Stillwater.

That being said, Brent Venables is still the guy I’d like to see K-State target when Bill Snyder does decide to retire. But Miles is a close second.

Welcome to the third installation of our weekly Powercat Gameday Panel where Powercat Gameday hosts John Kurtz, Cole Manbeck and Stanton Weber field your K-State football questions.

After a dominating performance against Florida Atlantic, Kansas State looks to game three as the Wildcats host Missouri State on Saturday, September 24th at 6:10 p.m. Tune into Powercat Gameday live on KMAN starting at 2:00 p.m. or stop by the broadcast in Cat Town just south west of Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Thanks as always to everyone who submitted a question to this week’s Powercat Gameday Panel. To submit a question tweet us at @PowercatGameday or to any of the panelists: @jlkurtz, @Cole_Manbeck, or @StantonWeber.

Let’s get to it:

@PowercatGameday how good is the defense through 2 games?

— Marcus (@KSU_LYNCH_MOB) September 20, 2016

@PowercatGameday After three weeks, where does K-State’s defense rank in the Big 12?

— Ryan Moss (@PowercatRyan) September 19, 2016

John: The defense has been excellent through two games. K-State is in the top three in the conference in every major statistical category. That includes leading the league in rush defense and total defense. They’re also in the top 25 nationally in scoring defense, rush defense and total defense. FAU obviously wasn’t good, but the Wildcats also played Stanford and Christian McCaffrey.

As far as where they rank in the Big 12, I’ll wait to see them against some of the spread offenses of the league before I definitively put them as a top three unit in the conference. Last year, K-State had allowed only three points through two games and looked like they might be headed to an impressive year on that side of the ball. Unfortunately, we know how that turned out. There’s certainly a lot of reason to believe it will work out much better this year, that list starts with the fact that they’ve already shown an ability to force turnovers and rush the passer at a much higher rate, but I still need to see them against Big 12 offenses first before I totally trust it.

Cole: As John said, it’s difficult to gauge the defense until the Wildcats face Big 12 offenses, but thus far, I’m very encouraged. If you look around the conference, Big 12 teams have struggled defensively. TCU allowed more than 40 points to South Dakota State. Oklahoma State gave up 38 to Pittsburgh and 30 to Central Michigan. Oklahoma has really struggled against Houston and Ohio State. Texas allowed 47 to Notre Dame and 50 to California, etc. As of now, I’m inclined to believe K-State has the best defense in the Big 12. Good defenses keep you in games, and if the defense continues to play well, the Wildcats will be in every game the rest of the season.

Going into the season, there were two big question marks on defense: Defensive tackle opposite of Will Geary, and the corner spot opposite of Duke Shelley. Thus far, freshman Trey Dishon looks solid opposite Geary, and I believe D.J. Reed was a steal late in the recruiting process. I really like Reed’s game.

The most encouraging thing about this defense is its ability to generate a pass rush just rushing four. The defensive ends are the best group K-State has had since 2012. And having a strong front four that can pressure the quarterback is going to lead to this group forcing opponents into mistakes.

Stanton: Many question marks loomed after the defense made a strong showing at Stanford against one of the best players in the country. Most of my questions were centered around how the defense played against the pro-style offense of Stanford and the fact that every team in the Big 12 runs the spread. This week against FAU we got a taste of how the defense would fair against the spread and they passed the test with flying colors.

Which just raises more ambitious questions with Big 12 play around the corner.

One of my favorite statistics for a defense is percentage of three and outs. After two games Kansas State has forced the opponent’s punt team onto the field after three plays 9 out of 25 times or 36%. Against FAU, if you include Kendall Adams’ interception on the third play of the drive and Mike Moore’s fumble recovery on the first play of the drive as three and outs, K-State was 8 for 15 on the day or 53%, bringing the season total to 44%. If K-State can sustain the clip of not allowing opponents a first down on 44% of their drives, they will be a top ranked defense in the Big 12 if not the nation. Time will tell.

Cole: I have noticed K-State playing tighter coverage at times. I think part of this was due to FAU having a struggling offensive line and the Wildcats knew they’d be looking to get rid of the ball quickly. But the other part falls in line with what Stanton said below. Having a leader on the back end of the defense you know you can trust in Barnett enables the defense to take more chances.

Stanton: In the past two games the defense has been more aggressive in general compared to last year and I believe that stems from the trust the Tom Hayes has in senior safety Dante Barnett. The experience he brings allows for the defense to take more chances by bringing more blitzes and tightening up the coverage. I was pleased how the defensive backs played and the pressure that the front seven put on Florida Atlantic all day.

John: I’ll leave this more to Cole and Stanton, but I will say that there was a lot of pressure on Jason Driskel throughout the game. K-State had four sacks and seemingly a lot of hurries. That could have had a little something to do with the Wildcats mixing up their coverage. I can also tell you that DJ Reed said his interception came when he was in Cover 2 and saw someone coming out of the backfield, and Kendall Adams said his came because he recognized the play from studying film and jumped in on the route.

Coach Snyder was actually asked about playing more press coverage last week at his press conference leading up to the FAU game and he said that they have and will play it throughout the course of the year.

@PowercatGameday As we get closer to Big 12 play, will it be RB by committee or who is your favorite to start the WVU game?

— Ryan Moss (@PowercatRyan) September 19, 2016

Stanton: After Saturday’s performance by running backs Dalvin Warmack and Alex Barnes I think it’s only fair to assume that they each have earned themselves more touches in the future. I was very impressed with both of them, turning well-blocked 8-yard runs into much more after making a defender miss. K-State fans know what they’re going to get from Charles Jones and the veteran will continue to start and do all the little things well. Add the proven asset of another young running back in Justin Silmon and what some may see as a crowded backfield, I see as much needed depth at a position that takes a beating over the course of a season. I think the running back by committee approach will sustain throughout the year unless one of the four clearly breaks away. However, if all four stay in the mix, I believe we will see it begin to pay dividends midway through Big 12 play when all the backs still look explosive and healthy.

As for Winston Dimel I think we will continue to see him get touches near the goal line. Last week he had about as efficient a day as you can, scoring on 4 of his 5 touches. Say what you want about his dad being the offensive coordinator, the guy is good, and has delivered consistently on the ground and as a receiver ever since he stepped on campus.

John: It sure sounds like running back by committee is the name of the game for now. I asked Coach Snyder Tuesday if there was a certain amount of backs he had in mind that could get carries once Big 12 play starts. His answer basically indicated that unless someone really emerges fast, he’s comfortable playing multiple running backs. He also said that the competition is just as wide open as it was going into the FAU game. Charles Jones is going to play. The coaches seem to love what he brings to the table in terms of knowing the offense, pass blocking and catching out of the backfield way too much to keep him on the bench. My educated guess would be maybe you see Warmack and/or Barnes start to slowly take carries away from Justin Silmon.

I’d think you’ll definitely continue to see Dimel on the goal line. He’s definitely an asset on offense, and with his size he becomes more effective inside the 10-yard line. Regardless of your opinion on whether or not Dimel should have gotten those carries, it’s hard to argue with the success they had with it on Saturday. Would I be crazy about that if I were one of the four other running backs fighting for time? Probably not, but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Winston Dimel said after the game that the Wildcat package he was running was just put in last week, so that part is relatively new to the offense. I will say that you may see some wildcat with Byron Pringle and/or Alex Delton once conference play starts.

Cole: Winston Dimel is a good player, and as long as giving him the ball in the Red Zone is working, it’s hard to argue against it. Yes, I do believe there are other running backs who are just as capable of scoring in those situations, but it’s hard to argue against success.

As far as the running back by committee approach, I think it’s going to continue. From a pure talent perspective when it comes to running the football, I believe Barnes and Warmack are K-State’s best options. However, the coaching staff really trusts Charles Jones as a fifth-year senior and he will continue to start. But if Barnes and Warmack show more of what they did against FAU, they’ll be hard to keep off the field. Either way, I think you have to find a way to get the ball in Warmack’s hands five to seven times a game at a minimum as a change of pace. It’s nice to have depth in the backfield and it will come in handy during the grind of Big 12 play.

@PowercatGameday Will Delton get some Wildcat formation Oppurtunities? Dude is fast!

— Colton Hitch (@CJhitchin23) September 19, 2016

John: I guess I just kind of addressed this earlier. It’s definitely a possibility I would have to think. However, we did say the same thing last year and didn’t see it before he got hurt. There are a lot of mouths to feed on the offense right now which may make it a little bit tougher. Thanks to some of the players in the spring, we do know that Byron Pringle has taken snaps in the Wildcat as well since he’s been here.

Cole: Delton is explosive. We haven’t seen much of him since he has arrived in Manhattan, but based off what I saw Saturday, he could be the most explosive runner K-State has had at the quarterback position. He certainly ranks up there with the best of them in terms of sheer athleticism. I’d love to see him get a few touches out of the Wildcat, and this might surprise you, but I do think it’s going to happen at some point this season. How often does it happen? Not sure.

I think Delton will be brought in at some point as a change of pace in the zone-read run game in some games this season.

Stanton: Alex Delton saw game action for the first time since going down with an injury against UTSA last year. I was very encouraged by what I saw from him in the spring game in April, showing that he had grown in his knowledge and understanding of the offense since I had last practiced with him. It was apparent that he felt more comfortable and that allowed him to showcase his athleticism which was on full display Saturday against Florida Atlantic.

Delton adds his name to a list of guys who would be great options to take snaps in the Wildcat formation. I wouldn’t be surprised if Delton makes an appearance as the Wildcat quarterback this year but I also wouldn’t predict it either. You could make the case that having a quarterback in the package makes the defense have to respect the pass more but you could also say that if you are going to pass why not use Jesse Ertz in the normal offense. Ensuring Delton is healthy in case something happens to Ertz is another argument when you have tough running options in Charles Jones, Winston Dimmel, and Byron Pringle to use instead of Delton.

@PowercatGameday what impressed you the most against FAU, and what needs to be improved the most before Big 12 play starts?

— Jake Anderson (@ndersonJake) September 20, 2016

John: Two things that K-State fans have been clamoring for since the beginning of 2015: more turnovers forced and a legitimate rushing attack. The 335 rushing yards were the most in a game for the Wildcats since 2012, and they had more interceptions by defensive backs in the FAU game than they did the entire 2015 season (none of which came from ballhawk Dante Barnett). Regardless of the level of competition, that’s a step in the right direction. They couldn’t dominate teams like UTSA and South Dakota like that a season ago.

Cole: Completely echo what John said. Forcing four turnovers is a big deal for a K-State defense that recorded the fewest takeaways (16) in Bill Snyder’s previous 24 seasons in Manhattan last season. You can argue that it was against a weak opponent, but as John said, K-State wasn’t able to accomplish that task against weak teams last year in the non-conference.

And I agree with what Stanton said below. I’m a big fan of D.J. Reed (as I mentioned earlier) and seeing his ability to make the play on the football that he did for his interception is really encouraging. K-State is going to be much better in the secondary this season.

Stanton: Coming into the game I was most interested in seeing how cornerback DJ Reed would perform as an every-down player. It is too early to gauge just how good he is but I was very impressed with his ball skills on his interception and his pass breakup of a deep post. His interception involved a wheel route in which he had to recover about five to ten yards of separation. As he approached the wide receiver, where most defensive backs panic and run into the receiver prompting a pass interference call, Reed trusted his technique, he got to the wide outs hip and turned for the ball in time to jump and make an impressive catch for the interception. The lack of interceptions last year show that K-State was in need of this kind of instinct when the ball was thrown to opposing receivers, Reed may bring that too the table.

As for improvement, I think it is very clear that penalties were K-State’s biggest disappointment in the Florida Atlantic game. Missouri State will be a good test for whether or not this will be a part of K-State’s DNA this year or just a product of the youth going through growing pains of the first couple of games. Once Big 12 play starts, “there are a lot of young guys out there,” won’t work as an excuse any more. It’s a safe bet that a Bill Snyder coached football team will rank near the top of the Big 12 in least penalties committed, and I am confident this year will be no different.

@PowercatGameday can kstate win the big 12??

— McCain ® (@IamAustinMcCain) September 20, 2016

Stanton: With the only undefeated teams in the Big 12 being a Baylor team who looks like they lost a little bit (maybe a lot) of their swagger after Art Briles’ exit and a West Virginia team that Kansas State always competes with, I would say it isn’t unrealistic to have this conversation.

I have always said when you are looking at how Kansas State’s Big 12 schedule plays out with home and away games, this year’s version of the schedule is a tougher road to a championship but gives a middle of the pack team a better chance at making a bowl game. K-State’s road games are against West Virginia, Oklahoma, Baylor, TCU, and Iowa State. Over the last few years Baylor, Oklahoma, and TCU have been excellent, to win the Big 12 you would realistically have to win two of the three and still take care of business in every other conference game. The trip to Morgantown is never easy and Iowa State is a much better team in Ames than people give them credit for. Kansas State’s home games include Texas Tech, Texas, Oklahoma State, and Kansas. Interestingly enough all these teams are consistently beatable when they come to Manhattan (excluding Kansas, they seem to just be consistently beatable), but K-State would also have a decent chance to win against all four on the road. If we had the odd year’s schedule this year I would be more optimistic about the potential for a Big 12 championship but I still won’t count it completely out for this year, I’ve seen Coach Snyder do crazier things.

So you could make a case that Kansas State could go undefeated at home this year but you could also make a case that they will go 1-4 on the road. The race is wide open and I don’t see why Kansas State should be out of the conversation but it would take more than a few breaks with the tough road schedule.

John: I still need to see a lot more before we start talking about a Big 12 title. There is plenty of reason to be optimistic about winning anywhere from 7 to 9 games though. After watching Oklahoma get out-classed twice, Oklahoma State lose at home to CMU, TCU blow a home game to Arkansas and Baylor struggle a bit with it’s typical soft non-con schedule, what game on the schedule looks completely un-winnable? K-State was already pretty competitive in nearly every Big 12 game last year with a less talented team than the 2016 squad. The flip side to that is that the Kansas game is really the only league game that looks like a definite win (maybe Iowa State, but things always get hairy in Ames). There still seem to be too many question marks to think about challenging for a league title, but winning five or six Big 12 games doesn’t seem like as much of an uphill climb as it did a few weeks ago.

Cole: I’m still targeting 2017 as K-State’s season to make another run at a Big 12 title. The Wildcats will return a lot of key pieces next season and will be a veteran team with more experience at the quarterback position (pending no injuries). In addition, the schedule flips next season in K-State’s favor as the majority of the best teams consistently in the Big 12 will have to come to Manhattan.

That being said, you asked about 2016. The conference is wide open. Unfortunately, the Wildcats just have too many difficult road trips. I know TCU and Oklahoma haven’t looked the part so far, and Baylor has struggled against its soft schedule, but those are still very difficult road games. Not to mention the road trip to West Virginia to kick off Big 12 play. If the Wildcats can defeat the Mountaineers, then I think we can at least begin to debate it a little more. But until then, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

I will say that the road game at Baylor is one I think the Wildcats can steal. Not predicting a win yet, but if I was going to target a big upset game for this K-State team, it would be that one. And I do think the Wildcats win at West Virginia.

Week 2 of Kansas State’s football season is just around the corner and the Powercat Gameday crew is back for our second panel of the season.

We want to start by thanking all the K-State faithful that made the trip to California and stopped by the Old Pro before the game to watch Powercat Gameday live. There was a line around the block to get in 4 hours before kickoff and the Old Pro ran out of beer. Kansas State fans never disappoint.

The crew will be broadcasting Powercat Gameday live in Cat Town, just south of the west parking lot at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, starting at 9:30 AM on Saturday. If you can’t stop by, tune in to KMAN as you drive in or tailgate as we talk K-State football.

Again, thank you to everyone who submitted a question this week, if your question didn’t make it we’ll do our best to get yours in later in the season. Tweet your questions to @PowercatGameday or to any of the panelists: @jlkurtz, @Cole_Manceck, and @StantonWeber.

Let’s get to it:

@PowercatGameday what type of improvements well we see (or expect) in game 2 from the offense?

— Marcus (@KSU_LYNCH_MOB) September 6, 2016

John: It was pretty inevitable that K-State would have some issues with three new offensive linemen, a new quarterback and a few new targets at wide receiver. Such a young offense really needs a game or two against FAU-quality competition to get their confidence going. I think there’s every reason in the world to think the offense will look much, much better in game two. Jesse Ertz should be much more comfortable (and hopefully won’t leave the pocket as quickly/often as he did at Stanford), and I’d expect there’s a much better chance he and Byron Pringle are more on the same page against FAU. I will say this…the running game should be much better. Miami rolled up 279 yards on the ground and seven yards-per-carry against the Owls last week.

Cole: I could foresee a slow start early in this one, as K-State has still only played one game and then had a 15-day layoff. However, I expect the offense to get in a rhythm by the second quarter Saturday and continue to improve a great deal before Big 12 play begins. These next couple weeks are key as Jesse Ertz and the receivers get on the same page and the inexperienced offensive line works out the issues it had in the season-opener. Ertz started to settle in during the fourth quarter at Stanford, and I would look for that to continue. The Wildcats’ offense should be able to do anything they want against Florida Atlantic. As John mentioned above, the Owls allowed more than 7 yards per carry at Miami last week. And in their season opener, Southern Illinois racked up 530 yards of offense against Florida Atlantic, including more than 300 yards through the air.

Stanton: The youth of Kansas State’s offense showed throughout the game at Stanford. There were issues with substitutions, formation alignment, and assignments that will iron themselves out with experience. As the season progresses we should see less and less of this. Quarterback Jesse Ertz was quoted saying it took him about a half to feel comfortable. That comfort led to improvement, in the second half Ertz threw for 149 of his 207 yards including a strike of 44 yards to Dominique Heath and a very nice touch ball of 15 yards to Isaiah Zuber in the end zone. Look for his comfort level, and production, to progress in the next two games. I would also expect Byron Pringle to convert on more of his targets and his production to increase significantly.

@PowercatGameday how much of the offensive struggles were due to stanford’s defense, and where do you think the offense ranks at end of year

— Ben Mense (@benmense) September 6, 2016

Cole: I think the offensive struggles at Stanford were more self-inflicted mistakes than what Stanford did. The Cardinal have a terrific and deep defensive front, but the Wildcats shot themselves in the foot several times. K-State had far too many penalties. The inexperience of the offense showed at Stanford. However, be patient with this offense as it should significantly improve over the next two weeks as they work the kinks out. I always judge the K-State offense by points per possession as that shows the efficiency of the unit. By the end of the season, I believe K-State will be in the top five in the Big 12 in points per possession. The offense has more weapons compared to last season, and I expect that to start show as the Wildcats progress over the next two weeks.

Stanton: As Coach Snyder likes says, “It’s about us.” I think that much of the struggles were due to inexperience on the K-State offense. Not to discredit the defense of a top ten team in Stanford but Kansas State had their opportunities. Penalties need to be minimized and the offense needs to turn trips to the red zone into touchdowns instead of settling for field goals. Again, the experienced gained by the young offense will pay dividends in the games to come and I expect to see a very different offense by the time conference play begins against West Virginia. When predicting where the offense finishes in the Big 12 it is a little skewed because of K-State’s style of play. Comparing Kansas State to say Texas Tech is apples to oranges, so Kansas State will likely finish in the bottom half of the Big 12 but for the offense to be effective they don’t have to put up huge numbers.

John: I do think the jury is still out on Stanford. I’m not convinced they’re a top-ten team, but if they’re a legitimate top-20 team K-State should be just fine. Stanford does have a tough defensive front, but according to the pro football focus article that Cole has referenced about the game the Cardinal just stunted the young K-State offensive line to death. That’s something that can definitely improve as they gain more experience. I also think Byron Pringle can still be K-State’s most dangerous offensive weapon, and he dealt with a very physical corner that was a giant step up from playing JUCO corners in the Jayhawk Conference. Pringle should also see exponential growth. Don’t expect this to be one of the best offenses in the league by any means, they’ll clearly lean more on the defense, but it will be more dangerous than it looked at Stanford.

@PowercatGameday will we see Hubener and Ertz sharing QB duties against Florida Atlantic and Missouri State?

— The K-State Family (@thekstatefamily) September 7, 2016

Stanton: Ertz’s performance against Stanford was not ideal, but I don’t think anyone would expect a quarterback throwing his first collegiate pass against a top ten team to play a flawless game. He showed improvement as the game progressed and I think there is little doubt that he will play almost all the snaps against Florida Atlantic.

When Ertz did leave the game with cramps early in the third quarter, and Joe Hubener replaced him, the offense did not skip a beat. Other than his first pass attempt resulting in an interception, in which his elbow may have been snagged by a defender, Hubener looked like he had made 11 starts last year as he confidently conduction the offense. I would expect Ertz to be given the snaps like a traditional starting quarterback and, if he continues to show improvement, we shouldn’t see Hubener outside of a mop up situation.

John: The leash should be pretty long on Jesse Ertz. He’s won the quarterback battle two years in a row and deserves to get a lot more slack than just one road game against a top-ten team to prove he’s clearly the guy. We’ve seen Joe Hubener start 11 games and have a pretty good idea what that offense looks like. What we don’t know is what the offense will look like with Ertz getting a considerable amount of experience.

Cole: If Ertz struggles over the next two games, a quarterback controversy could begin to unfold. However, I don’t expect that to occur as I believe Ertz will make strides. As Stanton pointed out, Ertz hadn’t thrown a pass in a game in nearly four years and has had two major knee injuries since. Some rust was to be expected. He will get more comfortable over the coming weeks and improve. While many fans want to see Alex Delton get some snaps Saturday to see what he can do, and that includes me, it’s also important that Ertz get plenty of reps with the starting offense since the unit as a whole is so inexperienced and needs to work together in game situations.

@PowercatGameday did our d look that great because they’re that good or because we match up well with an offense like that (non-spread)?

— Jacob Yingst (@JacobYingst11) September 6, 2016

John: It’s definitely a fair question to ask. K-State’s run defense was actually pretty solid last year (they finished fourth in the Big 12 in league games against the run). Their issues were against the pass where they allowed more yards to Big 12 teams than Kansas and Iowa State. Taking that into consideration, it’s definitely concerning that Stanford’s first incomplete pass didn’t come until late in the third quarter.

The one difference this year is Dante Barnett. At worst, he should help force some more turnovers which will help with the bend but don’t break style of defense K-State plays. The Cats only had one interception by a defensive back last year and Barnett’s seven career picks should help add to that total.

Cole: That’s the big question. K-State allowed 5.2 yards per rush over the last nine games last season, so holding Stanford to 3.5 yards per rush is no small accomplishment. However, Stanford’s offensive style plays to K-State’s advantage, and K-State is typically good against teams who run the ball and don’t have a dual-threat quarterback. So I think that played a part in the Wildcats’ success against the run. Still, not many teams have bottled Christian McCaffrey up the way K-State did, and that should be commended.

While the pass defense was a big weakness last season and struggled at Stanford, the Cardinal run such a different offensive attack than what K-State will see in the Big 12 that it’s difficult to gauge how the Wildcats will match up against spread teams.

