K-State Q&A: How will a new KU football coach impact Sunflower Showdown rivalry?
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
Let’s jump right into your questions this week. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
Scared is too strong of a word.
Check that ... it’s far too strong of a word.
Lance Leipold appears to be an upgrade over the past four abysmal football coaches that Kansas hired and soon thereafter paid to go away. But that’s not exactly a high bar to clear, now is it?
If I play through a group of hackers on the seventh hole at Colbert Hills and blow my drive 100 yards past them, that doesn’t mean I’m ready to join the PGA Tour. It just means I’m better than those four duffers.
In the short term, Leipold is not a dangerous threat to anything K-State is doing on the football field. The Wildcats should once again steamroll the Jayhawks in the fall and continue to beat them in most head-to-head recruiting battles.
Now, things might be a little more challenging than they were last season when KU more or less forfeited by gift wrapping several easily returnable punts to Phillip Brooks. I also highly doubt Leipold gives the Wildcats bulletin-board material by screaming “Who is K-State” the week before they play.
Still, I can’t imagine Leipold will be able to close a 55-14 gap in one year without first coaching the Jayhawks during spring ball.
K-State fans can probably go ahead and mark down the next two Sunflower Showdowns as victories, which would bring its winning streak in the series to 14.
I must admit, though, Leipold could make things interesting after that if he can live up to what he accomplished at Wisconsin-Whitewater and Buffalo.
Leipold seems to bring a respectable floor with him to Lawrence, which is something the Jayhawks haven’t possessed since Mark Mangino. It could also mean the Jayhawks might become a threat to upset some better teams starting in Year 3.
Mangino beat KU in his third season, so that seems like the absolute earliest it could happen under Leipold.
From what I saw during the KU spring, that team has a long way to on offense. Can Leipold find a decent quarterback? That could decide how quickly he can make the Jayhawks respectable.
He says he will prioritize local recruiting more than his predecessors, and that could also become annoying for K-State’s coaching staff if he follows through.
Chris Klieman is already struggling to land top in-state talent, as K-State faces competition from Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State and others. Extra competition for the second-and-third-tier players won’t make things any easier.
K-State figures to remain the top in-state option for most football recruits, but the Wildcats might not be able to land so many of them unopposed if Leipold stays true to his style.
His forte is bringing in overlooked recruits and then developing them into solid contributors, which is something Bill Snyder and Klieman have also done.
For years, K-State football has won games thanks to local walk-ons like Ryan Mueller, B.J. Finney, Harry Trotter, Jordy Nelson, Will Geary, Trent Tanking, Jonathan Truman ... I could go on and on. What happens if KU starts to offer scholarships to those players and gets them to play in Lawrence?
That is one way KU could finally make up ground on K-State after all its recent years of futility.
Producing multiple picks in the NFL Draft seems quite a bit easier than going 9-3 in the regular season.
K-State has only won nine games (not including bowls) once since Collin Klein ran out of eligibility in 2012. But K-State has produced multiple draft picks on three different occasions over that time.
Heck, the Wildcats nearly pumped out two draft picks this year with the team coming off a dreadful 4-6 campaign. Briley Moore, A.J. Parker, Kiondre Thomas and Elijah Sullivan were all signed as priority free agents shortly after only Wyatt Hubert was selected in the seventh round.
K-State has only produced 10 picks in the past eight drafts, so it’s clear the Wildcats need to upgrade talent before they can win nine games or pump out multiple selections.
But my money is on the draft possibility happening first.
It really depends on what you’re looking for.
If you are the type of person who loves neutral-site games, then the opener against Stanford at AT&T Stadium is the game for you. The Wildcats don’t often play in professional stadiums, especially as the designated home town. That game is your opportunity to experience something different.
If you are the type of fan who likes memorable upset victories then Oklahoma is probably the game for you. Lincoln Riley is 0-2 against Chris Klieman, and the Wildcats return a lot of players who beat the Sooners in each of the past two seasons. Can they beat Oklahoma again next season at Bill Snyder Family Stadium? There’s no bigger potential upset on the schedule.
If you’re a big Homecoming person, then TCU on Oct. 30 is the game for you.
If you’re just looking to watch a game that K-State will probably win, Southern Illinois or Nevada should be up your alley.
Two games I would stay away from: Iowa State and West Virginia. The Cyclones beat the Wildcats 45-0 last season and the Mountaineers haven’t lost to K-State since 2015.
Kansas State’s defensive line probably ranks somewhere in the bottom half of the Big 12.
The Wildcats had a terrific front four last season with Wyatt Hubert and Drew Wiley leading the way. But they won’t be easily replaced. Hubert is the only NFL Draft pick that K-State has produced in the past two seasons. Wiley was rock solid at defensive tackle. I don’t see anyone better waiting to take their place.
