Why Bill Snyder, K-State treat bye weeks the same as game weeks
For Kansas State football players, bye weeks don’t feel much different than game weeks.
The Wildcats practice the same amount and they work the same hours. This week, as they pause to prepare for a road game against Oklahoma on Oct. 27, they will even arrive early Saturday at Snyder Family Stadium for football activities the same way they would for a home game. They will scrimmage against each other rather than play a different team, but that’s about the only change.
“It’s still business as usual,” K-State center Adam Holtorf said. “We treat it like a normal game week as much as we can.”
Some college football coaches prefer to take it easy on their players during bye weeks, allowing them to recoup and recharge their bodies in the middle of a long season, but K-State coach Bill Snyder thinks it is better to keep pushing.
Jordan Mittie, a junior defensive tackle who spent the past two seasons at Texas State, said that will be a departure from the way he approached by weeks at his previous school. But he’s fine with that.
“We don’t need a break,” Mittie said. “I think we need to keep working and that’s what we’re looking to do.”
K-State players did get Monday off, but it was back to work on Tuesday. Everyone who spoke to reporters seemed eager to return to practice. Coming off a 31-12 victory over Oklahoma State that could go a long way toward stabilizing their season, there was an abundance of optimism.
The Wildcats want to build off that win, and this week is a good opportunity for them to do so.
History is on their side. The last two times K-State played Oklahoma on the road coming off a bye, it won. The Wildcats beat the Sooners 24-19 in 2012 and 31-30 in 2014.
“Yesterday’s meetings and today’s meetings will be centered around Kansas State and trying to improve,” Snyder said. “It really is about us. We’ll continue that on Wednesday and the rest of the week, but we’ll begin to process in our meetings and our preparations some Oklahoma, as well.”
K-State players think this bye week arrived at a good time. Not only does it give injured players like quarterback Alex Delton, linebacker Elijah Sullivan, safety Kendall Adams and kicker Blake Lynch extra time to heal, it gives coaches a longer look at the Wildcats’ next two opponents.
Everyone associated with the team will be watching when Oklahoma and TCU — the next two teams on K-State’s schedule — play at 11 a.m. on Saturday. K-State offensive coordinator Andre Coleman will get his first look at Oklahoma’s defense without recently fired coordinator Mike Stoops. And K-State defensive coordinator Blake Seiler can pay close attention to both offenses.
Defensive end Trey Dishon said he will invite teammates to his apartment so they can study the game together.
“It will be good to sit down and watch a game on TV for once,” Dishon said. “I am excited to see them go at it. We will have a good look at both of them.”
The Wildcats are staring at five straight days of meetings, practice and drills until then. They won’t get much down time, but they will take advantage of the break as much as they can.
“We had yesterday off, got our legs back under us,” receiver Zach Reuter said. “It’s a great opportunity to improve individually, get back to our fundamentals and make sure we are able to do the little things right heading into a big week against Oklahoma. I appreciate a bye week.”