All of this being said, K-State looked to possess more speed on defense than it had last season, and that shouldn’t go unnoticed. I do think this defense will be significantly better than last year’s.

Stanton: When one of the strongest aspects of your defense is the linebacking core, and an opponent’s style of play allows you to feature that aspect, this is a legitimate question to ask. It is hard to say whether or not this defense will continue to look as good as they did against Christian McCaffrey and Stanford but I think that Kansas State has the pieces to be a stout group.

As we have said over and over again, Dante Barnett is the real deal and can help take this defense to the next level. What will be interesting to see once K-State enters Big 12 play is how defensive coordinator Tom Hayes utilizes the linebacking core. To get Mike Moore, Will Davis, and Elijah Lee all on the field at the same time while maintaining a nickel package may entail putting Lee down on the line as an athletic pass rusher, making life difficult for opposing tackles. Cornerback DJ Reed did not see as much action against Stanford as he will against spread opponents because in the base defense Donnie Starks moved out from the nickel to the corner position. As Reed gets more snaps we will get the chance to see what he is made of. The past has shown that when Tom Hayes has two solid corners and an experienced safety his defenses can create turnovers and compete against the high powered offenses of the Big 12.

@PowercatGameday How will K-State spend their bye week on Nov 26?

— Patrick Hines (@patemaw7) September 6, 2016

No there is not another bye week you didn’t know about, Kansas State hosts the University of Kansas November 26th. The panel shares their thoughts on the Jayhawks this year and their chances when Big 12 play comes along.

Cole: I watched KU’s entire game last week against Ohio (three-and-a-half hours from my Saturday I’d like to have back), and the Jayhawks have improved at quarterback and receiver. However, they were dominated on both sides of the line of scrimmage against a team that just lost to Texas State the week before. It will be another long season for KU and I do not see the Jayhawks winning another game. Look for the Wildcats to dominate the Jayhawks once again on Nov. 26.

John: Never miss a chance to get a shot in at the ole rival, huh? Any thoughts of Kansas legitimately threatening to win multiple Big 12 games really went out the window when they fell behind Ohio 25-0. That’s not a good Ohio team at all. The Jayhawks still have a long way to go to think about winning in Manhattan. Todd Reesing ain’t walking through that door…

Stanton: There are no easy games, and I truly believe that. I think that Kansas has improved from last year and really missed an opportunity against Ohio this last weekend. I played with Kansas quarterback Montell Cozart at Bishop Miege high school and he is a team guy and great leader who is doing all the right things to help the Jayhawks improve. And his backup, Ryan Willis, who also played at Bishop Miege, can really sling it. They have a pair of electric receivers to compliment the quarterbacks in Steven Sims and LaQuivionte Gonzalez. I have been impressed with what I have seen and would not put it past the Jayhawks to win against Iowa State on November 12th in Lawrence. That being said I think the program is still at least a year away from being competitive in the Big 12 and Kansas State should take care of the Jayhawks at home on November 26th.

@PowercatGameday why is there no outrage on the officiating in Palo Alto? The announcers could not believe what they were watching.

— Wildcat Salute (@Wildcat_Salute) September 7, 2016

Stanton: Yes, there were a handful of pass interference calls that could have gone Kansas State’s way against Stanford, the MMA takedown on Byron Pringle in the end zone before half was a bit more blatant that the others. That being said I have to tip my cap to Stanford’s defensive backs after the first no call. If they are not calling it than why not take advantage whenever there is a jump ball, smart football on their part. I think that the officials will be sat down by their respective league’s director of officiating and will correct their mistakes.

To be honest, I was more shocked by the lack of targeting calls in games around college football and in the NFL. Texas safety Deshon Elliot put a punishing strike on the head of Notre Dame receiver Torii Hunter Jr in what appeared to be a targeting foul yet no flag was thrown. With the ‘concussion prevention’ atmosphere that college football has been trying to implement and given how violent the hit looked in real time, I was surprised that no flag was thrown. Even more interesting is the fact that rule changes this year allows the replay official to call targeting from the booth after assessing the video replay, and still no targeting foul was assessed. Other examples occurred in the Thursday night game between Denver and Carolina where Cam Newton seemed to be taking a helmet to the head every other play. In past years where targeting was called almost too frequently I was surprised to see officials missing the easy ones, especially when they have the option to go to the replay booth and pick up the flag if they made a mistake on the field.

Nothing, however, tops the officiating blunder in the game between Oklahoma State and Central Michigan this weekend. I am baffled that a collegiate officiating crew does not know the rules to the game they are presiding over. If I am an Oklahoma State fan I am beyond frustrated. Then again, after the Kansas State game in Stillwater last year where the officials completely forgot the down and distance, incorrectly awarding Oklahoma State a key first down late in the first half that led to a touchdown, I consider this error poetic justice. So I say “play it as it lies”, or that Central Michigan should retain their victory.

John: You’re going to get more of personal opinion here, but “outrage” at officials after a loss is weak. Yes, Byron Pringle got tackled in the endzone at the end of the first half. No, that call being reversed isn’t changing the outcome of the game. As well as K-State played on defense in the second half, that wasn’t a complete enough effort overall from the team to legitimately think the Wildcats should have won.

I’ll even reference Bill Snyder on this week’s Big 12 teleconference here. When asked about whether or not college football should look at being able to reverse the outcome of games like OSU-CMU, he responded with: “I make a thousand mistakes in a ball game and they won’t let me have any of them back.” There’s going to be some human error from referees in football games, and I tend to think some of that will even out over the course of a season.

Now please spare me the Allen Fieldhouse officiating conspiracy numbers.

Cole: The no-call at the end of the first half was egregious, but that didn’t decide the game. K-State would have had 6 seconds remaining from the 2-yard line if that’s called. So enough time for one play and then if the Wildcats didn’t punch it in, line it up and kick a field goal. So it’s certainly no guarantee the Wildcats get a TD there, but that missed call is baffling.

By Cole Manbeck

Let’s begin this blog with a question: If you knew the following statistics from Kansas State’s season-opener at No. 8 Stanford Friday night, and didn’t look at the final score, who would you have thought came out victorious?

• Stanford only had 49 offensive plays, the fewest a Cardinal team has had since Nov. 18, 2006. K-State ran 73 plays.
• Stanford led the country in time of possession in 2015. On Friday, K-State won the time-of-possession battle.
• K-State held Stanford to 13 first downs, the fewest for the Cardinal in more than two seasons.
• The Cardinal had 272 yards of offense. In their last 47 games dating back to 2012, Stanford had only been held to 272 yards or less twice prior to Friday night.
• The Wildcats outgained Stanford in total yards by 63. K-State hadn’t lost a game when outgaining its opponent since 2013.
• K-State held Stanford to 3.5 yards per rush. Only two teams held Stanford to less yards per carry in 2015. The Cardinal averaged 4 yards or more per carry in their last 12 games last season.
• The Wildcats held Stanford to 5.6 yards per offensive play. Only two teams accomplished that feat or did better against the Cardinal in 2015.
• Lastly, the K-State defense held Stanford to 24 points (excluding a safety). Stanford had scored 30 points or more in 13 consecutive games, the longest streak in the FBS.

K-State must have pulled the upset, right? You know the answer, and unfortunately, there are plenty of reasons as to why the Wildcats didn’t come out on top.

• K-State had four drives that reached the Stanford 35-yard line or closer. Those four offensive series resulted in a combined 6 points.
• The Wildcats were beaten in special teams, something that rarely happens. K-State’s average starting field position in the game was its own 23-yard line. Stanford’s average drive started at its own 37. K-State had second-half drives that began at its own 1, 2, 7 and 15-yard line. Stanford began its second-half drives on its own 47 on average, which makes the second-half effort by the K-State defense all the more impressive.
• The Wildcats completed just 46 percent of their passes, including two interceptions. The Wildcats’ passer rating of 94.2 was one of the worst in college football’s opening weekend. We know the struggles of the 2015 passing game, and that team’s passing rating was 14 points better at 108 for the season.
• K-State once again got off to another slow start. If you exclude the KU game last season, the Wildcats’ average halftime deficit is 17 points (25-8 to be exact) over their last eight games. The K-State offense is not built on being able to come back from three-score deficits. The Wildcats must stop digging themselves such a big hole to climb out of.
• The Wildcats weren’t able to get off the field on third down early in the game. K-State was great on first-and-second down, but failed to capitalize on third downs early on. A key drive occurred late in the first quarter and extended into the second. K-State had Stanford backed up at its own 2-yard line to start the series. The Cardinal converted a third-and-5 from their own 7. If K-State had gotten a stop there, it could have flipped field position. Unfortunately, Stanford would convert another third-and-5, and later in the drive a third-and-14, eventually leading to a 40-yard touchdown pass to Michael Rector. The 10-play, 98-yard drive is a tough one to swallow.

I want to get away from the bullets on the offensive line. K-State allowed eight sacks Friday night, which was more than any FBS team in the country this past weekend. The eight sacks were the most by a Stanford team since 2012. It’s a concerning trend, as the offensive line ranked 117^th out of 127 FBS teams last season in sack percentage allowed, giving up a sack on more than 9 percent of the time K-State quarterbacks dropped back to pass.

However, this is a mixed bag. Quarterback Jesse Ertz held onto the ball too long on several occasions, resulting in many of those sacks. On the other hand, Ertz also bailed out the line a few times, eluding pressure and gaining positive yards on scrambles.

Pro Football Focus did a terrific breakdown of K-State’s game in Palo Alto, Calif. From the article:

“The pass-rushing statistics for the Stanford front-seven look ludicrous from Friday night’s win. They combined for eight sacks, four hits and 19 hurries. Combing through the pass-rushing grades though, nobody stands out. The reason? Stanford stunted the K-State offensive line to death. They were able to get free rusher after free rusher solely because the inexperienced Wildcat offensive line had no sort of communication whatsoever against stunts. Seven of their eight sacks came in either pursuit or of the cleanup variety with the safety being the lone exception.

“(Ertz) simply didn’t want to throw the ball for much of the game. He was charged with five sacks and had an average time before throwing of 3.56 seconds – a number that would have led the NCAA by 0.47 seconds a year ago.”

As the article illustrates, Stanford ran several twists against the K-State offense, taking advantage of the Wildcats’ inexperience upfront. Ertz didn’t have many opportunities early in the game to settle in, set his feet in the pocket and get into a rhythm, and that’s significant considering he hadn’t thrown a pass in a game since his senior year of high school nearly four years ago.

The offensive line wasn’t helped by the offense getting into too many predictable passing situations. K-State had 18 third-down plays in the game. On 13 of them, the Wildcats needed 5 yards or more, including needing 8 or more yards on 10 of them. This enabled Stanford to pin its ears back and get after the quarterback.

Playing into the third-down numbers were K-State’s struggles on first down. The Wildcats’ offensive system is predicated on being successful on first down and getting into manageable second and third-down situations.

• K-State was 0-for-6 passing on first down in its first 11 offensive possessions Friday.
• The Wildcats gained a combined total of 14 yards on their first six first-down plays of the game.
• K-State had 29 first-down plays in the game. The Wildcats gained 71 yards total on their first 26 first-down snaps, an average of 2.4 yards a play on first down. That’s not going to get it done.

K-State didn’t gain a single yard on quarterback-designed run plays. All of the rushing yards by Ertz occurred on scrambles. As a matter of fact, K-State hardly ran any quarterback-designed run plays. That’s probably not a bad idea in Ertz’s first game back from a knee injury. But we know how important the quarterback-run game is to the K-State offense. If the Wildcats aren’t comfortable running Ertz, especially early in the season, then I would like to see them get Alex Delton into the game for a few snaps to give defenses a different look.

Final Analysis

The defense was obviously the highlight of the game. K-State flew around to the football. The defensive line looked stout, the linebackers played great, and Dante Barnett looks like he hasn’t missed a beat coming back from last season’s injury. K-State allowed 5.2 yards per rush over its last nine games last season. To limit Stanford, a power running team that replaces its offensive linemen like a factory and has the Heisman frontrunner in its backfield, should not go unnoticed.

The only concern is the pass defense. The Wildcats were one of the worst in the country at defending the pass in 2015, and on Friday, they allowed a first-year starting quarterback to complete 79 percent of his passes. To put that in perspective, K-State didn’t allow a quarterback to complete 79 percent of his passes  in a game all of last season.

I do think the pass defense will be much improved by Big 12 play. But Stanford plays the type of football that plays into K-State’s hands as its front seven is its strength. So we won’t truly know how this defense transitions to the spread offenses of the Big 12, but I remain encouraged with what we saw Friday from the defense.

The K-State offense obviously had its share of struggles. However, I’m inclined to believe that by Big 12 play, the unit will be much improved. The receiver position has certainly been upgraded. Byron Pringle didn’t play as well as I’m sure he would have liked to, but it was his first game and I expect him to be much more comfortable by the time K-State goes to West Virginia to kick off Big 12 play.

Ertz showed what he can do late in the game Friday, dropping in some terrific throws to Dominique Heath, Isaiah Zuber and Corey Sutton in the fourth quarter. The talent is there, it’s just a matter of becoming more consistent and knocking the rust off.

Ertz now has an opportunity to look at film of him actually playing in a game and fix the mistakes. The same goes for the young offensive line. K-State now has two games they should win before Big 12 play begins. Look for Ertz and this offense to take significant strides over the coming weeks and be a much improved unit when they travel to Morgantown, W.V.

By Stanton Weber, Cole Manbeck and John Kurtz

Welcome to the first weekly Powercat Gameday Panel, where Powercat Gameday hosts John Kurtz, Cole Manbeck, and Stanton Weber will be fielding your Twitter questions every week of football season.

If you plan on making the trip to Palo Alto this weekend, join the Powercat Gameday crew at the Old Pro, located less than a mile from Stanford Stadium, where we, along with our fourth host Corey Reeves, will be broadcasting our show live starting 4 hours before the game. If you can’t make the trip, be sure to tune into KMAN to help us kickoff the Big-12’s biggest pregame show’s 21st year.

For it being our first week ever of Powercat Gameday Panel, we appreciate all the fans that chimed in with a question. If your question didn’t make the cut this week, keep the questions coming and we’ll do our best answer one of yours in the coming weeks.

To submit a question, tweet it to @powercatgameday or any of our Twitter Accounts: @jlkurtz, @Cole_Manbeck, or @stantonweber.

Let’s get to it:

Our first question aligns with the theme of college football’s kickoff between Cal and Hawaii, played in Sydney, Australia.

@Cole_Manbeck @stantonweber @jlkurtz if you could choose a random country for K-State to open their season in what would you choose?

— scottwildcat (@scottwildcat) August 29, 2016

Stanton: With Kansas State’s men’s basketball team traveling to Italy, the volleyball team playing a tournament in Hawaii, and the women’s basketball team headed to the Virgin Islands very soon, I think the Football team deserves an international experience. Now that experience being a game right as school is starting may not be the best way to benefit the student athletes. With the stress of classes starting up, training camp just finishing, and a college football season upon them, a 13-hour plane ride to go play week 1 would not be ideal. Not to mention, it would be a logistical headache for K-State operations (Cal had to ship goal posts to Sydney by boat). So a game to kick off the season overseas, for the student-athletes’ sake, I would be opposed to going overseas.

If I had to choose a location it would be Munich, Germany because of its great history and even better beer. I had the opportunity to visit there this last spring and toured Allianz Arena, the home of FC Bayern Munich. The stadium holds 75,000 fans and would be a perfect venue for an American (real) football game.

Cole: Interesting question, Scott, and I don’t think you’ll like my boring answer. I’m a traditionalist and prefer for games to be played on American soil. But if I had to choose, I’d say the Bahamas, because I’m all about the beach life.

John: I’d have to go with Japan here. K-State has unfinished business after going down 38-24 in Tokyo to Nebraska in the 1992 Coca Cola Classic. This was also where the infamous story about Bill Snyder getting upset about what side of the plane the team was on came from.

@PowercatGameday why will K-State be improved on defense?

— Marcus (@KSU_LYNCH_MOB) August 29, 2016

Cole: Dante Barnett returns from injury and that completely changes K-State’s secondary. Aside from that, many first-year starters from last season now have a full year of experience under their belts, including Duke Shelley and Kendall Adams in the secondary and Elijah Lee at linebacker.

The Wildcats forced only 16 turnovers last season, the fewest turnovers forced by a K-State team in Bill Snyder’s 24 seasons. I expect that number to increase this season. In addition, the Wildcats’ five interceptions tied for the second-fewest by a K-State team since 1954. I expect that number to go up. With more experience on defense, the Wildcats can take a few more risks and hopefully that results in more turnovers.

John: Dante Barnett, and his seven career interceptions, coming back should dramatically improve the five interception total from last year. Another year of development for Duke Shelley should help in that department as well. K-State needs to create turnovers when playing the Tom Hayes-style of bend but don’t break defense.

As Cole has pointed out numerous times in his blogs, K-State was already pretty solid in rushing the passer last year. Jordan Willis and Will Geary are back, and I love the potential of redshirt freshman Reggie Walker.

I haven’t even touched on the deepest unit on the team. The linebackers are led by the one guy who did create some turnovers last year in Elijah Lee. If Mike Moore plays half as well as he did in the final three games last year, this unit will be in great shape.

Stanton: The guys have touched on it and I will briefly, the factor of three-time captain Dante Barnett as not only a playmaker but also as a field general is invaluable. His presence alone will be a significant boost to the rest of the defense.

There are many reasons the defense should be improved and I agree with what Cole and John have expressed. The experience and depth at linebacker has a very unique opportunity to be showcased this weekend in Palo Alto. Contrary to the spread offenses that the Kansas State defense has been accustomed to seeing in the Big-12, Stanford’s pro-style offense will allow K-State to play three linebackers. Allowing an additional player from one of K-State’s strongest position groups to contribute on most every play will be very positive for the defense.

@stantonweber @PowercatGameday does K-State hold McCaffery to under 150 total yards?

— The K-State Family (@thekstatefamily) August 29, 2016

150 all-purpose yards, which includes kickoff return yards and punt return yards, would be a very attainable mark for McCaffrey to exceed, but when you look at the question as yards from scrimmage it becomes very intriguing.

John: It’s just tough to see K-State doing that, especially when so much of the offense is likely to run through McCaffrey. Stanford announced earlier this week that RB/WR Bryce Love, a dynamic playmaker that was likely to shoulder some of the load on offense, is unlikely to play. That puts even more back on McCaffrey.

With Stanford breaking in some new offensive lineman and a new quarterback, plus K-State’s solid pass rush, I’d expect them to really lean on keeping it on the ground in McCaffrey’s hands.

There’s a reason McCaffrey totally shattered Barry Sanders’ FBS record for all-purpose yards last season. If I’m a betting man, I’m going with the over 150 yards.

Stanton: Christian McCaffrey is Stanford’s top returning rusher, receiver, punt returner, kickoff returner, and… touchdown passer. He’s indescribably impressive. If I am making a list of “keys to victory” for Kansas State, this would be on the top of the list. If K-State can stop McCaffrey and put the game in Ryan Burns’ hands, their chances of winning increase significantly. In Stanford’s season opening loss to Northwestern last year, the Cardinal were held to under 100 yards rushing and failed to score a rushing touchdown, an occurrence that has only happened once in their last 49 games. If you’re looking for a blueprint on how to beat Stanford, that’s a great place to start. Against Northwestern McCaffrey was held to only 89 yards from scrimmage.

With a brand new starting quarterback and the Heisman favorite on your team, I think David Shaw will be putting the ball in McCaffrey’s hands early and often. If Kansas State holds McCaffrey to under 150 yards, this will be a very close ball game. If I had to predict I would take the over as well.

Cole: Only four out of Stanford’s 14 opponents held McCaffrey to less than 150 yards from scrimmage last season. So the odds are against the Wildcats and I don’t think they’ll hold him below that mark.

But this is an interesting question. Stanford is breaking in a first-time starter at quarterback and replacing several weapons at tight end and receiver. So they’ll likely rely on McCaffrey even more than they did in 2015, particularly early in the season. K-State will likely do everything they can to take away the Heisman frontrunner and force a first-time starter at quarterback to beat them. However, because of how much they’ll rely on the junior tailback, I see him getting too many touches to be held below that mark.

@PowercatGameday how do you think the workload for the RBs get handled on Friday?

— Jason Bird (@birdjt27) August 29, 2016

Stanton: The leading rusher for K-State the previous two years returns in Charles Jones, alongside Jones is former walk-on Justin Silmon. The distribution of carries between the two backs in 2015 was 142:78 respectively, roughly 65:35 in favor of Jones.

Playing running back in major college football is no easy task, the physical demand put on an every down back makes it difficult to sustain production throughout an entire year. That being said, I believe the depth at running back should help boost the per carry average of all the backs.

With a year of experience I expect Silmon to see an increased distribution of carries. Dalvin Warmack appears to have earned his way into the conversation as well. Co-Offensive Coordinator Dana Dimmel has said all three will get their chances and he will ride the hot hand. So my prediction for distribution is 50:40:10 for Jones, Silmon, and Warmack respectively. Also, don’t be surprised to see Alex Barnes at some point this year, maybe even on Friday.

Cole: I would guess Charles Jones will get 10-15 carries with Justin Silmon getting five to 10 touches. I also believe Dalvin Warmack will see the field and get a few touches. The Wildcats need to the sophomore to be a big-play threat out of the backfield and I believe they’ll try to use him in the passing game as well.

I don’t see Alex Barnes getting any carries Friday, but keep an eye on the redshirt freshman as he has impressed the coaches in practice.

John: I like Cole’s splits here. I’d add that I think it will be more of a matter of riding the hot hand. That’s what K-State did for most of last season. Charles Jones struggled the first month of the season, and a lot of the workload turned over to Justin Silmon. Then Jones surged back in front the final nine games and averaged over five yards-per-carry.

Jones likely gets the first two series before Silmon gets a crack. After that, I’d think it comes down to whoever is hot with a little bit of Warmack mixed in for good measure.

Cole: On defense, Dante Barnett’s return and impact on the defense is obvious. So I’ll go with someone who redshirted last year — Reggie Walker. I am very high on the freshman defensive end, and it speaks volumes that he’s starting in the season-opener in just his second year in the program. He will likely need some time to adjust, but by the end of this season, I expect him to be a force at applying pressure on opposing QBs.

Offensively, aside from the return of Jesse Ertz at quarterback, it has to be Byron Pringle at receiver. K-State lacked explosive plays on offense in 2015, ranking next-to-last in the Big 12 with just 35 completions of 20 or more yards. Pringle gives the Wildcats a big, physical presence at receiver who can strike fear into defenses with his big-play ability, something K-State missed last season.

John: A prime candidate for someone to take a big jump this year on defense would be LB Charmeachelle Moore. He’s battled a number of tough situations throughout his career, both health and family related, but now has seemingly been able to put that all in the past.

Moore had 43 total tackles in the final four games of last season. That includes an unreal 17 tackles, four tackles for loss and two sack performance against West Virginia. Maintaining that type of pace will be tough, but he has the athleticism to come close.