There will be a drop off up front on defense in 2021.
That doesn’t mean the unit will be a liability, though. Bronson Massie and Khalid Duke form a talented duo at defensive end. Felix Anudike and Nate Matlack provide young depth.
Eli Huggins and Jaylen Pickle are back at defensive tackle. We’ll see just how good Timmy Horne is come September, but coaches talk about the Charlotte transfer like he’s ready to contribute in a big way.
I would probably rank them sixth or seventh in the Big 12 while leaving some room open to surprise.
Thanks for all the kind words in that question, Scott. Not sure I deserve them, but I sure do appreciate them.
The biggest thing I learned during my time as Professor Kellis, aka a home-school teacher, (I’m not trying to come across as a self-proclaimed professor here) during the pandemic is that teaching is really freaking hard. My second oldest son started kindergarten last August and his first teacher was ... me.
Poor kid.
I did my best to focus on him and his older brother until lunch time and then shifted to this kind of work in the afternoon. The results were mixed. Some days went by without a single problem. But there were also times when I let my kids watch way too much TV in order to write or make calls. There were also lots of early mornings and late nights.
On a side note: my kids really hate it when I’m on the phone. They understand if I’m on a Zoom call and leave me alone. But if they see a phone pressed up to my ear they yell at me to turn hang up. What’s up with that?
My oldest son is fortunately a very good student who loves to read and didn’t need all that much help from me beyond math. Anytime he needed motivation I just bribed him with the promise of video games.
The kindergartner was much more work. I helped him enough to get his assignments turned in on time and to learn a few basic things, but I was unable to make him an amazing student. When I asked him to color a picture of ducks on a pond he would grab a black crayon, scribble blindly on the page for 15 seconds and proclaim his work to be done.
Most of the time, that was fine by me because it meant we were one step closer to being finished for the day. I signed off on some less than impressive work.
I did my best to come up with fun activities for all three of us, like art class or design work or outside time. But it was a grind.
Then in-person school started back up full time this semester and a trained professional did what I could not. My kindergartner started coloring within the lines, listening to instructions and even reading.
His teacher sent us an e-mail last week just to say how much of a joy it is to have him in class as a student.
Didn’t see that coming.
Like I said, teaching is really freaking hard. I’m happy to leave that job to the professionals.
I’m going with Stanford by 2 1/2 points.
Without knowing everything there is to know about the Cardinal, this looks like an even game on paper.
Stanford went 3-3 last year, but closed out the abbreviated season with three straight victories. That is the exact opposite of what K-State did a year ago, as the Wildcats started 4-1 and then lost five straight and opted out of bowl consideration.
K-State has a veteran quarterback coming back in Skylar Thompson. Stanford just lost a NFL talent at quarterback in Davis Mills. Perhaps that can give the Wildcats an edge?
But when it comes right down to it, the Vegas oddsmakers rarely favor the Wildcats in these types of games. So my early guess is that Stanford will be a slim favorite.
Let me start by saying I thought Rolling Stone did a good job ranking the top 100 sitcoms of all time this week.
I don’t have any huge gripes. But I do think shows like Family Matters, That 70s Show, Married with Children, The League and Saved by the Bell should have been included somewhere.
They’re all classics!
BoJack Horseman would be near the top of my list of all-time sitcoms, but I don’t know if it would rank No. 1. It’s hard to argue against The Simpsons. It doesn’t get any better than the first 10 seasons of that show.
King of the Hill was also really good. I’m a big fan of Rick and Morty, as well as Futurama.
Some of the best non animated sitcoms are The League, Family Matters, Seinfeld, Flight of the Conchords, Veep, Community, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Brockmire and Entourage.
That’s more than 10 sitcoms and they aren’t in list form, but that’s the answer I’m going with.
The answer is obviously K-State’s track-and-field athletes who compete in the decathlon all the dang time.
They would beat every challenger from another sport like Ivan Drago beat Apollo Creed in Rocky 4. Hopefully the challengers have someone better than Rocky standing by to throw in the towel for them.
But if you eliminate the experts from this hypothetical competition then you can come up with some fun answers.
K-State point guard Nijel Pack can run a five-minute mile, according to Bruce Weber. So I like his chances.
Offensive lineman Kaitori Levetson is the heaviest player on K-State’s football roster at 345 pounds. I’m better he could do well enough in the throwing competitions to counteract his lack of speed.
Deuce Vaughn seems to know how to get the job done regardless of circumstances, and his size could come in handy on the pole vault.
Ryan Henington seems to be capable of playing every position on the football. I bet he could hang in a decathlon.
Ekow Boye-Doe is as fast as a cheetah.
It’s too bad Xavier Sneed and John Holcombe aren’t around anymore. They really would have killed it at the decathlon.