K-State Q&A: Key football takeaways from Big 12 Media Days and another hoops transfer
Every football team is optimistic this time of year.
I doubt you will find a bigger collection of positive quotes from coaches or players at any point during the upcoming season than we did at Big 12 Media Days earlier this week at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Even an undefeated team heading to the playoff is going to have something small to gripe about. Right now, though, everything is just peachy.
With that in mind, I try not to get too caught up in any of the grand reviews or predictions that are made in the middle of July. Still, I liked what I heard from the Wildcats.
I picked K-State to finish seventh in the conference’s preseason poll, which is where it ended up on the list. The Wildcats seem like a team that have enough going for them to beat their over/under win total of 5 1/2, but also too many question marks to expect them to challenge Oklahoma this season.
That’s what I thought before I went to Arlington, anyway. Now that I’m back home in the Little Apple, I think they might have a higher ceiling than I originally expected.
Oklahoma and Iowa State still seem like the class of the league, with Texas and TCU (I really like their talent) lurking as dark horse contenders. But if things break right for K-State this season, I could see it climbing up into that range.
Why?
For starters, nothing beats experience at quarterback. Skylar Thompson said all the right things on Wednesday and seems to have no lingering injury issues heading into the season. He also seems more mentally prepared than he has in the past.
But I also liked what I heard about K-State running backs not named Deuce Vaughn and K-State receivers not named Malik Knowles.
The Wildcats need more weapons on offense, and it seems like they may have some this season. Joe Ervin and Jacardia Wright providing a change of pace at running back would be huge. Any combination of Chabastin Taylor, Landry Weber, Kade Warner and Tyrone Howell emerging as threats in the passing game would add a much-needed element to K-State’s offense.
We will need to wait and see what happens, I know. But if any of those players step up behind a more experienced offensive line, K-State will put up more points than we saw late last season. The Wildcats had the worst collection of receivers in the Big 12 last year. Any improvement would help.
On defense, it was nice to hear that hard-hitting safety T.J. Smith is back at full strength and ready to help Russ Yeast and Jahron McPherson in the secondary. Everyone still seems high on Julius Brents and Timmy Horne as transfers.
Questions do remain at nickel and linebacker, though. I’m not sold on Daniel Green and Cody Fletcher being topnotch linebackers in this conference. Of course, I had those concerns last week, so nothing really changed for me in Arlington.
All things considered, it seems like the Wildcats are ahead of schedule. They will need to be. Beating Stanford in the season-opener will be of vital importance if they want to surprise the doubters this season.
And now, it’s time for another K-State Q&A. Thanks, as always, for your participation.
Sure!
I like “Saucy” better than “Stubby” and it’s a lot more catchy than “Stat Embellisher.”
So we found out at Big 12 Media Days that Reggie Stubblefield’s family at one point owned the Stubb’s barbecue sauce you see all over the country in grocery stores.
The sauce is pretty good. I’m more of a Gates man when it comes to sauce, but I have purchased Stubb’s many times over the years and used it to enhance the meat I smoke in my backyard.
I am all for calling him “Saucy” whenever he makes a big play at nickel or corner next season. Mitch Fortner should blare it over the PA system if he comes up with any interceptions.
By the way, Chris Klieman also said a few things about Stubblefield down in Arlington.
“When we watched him on film, he really impressed us as a guy that can be versatile,” Klieman said. “We didn’t know, and we still may not know, if he is going to be a great nickel or a corner. Is he going to play on the boundary of the field? Can he play safety? We talked to a lot of coaches in that league, as well as his coaches and they all said he was a terrific talent and a really good one.”
I learned something from Jahron McPherson earlier this week.
If you do 300 push ups a day, which he somehow does, you can pull off wearing just about anything ... even plaid Capri pants.
That should make K-State fans feel a little more optimistic about the team’s defense heading into the season. McPherson, a senior strong safety, is going to be the quarterback of that unit and he is going to bring lots of experience and swagger to the field.
Opposing teams won’t be lighting up the scoreboard against K-State if he can stay healthy.
“Our ceiling is going to be high,” McPherson said. “We’ve got a lot of good players back there. We’ve added some new defensive linemen back, our defensive-back room has gotten better and larger. We’re going to be good.”
Here’s hoping he plays well enough to get some sort of sponsorship deal with H&M, which is where he gets all of his Capri pants.
I would say his fashion statement was more surprising than KU not making it out of Lawrence. You kind of have to expect the worst when it comes to Jayhawks football, right?
They’re really missing out on a great opportunity to host a media football game at AT&T Stadium that night.
Next year, they should clear part of the field in Arlington and let us all play in some sort of seven-on-seven tournament.
Beat writers for each school could form their own team. The national writers could make up their own squad. So could the TV folks. The sports info guys could play, too.
If that ever happens, I nominate myself to captain the K-State media team as a player/coach. My ability to call illegal plays and shove off defensive backs as a slot receiver would give us an edge over the competition.