I’ll take WR Isaiah Zuber on offense. The whispers of his playmaking ability started in the middle of last season. Bill Snyder mentioned at his first press conference that Zuber is the first in line to get snaps after the three starters at wide receiver. He should make a solid impact by the end of the year.

Stanton: Defensively, as you look up and down the depth chart, one of the most interesting spots is the cornerback position opposite Duke Shelley occupied by community college transfer DJ Reed. The incoming sophomore has received praise from Coach Snyder for his competitiveness and consistency throughout camp. If Reed can emerge as a solid player for Kansas State, the defense has a chance to be dangerous.

As Cole talked about, Byron Pringle has the opportunity to be a special player, and I believe his impact will have a ripple effect onto the rest of the receiver core, specifically Deante Burton. Kansas State’s leading receiver from 2015 returns for his senior campaign with 22 career starts under his belt. With Burton’s combined skill set of size and speed he has been on opposing defenses’ radars as K-State’s primary option at receiver. Naturally, opponents game planned to limit his production as best they could. With the addition of Byron Pringle, and the emergence of other young receivers, look for Deante Burton to see more situations where he can showcase his athleticism and make a strong impact in the 2016 season.

@Cole_Manbeck how stupid of a mascot is a tree?

— GET BUCKETS (@ChuckJames919) August 29, 2016

The tree is the unofficial mascot of Stanford and the official mascot of the Stanford Band. This inspired us to have a little fun and each pick a mascot that we thought was unique/odd out in the sports world.

Stanton: The Stanford Band’s mascot is unique and was always a favorite when playing the Mascot Mashup games featured in EA Sports’ video game NCAA Football (RIP). The tree was throwing and catching the ball with no arms, it put its forehead on the ground to get into a three-point stance for God’s sake, how can you not be amused by that? Speaking of the Stanford Band, I can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeve for K-State. If they break out the FarmersOnly.com jingle, like they did for Iowa in the Rose Bowl, I’m calling foul because with their reputation, we deserve to see something original.

As for my favorite “weird mascot” out there I have to give it to Keggy the Keg from the campus of Dartmouth College. The Big Green’s unofficial mascot debuted at the 2003 Homecoming game against Columbia. Nothing says “college” like a beer keg for a mascot, I encourage you to check out the link.

Cole: The Stanford tree is one of the strangest mascots in college sports. Nebraska’s Lil’ Red and Western Kentucky’s “Big Red” earn Honorable Mention honors for strangest mascot.

John: Call me crazy, but I’m actually a fan of the tree. It’s unique and very easily identifiable as the Stanford mascot. It also fits in pretty well with the general vibe of the Stanford band. I love goofy minor league baseball mascots though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. There’s nothing better than the Montgomery Biscuits as far as mascots go.

@PowercatGameday @stantonweber What would be your KSU football dream team? Mine would be the 98 offense with the 2002 defense.

— Patrick Hines (@patemaw7) August 29, 2016

Let’s add Special Teams in there for good measure.

Cole: The 1998 team in its entirety is my dream team. That was my favorite K-State team and they were hands down the best team in the country that season. Ben Leber, Monty Beisel and Jon McGraw were backups on that defense — three backups who eventually played in the NFL. Damion McIntosh, Jeff Kelly, Lamar Chapman, Mark Simoneau, Darren Howard and on and on. So much talent. When that team led Texas A&M by 15 in the fourth quarter of the Big 12 Championship, I thought there was no way that defense would give that up.

Offensively, Michael Bishop was my favorite player to watch growing up. Bishop, coupled with that huge offensive line, were fun to watch.

And on special teams, David Allen and Martin Gramatica and so on. I can’t think of a more complete team in program history.

Stanton: A tough question to say the least. Playing alongside Collin Klein may make me bias on this but the guy’s leadership, toughness, and unbelievable character forces me to pick the 2012 offense. I know most people would look straight to the statistics to answer this question but I am a strong believer in how intangibles will permeate throughout a team’s culture and make all facets of a team better. In case you want a stat, though, here’s one: Collin Klein was 10-1 in games decided by 7 points or less, he flat out won. As for toughness, he would go through the equivalent of a car crash every week, when he took his pads off in the locker room after games it was difficult to find an area of his body that wasn’t black and blue. Yet, he’d come back the next week and do it again, never missing a start in his career. Looking at the other assets on that team from the receiver core of Chris Harper, Tremaine Thompson, and Tyler Lockett to the strong offensive line and John Hubert at running back, it’s hard to find a weakness.

Defensively I like the 2002 squad. The unit allowed an average of only 69.5 yards rushing per game, that’s a K-State record by almost 30 yards a game. They had 20 interceptions that year and allowed an average of 11.8 points per game, 2nd fewest only to the 1953 squad.

My selection for special teams was difficult. There have been so many K-State teams that have been great in one facet of special teams or another. The recent success of Tyler Lockett and Morgan Burns in the area of kickoff return makes this decision more difficult than expected. David Allen’s punt return campaign of 22.1 yards per return and 4 touchdowns paired with the record setting leg of Martin Gramatica makes a very attractive case for my choice of 1998.

John: I have a borderline obsession with the ‘98 team, so it’s hard for me to not go the Cole route of picking the entire team. To get creative here, I’ll start with offense and take the ‘03 (when healthy) group.

That offense with a healthy Roberson, Darren Sproles and a deep threat in James Terry was perfect for what Bill Snyder wants to do offensively. You have an incredibly mobile QB, dynamic running back and the ability to throw it deep when you’re not running it. Not to mention guys like Nick Lecky up front on the line and a solid tight end in Brian Casey.

I’ll go back further with the defense and take the ‘95 unit. That team led the country in total defense and actually pitched three straight shutouts at one point. The linebacking corps was nasty with guys like Percell Gaskins, Travis Ochs and DeShawn Fogle. Tim Colston and Nyle Wiren were complete beasts on the defensive line. The secondary was stingy too with future first-round draft pick Chris Canty, Joe Gordon and Mario Smith.

Finally to get ‘98 some representation, I’ll take their special teams. Martin Gramatica was the best kicker in the country and set the record for longest field goal made without the use of a tee. James Garcia was a solid punter. Most importantly, the return game featured David Allen who ran four punts back for touchdowns that season. Aaron Lockett was also a freshman on that team if you need a little more pop in the return game.

By Cole Manbeck

When you think of Kansas State’s offense, you might envision a unit that grinds out first down after first down while owning time of possession. And that’s true. The Wildcats have ranked in the top 25 nationally in time of possession in six of the past seven seasons.

But just like any football team, K-State’s offense also relies on explosive plays. Ten to 15-play drives are great, but they aren’t always sustainable, and the longer a drive, the more likely a mistake occurs that results in either a turnover, sack or drive-altering penalty.

K-State’s offense struggled with big plays last season. According to SBNation’s Bill Connelly, the Wildcats only had eight plays that went for 40 yards or more, ranking 112^th nationally. K-State’s 147 plays of 10 yards or more ranked 107^th.

The folks at unfairweatherfan.com do a nice job of analyzing big plays in college football in 2015. They categorize big plays as completions of 20 yards or more and running attempts of 10 or more yards. Based off that analysis, K-State had a total of 95 big plays in 2015, averaging a big play on 10.8 percent of its offensive snaps. Only KU had a lower big-play percentage in the Big 12 at 8.5 percent. The Big 12 Conference led the country in big-play percentage last season at 13.5 percent, so K-State was nearly three percent below the league average.

K-State only completed 35 passes for 20-plus yards last season, tying for next-to-last in the Big 12. Only Texas had less with 30. The Big 12 average for big passing plays was 51 completions of 20 yards or more. So K-State was well below the average, and that’s not taking into account that the Wildcats, Texas and KU significantly dragged down the average number of 51 for the league.

For comparison’s sake, I charted K-State’s passing plays in 2014. The Wildcats recorded 53 passing plays of 20-plus yards. Although that’s not truly a fair comparison with Jake Waters at quarterback and an All-American in Tyler Lockett at receiver along with Curry Sexton, another solid receiver opposite of Lockett that season.

Many get caught up with the Wildcats’ 47-percent completion percentage last season, and that number is bad, especially in this era of college football when so many short passes and bubble screens are thrown. It was the worst completion percentage since the 2001 K-State team completed just 44 percent of its passes.

However, if you analyze the history of Bill Snyder’s teams at K-State, he doesn’t always rely on high completion percentages for a successful offense. His teams from 1997-2003 completed an average of 49 percent of their passes, but they certainly didn’t have any trouble scoring points (excluding 2001). The Wildcats had one of the best rushing attacks in the country during that time (we’ll break down K-State’s running game later in this blog), but they also were very successful with big plays in the passing game, completing long passes to the likes of Darnell McDonald, Aaron Lockett, Quincy Morgan and James Terry.

Despite those poor completion percentages of those teams from 1997-03, K-State was successful in the passing game, averaging 8.3 yards per pass attempt during those seven seasons. K-State averaged just 6.5 yards per pass attempt in 2015, ranking 87^th in the country. It was the lowest yards per pass attempt a K-State team has had since the 2004 season.

I expect this to change in 2016. The Wildcats are healthy at quarterback again with Jesse Ertz and Alex Delton returning from injuries. And Joe Hubener returns with a year of playing experience under his belt.

K-State also has more weapons at receiver.  On paper, the Wildcats appear more physically imposing at receiver and possess more speed. Isaiah Zuber, a redshirt freshman, has drawn positive reviews and appears to be a potential big-play threat. Corey Sutton, a true freshman who arrived for spring ball, could see playing time in his first season based off how he has performed in the spring and fall camp. Lastly, Byron Pringle, a 6-foot-2 junior college transfer, is expected to be a key contributor after arriving for spring ball.

Can Pringle live up to the high expectations fans are placing on his shoulders? It will be difficult, as many junior college receivers who were heralded during the Snyder era didn’t put up big numbers until their second season of playing time. Quincy Morgan is an exception, but he had a redshirt year to become acclimated. However, Pringle was here for spring practice, and that could prove to be significant.

Heralded Junior college receivers during the Snyder-Era at K-State

In addition, K-State returns its leading receiver from last season in Deante Burton. It’s important that the 6-2 receiver take a step forward in 2016. Burton was targeted 94 times in 2015, catching only 38 passes, according to SBNation’s Bill Connelly. That’s a bad number, and not entirely Burton’s fault, as that number includes over-throws, under-throws, etc. Very few of those incomplete passes were the result of a drop, but it does indicate the need to get more separation on his defender when running his routes.

Lastly, Dominique Heath is back and should provide a reliable weapon in the slot.

A closer look at the passing numbers during the Snyder-era (national rankings in parentheses where available)

You’ll notice from the above numbers that K-State ranked in the top six nationally in yards per pass attempt from 2012-14. So last season was a significant step back. The

Wildcats also ranked in the top 25 in passing efficiency during the 2012-14 seasons. Last season, K-State was 108^th nationally in efficiency.

Can K-State protect the quarterback?

The offensive line is the greatest area of concern on offense. K-State’s quarterbacks were sacked 9.7 percent of the time they dropped back for passes last season, ranking ninth in the Big 12. Only 11 teams in the country gave up a higher sack percentage than K-State. That number is far too high. However, part of that is because the Wildcats’ receivers struggled to get separation from corners, causing the quarterbacks to hang onto the football too long at times. Hubener also needed to do a better job of getting rid of the football.

The Wildcats are young and inexperienced on the line coming into this season. We’ll see if offensive line coach Charlie Dickey can get this group to gel with the right pieces. Scott Frantz, a redshirt freshman projected to start at left tackle, will be key to this unit. I think Frantz is going to be a very good player, and if he can prove to be solid this year, the Wildcats are set at a pivotal position for the future.

Sack percentage allowed by K-State’s offensive line from 2009-15

Will K-State’s running game turn the corner in 2016?

 Before I looked at the numbers, I thought K-State took a decent step forward last season running the ball. But the numbers disagree. The Wildcats averaged 3.7 yards per carry in 2014, ranking 101^st nationally and eighth in the Big 12. In 2015, they averaged 3.9 yards per rush, ranking 101^st in the country and eighth in the conference. Averaging less than 4 yards per rush each of the last two seasons is a concerning number for an offense that prides itself on being able to run the ball. And that number must change in 2016.

K-State struggled so much in the passing game last season that teams could gear up to take away the run. And if it weren’t for the high number of sacks allowed, the Wildcats would have averaged more than 4 yards per rush. So that gives last year a bit of a pass. But in 2014, K-State was one of the best passing teams in the country and still couldn’t run the ball effectively when teams geared up to stop Lockett. So is this a trend or can the Wildcats get back to being a good running team?

An improved passing game should help. Opponents will likely have to respect the pass more this season, which should help out K-State’s offensive line and running backs. The Wildcats will need to be a good running team to take a little pressure off the young offensive line in pass protection. If the Wildcats can run the ball effectively, it will make the play-action pass more effective, slowing down the opposing pass rush and will help keep K-State out of predictable passing situations, which can create stress on the youthful line.

The Wildcats return a full stable of running backs. Charles Jones took a step forward last season, averaging 5.2 yards per rush over his final nine games and returns for his senior season. Justin Silmon comes into his sophomore year after averaging 4.6 yards per rush last season. The Wildcats could use more big plays in the running game, so getting Dalvin Warmack on the field and at least a few touches a game could help. And keep an eye on redshirt freshman Alex Barnes at running back, who has made a positive impression on the coaching staff.

K-State yards per carry the past two seasons

K-State yards per carry from 2009-13

Overall

 The offensive numbers in both the passing and running game were bad last season. Yet K-State averaged 2.24 points per drive, ranking 55^th in the country. So credit to the coaching staff for still getting some production from a unit that lacked playmakers, but the 2.24 points per drive is the lowest the Wildcats have average since 2009, Snyder’s first season back on the sidelines.

If the Wildcats can stay healthy, the offense should take a significant step forward this season. There’s more speed at the skill positions and that should lead to an increase in explosive plays. The key will be the offensive line. If they can come together by Big 12 play, the K-State offense could be fun to watch this season.

Total offense numbers during Snyder’s 24 seasons at K-State (note that points per drive has been tracked by Brian Fremeau at bcftoys.com since 2007)

*K-State’s 4.9 yards per offensive play in 2015 tied for the second-lowest since 1992.*

 By Cole Manbeck

Last week we broke down the struggles of Kansas State’s secondary in 2015. Before we move on to the front six of the defense, I wanted to mention one final area of improvement K-State needs from the secondary in 2016 – limiting the big plays, something I failed to write about in the previous blog.

K-State allowed 57 passing plays of 20 yards or more last season, the most of any team in the Big 12. The league average was 45 plays of 20-plus passing yards in 2015. In addition, only four teams in all of college football allowed more passing plays of 20-plus yards last season than K-State. According to SB Nation’s Bill Connelly, K-State’s defense overall allowed 221 plays of 10 yards or more, ranking 122^nd nationally.

Now that we’ve gotten the final negative out of the way, let’s move onto the positive – K-State’s front six of the defense (typing front six feels strange, but there isn’t much 4-3 defense played in the Big 12 nowadays). Three of the six projected starters that make up the Wildcats’ front six were selected to the preseason All-Big 12 First Team. If senior linebacker Mike Moore plays the way he did late in 2015, he’s an All-Big-12 caliber player too.

K-State’s defensive line features senior defensive end Jordan Willis, who is the top returning defender statistically at sacking the quarterback in the Big 12. Who will play opposite of Willis remains a question, but I am excited about the potential of both junior Tanner Wood and redshirt freshman Reggie Walker.

The biggest question mark in the front six will be who replaces Travis Britz, an anchor at defensive tackle the previous three seasons. We know how good Will Geary is, but whoever lines up next to him will be key. Teams will likely double team Geary at times, or use a second man to hedge block the former walk on. If they do that, the defensive tackle lined up next to Geary will need to occasionally take advantage of the one-on-one matchups when those situations arise.

K-State has a history of second-year junior college players, as well as junior college defensive tackles, making strides. Chaq Reed, Valentino Coleman and Daniel Calvin are a few examples of junior college defensive tackles who significantly improved from year one to year two during coach Bill Snyder’s second tenure with the Wildcats. K-State must hope that Craig Settles, a former junior college transfer who saw action in the final two games last season, can take a big step in his senior season. K-State also brought in Ray Price from the junior college ranks this year to provide depth, joining redshirt freshman Trey Dishon and junior Matt Seiwert as the primary competition on the interior.

The ideal at all positions is to have a solid two-deep, but that was not the case last season at defensive tackle. Britz and Geary are very good players and are warriors, but they played too many snaps in my opinion. K-State will need someone to step up who can spell Geary at times and keep him fresh so he doesn’t lose his effectiveness.

We highlighted in the previous blog that K-State’s pass rush was a strength in 2015, ranking in the top 25 in the country in sack percentage. It should be be strong again this season. I believe Walker has a lot of pass-rush ability to go along with Willis. And Elijah Lee, a versatile linebacker who can really get after the quarterback, enters his junior year after a solid sophomore campaign.

Moore and Lee can really run. It will be key for the K-State defensive tackles to keep blockers off of them so they can fly around to the football and make plays. Which brings us to the one weak spot of the front six in 2015. The Wildcats allowed 4.6 yards per rush last season against FBS opponents, ranking 81^st nationally. In K-State’s final nine games, the defense allowed 1,883 yards on 365 attempts, an average of 5.2 yards per carry.

K-State allowed 3.9 yards per carry in 2012, 3.8 yards per rush in 2013 and 4.2 yards per rush in 2014. Those are averages K-State needs to get back to in 2016.

Lastly, K-State’s defense as a whole needs to improve in defensive efficiency. Points per drive is a stat that gives a more accurate assessment of a defense rather than points per game, as it takes into account pace of play. Brian Fremeau does a great job of tracking this stat dating back to 2007.

K-State’s defense allowed 2.60 points per possession in 2015, ranking 101^st in the country. It was the most points per drive K-State has allowed since Snyder returned to K-State after his initial retirement. K-State’s offensive points per possession are also tracked in the following chart. Last season marked the first time since 2009 that K-State had a negative points per drive differential comparing the offense and defense.

K-State points per drive scored and allowed in 2015. National rankings are noted in parentheses next to the stat.

K-State points per drive scored and allowed from 2009-14. National rankings are noted in parentheses next to the stat.

Looking at the above chart, you’ll notice how good K-State’s offense was in efficiency from 2010-14. Take away 2009, and K-State averaged a national ranking of No. 16 in the country in points per drive. The Wildcats were middle of the pack on offense in 2015, which isn’t bad considering the lack of explosiveness the unit possessed last season, coupled with injuries to the quarterback position. However, the 2.60 points per possession allowed was far too high. Look for that number to significantly improve in 2016.

By Cole Manbeck

Kansas State had four players selected to the preseason All-Big 12 First-Team Defense in July, tying Oklahoma for the most individuals selected on the defensive side of the ball. So there’s plenty of reason for optimism heading into the 2016 season. There’s also reason for pessimism due to the struggles of the Wildcats’ secondary in 2015 – one of the worst statistical seasons K-State has had at defending the pass during Bill Snyder’s 24 seasons at K-State.

The Wildcats ranked 113^th in the country in pass efficiency defense with a 152 rating while allowing opponents to complete nearly 65 percent of their passes, ranking 118^th out of 128 FBS teams. From 2009-14, K-State’s average pass efficiency rating was 127.

K-State allowed 8.3 yards per pass attempt, ranking 112^th nationally and next-to-last in the Big 12. From 2009-14, K-State yielded an average of 7 yards per pass attempt. In the three seasons prior to 2015, the Wildcats ranked in the top three in the conference in yards per pass attempt allowed.

Taking it a step farther, I went through the Snyder era dating back to 1989. The 8.3 yards per pass attempt is the second-most K-State has allowed in the Hall-of-Famer’s 24 seasons in Manhattan. Only the 1989 squad, Snyder’s first team at K-State, allowed more (9.1 yards per attempt). The 152 pass defense efficiency rating is the worst of any Snyder-coached team dating back to at least 1991 (I was unable to locate pass efficiency defense for the 1989-90 seasons).

K-State pass defense in 2015. K-State’s national ranking is in parentheses next to the statistic. The following stats for 2015 do not include K-State’s season-opening contest against South Dakota.

K-State’s pass defense in six seasons prior to 2015

Out of the struggles noted above, perhaps the most important statistic attributed to the lack of success has yet to be mentioned – a lack of turnovers forced. The Wildcats recorded just five interceptions – with only one coming from a defensive back – in all of 2015. Only two K-State teams since 1954 have picked off their opponents five times or less in a season.

K-State intercepted 1.2 percent of its opponents’ passing attempts. Only six teams in the FBS had a lower interception rate last season. The 1.2 percent interception rate is the lowest a Snyder team has had since 1997 (which admittedly was a very good defense) and is the third-worst interception rate K-State has recorded in Snyder’s 24 seasons.

K-State forced 1.2 turnovers per game, ranking 9^th in the Big 12 and 105^th nationally. The 16 turnovers forced overall were the fewest takeaways K-State has had in the Snyder-era since at least 1991 (I was unable to locate the 1990 and 1989 overall turnover numbers).  As a result, K-State finished with a negative-three turnover margin in 2015.

K-State turnovers forced in 2015

K-State turnovers forced from 2009-14

*If you would like to see K-State’s defensive stats from 1989-05 to see how it stacked up in terms of pass defense and turnovers compared to the 2015 defense, please go to the end of this blog, where all of that is charted).*

I assure you I didn’t enjoy compiling those numbers or typing this and I’m ready to move on to the positive, as I’m sure you are as well (if the negative numbers didn’t drive you away already).

There’s reason to believe that last season’s turnover rate was an anomaly. In Snyder’s previous six seasons since he returned to the sidelines in 2009, K-State averaged 16 interceptions per season, a 3.6 percent interception rate on passes attempted and forced an average of 25 turnovers overall. The result was an average turnover margin of plus-eight. If you compare that average to the 2015 season, that’s a turnover difference of 11. And that’s significant when you look at three games K-State lost by 7 points or less in 2015 (at Oklahoma State, TCU, Baylor), where one turnover could have made the difference.

K-State’s defensive scheme keeps the ball in front of them and at times, the cushion K-State corners give to opposing receivers can be frustrating to watch. But as the numbers indicate, the style of play Tom Hayes coaches has worked for the most part (except for last season, obviously).

The struggles of the 2015 pass defense can largely be attributed to the season-ending injury to All-Big 12 safety Dante Barnett. That seems like a lot to attribute to the absence of one guy. But without Barnett, the Wildcats became extremely young at safety, relying on freshmen Sean Newlan and Kendall Adams as well as senior Nate Jackson, who wasn’t a prototypical safety. K-State lost the foundation to their defense when Barnett went down, and as a result, the Wildcats’ bend-don’t-break style not only broke, it crumbled.

This is a large part of the reason why there’s hope in 2016. Barnett, who has seven career interceptions, is back. He is a guy everyone on the defense trusts, and his leadership, coupled with his play on the field, should provide a significant lift to the secondary and enable the Wildcats to take more risks, thus creating more turnovers.

Duke Shelley, who looks well on his way to being a future All-Big 12 caliber player, gained valuable experience against some of the country’s best receivers as a true freshman last year and held his own. Adams and Newlan struggled at times last season, but K-State must hope they’ve grown from the in-game experience and one of them can help anchor the other safety spot next to Barnett. Donnie Starks started all 13 games at the nickel position and returns for his senior year.

The valuable on-field experience for the young guys, along with the return of Barnett and an infusion of talent at the other corner spot with sophomore junior college transfer D.J. Reed and California transfer Cedric Dozier, should lead to drastic improvement for the Wildcats’ secondary.

One thing that should also help out the secondary is a solid pass rush, something K-State proved to be very good at last season. The Wildcats had a sack rate of 7.7 percent last season, ranking 24^th-best in the country and fourth in the Big 12. Sack rate indicates the percentage of times a team sacks the quarterback when they drop back to pass. According to Bill Connelly’s advanced stats at SB Nation, K-State ranked fifth in passing-downs sack rate. In other words, in situations where the opponent is expected to pass (i.e. third-and-long), K-State’s defense got after the quarterback at a very successful clip.

Jordan Willis returns for his senior season to anchor one of the defensive end spots. Only nine other players in college football who return in 2016 had more sacks than K-State’s 6-foot-5, 260-pounder last season.

Despite the struggles of 2015, I expect K-State’s secondary to bounce back this season and prove that last season was more of a fluke than the norm.

Stay tuned for a blog later this week breaking down K-State’s run defense and its front-seven, which should be a strong unit this season.

K-State turnovers forced from 1989-05 (Snyder’s first tenure)

K-State Pass Efficiency Defense from 1989-05

If you are the top-ranked team in the country, Bramlage Coliseum isn’t on the list of places you want to visit. Kansas State defeated No. 1-ranked Oklahoma 80-69 Saturday, the Wildcats’ third straight home victory since 2010 against a No. 1-ranked team.

K-State accomplished the feat with a combination of terrific offense and defense. Oklahoma entered Saturday’s game as the best 3-point shooting team in the country, connecting on 46 percent of its attempts. The Wildcats came into the game with the 7^th-best 3-point defense in the country, holding opponents to just 29-percent accuracy from beyond the arc. Something had to give. On Saturday, it was K-State’s defense that held its ground against one of the best offenses in the country.

Oklahoma shot 25 percent from 3 (6-of-24), its worst shooting performance from beyond the arc this season (next lowest was 29 percent vs. West Virginia). The six made 3s tied for the second-fewest makes in a game by the Sooners this season. Oklahoma started the game 5-of-9 from 3, but went just 1-of-15 over the final 30 minutes of action.

The Sooners scored 69 points on 69 offensive possessions Saturday, an average of 1 point per offensive possession. Only West Virginia has held Oklahoma to a lower points-per-possession total this season (0.96 points per possession). The Sooners came to Manhattan averaging 1.13 points per possession, ranking 14^th nationally in offensive efficiency. Over its previous four games, Oklahoma had averaged 1.23 points per possession, which is terrific.

Wesley Iwundu’s defense on Buddy Hield can’t be understated. Hield still ended up with 23 points, but many of those came late in the game. I’m not sure an individual can defend Hield any better than Iwundu did, as the Wildcats elected to face-guard the best offensive player in the country, refusing to help off of him.

K-State completely took Oklahoma’s Jordan Woodard out of the game, holding him scoreless for the first time this season. Woodard, who is second on the team with 14 points per game and shoots 52 percent from 3, went 0-for-6 from the floor in 29 minutes. His previous season-low in points prior to Saturday was 4. He had scored in double figures in 16 of Oklahoma’s 21 games prior to Saturday. Woodard also never got to the free-throw line, marking only the third time that’s happened to the junior guard this season. And that’s significant, as Woodard shoots 83 percent from the foul line.

A game-by-game breakdown of Oklahoma’s offense this season:

K-State’s offense was just as good as its defense, if not better. Oklahoma came into Saturday holding opponents to 39 percent shooting from the floor, ranking 24^th nationally in field-goal percentage defense. The Wildcats shot 53 percent from the floor Saturday, the best shooting performance against the Sooners all season. Iowa State is the only other team to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor against Oklahoma this season.

K-State scored 80 points on 70 offensive possessions, an average of 1.14 points per possession. The Wildcats put together the second-best effort in terms of offensive efficiency against Oklahoma this season. Only Iowa State had a higher points-per-possession average against Oklahoma, scoring 1.19 points per possession in Oklahoma’s 82-77 loss in Ames, Iowa in January.

Oklahoma’s game-by-game defensive breakdown this season:

Iwundu was terrific on both ends of the floor, playing the best game of his career. The 6-foot-8 junior scored all 22 of his points over the final 23-plus minutes of the game. Turnovers have been an issue for Iwundu this season, but he dished out seven assists to just one turnover against Oklahoma.

It could be argued that D.J. Johnson also played the best game of his career. Making his first start of the season, the 6-9 junior scored 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds while playing terrific defense. Johnson’s play was crucial late in the second half. From the 6:59-mark of the second half until the 2:43 mark, Johnson scored 6 points, including two critical tip-ins off misses.

Over Johnson’s last three games, he’s 12-of-15 (80 percent) from the floor and averaging nearly 12 points and 6 rebounds per game, all while averaging just 20 minutes of action during that stretch. Since K-State’s Jan. 9 loss at Oklahoma, Johnson is 31-of-46 (67 percent) shooting.

Dean Wade re-emerged Saturday, matching his career high with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting. The freshman big man was 3-for-6 from 3. Since the Wildcats’ win at Georgia on Dec. 4, Wade was just 5-of-32 (16 percent) from 3. Since the Jan. 5 loss at Texas, Wade was just 27-of-73 (37 percent) shooting. Saturday’s effort could go a long way for this team. A confident Wade is crucial for K-State going forward.

There’s no denying that Saturday’s game was a big win. However, over the past couple of seasons, K-State has proven it can play with some of the best teams in the country. What this team needs to prove is it can be consistent. In K-State’s three Big 12 wins, it has made 88-of-158 (56 percent) from the floor and is 25-of-49 (51 percent) from 3. In the Wildcats’ seven conference losses, they are 164-417 (39 percent) from the floor and 29-of-131 (22 percent) from 3. K-State has either been on fire from the floor in Big 12 play or ice cold. Consistency has been the biggest issue and that needs to drastically improve.

The Wildcats’ RPI climbed to No. 35 in the country with Saturday’s victory. The next 10 days could define whether this team is a potential NCAA Tournament team or is destined for the NIT. The upcoming three games are all winnable and provide the Wildcats an opportunity to capture two road wins with upcoming games at Oklahoma State and TCU.

I’m not ready to talk about this team as an NCAA Tournament team, as it hasn’t shown enough consistency to date, coupled with the fact that K-State has lost 12 straight conference games away from home dating back to last season. If K-State can figure out a way to win the next three, and that’s a big if, then the NCAA Tourney is most certainly in play.

What I’m most intrigued by is seeing how K-State follows up an emotional-charged victory over Oklahoma with its upcoming contest against Baylor on Wednesday. The Wildcats haven’t won consecutive games in conference play. That needs to change on Wednesday if there’s any hope of participating in March Madness.

By Cole Manbeck

I liked Kansas State’s matchup against West Virginia on Saturday due to the Mountaineers’ style of play. The Wildcats struggle in their half-court offense due to their lack of perimeter shooting. However, they have found success when they get out and run in transition, something West Virginia allows with its full-court defensive pressure.

The Wildcats did a terrific job of taking care of the basketball Saturday. K-State had 15 turnovers in 50 minutes of action. No team has turned it over less against West Virginia this season, which forces the most turnovers in the country with 22 per game. With K-State leading 59-53 with less than 7 minutes remaining in the game, Huggins called off the full-court press, set his defense in the half court and switched to a 1-3-1 zone.

Over the final 7:30 of regulation, K-State had 14 offensive possessions and scored 10 points, an average of just 0.71 points per possession. During that stretch, K-State went 1-of-6 from the floor, turned the ball over four times and went 8-of-10 from the free-throw line. Including both overtime periods, K-State only made five field-goal attempts in the final 17:30 of the game. Barry Brown and Dean Wade – two freshmen – were the only two players to make a shot from the floor during the final 17:30. During that time, K-State only had one assist.

Against a 1-3-1 zone, it can be difficult to get the ball to the middle of the floor. K-State’s guards failed to penetrate into the middle and then get the ball to the baseline, which is the best place to attack a 1-3-1 defense.

Prior to the defensive switch by Huggins, K-State was fine offensively. West Virginia entered the contest holding teams to 0.83 points per offensive possession, which is terrific. The Wildcats entered the game scoring 1.05 points per possession. Against the Mountaineers, they averaged 0.99 points per possession. But that number was much better until West Virginia’s defensive switch.

K-State held West Virginia’s offense to 1.05 points per possession, 0.12 points per possession below its season average of 1.17.

Breaking down this game is rather simple so I’m not going to draw it out.

• The Wildcats missed far too many free throws, going 28-of-43 from the foul line.
• K-State went 3-of-19 from 3 and went 0-of-11 from 3 in the final 30 minutes of action.
• K-State struggled to adjust late to the 1-3-1 zone mentioned above.

If you want to find a bright spot, Barry Brown, Wade and Kamau Stokes – all three freshmen – combined for 48 points on 14-of-29 shooting, seven assists and just three turnovers. However, the veteran players struggled, including Wesley Iwundu, whose seven turnovers accounted for nearly half of the Wildcats’ giveaways.

This was a key game for the Wildcats that really could have set the tone for the season. It’s so important to protect your home court, especially in the Big 12. Now the Wildcats have road games at Texas and Oklahoma this next week and could very well be looking at a 0-3 start in league play.

By Cole Manbeck

Kansas State was already facing an uphill challenge going against the Arkansas offense in the Liberty Bowl. And then news leaked out Saturday morning that Will Geary, arguably the Wildcats’ best defensive lineman, and Duke Shelley, their best cover corner, would not play. Slowing down the Razorbacks’ offense became a monumental task with the news.

As we wrote in last week’s blog previewing the game, Arkansas entered Saturday’s content with the most efficient offense in the SEC. And that efficiency was on full display on Saturday against a depleted K-State defense that has struggled all season.

Arkansas averaged 8.4 yards per offensive play against the Wildcats defense. That’s the highest yards-per-play average the Razorbacks have had in a game against an FBS opponent since their season-opening game against UTEP. The 8.4 yards per play given up was the second-highest average the K-State defense had given up in a game this season (TCU averaged 10.2 per play against K-State).

Arkansas yards per play on offense in 2015-16 against FBS teams

K-State yards per play allowed on defense in 2015-16 against FBS teams

Arkansas came into Saturday’s game averaging 3.04 points per offensive possession, the best mark in the SEC and the 10^th-best nationally. Against K-State, the Razorbacks averaged 4.5 points per offensive possession, the most points per possession scored by the Razorbacks against an FBS opponent since their season-opening victory over UTEP (4.8 points per possession). The only other games Arkansas averaged more than 4 points per possession came against Mississippi and Auburn. And keep in mind those numbers are inflated because those games both went into overtime, meaning Arkansas was able to start a possession already in scoring position at the opponents’ 25-yard line.

Arkansas points per possession on offense in 2015-16 against FBS teams

The 4.5 points per possession allowed by the K-State defense was a season-high. Oklahoma was the only other opponent to score at least 4 points per possession against the Wildcats. The Sooners averaged 4 points per possession against K-State.

Points per possession allowed by the K-State defense in 2015-16 against FBS teams

K-State had no answer for the balanced Arkansas offense. The Wildcats struggled upfront against the Razorbacks’ large and physical offensive line. Running back Alex Collins rushed for a season-best 185 yards. Arkansas’ 6 yards-per-carry average its second-highest yards-per-rush average against an FBS opponent this season.

Brandon Allen, the senior quarterback for Arkansas, completed 77 percent of his passes, his highest completion percentage since the season-opening victory over UTEP. The three-year starter averaged 12.1 yards per pass attempt, the most since the UTEP game. Allen hadn’t averaged more than 9.8 yards per attempt in any other FBS game this season.

K-State lost the time of possession battle by 15 minutes, which was a significant issue for a defense with little depth. The Wildcats had only lost on time of possession in three other games this season, with the largest disparity coming against Oklahoma, when the Sooners possessed the ball for an 8:44 advantage. K-State’s defense was on the field for a season-high 37:30 on Saturday. The Wildcats ran a season-low 47 offensive plays. Heading into the Liberty Bowl, K-State had at least 60 offensive snaps in every game except the 55-0 loss to Oklahoma (53 snaps).

The only chance K-State had to win Saturday was to win a shootout, something it never wants to get involved in. The Wildcats had three trips inside the red zone where it kicked field goals instead of touchdowns. And that, coupled with a struggling defense against the high-powered Arkansas offense, was the difference in Saturday’s outcome.

By Cole Manbeck

My goal isn’t to discourage you with this blog post. Kansas State can certainly defeat Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl this Saturday. But this is certainly not an ideal opponent for the Wildcats for a variety of reasons. K-State is currently a 13-point underdog. Out of the remaining bowl games to be played this season, the next largest spread is 9 points, according to 5dimes. The Wildcats are arguably the biggest underdog out of the 40 bowl games in 2015-16. So the odds aren’t in K-State’s favor. And here’s why:

Arkansas’ offense vs. the K-State defense

The Razorbacks, who have won six of their last eight games, are the SEC’s most efficient offensive team. They average 3.04 points per offensive possession, the 10^th-best mark in the country and the best in their conference. K-State’s defense allows 2.46 points per possession, ranking No. 89 in the country. Arkansas averages 6.4 yards per offensive play, ranking 17^th nationally and No. 2 in the SEC while K-State’s defense surrenders 6.1 yards per play, a number that ranks 106^th in the country.

And Arkansas features the best passing offense in the SEC. The Razorbacks rank 12^th in the country and are tops in the SEC in passing efficiency. They average 8.8 yards per pass attempt, ranking 22^nd in the country and No. 1 in the SEC. The offensive line is only giving up a sack on 3.2 percent of their passing attempts, the best mark in the SEC and 10^th-best nationally.

Under Brett Bielema, Arkansas has featured an offense that pounds the ball in the run game. Now the third-year Razorbacks coach has a tremendous passing attack to complement the ground game. Quarterback Brandon Allen is No. 9 in the country in passing efficiency. K-State has faced only one quarterback this season with a higher quarterback rating than Allen (Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma). The three-year starter ranks No. 8 nationally in yards per pass attempt. Over his last two seasons, the senior has thrown for 49 touchdowns and just 12 interceptions.

K-State’s pass defense is its weakness. The Wildcats rank 116^th in pass efficiency defense and 121^st in opponent completion percentage, allowing a 66-percent completion rate. Two of Allen’s top targets in the passing game are junior tight ends Hunter Henry and Jeremy Sprinkle. The two have combined for nearly 1,000 yards receiving and will present a significant challenge for the Wildcats’ safeties and linebackers.

And Arkansas also has one of the best running backs in the country in junior Alex Collins. The 5-foot-11, 215-pounder has rushed for nearly 1,400 yards this season and is averaging 5.6 yards per carry. Collins has rushed for 1,000-plus yards in each of his first three seasons in Fayetteville and has averaged 5.4 yards per rush or more in each of those three seasons.

Arkansas’ offense has only turned the ball over 10 times this season, an average of 0.9 giveaways per game, the seventh-fewest turnovers in the country.

Something that will likely be refreshing for K-State is it will get away from the no-huddle, hurry-up offenses that have gone viral in the Big 12. Arkansas averages 70 offensive plays per game. K-State averages 72 offensive snaps per game. In this area, the two teams are similar, as the Razorbacks are No. 2 in the country in time of possession, possessing the football for more than 34 minutes per game. K-State is No. 15 in time of possession.

K-State’s offense vs. the Arkansas defense

The Razorbacks’ weakness on defense happens to be K-State’s weakness on offense. Arkansas struggles to defend the pass, allowing 8.3 yards per pass attempt, ranking 111^th out of 128 teams nationally. It ranks 104^th nationally in pass efficiency defense. Opposing offenses have gotten 70 percent of their total yards through the air against Arkansas this season, the seventh-highest percentage in the country.

Unfortunately, the Wildcats’ offense is 107^th nationally in passing efficiency. They average 6.5 yards per pass attempt, ranking No. 86. K-State is 118^th in the country in completion percentage and 121^st in sack percentage, allowing a sack on 10 percent of its passing attempts this season.

The Razorbacks’ defensive strength is its run defense. They allow just 3.6 yards per carry, ranking 27^th nationally. Arkansas held LSU running back Leonard Fournette to 91 yards on 19 carries this season. Alabama, which boasts the best defense in the country, is the only other team to hold Fournette to less than 100 yards this season. LSU, which ranks No. 3 nationally with 5.8 yards per rush this season, averaged only 2 yards per carry against Arkansas. Alabama running back Derrick Henry, the 2015 Heisman Trophy winner, ran for just 95 yards on 27 carries against Arkansas. Henry’s 3.5 yards-per-rush average against Arkansas was a season-worst. Alabama averaged 2.9 yards per rush against Arkansas.

Now, all of that being said, K-State may still be able to run the ball vs. the Razorbacks. The Wildcats averaged 5.4 yards per carry against Baylor earlier this year. The Bears only allow 3.6 yards per rush on the season and the 5.4 yards-per-rush average was far and away the best rushing performance against Baylor all season. However, if K-State is going to win this game, it will have to be able to throw the football successfully.

Conclusion

Look for K-State to use a combination of Joe Hubener and Kody Cook at quarterback Saturday to try to keep the Razorbacks off balance. As mentioned above, Arkansas’ opponents have only gotten 30 percent of their total yards in the running game this season. K-State accumulated 47 percent of its total yards on offense in 2015 via the ground game.

The Wildcats are going to have to run the ball successfully against a good Arkansas run defense to have a chance. But it’s also crucial that Hubener and Cook take advantage of a bad pass defense and soften the Arkansas run defense.

This matchup doesn’t look good on paper. And it’s hard for me to envision K-State winning this game. However, strange things happen in bowl games. As often the case, expect the unexpected.

By Cole Manbeck

I’ve picked on Kansas State’s offense in the majority of our blog posts this season. The defense deserves just as much criticism, so to be fair, we will have two posts this week – one on the offense and another on the defense. For the purposes of consistency, this blog post will focus on the offense. Later in the week, we’ll have a blog on K-State’s defensive struggles.

I’d like to begin with a question: what is K-State’s offensive identity? It’s a hard question to answer, because the Wildcats don’t seem to have one. I thought they discovered their identity against TCU when they gashed the Horned Frogs with the running game in the first half. Then, they abandoned the ground attack in the second half of that game, and it once again went missing the following week against Oklahoma. Less than two weeks ago, I thought K-State rediscovered its identity, when it ran the ball 48 times for 258 yards, an average of 5.4 yards per rush. It was the best rushing performance against the Baylor defense all season – a unit that was only allowing 3.5 yards per rush. It was a great game plan.

Nine days later, the Wildcats traveled to Texas Tech to face a Red Raiders defense that was allowing 5.7 yards per rush against FBS opponents, ranking 123^rd out of 128 FBS teams in yards-per-carry defense. In the previous four meetings against Tech, K-State averaged 230 rushing yards per game and 5.2 yards per carry. Entering Saturday, eight of Tech’s 10 opponents this season had run for at least 225 yards against its defense.

K-State has proven it can be effective in the run game during Big 12 play. The passing game? Not so much. The Wildcats are arguably the worst passing team in the Big 12. K-State is 107^th nationally and last in the league in pass efficiency offense. The Wildcats are 121^st in the country and last in the Big 12 in completion percentage. And they are 91^st nationally and 8^th in the conference in yards per pass attempt.

Knowing these numbers, I expected K-State to go to Lubbock with the mindset to run the ball, especially considering the fact that if you can run the ball so effectively against a good Baylor run defense, you can certainly do so against the Red Raiders. The counter argument is Tech knew K-State would want to run the ball and did everything it could to take it away. My counter to that is everybody wants to run the ball against Tech. The Red Raiders allowed 5.4 yards per rush last season, ranking 115^th nationally. Stopping the run has been an ongoing problem for the Red Raiders for quite some time. I admittedly haven’t watched every Tech game on film dating back to the beginning of the 2014 season, but I’m going to guess that Saturday’s game against K-State wasn’t the first time Tech’s defensive coaches tried to stack the box to take away the run. And presuming that’s the case, the Red Raiders have rarely stopped it with that approach.

However, K-State only ran the ball 34 times against the Red Raiders. That number includes quarterback scrambles on designed pass plays as well as sacks. That’s the fewest rushing attempts against Tech this season. Only one other team has run the ball less than 40 times in a game against the Red Raiders this season, and that team was Oklahoma State. And that’s logical, because the Cowboys are terrible at running the ball, ranking 98^th nationally and 9^th in the Big 12 with just 3.7 yards per carry. Their strength is passing, where they rank No. 9 nationally in passing efficiency and 8^th nationally in yards per pass attempt. So their 36 rushing attempts against the Red Raiders made sense.

K-State’s 34 rushing attempts Saturday were illogical. Yes, K-State was playing from behind, thus increasing the passing attempts. However, K-State ran seven designed pass plays on its first nine offensive snaps, so the game plan didn’t appear to be run-heavy from the get-go. And had the Wildcats showed a determination to run the ball from the outset of the game, I’m not certain they would have been playing from behind the entirety of the game.

K-State attempted a pass on 55 percent of its offensive plays Saturday, tying KU for the highest pass percentage attempts against the Red Raiders defense this season. On the season, Tech’s FBS opponents attempted passes on only 42 percent of its offensive snaps, running the ball 58 percent of the time. K-State, the worst passing team in the league, attempted to run the ball 13 percent less than the season average against Tech. See the below table for a game-by-game comparison of each of Tech’s opponents when running the ball this season.

Texas Tech opponents’ run-play percentages and running plays overall in games in 2015

As you’ll see on the above chart, K-State wasn’t great running the ball, averaging 3.6 yards per carry. Please note that number looks worse than it actually is due to a handful of runs on the goal line as well as two sacks.

At this point of the blog, you might think it seems strange to complain about a unit that scored 44 points in a game. And I agree with you. But K-State was very average offensively. The best way to judge an offense is points per offensive possession and yards per play. The Wildcats averaged 5.4 yards per play Saturday, tying for the second-lowest average from a Tech opponent this season. The Wildcats averaged 2.7 points per possession, which is OK but not great (see the table at the end of this blog for a detailed game-by-game breakdown). K-State had nine offensive possessions where it didn’t score. That’s far too many against one of the worst defenses in college football. K-State punted seven times, tying UTEP for the most punts in a game against Tech this season. Did the lack of commitment to running the ball cost K-State Saturday? I can’t say that for certain. But it did put the Wildcats in a less than advantageous situation (as did the defense, obviously).

“We’ve got to be able to throw the ball, and have balance in our offense to become a productive offensive football team,” K-State head coach Bill Snyder said following the loss Saturday.