Jesse Newell would have no chance against me in the open field.
Not sure who would play quarterback for us, though. We might have to hold tryouts next summer, or bring in a ringer. What’s Jesse Ertz doing these days? I think he needs to help out with some video next year.
I’m a sucker for pina coladas, so I like drinking a homemade version of the “Pirate Nancy” you can get at Taco Lucha and So Long. It’s light beer mixed with pineapple juice and a little bit of coconut rum. It tastes exactly like a pina colada!
That’s a good summer beverage.
Ranch Water and some of the other drinks you can make with seltzers have been growing on me, too. I also like the occasional old fashioned and margarita. Does sangria count?
They’re all good.
Why were officials so adamant on punishing “The Salute” at the end of the 2010 Pinstripe Bowl?
Asking me to tell you what Big 12 officials are thinking is kind of like asking me to tell you what a group of wild hyenas are thinking on any given day.
I don’t know!
But I didn’t mind the answer that came out of Big 12 Media Days.
If a player scores a touchdown against Texas and then goes up to to some Longhorns players and taunts them with the “Horns Down” gesture, then I think that should be a penalty. But if a player scores a touchdown and then makes the “Horns Down” gesture to a camera or something, they should let that go.
Seems like we have been debating this particular penalty for way too long. It’s certainly a bigger issue than it should be.
You shattered some glass for me with that observation.
It’s like when someone points out that your wife chews way too loud when she eats cereal. Once you notice it, you can’t focus on anything else.
For whatever reason, the inconsistency in the way Chris Klieman worded his new four core goals for K-State football never bothered me ... until now.
They should be: Be Disciplined, Be Committed, Be Tough and Be Selfless.
Or: Discipline, Commitment, Toughness and Selflessness.
Throwing in a random “Be” before “Selfless” is completely unnecessary and I hope someone gets admonished for the inconsistency.
Too bad they are already printed the core values as is on the team’s 2021 media guide.
And the award for the most creative question of the week goes to ...
The hard part about answering this is that I’m not sure anyone who has coached a sport at K-State was qualified to lead a major, state-funded college. So if you’re asking me which coach might have taken the job and introduced some great new plans for the university as a whole, well, I bet they all would have been terrible.
But Bill Snyder would rank near the top of the list. Half of the roads and buildings in Manhattan are named in his honor. He could have unified the community and gotten some stuff done.
He wouldn’t be my pick, though.
How about Ernie Barrett? He was never the head basketball coach at K-State, but he did coach for the Wildcats and then went on to become athletic director. With a nickname like “Mr. K-State” he could have handled the job.
I also feel like Tex Winter could do the job. Heck, he convinced Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant to listen to him.
Who’s to say he couldn’t command the same respect as a university president?
It’s not a good look for him.
Bruce Weber has always struggled with player retention at K-State. The last member of the Wildcats’ 2019 recruiting class bid farewell to Manhattan earlier this week when Montavious Murphy announced plans to transfer, but it’s not like there are players from the 2018 and 2017 classes still hanging around the roster like they’re Mitch Lightfoot.
They are all gone, too.
Mike McGuirl is the only player on K-State’s team who was around when the Wildcats won the Big 12 championship in 2018 ... and that wasn’t very long ago.
Not being able to keep Antonio Gordon, Montavious Murphy and DaJuan Gordon on campus as upperclassmen is disappointing for everyone involved. Like I said at the start, it’s not a good look.
Still, I do wonder how big of a deal player retention will be moving forward now that transfers are so prevalent in college basketball.
Losing those three players seems bad at first glance, but Weber replaced them with three very promising transfers who look like upgrades heading into next season.
Maybe it’s a good thing?
Wake Forest transfer Ismael Massoud was going to play over Murphy and Antonio Gordon at power forward. A four-guard lineup may have taken priority over their playing time, as well. Their departures are unlikely to hurt K-State next season.
DaJuan Gordon leaving is less than ideal, but Missouri transfer Mark Smith is a similar player. He’s not as athletic, but he is a better shooter. At worst, that seems like a trade.
I can’t wait to see Arkansas-Little Rock transfer Markquis Nowell in action.
Anymore, losing transfers is only a bad thing if you’re not adding transfers to replace them. Kansas, Texas and Texas Tech all lost more transfers than K-State did this offseason, but no one cared when they reloaded with better players.
Does all that roster turnover put any extra pressure on Weber? Not really. He needs to win next season no matter what.
If you’re looking for K-State basketball optimism, look no further than the 2020 recruiting class.
Weber did do a nice job keeping them on campus. Nijel Pack, Selton Miguel and Davion Bradford are the future.
Combine that with Weber’s new aggressive approach to bringing in impact transfers, and the Wildcats have the makings of a team that will have a shot at being much improved next season.
This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 12:23 PM.