Balance is ideal. As an obvious disclaimer, Snyder knows way more than I do. I can’t state that enough. But having balance just for the sake of being balanced isn’t effective if the passing game is a significant weakness, which it has proven to be this season. K-State has shown it doesn’t have to be balanced to win games on occasion in the past. In 2010, K-State ran the ball 50 times and had just four passing attempts against Texas. The Wildcats won 39-14. In 2013 at Tech, K-State threw the ball just 11 times, running it on 45 attempts. The Wildcats won 49-26. Just because an opponent might know the run is coming doesn’t mean it will stop it.

Instead of making an effort to be balanced, the Wildcats need to commit to their strength, which is running the football. They need to establish their identity. And they’ve got three games left to do so.

How opponents have fared against Texas Tech’s defense in 2015. K-State’s effort Saturday produced the second-lowest yards-per-play average vs. the Red Raiders this season. The Wildcats’ 45-percent completion percentage was the worst against Tech this season, as were K-State’s 412 yards of total offense.

By Cole Manbeck

Hope you’re ready to digest some numbers. If not, this blog might give you a headache. We will start by breaking down the Baylor game. We will then spend the remainder of this blog looking ahead to the final four games of Kansas State’s regular-season schedule and analyzing the Wildcats’ chances of winning at least three of the final four games to qualify for a bowl.

Without further ado, let’s dive into the 31-24 loss to Baylor. This has been a season of close calls, and Thursday night was no different. The Wildcats did nearly everything right to put themselves in a position to win, just like the narrow loss to TCU. But on this night, they squandered too many opportunities. K-State had four drives inside the Baylor 50-yard line that combined for 3 points. Breaking it down in more detail, three of those drives were inside the Baylor 30-yard line and resulted in just 3 total points.

K-State turned the ball over at the Baylor 22 in the second quarter. Late in the first half, K-State had first down from the Baylor 30, only to have back-to-back penalties push K-State to a first-and-25, costing the Wildcats a shot at points. The Wildcats had a drive stall out at the Baylor 19 that resulted in a field goal, and had another drive halt at the Baylor 45, resulting in a punt. It’s remarkable that the Wildcats – squandering these opportunities, as well as losing the turnover battle three to zero – only lost by 7.

K-State stayed in this game with its run offense and run defense. The Wildcats rushed for 258 yards on 48 carries against the Bears. That’s the most rushing yards Baylor has allowed in a game since K-State rushed for in 327 yards in 2013, a game Baylor won 35-25 in Manhattan. The Wildcats rode Daniel Sams’ legs that day, much like they did with Joe Hubener on Thursday. In that contest, K-State possessed the ball for more than 39 minutes. On Thursday, the Wildcats possessed it for more than 38 minutes.

K-State rushed for 5.4 yards per carry on Thursday. No team had averaged better than 4.4 yards per rush in a game against the Bears, which came into Thursday night allowing 3.5 yards per rush this season. K-State’s 5.4 yard-per-carry average was the most Baylor’s defense has allowed in a game since it allowed 5.8 yards per rush against Central Florida in the Fiesta Bowl two seasons ago.

On the defensive side of the ball, K-State held Baylor to 103 yards rushing on 34 carries, an average of just 3 yards per rush. The Bears entered the game leading the country in yards per carry and had rushed for 5.6 yards per rush or more in every game prior to Thursday night. Heading into the K-State game, Baylor’s season low for rushing yards in a game was 276.

K-State forced Baylor to punt four times, tying for the second-most punts the Bears have had in a game this season. Those are the positives. The negatives are that K-State’s secondary, which ranks 109^th out of 128 teams in pass efficiency defense and 106^th in yards per pass attempt, struggled once again, allowing Baylor to throw for 419 yards.

The glaring issue for this defense is its inability to force turnovers. The Wildcats have just seven takeaways on the season, tied with three other teams for the lowest mark in the entire country. K-State has recorded just three interceptions on the season – all three coming from its linebackers. Not one member of K-State’s secondary has an interception through eight games. That cannot continue.

On the other side of the ball, K-State has been intercepted on 8.7 percent of its passing attempts over its last three games. Only one team in the country – Maryland – has thrown interceptions at a higher frequency during that time frame. On the season, K-State has been picked off on 4.6 percent of its passing attempts, a mark that ranks 115^th out of 128 FBS teams. Easier said than done, but the Wildcats need to start taking better care of the football while forcing the issue on defense and causing the opponents to make some mistakes.

Give K-State credit. It has played Oklahoma State and Baylor closer than any other team this season. And The Wildcats narrowly lost to TCU. The Wildcats have a formula that has kept them competitive against the top competition. There’s something to be said about a team giving itself a chance to win. But winning is what matters, and K-State continues to struggle to get over the hump in close games. Since 2013, the Wildcats have a 5-10 record in games decided by 10 points or less. In addition, the Wildcats are 2-12 in their last 14 games against teams ranked in the top 25.

The good news is K-State won’t see another top-25 team the rest of the season. The Wildcats’ next four opponents are a combined 5-19 in Big 12 play and 12-24 overall. Even better news: since 2011, K-State is a combined 15-0 against Texas Tech, Iowa State, Kansas and West Virginia. The following two tables break down how K-State’s final four opponents rank nationally on defense and offense. As you can see, if the Wildcats utilize the same game plan they had against Baylor in the final one-third of the season, they could have a lot of success in the ground game.

Defensive rankings of K-State’s next four opponents. The number in parentheses is the national ranking of each team in that statistical category. There are 128 FBS teams.

Offensive rankings of K-State’s next four opponents. The number in parentheses is the national ranking of each team in that statistical category. There are 128 FBS teams.

The Big 12 has five of the top six scoring offenses in the entire country against FBS competition. The Wildcats have faced four of them. Only one more dynamic offense remains and that’s the Red Raiders, K-State’s opponent this Saturday. Tech is averaging 44 points per game against FBS opponents, ranking sixth nationally. Each team is different, but the Wildcats have had no problems with the Red Raiders since the departure of Mike Leach.

Since 2011, K-State is 4-0 vs. Tech, defeating it by an average margin of 48-24. In the past four contests, K-State has averaged 230 rushing yards per game and 5.2 yards per rush against the Red Raiders. The Wildcats are 62-of-87 passing (71 percent) for 745 yards and 8.6 yards per pass attempt to go along with eight touchdowns and zero interceptions. The Wildcats have averaged 6.3 yards per offensive play in their last four meetings with Tech.

While I am a big fan of Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes, history says the Wildcats’ secondary will make its first interception of the season this Saturday. K-State has intercepted a Tech quarterback at least once in each of the last four meetings. Since 2011, Red Raider quarterbacks have thrown for six touchdowns and 10 interceptions against K-State.

A big key for the K-State defense this Saturday will be making Tech one dimensional, much like it did Baylor (except defending the pass a little better against the Red Raiders would help). Tech is averaging 5.4 yards per carry against FBS competition, the 10^th-best mark in the country. The Red Raiders are averaging 191 yards per game on the ground. They are much more balanced offensively this season. And Mahomes is one of the most mobile quarterbacks Tech has had in more than a decade. He has an ability to run the football and is also very good at extending plays in the passing game. K-State has held Tech to 3.6 yards per carry and 95 rushing yards per game in its previous four meetings. If it can do something similar on Saturday, the Wildcats will have a good shot to win.

The other keys to this game are noted in the above charts. K-State must run the football and own time of possession if it is going to win this game. Tech is pitiful at stopping the run and has been that way for several years. The Wildcats should be able to line up and pound the ball down the Red Raiders’ throats. When K-State played in Lubbock in 2013, the Wildcats won the game 49-26 and threw the ball just 11 times for 76 yards while running for 291 yards on 45 carries. That should be the game plan this Saturday – except throwing the ball 11 times might be too many attempts. This Tech defense is allowing 5.7 yards per carry against FBS competition, ranking 123^rd out of 128 FBS teams. Tech is allowing 269 yards per game on the ground against FBS teams, ranking 124^th nationally. It’s not like the Red Raiders are good at defending the pass. Really, they’re bad all around on defense. One thing that should cure the Wildcats’ offensive woes is the defenses they will be facing the next few weeks.

The only thing Tech does well on the defensive side of the football is forcing turnovers. The Red Raiders know they’re unlikely to stop you otherwise, so they’ll take risks. They have forced 20 turnovers this season, tied for the 10^th-most in the country. The Wildcats must protect the football. Tech is explosive on offense. However, if K-State wins the turnover battle and runs the ball like it did against Baylor, I think it will come away with a win. If the Wildcats can get out of Lubbock with a victory, they’re likely destined for a bowl. A win at Tech, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Wildcats reel off four straight victories to end the regular season.

By Cole Manbeck

Kansas State put itself in a great position to upset the 2nd-ranked team in the country Saturday night. The Wildcats had executed the perfect offensive game plan in the first half to take a 35-17 lead into the locker room. And then K-State got away from what led to its 18-point advantage.

K-State was pounding TCU with its running game. The Horned Frogs came into Saturday’s contest allowing 4.2 yards per carry, a mark that ranked 74th in the country. The key to the Wildcats springing an upset was to establish long, sustaining drives that ate up clock and resulted in touchdowns. The execution of this couldn’t have gone much better in the first half. K-State ran for 170 yards on 27 carries in the opening half, an average of  6.3 yards per rush, while possessing the ball for nearly 23 minutes.

The Wildcats offensive line, which probably played its best all-around game since 2013, was punishing a TCU defense that started two converted safeties at linebacker. Those two safeties weighed 190 and 208 pounds. K-State gashed the Horned Frogs with the quarterback-run game to go along with the best game of Charles Jones’ career.

And then the second half arrived. The K-State offense played like a team that was trailing by 18 points rather than leading by that margin. The interception on the opening drive was the biggest play of the game. But the Wildcats still had a terrific opportunity to regain momentum and control of the game. Instead, it was as if they panicked. From the 13:30-mark of the third quarter until the 4:50-mark, K-State ran 11 designed pass plays and just two running plays. During those three offensive series, the Wildcats gained 23 yards of offense on 13 plays and managed just one first down. There were eight incomplete passes, an interception and a 1-yard quarterback scramble on a designed pass play. All in all, K-State was 1-of-10 passing during that stretch. This was a stretch in the game that proved to be crucial.

After that 13-play stretch, the Wildcats, leading 35-31, got the ball back with 3:07 left in the third quarter. And what did they do on the next offensive series? They ran 10 plays. All 10 plays were on the ground. There was not a single pass attempted. The result? A 45-yard touchdown drive that ate up 5:50 of clock. On the ensuing drive after that, the Wildcats chose to throw the ball three straight times. The result? A three-and-out and a punt.

For the second straight week, K-State’s coaching staff did a terrific job in the first half putting the Wildcats in a position to win against two very good football teams. And on both occasions, they got away from what got them there. Against Oklahoma State, the Wildcats ran 22 designed running plays for 116 yards in the opening half, an average of 5.3 yards per carry. In the second half, they ran just 14 designed running plays for 70 yards, still an average of 5 yards per rush. In the second half against TCU, K-State called 18 designed running plays and they went for 82 yards, an average of 4.6 yards per rush. So in the past two weeks, the Wildcats, have significantly reduced the number of times they run the ball in the second half while playing with the lead. And the above stats show it’s not as if the offense wasn’t having success on the ground in those second halves.

I recognize that some of the plays are being changed at the line of scrimmage, and that defenses adjust at the half. But K-State did not need to throw the football as frequently as it did in the second half Saturday night against TCU. My biggest critique is this: why would you not continue to pound the ball on the ground against a defense that was exhausted. K-State won the time of possession battle 39:45 to 20:15. But if the Wildcats had stuck to the running game, they could have likely possessed the ball for 45 minutes. TCU’s defense was tired. The Horned Frogs were giving some different looks in the second half and played a lot of single-coverage looks. TCU was daring K-State to pass. The Wildcats took the bait. The Horned Frogs were trying to take away the running game, but truth be told, no matter how hard they tried, they weren’t very successful at doing it. The only thing that stopped the Wildcats was the decision to continue to throw the football in the second half.

For example, on K-State’s final drive of the second half, it executed a seven-play, 40-yard touchdown drive. All seven plays on that drive were running plays. So the Wildcats had two touchdown drives in this game – a seven-play drive and a 10-play drive – where it didn’t throw the ball once. And TCU could do nothing to stop it. When K-State defeated Texas 39-14 in 2010, the Wildcats ran the ball 50 times for 261 yards. They threw it four times for 9 yards. In that game, K-State stuck with what was working. In my opinion, that’s what they should have done against TCU.

And then there is the issue of the types of passes K-State chose to throw. It’s no secret that K-State isn’t explosive at wide receiver. The Wildcats struggle to separate from defensive backs on vertical routes. Yet K-State attempted 14 passes of 20 yards or more Saturday night. Joe Hubener only completed one of those 14 passes and it occurred in the first quarter (two of those 14 passes resulted in pass interference calls, so Hubener was technically 1-of-12 throwing on 20-yard routes or longer). The Wildcats continually tried to attack TCU’s corners with vertical routes down the sideline and it wasn’t working. The receivers were never able to get a step on the TCU corners.

I could get into the decision to kick the field goal and not go for it on fourth-and-1 at the 20-yard line with less than 2 minutes remaining in the game. For the record, I thought K-State had to play for the win there. The TCU offense was rolling against a Wildcat defense that was playing with nearly an entire secondary made up of backup players due to injuries. But the bottom line is I don’t believe the Wildcats are even in the position for that decision to come into play if they had just continued doing what worked in the first half, and in the second half, when they gave it a try.

K-State has now scored just 16 total points in five games in the third quarter this season. It has scored 7 points in the last three games combined. And over the last two games, the Wildcats have run 35 plays for 80 yards in the third quarter, an average of 2.3 yards per offensive play. They’re averaging 3.2 points in the third quarter this season, which ranks 114th in the FBS.

K-State needs to remember what got them the leads the last two weeks in the opening halves. Instead, it has gotten away from what led to those leads. And the result has been two great opportunities getting away from the Wildcats.

By Cole Manbeck

I would love to spend the entirety of this blog post raving about the job Kody Cook did at quarterback Saturday at Oklahoma State. Considering the circumstances, he was spectacular. However, I have always been one to linger on the negatives and what must be improved, so the focus of this post is about K-State’s struggling secondary.

Let’s preface this by stating the obvious: the Wildcats really miss Dante Barnett at safety, and his presence would certainly change the dynamics of the K-State secondary. Still, his absence doesn’t necessarily excuse the performance of the pass defense through four games.

The secondary was supposed to be a position of strength heading into the 2015 season, led by two returning starters at cornerback entering their senior seasons. That has not been the case. In four games, K-State has intercepted one pass – a deflected ball picked off by linebacker Will Davis on Saturday in Stillwater, Okla. Only five teams in the entire Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) have intercepted fewer passes than the K-State defense. This is a problem, because the Wildcats lack the explosive weapons on offense to continually sustain long drives. If K-State is going to be successful, it needs to create turnovers and put the offense in advantageous situations in terms of field position.

K-State’s run defense – led by Travis Britz, Will Geary and Jordan Willis and others, has been terrific. The Wildcats are holding teams to 2.3 yards per carry, the fourth-best mark in the country. So K-State has made teams one dimensional, yet the secondary is still having significant issues.

K-State’s three FBS opponents have attempted an average of 48 passes per game against the Wildcats. No team in the country has had more passes thrown against it in FBS games than K-State. The Wildcats’ three FBS opponents have produced 81 percent of their total offense via the passing game when facing K-State, the highest mark in the entire country. K-State’s FBS opponents are passing on 63.3 percent of their offensive plays against K-State, the most of any team in the FBS. K-State is allowing more than 29 completions per game against FBS opponents, the most in the FBS.

Those numbers are why having just one interception – and it coming from a linebacker – is concerning. Because the Wildcat corners are getting so many opportunities to pick off quarterbacks by the sheer number of volume of throws coming their way, and they’re not doing it. It’s hard to blame the defensive line, which has been stout against the run. K-State has put pressure on the quarterback, averaging 3.5 sacks per game thus far, a number that ranks 10^th-best in the country. Against FBS opponents, K-State has sacked the quarterback 7.1 percent of the time he drops back, ranking 33^rd in the country. The pass rush could certainly be better, but it’s not the problem.

After reading these numbers, you may feel like K-State hasn’t necessarily been a team that forces interceptions under defensive coordinator Tom Hayes. The numbers say otherwise:

K-State is only one-third of the way into the season, so there are opportunities to improve these numbers. But looming on the horizon are the likes of TCU’s Trevone Boykin, Baylor’s Seth Russell, West Virginia’s Skylar Howard, Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes and Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield. Russell (No. 1), Mayfield (No. 5), Boykin (No. 6) and Howard (No. 11) rank in the top 11 in the country in passing efficiency. Mahomes is 25^th.  Between the five of them, they’ve combined for 20 interceptions on 753 passes. So the odds aren’t favorable to the Wildcats racking up a lot of interceptions in conference play unless something changes.

Now, having said all of this, K-State has been respectable as far as yards per pass attempt allowed, giving up 6.6 yards per throw against FBS opponents and ranking 43^rd nationally. K-State is allowing 4.8 yards per offensive play through four games, ranking 32^nd in the country. So it’s not all bad.

The Wildcats are getting a decent amount of production out of their offense given the circumstances. But this isn’t a group that can afford to get into offensive shootouts consistently. So it needs the secondary – and the defense as a whole – to start making some plays on the balls and forcing the issue in the defensive backfield

 By Cole Manbeck

Kansas State entered this season inexperienced and unproven at quarterback. But one thing I never thought would become a concern would be the number of bodies the Wildcats have at the position. However, when the starting quarterback goes down with what what’s likely a season-ending injury on the first offensive play of the season, that perspective changes. K-State is now one injury away from starting a true freshman under center. And while the coaching staff is high on Alex Delton and his future is certainly bright, that’s not an ideal situation.

K-State’s offense must now adjust with Joe Hubener at quarterback. While both Jesse Ertz and Hubener have the capability to run the football, there are some differences in their games. For one, Ertz was more of a zone-read quarterback in the running game. Hubener is more of a power runner who doesn’t possess the straight-line speed that Ertz did or the burst off a zone-read, but has the ability to gain yards after initial contact.

The passing game is where I think we will notice the most obvious difference. Hubener struggles with his accuracy at times. His biggest strength is far and away his strong arm and he put that on display in the Wildcats’ 34-0 victory over South Dakota last Saturday. Out of Hubener’s 18 passing attempts on Saturday, seven of them went 25 yards or more. He completed three of them. Five of the seven attempts went for 30-plus yards.

It was just one game, and the Wildcats didn’t game plan to play Hubener throughout the contest. But the deep ball could very well be the offensive attack K-State looks to utilize with the junior under center. However, the concern there is that K-State doesn’t have burners at wide receiver to excel at that type of passing attack. Dominique Heath is explosive, but he stands at 5-foot-8. Deante Burton, Kyle Klein and Kody Cook are more possession-type receivers who excel at the intermediate passing game. And other weapons on the K-State offense are its tight ends and fullbacks in Cody Small, Glenn Gronkowski and Winston Dimel – players you look to hit on more intermediate routes. Hubener very well could excel at the position and be accurate, but I always got the sense that Ertz was the more accurate of the two at passing the football and thus, fit this offense well with the receivers the quarterbacks have to throw to.

Hubener showed a tendency on Saturday to stare down his receiver right after the snap, which will lead to interceptions once the competition improves. That will need to change going forward and will improve with experience. This probably sounds like I am knocking Hubener, when in reality, I felt he performed very well for being thrown into the fire unexpectedly early in the game. I came away impressed with his arm strength as well as the touch he had on some of his longer throws. He will only get better with more reps as the No. 1 guy in practice.

K-State’s running game

K-State ran the ball effectively against South Dakota, and credit to the offensive line, which opened up some nice holes and drove the defense several yards back on a few plays while also providing great protection for Hubener in passing situations. However, the performance in the ground game should be taken with a grain of salt. K-State averaged 4.6 yards per carry against the Coyotes. In last year’s season opener, the Wildcats averaged 4.7 yards per rush and ran for 240 yards against Stephen F. Austin. And we saw how the running game struggled the remainder of the season.

K-State still lacked explosive plays on the ground. Charles Jones’ longest play from scrimmage was 7 yards on Saturday. His longest play on the ground all of last season was 18 yards. The Wildcats need bigger plays from their starting tailback. K-State once again didn’t have a running back record a run of 20-plus yards in a game, and Saturday marked the 15^th straight game where K-State has failed to have a running back gain 100 yards on the ground. However, this was just one game and who is to say Jones doesn’t pop a big play this Saturday on the road at UTSA. In addition, Justin Silmon ran well and looked like he could be a dynamic runner for the Wildcats going forward.

Looking ahead to UTSA

UTSA presents some challenges for K-State, with the primary one being that it’s the Wildcats’ first road game of the season and marks the first start of Hubener’s career. Coming into the season, this was a game I thought K-State would win easily. UTSA returned just five starters off a 4-8 football team. However, UTSA’s performance last Thursday at Arizona, coupled with the K-State injuries, has changed my perspective. Larry Coker is a quality football coach and has had an extra two days to prepare for K-State due to the Roadrunners playing last Thursday.

The UTSA offense racked up more than 500 yards against Arizona in the season opener. Arizona isn’t known for its defense and was playing without several key guys, but that’s still an impressive number. The primary concern for K-State will be defending tight end David Morgan. The 6-foot-4 senior had nine receptions for 109 yards against Arizona. The reason this is a concern is because Dante Barnett is banged up and didn’t play in the second half against South Dakota after suffering an injury. If Barnett is unable to go, the Wildcats will be relying on a freshman in Kendall Adams, or a linebacker, to cover Morgan. K-State’s secondary, a position group the coaching staff is very high on, will get its first true test of the season.

In addition, the Wildcats’ defense will face its first hurry-up offense of the season. UTSA ran 95 plays against Arizona. K-State is used to seeing this in the Big 12, but it’s the first time this team will go against that style of attack, which is always a test.

I expect the Wildcats to come home with a victory, but I won’t be the least bit surprised if it’s a close game throughout.

For most people, it takes around two minutes to drive east on Kimball Avenue from CiCo Park to the Vanier Football Complex. For Deante Burton and Winston Dimel, it took two years.

The pair took almost identical routes. In 2011, they were teammates at Manhattan High School, with Burton a standout senior and Dimel a hungry sophomore. The league-champion Indians went 10-1 that season, and Burton accepted a scholarship with the Wildcats.

He redshirted in 2012, helped on special teams in 2013, and finally entered the mix at wide receiver last season.

By that time, after helping MHS to two more league titles, Dimel had joined him and was taking a redshirt year of his own. He watched from the sideline as Burton made strides, but failed in his ultimate goal: to reach the end zone at the highest level of college football.

“We used to have a joke that I was cursed; that I would never catch a touchdown,” Burton said.

Entering this season, it was unknown just how large each player’s role would be. Other than the expectations of their coaches, which were high, there was little light shed on their place in a rebuilding offense.

Could Burton show the consistency necessary to be a No. 1 option at receiver? Was Dimel’s strength enough to challenge Glenn Gronkowski at fullback?

It took less than two quarters to get an answer: yes and yes.

Dimel scored twice and Burton broke his own curse in K-State’s 34-0 victory over South Dakota.

“It was a dream come true,” Dimel said. “For us to be on the same field at the same time again, it just felt right. There are no words for how awesome that was.”

Dimel’s two-yard run early in the second quarter gave the Wildcats a 17-0 lead. In the celebration was Terrale Johnson, a former MHS offensive lineman, who earned the start at left guard.

Burton waited for Dimel to emerge from his teammates’ group hug.

“I get kind of claustrophobic in those things, man,” Burton said with a smile. “Those linemen are nasty. I waited my turn.”

When it came, Burton embraced his friend, who he taught how to be a football player at MHS.

“I was very proud of him. It’s really exciting to see one of your good friends excel on the field.”

Just four minutes later, Dimel was able to return the favor. Joe Hubener connected with Burton for a 24-yard score. The supposed curse was over.

“I just gave him a big hug and told him, ‘You finally did it,'” Dimel said. “We were both pretty hyped up.”

Burton finished the game with two catches for 35 yards. Statistically, it wasn’t anything special. But on a personal level, it was the biggest step of his career, and it came in the presence of some of his best friends.

Along with Dimel, Burton and Johnson, former Indians Taylor Hilgers and Jason Lierz are on the team as well. Hilgers saw some playing time in the second half.

“At one point, where we are now seemed like a pretty far-fetched goal,” Burton said. “Now, we’ve made it a reality. I feel like the sky is the limit for us, all five of us.”

By Cole Manbeck

Kansas State kept its slim hopes of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament on life support (more on that later) with a 70-69 victory over Iowa State on Saturday. Let’s take an in-depth look at how the Wildcats were able to cap off their impressive week.

• Dominating inside: K-State scored a season-high 46 points in the paint. After going back through the game and charting every basket, 20 of the Wildcats’ 29 made field goals came on layups or dunks. That’s remarkable. K-State went 24-for-41 on 2-point shots (59 percent). That’s the best 2-point shooting percentage against Iowa State in Big 12 play. The next closest percentage came from Oklahoma and KU (each shot 52 percent against Iowa State). The Cyclones were holding teams to 44 percent on 2-point shots in Big 12 play.

Iowa State had outscored opponents in the paint by a combined margin of 502-380 in Big 12 play, an average of 34-25 per game. The Cyclones had only been outscored in the paint in three other Big 12 games this season. Oklahoma outscored Iowa State 44-32 in the paint, Texas outscored the Cyclones 34-24 in the paint and Baylor outscored them 36-28. The Wildcats outscored Iowa State 46-24 on points in the paint, by far and away the largest margin of domination inside that has occurred to Iowa State in Big 12 play.

Iowa State shot it well from beyond the arc early, but the Cyclones cooled off in the second half. While the tendency might be to perceive Iowa State as a great 3-point shooting team, its strength is actually at spreading the floor and getting easy looks at the rim. Iowa State entered the game making 56 percent of its 2-point shots on the season, the best mark in the Big 12 and the eighth-best percentage in the country. The Wildcats held Iowa State to 14-of-31 from 2 (45 percent), its fourth-worst shooting performance inside the arc in conference play.

• Getting out in transition again: K-State once again got out and ran the floor, something that led to success against KU last Monday. Against the Jayhawks, K-State scored 25 points in the first six seconds of the shot clock (including free throws as a direct result of pushing the tempo). K-State scored 31 points in the first six seconds of the shot clock against Iowa State (it’s important to note that not all 31 points are fast-break points, but the majority are). So in the last two games combined, the Wildcats have scored 40 percent of their total points in the first six seconds of the shot clock.

The combination of Nigel Johnson, Justin Edwards and Wesley Iwundu has led to the Wildcats really getting out and running the floor, leading to several easy baskets. And when you struggle scoring in the half-court offense like K-State has for much of the season, this is a big deal.

It’s also significant that K-State was able to outscore Iowa State in fast-break points. K-State plays at the second-slowest pace in the Big 12. Iowa State plays at the fastest pace, averaging more offensive possessions per game than any Big 12 team. K-State scored 20 fast-break points on Saturday. The previous high Iowa State had allowed in Big 12 play was 14. K-State also scored 21 points off of Iowa State turnovers. No Iowa State opponent had scored more than 17 points off turnovers in Big 12 play. Iowa State had 13 turnovers against K-State, and the Wildcats made the Cyclones pay, averaging 1.62 points per turnover.

I also want to note that K-State’s three-most efficient offensive performances in its last 10 games have come on the road at West Virginia and at home against KU and Iowa State. It might not be a coincidence that those are the three games where K-State played at a faster pace. The Wildcats had 69 offensive possessions at West Virginia and 67 in each the KU and Iowa State games. Johnson appears to be part of the key to the equation. The sophomore guard played 33 minutes at West Virginia and scored 14 points, had five rebounds and five assists. Against KU, Johnson played 28 minutes and had 20 points. And against Iowa State, he played 34 minutes, recorded 17 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Those three games also happen to be the Wildcats’ three-best shooting performances over their last 10 games.

• Bench production: Thanks to the play of Johnson and Justin Edwards, K-State’s bench outscored Iowa State’s bench 37-3. The three bench points are the lowest production for Iowa State in Big 12 play (next lowest came at KU with eight points from the bench). Iowa State’s bench had combined to outscore opponents in Big 12 play 309-285, an average of 21-19 per game. K-State’s bench outscored Iowa State by 34 points. The Cyclones’ bench hadn’t been outscored by more than 20 in a game in conference play (Texas outscored Iowa State 40-20 in bench points).

When the two teams met in Ames earlier this season, Iowa State outscored the Wildcats 26-16 in bench points. Jameel McKay and Abdel Nader combined to go 9-of-15 from the floor for 26 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Now, McKay obviously started on Saturday for Iowa State, so that changes things as he came off the bench in January when the two teams played. However, here’s where the difference was: In the matchup at Iowa State, Nader and Bryce DeJean-Jones combined for 20 points on 9-of-18 shooting and had 11 rebounds between the two of them. In the matchup in Manhattan, DeJean-Jones and Nader combined for zero points on 0-of-5 shooting and recorded two rebounds.

Here’s the most remarkable stat: In the last two meetings in Manhattan between these two teams, K-State’s bench has outscored Iowa State by a combined margin of 75-5. Last season, the Wildcats’ bench was 12-of-28 from the floor for 38 points, while Iowa State’s bench was 0-of-11 from the floor for two points. So in the last two games played between Iowa State and K-State in Manhattan, K-State’s bench has combined for 75 points on 27-of-58 shooting, while Iowa State’s bench players have combined for five points on 1-of-22 shooting.

• Getting defensive once again in the second half: KU scored just 11 points and went 2-of-14 from the floor in the final 9:49 of the game last Monday. In the final 10:37 of the K-State/Iowa State game on Saturday, the Cyclones scored nine points on 4-of-14 shooting to go along with six turnovers.

K-State also made 10 of its last 17 shots from the floor to end the game Saturday. Just like the victory against KU, a strong combination of defense and offense in the second half enabled the Wildcats to overcome deficits and come out victorious.

Saturday was an entertaining game to watch. And believe it or not, with a win at Texas next Saturday, K-State could begin to make a case for itself for the NCAA Tournament with a win or two in Kansas City. The Wildcats now have seven top-50 RPI wins, including five vs. the RPI top 25. In addition, K-State has played 17 games against teams in the RPI top 50. No other team in the country has played more than 15 games against top-50 RPI teams. There’s a lot of work to be done, so it’s a long shot. But hey, there’s a chance…

By Cole Manbeck

A win over Kansas doesn’t erase what has been a frustrating and disappointing season from the minds’ of Kansas State fans. But for that one night, the fan base was able to forget about the struggles of the season and enjoy another victory over their in-state rival.

Now, let’s take a look at what K-State did to defeat the Jayhawks:

• K-State pushed the tempo: KU entered Monday night’s game holding teams to 39.6 percent shooting on the season, ranking 36^th in the country. In eight of KU’s 14 Big 12 games, it had held opponents to below 39 percent from the floor. Heading into Monday, Iowa State was the only team in the conference to have shot better than 41.7 percent from the floor against the Jayhawks.

What’s this have to do with tempo? It’s no secret K-State struggles on offense. Over the Wildcats’ previous six games, they had combined to make just 109 of their 291 field-goal attempts (37 percent). One way to fix the half-court struggles is to use athleticism and get out and run the floor. I went back and charted the time on the shot clock when K-State attempted a field-goal attempt on each of its possessions during the game. The Wildcats scored 25 of their 70 points within the first six seconds of the shot clock on Monday. The first half really stood out, as K-State scored 15 points in the first six seconds of its possessions.

The final box score says K-State only scored eight fast-break points. But

the Wildcats also got to the foul line and made free throws as a direct result of attacking in transition. Not all of those 25 points scored in the first six seconds of the shot clock came on the fast break, but a large chunk of it did.

Wesley Iwundu and Nigel Johnson were aggressive in transition. Iwundu took every opportunity he had throughout the game to push the ball up the court. K-State had 67 offensive possessions in the game. Over its previous six games, it had averaged 60 possessions per game. So the Wildcats got out and ran more than they have in the past, and it paid off.

• Avoiding the prolonged scoring drought: One of the biggest issues with this team is it goes into long scoring droughts. This occurred in the first four minutes of the second half, but from then on, the Wildcats were terrific on the offensive end. From the 15:48-mark to the 6:13-mark of the second half, K-State scored 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting and went 3-of-3 at the free-throw line. Over that 9-minute-and-35-second time frame, K-State scored 27 points on 15 possessions. In other words, the Wildcats came close to averaging two points on every possession it had during that period of time. It’s hard to be more efficient than that. That run of strong offense enabled K-State to erase a 41-33 deficit and take a 60-54 lead that it never relinquished.

I pointed out earlier that K-State was good in transition, but over the last 15 minutes of the game, the Wildcats really executed in their half-court offense. They moved well on offense, screened for each other and passed the ball effectively.

I loved the play design K-State executed perfectly to take a 68-63 lead with 27 seconds remaining. Justin Edwards had the ball at the top of the key. K-State’s Thomas Gipson set an on-ball screen on Brannen Greene, then Nino Williams set a secondary screen on Perry Ellis, who had hedged out to help Greene. This caused confusion for KU, as Gipson rolled to the basket and Williams rolled to the elbow. There was nothing the Jayhawks could do as they were in scramble mode. K-State actually had two options on the play. Williams could take the open jumper, or he could have thrown it down to Gipson on the block for the score. It was executed to perfection.

Overall, K-State shot 47.2 percent from the floor, the fourth-best shooting performance against KU all season. It was the second-best percentage against the Jayhawks in Big 12 play.

• Guarding the 3-point shot: KU entered Monday night hitting 41 percent from beyond the arc, ranking seventh in the country and No. 1 in the Big 12. The Wildcats held KU to 2-of-13 from 3 (15 percent), the Jayhawks’ worst shooting performance of the entire season from long distance (previous worst was 20 percent against Kentucky). The Jayhawks two made 3s tied for a season low. KU didn’t make a 3 in the final 29:49 of the game, including going 0-of-8 from beyond the arc in the second half.

Greene, Wayne Selden Jr. and Frank Mason III, KU’s top three 3-point shooters based on percentage, went a combined 0-10 from 3. It was only the fourth game this season where Selden or Greene didn’t combine to make at least one 3-point shot between the two of them. In conference play, Greene and Selden were No. 1 and No. 3 in the Big 12, respectively, in 3-point percentage heading into Monday’s game.

Overall, KU shot just 39.3 percent from the floor, its second-worst shooting performance in Big 12 play and its sixth-worst field-goal percentage on the season. These numbers are surprising, because K-State had been awful on defense over its previous six games (with one exception: holding Oklahoma to 37 percent). In four of the Wildcats’ previous six games, the opponent had shot 49 percent or better from the floor. In three of those games, the opponent shot 53 percent or better. In the previous six games combined, opponents were 137-of-283 (48.4 percent) from the floor and were 34-of-94 from 3 (36 percent) during those six games.

• Guarding Mason: The sophomore point guard makes KU’s offense go. Mason had scored in double figures in 24 of the Jayhawks’ previous 25 games. On Monday, he was held to a season-low four points on 1-of-8 shooting. We talk about Nigel Johnson’s night on offense, but the defensive effort he and Jevon Thomas had against Mason was terrific.

• Justin Edwards: Nigel Johnson, Nino Williams and Thomas Gipson were great against KU. But Edwards play in the second half was key. The junior guard had six points, four assists, three rebounds and a key steal all on the final 12:07 of the game. When he plays aggressive and with confidence, K-State is a much better team.

Monday night brought some joy to K-State fans and enabled them to forget for a few hours about the struggles of the season. But it’s hard not to look at the schedule and see all of the missed opportunities. This team has proven it’s talented enough to beat good teams. But it also has proven it’s inconsistent and will lose to the bad teams.

What I’ll be most interested in from here on out is to see if K-State can play with the same energy and spirit it showed against KU. If the Wildcats do that, they can end the season feeling a little better about themselves. Although the question will always linger: where would they be if they’d played all season with the type of enthusiasm they displayed on Monday?

By Cole Manbeck   I’m not going to spend much time breaking down Kansas State’s 68-57 loss Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse. Let’s just take a quick look at a few numbers from the loss in Lawrence:

• K-State had only three players score in the first 27 minutes and 43 seconds of play on Saturday. In that 27:43 time frame, players not named Marcus Foster or Thomas Gipson had combined for four points on 1-of-19 shooting.

• Gipson made five of his first nine field-goal attempts. The rest of the team was a combined 3-of-29 (10 percent) from the floor over the first 23 minutes of play.

• KU started the game 9-of-14 from the floor, while K-State began the game 1-of-12 from the field.. After the Jayhawks’ 9-of-14 start, they went 17-of-44 (38.6 percent) the rest of the way. KU entered the game making 43.6 percent of its shots on the season. The Jayhawks shot 45 percent overall against the Wildcats, and when you factor in KU being at home, K-State’s defense was decent for the most part.

• If you wanted to take a positive away from Saturday, it was K-State’s seven turnovers in the game. However, before you feel great about that number, note that KU is 289^th in the country in turnover rate on defense. The Jayhawks force a turnover on less than 17 percent of the opponents’ possessions. K-State turned it over on 11 percent of its possessions against KU.

K-State’s offense in its last five first halves in Allen Fieldhouse

In K-State’s last five trips to Lawrence, it has shot 27.5 percent from the floor while KU has shot 53 percent in the first half. KU had led by an average score of 39-23 at the half in each of the last five seasons.   Aside from the KU game, putting together quality halves of basketball continues to be a problem for this team. The Wildcats have now played 13 halves of basketball this season where they have scored less than 30 points. The Wildcats are 13-of-64 (20 percent) from the floor over their last two first halves (West Virginia and KU). The Wildcats go into prolonged scoring droughts far too often. The following table shows 11 of the K-State’s worst halves of the season on offense.                   K-State’s tale of two halves offensively

The Wildcats also have scored less than 60 points in nine games this season. That’s the most sub-60 point games since the 2000-01 season (Jim Wooldridge’s first season at K-State), when the Wildcats had 10 games of less than 60 points on the season.   K-State has now put itself in a position where it will likely need to go 6-3 over its last nine games to make the NCAA Tournament (for a detailed breakdown of K-State’s NCAA Tourney chances, see last week’s blog). That means that the Wildcats really need to go 2-0 this week at Texas Tech and at home against Texas. If they can accomplish that task, the hope of playing in the Big Dance will remain alive.

By Cole Manbeck

We will break down Kansas State’s loss to West Virginia a few paragraphs later. But first, let’s examine what Tuesday night’s 65-59 loss means for the Wildcats’ NCAA Tournament hopes as the month of February approaches.

K-State is now 12-9 overall and 5-3 in the Big 12. From 1985 (the year the Tournament expanded to 64 teams) through 2014, no team with 15 losses has ever been invited to the Big Dance as an at-large selection. Therefore, K-State’s magic number to elimination could be five. Five more losses would give K-State 14 regular-season losses, and if the Wildcats weren’t to win the Big 12 Tournament, they would have a 15^th loss. So if history is to repeat itself, K-State would need to go 6-4 over its final 10 games to avoid a 15^th loss. And there’s no question the second half of the Wildcats’ schedule is the tougher portion.

K-State’s remaining games in order:

At Kansas

At Texas Tech

Texas

At West Virginia

Oklahoma

At TCU

At Baylor

Kansas

Iowa State

At Texas

K-State will have to play some tremendous basketball to find six wins out of those 10. That’s why Tuesday night’s loss to the Mountaineers was critical. Had the Wildcats won that game, they’d have a little room for error, only needing to go 5-5 during the final stretch.

Getting back to the at-large history, there has been a proven track record of 14-loss teams receiving a bid. The following table lists the teams that were selected as at-large teams into the Tournament since 1985.

Most losses for teams invited to the NCAA Tournament as at-larges

Obviously, 2011 was a very good year for bubble teams. You’ll notice that Georgia in 2001 and Villanova in 1991 both got in with 16-14 records. Those are the two worst winning percentages for schools to receive an at-large berth since 1985. The following table is a more detailed chart of the worst winning percentages of teams receiving an at-large berth since 1985 (table below is courtesy of http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/ncaa-tournament/history/atlarge).

Teams receiving an at-large berth based off of worst winning percentages

So hypothetically, let’s say K-State goes 5-5 in its remaining 10 regular-season games. That would put the Wildcats at 17-14 and 10-8 in the conference. A loss in their opening Big 12 Tournament game would make K-State 17-15. Now, as noted above, a 15-loss team has never been selected as an at-large, but there have been teams make it with a similar winning percentage overall. If K-State could win two games in Kansas City in March, I could see a 19-15 team receiving an at-large berth if the Wildcats have the right wins – meaning wins against the top teams in the Big 12 such as KU and Iowa State. There’s a remote possibility that K-State could get in at 18-15 if it had eight to nine top-50 RPI wins and an RPI in the 30s overall.

Now, having said all of that, history doesn’t always repeat itself. The bubble is different year to year. So perhaps a 15-loss team does get in. We’ll have to wait and see.

Now, moving on to Tuesday night’s loss… this was a game that made you want to pull your hair out. The Wildcats were often throwing Hail Mary passes just to get the ball in bounds against West Virginia’s press. And more often than not, K-State’s prayers went unanswered.

We know West Virginia’s pressure defense is tremendous. It entered Tuesday’s game leading the country in turnover rate, forcing opponents into turnovers on 30 percent of their offensive possessions. As good as that rate is, West Virginia’s season-high in forced turnovers in a game this season was 24. It forced K-State into 25. The Wildcats turned the ball over on 32 percent of their offensive possessions. K-State got sped up and played at West Virginia’s pace. The Wildcats, who play the second-slowest pace in the Big 12 at approximately 63 possessions per game, had 78 possessions against West Virginia. The Mountaineers entered the game averaging 74 possessions per game, the fastest pace in the Big 12. So they dictated the pace on Tuesday.

Aside from the turnovers, the second-biggest disappointment was K-State’s half-court offense. The Wildcats shot 36.7 percent from the floor, the third-worst shooting performance against West Virginia all season. Coming into Tuesday night, the Mountaineers had held only two teams to below 41 percent accuracy in a game, and those opponents were Northern Kentucky and Wofford. When West Virginia doesn’t turn teams over, it’s not good defensively. The defensive success is predicated on turnovers. The Mountaineers are 253^rd in the country in field-goal percentage defense and 219^th in the country in 3-point defense. So the times K-State didn’t turn it over, it still struggled to capitalize. Obviously, losing Nino Williams really hurt.

The Wildcats had only missed 14 free throws in their previous four games combined (had shot 82 percent from the foul line on 76 attempts over the previous four contests). Against West Virginia, they missed 15 from the charity stripe.

All of this wiped out a superb defensive effort by the Wildcats. K-State forced West Virginia into a season-high 20 turnovers (the previous high in a game was 17 for West Virginia). K-State held the Mountaineers to 36.4 percent from the floor, the third-best field-goal percentage defense K-State has held an opponent to this season. It was West Virginia’s fifth-worst shooting performance on the season.

However, K-State’s failure to take care of the ball, make free throws, and actually score effectively when it broke the press, led to the Wildcats’ demise. And because of that, K-State doesn’t have much breathing room if it wants to make the NCAA Tournament for the sixth straight season.

Kansas State scored 63 points on Saturday in its 63-53 victory over Oklahoma State, and that point total might not seem significant. However, it is. K-State’s offensive performance was the most efficient outing an opposing team has put together against the Cowboys all season. The Wildcats like to slow the game down, and against Oklahoma State, they only had 56 offensive possessions, forcing the Cowboys into their slowest-played game of their season (they came into the game averaging 68 possessions per game). K-State scored 63 points on those 56 possessions, averaging out to 1.13 points per possession, the best mark against Oklahoma State this season.

The Wildcats only turned the ball over 10 times, tying Texas Tech for the second-lowest turnover total against the Oklahoma State defense on the season. K-State made 57 percent of its field-goal attempts, the best shooting performance against Oklahoma State this season, and it was the Wildcats’ best shooting performance since the Texas A&M game on Dec. 20.

See the following table for the game-by-game breakdown of opposing teams against Oklahoma State this season to see how K-State’s offensive performance stacked up:

Oklahoma State’s defense this season

These numbers are a big deal, because Oklahoma State is very good defensively. The Cowboys entered Saturday holding teams to 37.7 accuracy from the floor, ranking 21^st in the country, and were 23^rd in the country in defensive efficiency, limiting teams to 0.88 points per possession. The Cowboys also steal the ball on 12.5 percent of opposing teams’ offensive possessions, the 15^th-best mark in the country. Oklahoma State came into Bramlage Coliseum blocking 10 percent of its opponents’ shot attempts this season, ranking 18^th in the country. Due in large part to that, the Cowboys were holding teams to 42 percent accuracy on 2-point field-goal attempts, the 20^th-best 2-point field-goal percentage defense in the country.

K-State’s 2-point offense was terrific on Saturday. The Wildcats were 22-of-34 (65 percent) on shots inside the 3-point arc. It was the best 2-point percentage the Cowboys allowed all season. K-State didn’t settle for 3-point shots, only attempting eight from beyond the arc, tying the Wildcats’ season low for 3-point attempts in a game (since the start of Big 12 play, K-State is averaging five less 3-point attempts per game). Marcus Foster and Justin Edwards attacked the basket on several occasions, which was a positive. See the following chart to see how K-State stacked up against previous Oklahoma State opponents at 2-point shooting (K-State’s game from Saturday is bolded at the bottom of the chart):

Oklahoma State 2-point percentage defense this season

On the opposite end of the floor, Oklahoma State only connected on three 3-pointers, tying for the fewest 3-point makes in a game for the Cowboys this season. Over the Wildcats’ last six games, they’re holding opponents to 29 percent shooting from 3, the same percentage they held opposing teams to last season (which ranked No. 6 in the country). So the defense is steadily improving.

But now the offense looks like it might be gaining traction, and that’s what could take this team to the next level. K-State is starting to cut down on its turnovers. Through the first 17 games, the Wildcats turned the ball over on nearly 22 percent of their offensive possessions, one of the highest turnover rates in the country. Over K-State’s last five halves of basketball (second half vs. Baylor and then the Iowa State and Oklahoma State games), the Wildcats have 46 assists and just 25 turnovers and have turned the ball over on just 16.7 percent of their offensive possessions. During that same time frame, K-State has made 63 field-goal attempts, with assists on 46 of those makes, meaning the Wildcats are averaging an assist on 73 percent of their made shots. That’s really good, and it’s a sign that K-State is starting to move more within its offense, the passing and shot selection has improved, and quite simply, the Wildcats are making shots.

In addition, over the Wildcats’ last five halves of basketball, they have combined to make an average of 57 percent of their 2-point shot attempts. They’ve also made 62-of-76 from the free-throw line over their last four games, an 82-percent average from the charity stripe.

All of this is probably too small of a sample size to truly measure if K-State has fixed its offense. The Wildcats have teased fans before with lights-out performances against Purdue and Texas A&M, as well as some lower-tier opponents. But if they can string together another solid performance against West Virginia on Tuesday night, I’ll start to buy in. It’s a huge game for K-State’s NCAA Tournament hopes.

Now, let’s take a quick look at some keys to the West Virginia game:

• The Mountaineers force the highest turnover rate in the entire country. Opposing offenses have turned the ball over on 30 percent of their offensive possessions against West Virginia. The Mountaineers aren’t a great offensive team. They rely on getting easy baskets off of those turnovers. If K-State can take care of the ball, that might be its best defense against West Virginia, as it will enable the Wildcats to set up their half-court defense.

• West Virginia fouls. A lot. The Mountaineers average 23 fouls per game, ranking 345^th out of 351 Division I teams. In their last three games, they are averaging 28 fouls per game, the most in the country during that time. West Virginia fouls on 31.2 percent of opposing teams’ possessions, ranking 325^th nationally. K-State isn’t much better, fouling opponents on 30.4 percent of their possessions, ranking 303^rd in the country.

• West Virginia also gets to the line a lot, ranking seventh in the country with 26.3 free-throw attempts per game. K-State gets to the foul line on 32.7 percent of its offensive possessions, the 12^th-best mark in the country. West Virginia is putting opponents at the charity stripe on more than 30 percent of their offensive plays, ranking 296^th in the country. In other words, it’s a good thing this game starts at 6 p.m. and not 8, or those of you in attendance might have had a late night.

• The Mountaineers are generally regarded as difficult defensively due to the turnovers they force, but it’s more of a risk-reward strategy. West Virginia ranks 253^rd in the country in field-goal percentage defense, allowing opposing offenses to shoot 44.6 percent from the floor. The Mountaineers also rank 219^th nationally at defending the 3-point shot, allowing teams to shoot 34.8 percent from beyond the arc. They are 241^st nationally in effective field-goal percentage defense, allowing 50.4 percent. So if K-State can avoid turnovers, it should be able to score.

• West Virginia is 12^th in the country in defensive efficiency, allowing just 0.87 points per possession. That’s terrific. However, that number is solid because of the turnover rate the Mountaineers force. Again, Tuesday night will come down to whether K-State can protect the basketball.

• On offense, the Mountaineers aren’t a good shooting team, making just 41.7 percent of their field goal attempts, ranking 238^th in the country. They are 299^th in the country in 3-point shooting, making just 29.9 percent from beyond the arc. Lastly, they are 264^th in effective field-goal percentage offense at 46.3 percent. Make West Virginia score in its half-court offense, rather than points off turnovers (notice a theme?), and K-State should win.

• West Virginia is sixth nationally in offensive rebounding percentage, grabbing 39.4 percent of its missed shots. The Wildcats were recently tested by a Baylor team that ranked second in offensive rebounding percentage, but they held their own, holding the Bears to their second-worst offensive rebounding rate of the season. However, defensive rebounding has been an issue for K-State of late. Prior to the Oklahoma State game, K-State had given up a 40-percent offensive rebounding rate in its previous three games, an average of 14 offensive rebounds per game. During those three games, the Wildcats had been outscored 51-24 on second-chance points.

The loss at Iowa State was the most concerning. The Cyclones are 244^th in the country in offensive rebounding percentage with a 26.8 percent rate, and they only rebounded 23.6 percent of their missed shots against power-five conference teams. However, against K-State, Iowa State rebounded a season-high 36.3 percent of its missed shots, outscoring the Wildcats 24-6 on second-chance points. Prior to that game, Iowa State was outscored 10-to-9 per game on second-chance points on the season. K-State will have to get after it on the defensive glass Tuesday.

By Cole Manbeck

Kansas State notched a significant win on its postseason resume on Saturday, defeating Baylor 63-61. More importantly, the Wildcats came back from a 12-point deficit against a quality opponent without much of a contribution from Marcus Foster, due to second-half foul trouble.

In the 13 minutes Foster sat on the bench in the second half of Saturday’s game, K-State scored 30 points on 20 offensive possessions, an average of 1.50 points per possession, which is terrific. During that time, the Wildcats made 10 of their 15 field-goal attempts, as well as 8-of-10 from the free-throw line.

But let’s narrow this down to a more crucial time frame: With 11:27 left in the game and K-State trailing 49-37, Foster went to the bench with his fourth foul. Things looked bleak. Over the next nine minutes and 44 seconds, the Wildcats went 7-of-12 from the floor and scored 24 points on 14 possessions, an average of 1.71 points per possession. And they did all of this without their leading scorer.

K-State needs Foster to play well in order for this team to be consistently good over the remainder of the season. But perhaps Saturday’s effort gives others on the team added confidence, while also taking a little pressure off Foster.

In the game’s final 20 minutes, K-State got 1 point each from Foster and Thomas Gipson, the team’s second-leading scorer. Nino Williams was huge against Baylor’s zone defense, which leaves holes on the baseline for Williams’ mid-range jumper. The senior forward was also big on the glass, leading K-State with seven rebounds in the game.

For as good as Williams was, Wesley Iwundu was the co-MVP of the second half. Iwundu is very talented, but I don’t think he knows how good he can be. He lacks aggressiveness on the offensive end of the floor at times. But in the second half, he became more assertive. After not attempting a single field-goal attempt in the opening 20 minutes, Iwundu scored 8 points on 3-of-5 shooting in the second half. He dished out five assists to just one turnover in the final 20 minutes of play, and was often acting as the point guard, bringing the ball up the court after Jevon Thomas left the game. On a few occasions, Iwundu sliced through the Baylor zone, getting to the rim and breaking the Bears’ defense down.

Iwundu also keyed the defense in the second half. With 9:07 left in the game and K-State trailing 51-42, the Wildcats, elected to put the 6-foot-8 sophomore on Kenny Chery. The move stifled the Bears offensively. From the 9:07-mark until the 5:03-mark, Baylor went 0-of-6 from the floor while the Wildcats forced two Chery turnovers. During that four-minute segment, K-State went from being down nine to ahead by three.

I thought a large portion of K-State’s offensive success in the second half was a direct result of quality defense – particularly in the game’s final 9 minutes. The Wildcats only attempted two free throws in the first half. But from the 8:40-mark of the second half to the 6:24-mark, K-State attempted eight free-throw attempts and made all eight. That’s eight free points the Wildcats were able to get without having to go against Baylor’s set zone defense, which had held opponents to 38 percent shooting on the season heading into Saturday. Six of those free throws were because of quality defense. Four of the free throws came on over-the-back calls on Baylor going for the offensive rebound. Two of them came on a steal of Chery by Iwundu. And to take it further, the Wildcats could have added two more free throws on a Justin Edwards steal, but the junior guard missed both attempts from the charity stripe. This was the key segment of the game that sparked a 12-0 run by the Wildcats.

When you consider the opponent, K-State rebounded the ball relatively well on defense. Baylor entered Saturday’s game rebounding 43.3 percent of its missed shots on the season, which ranked No. 2 in the country behind only Kentucky, which rebounds 43.9 percent of its misses. It doesn’t sound great, but K-State held Baylor to an offensive rebounding percentage of 38 percent, meaning the Bears rebounded 38 percent of their missed shots. That’s significant, because that’s the second-worst offensive rebounding percentage on the season for Baylor. Only South Carolina held the Bears to a lower percentage (31 percent), and that came in the second game of the season.

The Bears outscored K-State 13-9 on second-chance points. However, Baylor had outscored opposing teams on the season 245-133 on second-chance points heading into Saturday, an average of 14.4 points to the opponents’ 7.8 per game. So while it doesn’t sound like a big difference, that two-point differential from the Bears’ season average on second-chance opportunities stood to be the difference in the game.

Rico Gathers, who was No. 5 in the country in total rebounding heading into Saturday, collected just six rebounds in the game. It was only the third time this season Gathers had been held to single-digit rebounds in a game. The 6-8 forward had grabbed 59 rebounds in Baylor’s previous four Big 12 games, an average of nearly 15 per game, so holding him to six is a big deal. In addition, Gathers, the No. 2 offensive rebounder in the country, only had five points in the game, with none of those five points coming on a second-chance opportunity.

So I’ve highlighted the positives. Now let’s spend a few words on the portion of the game you’d all like to forget. The Wildcats really struggled early on against Baylor’s defense. In the first 16 minutes and 19 seconds of the game, K-State went 6-of-19 from the floor with nine turnovers. The Wildcats scored 14 points on their first 26 offensive possessions, an average of 0.54 points per possession.

K-State also struggled defensively early on. Baylor ran a lot of ball-screen action for Chery, and the Wildcats continued to switch, giving him easy mismatches with either Gipson or Williams guarding him. Switching on the ball screens was really hurting K-State. At approximately the 9-minute mark of the opening half, the Wildcats started hedging the screens but not switching. At the time, Baylor was ahead 24-10. From the 8:49-mark to the 1:32-mark, Baylor didn’t score a single point. The Bears went 0-of-4 from the field and turned the ball over five times during that seven-minute segment. However, a couple of late breakdowns allowed Baylor to score nine points in the final 1:31 of the half.

Now, back to the positive: as I mentioned a couple of paragraphs above, the Wildcats scored 0.54 points per possession on their first 26 possessions. From that point on (the final 23 minutes and 40 seconds of the game), K-State went 17-of-27 from the floor, 11-of-16 from the free-throw line, turned the ball over just five times, and scored 49 points on 35 offensive possessions, an average of 1.40 points per possession, which is very good. From the 3:40-mark of the first half to the 16:15-mark of the second half, K-State went 8-of-10 from the floor and didn’t turn the ball over a single time, scoring 18 points on 10 possessions, an average of 1.80 points per possession. That segment kept K-State in the game, enabling the Wildcats to eventually come back and win.

Overall, K-State shot 50 percent from the floor in the game, the second-best shooting performance against Baylor this season. Only Texas A&M (56 percent) shot better from the field against the Bears. The Wildcats outscored Baylor 24-20 on points in the paint. The Bears entered the game outscoring opponents by an average of 28-24 in the paint.

This was a crucial win for K-State for multiple reasons. In the Big 12, you have to protect your home court. The Wildcats dug themselves a hole with their struggles in the non-conference, so winning Big 12 games at home is crucial. But it also showed that this team has other guys who can step up when its star isn’t on the floor. The Wildcats need Foster, but Foster also needs help if this team is to be successful over the course of the season. Against Baylor, he received that help. And maybe that’s something others on this team can build on.

By Cole Manbeck

This Kansas State men’s basketball team has enough issues to write a short book about. To keep it simple, let’s just examine the on-court struggles for this team.

Here’s the first reason: the Wildcats lack toughness, both mentally and physically. And they don’t play very good defense. Entering Saturday’s game against Oklahoma State, K-State was allowing opponents to shoot 45.7 percent from the field, which ranked 277^th in the country. That number has since climbed to 45.9 percent following Saturday’s 61-47 loss to the Cowboys. K-State held opponents to 40.8 percent from the floor last season, which ranked 42^nd in the country. So there has been a significant drop off in 2014-15.

Coming into Saturday, K-State had an effective field-goal percentage defense of 51.2 percent, which ranked 251^st in the country. That number has now climbed to 51.6 percent. The Wildcats ranked 26^th in the country last season in effective field-goal percentage defense, allowing 45.3 percent. For those not familiar with this stat, effective field-goal percentage accounts for the fact that 3-pointers are worth an extra point, something ignored by traditional field-goal percentage.

The Wildcats ranked sixth in the country in 3-point defense last season, holding teams to 29.3 percent from beyond the arc. This season, K-State ranks 217^th nationally, allowing opponents to shoot nearly 35 percent from 3. K-State opponents are shooting 50.7 percent on 2-point field-goal attempts, ranking 257^th in the country. The Wildcats held opposing teams to 45.9 percent from 2 last season, which ranked 77^th in the country. The following tables give you a visual comparison of the drop off on the defensive end this season compared to last.

K-State defense this season

K-State defense in 2013-14

K-State is careless with the ball on the offensive end of the floor, which is part of the reason for the defensive struggles. The Wildcats came into the Oklahoma State game turning the ball over on 21.9 percent of their offensive possessions, the 308^th-worst mark in the entire country. Those turnovers often lead to breakaway baskets for the opponent, which is what sparked Oklahoma State’s run Saturday. The Wildcats weren’t great at taking care of the ball last season, turning the ball over on 18 percent of their possessions, but a four-percent increase is significant.

K-State isn’t solid at point guard. Jevon Thomas is averaging 2.5 turnovers per game. He only averaged 1 per game last season. Thomas, Nigel Johnson, Justin Edwards, Marcus Foster and Wesley Iwundu (K-State’s primary guards) have combined for 154 assists to 125 turnovers thus far this season, an average of 11 assists to nine turnovers per game. Last season, Will Spradling, Shane Southwell, Iwundu, Foster, Johnson and Thomas (K-State’s primary guards) combined for 427 assists to 246 turnovers, an average of 13 assists to 7.5 turnovers per game.

The Wildcats really miss Spradling and Southwell, both of whom had excellent floor vision on offense and understood how to space the floor. Those two helped keep the motion in the motion offense. They took care of the ball and were very good passers.

Outside of the turnovers, K-State has actually improved in most of the primary statistical categories this season compared to last. Which probably sounds crazy to you, considering the Wildcats haven’t topped the 50-point mark in their last two games. In K-State’s last 15 games, including the 56-49 loss to Kentucky to end last season, the Wildcats have scored less than 50 points on four occasions. That’s remarkable, considering prior to that Kentucky game, K-State had only scored below the 50-point mark in two contests over its previous 234 games, dating all the way back to 2006. The following tables compare K-State’s offense this season to to last (the stats below were compiled prior to the loss at Oklahoma State Saturday).

K-State offense this season

K-State offense in 2013-14

Another issue for the Wildcats is the inability to string together two good halves in the same game. This team in inconsistent, often digging itself a huge hole with an awful first half, or it falls apart in the second half on offense. In the table below, I have charted seven games where K-State had a disastrous half on offense. Against Oklahoma State and Pittsburgh, the Wildcats fell apart in the second half. Against Long Beach State, Tennessee, Bradley, Texas Southern and Georgia, they were putrid in the first half.

In the seven halves compiled, K-State combined to score 134 points on 211 offensive possessions, an average of 0.64 points per possession. The Wildcats averaged 19 points per half, had 20 assists and 71 turnovers, an average of 2.9 assists and 10.1 turnovers per half. They shot 29 percent from the floor and 18 percent from 3 in those halves. Below is the table that shows the numbers:

*PPP stands for points per possession

Kansas State’s running game showed its futility once again at West Virginia. But the real story from Thursday night is what the Wildcats managed to do in the passing game despite the non-existence of a running attack.

The Mountaineers entered Thursday night’s game with the 17^th-best pass efficiency defense in the country. Over their previous four games, they’d held opponents to 60-of-137 passing (44 percent completion rate), which was the best mark in the entire country during that time frame. In those four games, West Virginia opponents threw for 755 yards, an average of only 5.6 yards per pass attempt. Two of the opposing quarterbacks during those four games were TCU’s Trevone Boykin and Baylor’s Bryce Petty. Petty completed just 16-of-37 passes for 223 yards against the Mountaineer defense, while Boykin was just 12-of-30 passing for 166 yards. It could be argued that Petty and Boykin are the two-most prolific passers in the Big 12. They certainly have the most explosive receivers in the league. Combined, TCU and Baylor averaged just 5.9 yards per passing attempt at West Virginia.

So what Jake Waters and K-State’s receivers did on Thursday was remarkable. Yes, West Virginia was gearing up to take away the run, which I found surprising due to K-State’s struggles on the ground. However, to throw for 400 yards in below-freezing temperatures is phenomenal. The Wildcats averaged 11.8 yards per passing attempt. West Virginia hadn’t allowed an opposing offense to average more than 7.6 yards per passing attempt in a single game the entire season. K-State is now averaging 9.1 yards per pass on the season, which is the fourth-best mark in the country.

Waters completed 65 percent of his passes Thursday night. The only quarterback to have a better completion rate against West Virginia’s defense was Alabama’s Blake Sims, which occurred in week one of this season. Outside of Sims, no opposing quarterback had completed better than 60 percent of his passes against the Mountaineers. So a tip of the hat goes to Waters, Tyler Lockett, Curry Sexton and others for that performance. And while the offensive line struggled in the running game, as did the running backs, they were both superb in their pass protection and blitz pickups, giving Waters plenty of time to find open receivers.

Credit should also be given to K-State’s defense. The Wildcats held West Virginia’s offense to 5.1 yards per play. Only two teams – TCU and Texas – held the Mountaineers to less yards per play this season, and those are the two top defenses in the Big 12. The Mountaineers averaged 6.5 yards per pass attempt. Once again, TCU and Texas were the only two teams to hold the Mountaineers to less. West Virginia ran for 123 yards, its second-lowest total in a game this season.

K-State, which has struggled with its pass rush, combined to sack Clint Trickett and Skyler Howard a total of four times, tying the season-high for sacks allowed in a game by the Mountaineers’ offensive line.

West Virginia came into the contest ranked 120^th out of 125 FBS teams with a minus-13 turnover margin, and it once again cost the Mountaineers as K-State won the turnover battle by two.

The Wildcats running game is certainly a concern. West Virginia came into Thursday night allowing 5 yards per carry, which ranked 97^th in the country. K-State averaged 0 yards per rush Thursday.

But there were positives. Aside from K-State’s passing game, Matthew McCrane showed the ability to bounce back from a blocked field goal and a miss on a chip shot (largely due to a bad snap) and make a huge field goal late in the game. And K-State’s defense was solid.

While it wasn’t pretty, never apologize for a road win in the Big 12 – especially at West Virginia. The Mountaineers handed Baylor its only loss and should have beaten TCU. If I had told you before the game that K-State would win by six points in Morgantown, I’m quite certain most of you would have gladly taken it. So forget about the ugliness, enjoy the victory, and remember that K-State has a shot to still win the Big 12.

The headline of this blog speaks to Kansas State’s inability to run the football in a 41-20 loss at TCU on Saturday. And it’s true. Also true is the fact that K-State didn’t try to establish the run early, making it easy for the Horned Frogs stout defense to pin their ears back and get after Jake Waters in the pocket.

K-State’s offensive line wasn’t great by any means. But the game plan didn’t put the unit in a favorable position. In K-State’s first 16 offensive plays of the game, it handed the ball off to a running back one time (excluding the direct snap out of the Wildcat to Charles Jones that failed). The Wildcats handed the ball off to a running back on six occasions in the entire first half. It’s difficult to keep a defense honest running the ball at that low of a rate.

K-State’s best chance to win at TCU was to dictate pace. The Horned Frogs entered Saturday’s game averaging 82 offensive plays per game.  Against K-State, they ran 82 plays. The Wildcats offense entered Saturday averaging 69 plays per game. They ran 59 against TCU. As a result, the Horned Frogs dominated time of possession, 35:18 to K-State’s 24:42.

The Wildcats, who entered the game in the top-10 nationally in third-down offense, converting nearly 50 percent of their third downs, had seven third-down attempts in the first half. They needed at least 10 yards for a first down on four of those attempts. K-State’s average yardage needed for a first on third downs in the first half was 8.4 yards. K-State was constantly playing behind the chains, and you can’t do that against a physical and well-coached TCU defense. The Wildcats had three first downs in the entire opening half.

K-State’s defense looked gassed in the second half, and it’s easy to see why. Going into Saturday, the Wildcats’ opponents averaged 65 offensive plays per game. TCU’s 82 offensive snaps were the most against K-State’s defense this season. Early in the second quarter, TCU had run 29 plays to K-State’s 12. By halftime, the Horned Frogs had run 46 plays. To put that in perspective, Texas only ran 52 plays in the entire game against the Wildcats two weeks earlier. Add in Oklahoma State, and in K-State’s previous two games, its opponents ran an average of 57 plays per game.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like K-State hasn’t seen fast-paced offenses plenty of times in the past. But the Wildcats offense typically keeps the defense on the sideline for longer periods of time than it did at TCU. K-State had seven offensive possessions in the first half. Six of those drives were three plays or less. When you continue to put your defense back on the field after little rest, it will eventually break down. By the second half, TCU, a team loaded with fast skill-position players, was going against a tired defense.

Which gets us back to the running game. The Wildcats, just like most successful teams, can’t afford to be one-dimensional on offense. In K-State’s last three losses, including the 41-31 loss at home to Oklahoma last season, K-State has run the ball 71 times for a combined total of 98 yards, an average of 1.4 yards per rush. In K-State’s last 15 victories (including the entire 2013 season), it has rushed for 130 yards or more in every one of them.

K-State’s rushing stats in its last three losses

Offensive game plan aside, it’s difficult to blame the coaches. Bill Snyder downplayed Jake Waters shoulder injury that he suffered at Oklahoma four weeks ago. Waters also downplayed it. But the numbers show there’s reason for concern.

Waters ran for 371 yards on 79 carries in K-State’s first seven games this season. During that time, he averaged 4.7 yards per rush and 54 yards per game. Since the injury, Waters has run the ball 23 times for 35 yards, an average of 1.5 yards per rush and 11.7 yards per game.

K-State’s running game as a whole has suffered. In the Wildcats’ first seven games, they ran for 1,107 yards on 241 carries, an average of 4.6 yards per rush and 158 yards per game. In its last three games, K-State has run for 311 yards on 95 carries, an average of 3.3 yards per rush and 104 yards per game.

Part of this is because K-State faced Texas and TCU during that time, two of the better defenses in the Big 12. But this is still a cause for concern. K-State’s offense cannot function at an optimal level if the quarterback is unable to be a threat in the running game. The Wildcats’ aren’t explosive enough at the running back position, particularly this season, to not have the threat of the quarterback-run game to help the backs out.

Consider this: Since 1990, K-State has had a running back run for at least 100 yards in at least one game in every season, including the Ron Prince era. Neither Charles Jones or DeMarcus Robinson have come close to the 100-yard mark in a game this season. Jones’ top number is 76 yards against UTEP, while Robinson has topped out at 66 yards at Oklahoma. Jones is averaging a respectable 4.5 yards per rush, but neither of them have even eclipsed the 100-yard mark in all-purpose yards in a game this season. There are three games remaining, plus the bowl game, so one of them could still pass the century mark, but the above stat speaks to two things: K-State needs to become more explosive at the running-back position, and secondly, the Wildcats need Waters to be a threat in the running game.

I’m not certain K-State would have had any more success had it committed to the running game early at TCU. The Wildcats walked into a buzz saw and were physically dominated. This season can still be special if K-State can win out. But in order for the Wildcats to accomplish that task, they must get their running game going.

By Cole Manbeck

There’s a lot of information to digest in the following blog, so let’s get right to it. The biggest game of the Big 12 season, to date, occurs Saturday night when No. 9 Kansas State travels to No. 7 TCU. And spoiler alert: it’s a game I believe the Wildcats win.

Turnovers

There are so many intriguing dynamics to this game, starting with TCU’s ability to force turnovers against K-State’s ability to protect the football.  TCU’s defense has forced 26 turnovers this season, an average of 3.3 per game, which is the best in the country. TCU leads the country in turnover margin with a plus-15 advantage. The Horned Frogs have capitalized on their opponents’ mistakes, scoring 101 points off turnovers, more than any power-five team in the country.

TCU has intercepted two passes in each of its five Big 12 games. K-State’s Jake Waters hasn’t thrown an interception in five conference games. The Wildcats have only turned the ball over seven times all season. Only six teams in the country have fewer turnovers. K-State is No. 24 in the country with a plus-six turnover margin. If K-State can win the turnover battle, or just stay even, then I think it comes out victorious. But that’s obviously easier said than done.

Comparing the Offenses and Defenses

TCU looks completely different on offense this season under new co-offensive coordinators Doug Meacham and Sonny Cumbie. The Horned Frogs average 82 offensive plays per game this season, compared to just 70 plays were game in 2013. The Horned Frogs are a big-play offense. TCU averages 550 yards per game, ranking No. 3 in the country, and are No. 2 nationally with 48 points per game. However, I urge you to ignore those statistics. It’s impressive, but the numbers to focus on are yards per play and points per play. TCU averages 6.7 yards per play, ranking No. 8 nationally, and it averages 0.587 points per play against FBS opponents, the second-best mark in the country.

Here’s why we focus on the above statistics: K-State averages 38.3 points per game, ranking No. 15 nationally, and it averages 424 yards per game, ranking No. 56 nationally. But the Wildcats only average 69 plays per game against FBS competition. Only 21 teams run fewer plays on average. K-State averages 6 yards per offensive play, ranking No. 33 nationally. If the Wildcats were to run the 82 plays per game TCU does, then it would average out to 502 yards per contest, only 48 yards less than TCU on a per-game basis. K-State also averages 0.52 points per offensive play, which is the 15^th-best mark in the country. If the Wildcats ran 82 plays a game, its offense would average out scoring nearly 43 points per game, only 5 points less than TCU. So yes, TCU’s offense is still better statistically, but it’s not a huge gap when you take a closer look at the numbers.

TCU’s Offense this Season (I have bolded the categories where TCU is statistically better than K-State, and did the same for the Wildcats on the charts below)

K-State’s Offense this Season

K-State has its fair share of advantages as well when comparing the two offenses. TCU averages 7.8 yards per passing attempt, ranking 37^th nationally. K-State averages 8.6 yards per attempt, ranking No. 19. The Wildcats are completing 64.3 percent of their passes, the 20^th-best mark in the country. TCU is only completing 57 percent of its passes, ranking No. 78 nationally. In Big 12 play, TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin has completed just 52.3 percent of his passes (just 0.1 percent off from being the worst out of all the starting quarterbacks in Big 12 games). The Horned Frogs rank 34^th in the country in passing efficiency offense, while K-State ranks No. 22 nationally.

So while the TCU passing attack is strong, it’s not as efficient as K-State’s. The Horned Frogs rely more on the big play through the air. They average 13.7 yards per completion. TCU has three dynamic receivers. Kolby Listenbee has 541 yards receiving and averages a remarkable 22.5 yards per catch, while Josh Doctson has 602 yards receiving and 15.8 yards per reception. Deante Gray rounds out the group with 29 receptions for 486 yards, an average of 16.8 yards per catch. Needless to say, this is a very good trio of receivers the Wildcats are going up against. Gray and Listenbee were track stars in high school. They’re sprinters, and one misstep or a bad angle and you won’t catch them.

However, K-State’s defensive scheme is designed to avoid getting burnt deep. It has happened on occasion, but the Wildcats do a decent job of keeping everything in front of them. While that can be frustrating to watch at times, it could prove beneficial this Saturday. They will force Boykin to be patient in the passing game. But will the junior quarterback take what the defense gives him? I think there’s a decent chance the Wildcats could intercept Boykin a couple of times in this game if he tries to force the issue downfield. That being said, West Virginia did the opposite last Saturday. The Mountaineers elected to bring pressure, often blitzing Boykin with six defenders. West Virginia played press coverage, taking away the short passes and forcing Boykin to go deep. The result was a season-worst 12-for-30 passing day for 166 yards for TCU. I don’t see the Wildcats emulating what West Virginia did, because that’s not their style on defense, but it’s another option to consider.

One of the biggest keys for K-State will be taking away the running game. The Wildcats hold opponents to 3.1 yards per rush, ranking No. 8 nationally. K-State is very strong upfront. TCU is averaging 5.5 yards per rush attempt, ranking No. 2 in the Big 12 and No. 21 nationally. However, starting running back B.J. Catalon, the Horned Frogs leading rusher, is questionable due to an injury suffered at West Virginia last Saturday. It would be big for K-State if he cannot give it a go. In my opinion, K-State’s ability to take away the run could be the key to this game above all else. If the Wildcats can make TCU one-dimensional by limiting the running game, I like their chances. Keep in mind, Boykin is a significant threat in the quarterback-run game.

On the offensive side of the ball, K-State’s offensive line will face a difficult defense, but the Wildcats’ pass protection has been very good over the past few weeks. TCU averages eight tackles for loss per game, the fifth-most nationally. The Horned Frogs average three sacks per game, ranking No. 18 in the country (that number is inflated as they recorded nine sacks against SMU in September).

Waters and the Wildcats receivers will face a difficult secondary. Opponents are completing just 48 percent of their passes against TCU, which is the fourth-best completion percentage defense in the country. However, at the very beginning of this blog, I mentioned TCU leading the country in turnovers. This is a very aggressive defense that often looks to make a big play, and this can make them susceptible to double moves. The Horned Frogs are allowing 15.2 yards per completion. That’s the worst mark amongst all power-five teams, and only two teams in the entire FBS are allowing more yards per catch than TCU. Oklahoma averaged 22 yards per catch against the Horned Frogs, while Baylor averaged more than 18 yards per reception against them. Look for K-State to utilize some slant-and-go routes (sluggo) as well as post-corner and hook-and-go patterns.

K-State will need to establish a running game to slow down TCU’s pass rush and give routes like the ones I listed above time to develop. That won’t be easy. The Horned Frogs are giving up just 3.4 yards per rush to FBS opponents, ranking No. 23 nationally.

TCU Defense this Season

K-State Defense this Season

Special Teams Matchup

Big games like this often come down to special teams and who makes the least mistakes. TCU isn’t great on special teams, although placekicker Jake Oberkrom is a very good kicker and has a strong leg. TCU’s biggest strength is its punter, Ethan Perry. Perry has punted the ball 42 times this season. There have only been five returns attempted on his punts. TCU has allowed 1 yard – yes, 1 yard total on the season on punt returns. So Tyler Lockett might not have an opportunity Saturday night when it comes to that facet of the game.

TCU Special Teams Stats

K-State Special Teams Stats

Conclusion:

I like K-State to win this game because I think the Wildcats will make fewer mistakes than TCU. K-State has the fewest penalty yards in the country with 27.8 per game. TCU is No. 102 in the country with 66 penalty yards per game.

TCU Miscellaneous Stats

K-State Miscellaneous Stats

TCU forces a ton of turnovers, but I think K-State protects the football and the Wildcats get the Horned Frogs at a pace of play they’re uncomfortable with, limiting their offensive possessions and the number of plays they’re used to running. Third-down offense against third-down defense will be pivotal. K-State converts 49.5 percent of its third-down attempts, which ranks No. 9 nationally, while TCU’s defense only gives up a first down on 28 percent of its third-down attempts, the sixth-best mark in the country. I like the Wildcats to possess the football, slow the game down, limit mistakes, and force a couple of TCU turnovers. If that occurs, I think K-State comes out victorious, 35-31.

By Cole Manbeck

Kansas State’s offense possessed the football for 39 minutes and 14 seconds against Texas on Saturday. Now, those numbers aren’t shocking to K-State fans as there are typically a couple of games a year where the Wildcats absolutely dominate time of possession. But you can bet that number shocks Texas. The last team to possess the football more than 38 minutes against the Longhorns last came in 2007, when Texas A&M controlled it for 40:06.

Texas ran 52 offensive plays on Saturday. That’s the lowest number of plays the Longhorns have run in a game since at least 2007. That number likely goes much further back than that, but I’ll be honest, I started to get the feeling I could be thumbing through Texas’ season-by-season results for quite some time and wanted to get this blog published prior to the Oklahoma State game this upcoming Saturday.

K-State had a fresh defense throughout the game due to its ability to get off the field on third downs (Texas was 4-13 on third-down conversions) and because K-State’s offense was efficient, with the exception of three field goals. K-State kept its defense off the field by converting on 9-of-17 third-down attempts. The Wildcats’ 53-percent success rate on third down was the highest conversion rate Texas’ defense has allowed all season.

K-State held the Texas offense to 3.8 yards per offensive play, the lowest average the Longhorns have averaged all season. Tyrone Swoopes, who had thrown for 655 yards, three touchdowns and completed 64 percent of his passes in his last two games, averaged just 4.2 yards per pass attempt, tying a season-low in a game for Texas. The Longhorns gained 196 yards of offense on the day, their worst output since Sept. 18, 2010, when they had 144 yards of offense against Texas Tech.

K-State’s defense set the tone early. On the Longhorns’ first five offensive series, they ran 22 plays for 39 yards, just 1.8 yards per play. That’s terrific. But if you take away a 7-play, 31-yard drive in the middle of those five offensive possessions, Texas ran 15 plays for 8 yards of offense on four offensive series.

The Wildcats buckled down at the most crucial of times. From the 2:59-mark of the first quarter until the 13:12 mark of the fourth quarter, Texas had six consecutive drives that reached either the 50-yard line or reached K-State’s side of the field. Yet the Longhorns never scored.

The most critical part of the game came in the second quarter. K-State had completely dominated the opening quarter, yet only led 6-0. K-State’s offense proceeded to go three-and-out on back-to-back possessions deep in its own territory. Following the first three-and-out, Texas’ drive started at K-State’s 40-yard line. The Longhorns got the ball to the K-State 16, and if you’re like me, you were thinking K-State might end up trailing after dominating the first 15 minutes. That would have been deflating. But The Wildcats once again locked down, as Texas lost 20 yards over the next two plays and had to punt.

K-State’s offense proceeded to go three-and-out once again, giving Texas the ball at its own 45-yard line. The Wildcats defense forced a three-and-out.

But there was still a murky feeling regarding the K-State offense. In the previous two offensive series, Waters had been sacked twice, short-hopped a throw to an open Curry Sexton and overthrew Deante Burton. With 8:10 left in the opening half, K-State had the ball at its own 15-yard line. It lost 3 yards on its first two plays. And then one of the biggest plays of the entire game occurred: Waters delivered a strike on third-and-13 to Sexton over the middle of the field for 24 yards. K-State went on to execute a 12-play, 85-yard touchdown drive that chewed up nearly 6 minutes of clock. After that, it never felt like Texas had much of a shot.

That drive got Waters going. He started the game 4-for-7 for just 22 yards passing and was averaging just 3.1 yards per passing attempt. On the touchdown drive, Waters was 3-of-4 passing for 63 yards, and it started a stretch where he completed 5 of his next 6 passes for 90 yards, an average of 15 yards per passing attempt.

K-State’s offense wasn’t flashy against Texas, but it was sound. Texas entered Saturday’s contest with the Big 12’s best pass defense. The Longhorns were in the top-10 nationally in passing efficiency defense and their 24 sacks ranked 13^th in the country. The Wildcats’ offensive line allowed just two sacks, marking only the second game this season Texas hasn’t had at least three sacks in a game. The Wildcats averaged 7.5 yards per pass attempt. The previous season-high in yards per pass attempt allowed by Texas staunch defense: 6.6 vs. UCLA in September. K-State made Texas respect its running game, and while the yards per carry weren’t great, it was effective.

And the end result was a dominating K-State victory.

By Cole Manbeck

Texas has a 3-4 record. The Longhorns are coming off a 48-45 win at home against Iowa State – a game that appeared destined for overtime prior to a last-minute Texas drive. So the Longhorns might be easy to overlook. But this is a Texas team that’s improving rapidly and presents several issues for Kansas State this Saturday in Manhattan.

I hate the phrase “trap game,” but this is a dangerous contest. The Wildcats are coming off their biggest win of the season – a 31-30 win at then-ranked No. 11 Oklahoma. And now come home for an 11 a.m. kick against a 3-4 Texas squad that K-State cannot look past, which I highly doubt it does.

Jake Waters had his throwing shoulder dinged up against Oklahoma last Saturday. Texas is not a team you want to face a week after suffering an injury. The Longhorns defense gets after it. Texas has 24 sacks on the season, and its 3.43 sacks per game rank 13^th in the country. It will be going up against a K-State offensive line that has allowed 14 sacks and 2.33 per game, ranking 88^th in the country. The Longhorns have recorded 58 tackles for loss, ranking in the top 20 nationally.

Texas’ pass defense is terrific. The Longhorns rank 12^th nationally and No. 1 in the Big 12 in pass efficiency defense. They only allow 164 passing yards per game, ranking fifth nationally and lead the Big 12 in that category. They only allow 10 yards per completion, ranking No. 7 in the country and No. 1 in the Big 12. They give up just 5.6 yards per pass attempt, which leads the conference and ranks No. 9 nationally. Texas’ 11 interceptions are tied for the sixth-most in the country.

Texas is allowing just 4.4 yards per offensive play. Only seven teams in the country allow less. ESPN created a statistical formula for overall defensive efficiency. Texas ranked No. 9 nationally using ESPN’s criteria.

Prior to the Iowa State game, Texas had held its previous three Big 12 opponents to a combined 31-of-73 passing (42 percent) and 380 yards through the air. That averages out to only 127 yards per game and 5.2 yards per pass attempt. Two of those opponents were Oklahoma and Baylor. The Bears were 7-of-22 passing for 111 yards against Texas, yet they threw for more than 500 yards against TCU two weeks ago. That tells you how good Texas’ defense was against Baylor.

The Longhorns held those three teams to a combined 934 yards of offense on 214 plays, a 4.4 yard-per-play average (what they allow on average this season).

Texas ranks 91^st in the country in run defense, allowing 184 yards per game. But the Longhorns aren’t bad against the run, as they only allow 3.9 yards per rush, which ranks 49^th nationally.

Texas is led by junior defensive tackle Malcom Brown. The 6-foot-2, 320-pound junior leads the team with 10 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. Jordan Hicks is the anchor to the Longhorns defense. The senior linebacker already has 98 tackles and nine for loss. Steve Edmond, a 6-2, 260-pound senior who starts alongside Hicks, has 76 tackles, 8 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. Senior corner Quandre Diggs, who has made 42 career starts, leads Texas’ strong secondary.

Switching sides of the ball, Texas quarterback Tyrone Swoopes appears to be getting significantly better. The 6-4, 240-pound sophomore had some struggles throwing the football early in the season, but continues to grow within the offense. In Texas’ last two games, Swoopes has combined to complete 51 of his 80 passes (64 percent), throw for 655 yards and three touchdowns to two interceptions. He has rushed for 145 yards on 25 carries in those two games, an average of 5.8 yards per rush.

Swoopes has two solid targets to throw the ball to in John Harris and Jaxon Shipley. Harris has 607 yards receiving on 40 receptions this season, an average of 15.2 yards per catch. Shipley, who has more than 2,000 yards receiving in his career, has 452 yards this season and is averaging 10.3 yards per catch.

The Longhorns aren’t a big-play offense, however. They only average 10.6 yards per completion, ranking 106^th out of 125 teams in the FBS. Texas averages just 5.1 yards per offensive play. K-State’s offense averages 6.2 yards per play.

One of Texas’ biggest weaknesses is third-down offense. The Longhorns rank 107^th in the country in third-down efficiency, converting only 34 percent of their third-down attempts into first downs. However, the same was true for Oklahoma last week, yet the Sooners converted on 7-of-11 on third down against the Wildcats. I’ll repeat what I said last week (even though Oklahoma converted several third and longs), if K-State can get Texas in obvious passing situations on third downs, its defense will be in good shape. But the Wildcats will need to keep an eye on Swoopes when he drops back to pass, as he will take off and run.

Texas has plenty of talent at running back with Malcolm Brown and Jonathan Gray, but due partially to a struggling offensive line, it hasn’t translated to on-field success. The Longhorns average just 3.9 yards per rush, which ranks 95^th in the country and No. 8 in the Big 12.

This is a difficult game for K-State, as the numbers above suggest. Texas’ strength is its pass defense. The Wildcats’ strength is its passing offense. So K-State is in for a battle. But Texas is 3-4 for a reason and this is its first difficult road game. The only true road game Texas has played this season was at KU, and until the Jayhawks’ program gets better, I’m going to decline to put much stock into that road victory.

I still like K-State in this game, but I don’t see the Wildcats winning by a huge margin. I would look for a 10-14 point K-State victory.

By Cole Manbeck

It has been well documented that Oklahoma rarely loses at home during the Bob Stoops era. It’s just as rare for the Sooners to lose on their home turf to a ranked opponent. And the Sooners had never lost the following game after playing Texas during the Stoops era.

The Wildcats marched into Norman and handed Stoops just his sixth home loss of his career (two coming from Bill Snyder and K-State in the last three seasons) on Saturday. K-State handed Stoops just his third loss at home vs. a top-25 opponent in his 15 years at Oklahoma (now 16-3 vs. ranked teams at home) and his second loss to a top-25 Big 12 team at home (both coming from K-State in the last three seasons).

K-State made far fewer mistakes than Oklahoma. The Sooners entered Saturday No. 8 in the country in turnover margin with a plus-eight advantage They were minus-two in turnover margin against the Wildcats and that proved pivotal in the outcome of the game. However, what I want to focus on is K-State’s offensive performance on Saturday, as well as on the season overall.

The Wildcats averaged 5 yards per rush Saturday. That’s the second-most yards-per-carry average Oklahoma has given up in a game in its last 16 contests, dating back to last season.

Oklahoma’s defense against the run over its previous 15 games (prior to K-State averaging 5 yards per carry Saturday)

K-State’s offense was outgained by 148 yards on Saturday, but the Wildcats had the more efficient offensive performance. They averaged 7 yards per play to Oklahoma’s 6.8. Dating back to the start of the 2013 season, Oklahoma’s defense has now allowed only three teams to average 7 yards or more per play over a 20-game period. Two of those three performances have come from K-State (7.3 yards per play last season), and the other was Alabama in the Sugar Bowl in 2013 (7.9 yards per play).

Yards per play allowed by Oklahoma’s defense over its last 19 games prior to K-State’s performance Saturday

The Wildcats were efficient and only had one three-and-out in the entire game. They had opportunities where they were close to getting into scoring territory before being forced to punt, but let’s give the Sooners’ defense some credit, as they’ve got plenty of talent on that side of the ball. And in a couple of those instances where the offense didn’t come away with points, it at least put the punt team in a position to pin Oklahoma deep, thus flipping field position.

I have previously written about K-State lacking explosive plays on offense and how I found that concerning. But the numbers certainly tell me my eyes are wrong.

Over the last three games, K-State has averaged 6.9 yards per play, which is sixth-best nationally during that time frame. K-State is 11^th in the country with 0.525 points per offensive play this season, and over its last three games, K-State is second in the country with 0.677 points per play (Marshall is No. 1).

Here are some other notes to mention about the offense:

• The Wildcats average just 3.6 punt attempts per game. Only eight teams in the FBS average less.
• K-State has averaged five red-zone scoring attempts per game this season, ranking as the 10^th-most in the country.
• K-State averages 4.4 red-zone scores per game this season (touchdowns and field goals combined), ranking seventh nationally and first in the Big 12.
• The Wildcats have come away with points on every single trip inside the 20-yard line in each of their last three games.

Jake Waters was tremendous against Oklahoma. He has been tremendous most of the season, actually. The senior has thrown just three interceptions on the year, but only one of those was his fault. The other two came on a ball tipped off Tyler Lockett’s hands against Auburn and a pass that was batted up in the air by a Stephen F. Austin defensive lineman.

In K-State’s three Big 12 games, Waters has completed 55 of his 83 passes (66 percent), thrown for 809 yards, six touchdowns and no interceptions. He also has 294 yards rushing, four touchdowns on the ground and 6.3 yards per carry in Big 12 play. Overall, he has accounted for 1,103 yards and 10 touchdowns without a single turnover during league play. We are only three games into a grueling conference slate, but it’s hard to do much better than that.

I thought K-State’s offensive line was terrific and played its best game of the season Saturday, considering the opponent it was facing. The Wildcats moved the Sooners strong defensive line off the ball and opened up some running lanes. They were key in pass protection. Oklahoma entered the game with 16 sacks on the season, and it recorded three on Saturday, which is more than ideal. But one of those sacks was a coverage sack. The other two came on blitzes. However, outside of those three sacks, Waters had plenty of time in the pocket on his other passing attempts and wasn’t under duress.

On the other side of the football, K-State’s secondary struggled. Knight completed 26-of-32 passing for 318 yards and three touchdowns. The pass defense continues to be a concern. But K-State’s run defense was relatively solid against a powerful Sooners offensive line. Will Geary and Travis Britz both did a terrific job at stuffing the interior of the line for most of the game, and Jonathan Truman and Dakorey Johnson played very well at linebacker.

And lastly, K-State’s special teams were terrific. Britz blocked the extra point, which stands out, but punter Nick Walsh was also very good, pinning Oklahoma at its own 7-yard line once and at the 2 another time. Oklahoma entered the game No. 1 in the country with 31.2 yards per kick return, but K-State’s game plan of angle kicking it short worked out for the most part. And Matthew McCrane converted on every extra point and his lone field-goal attempt in the game.

K-State has a very difficult schedule remaining, but the Wildcats control their own destiny. They’re in the driver’s seat. And that’s a position nine other Big 12 teams would love to be in right now.