Kansas State QB Skylar Thompson learns to trust arm while playing with knee injury
A sad thought raced through Skylar Thompson’s mind when he collapsed on the turf with a scary knee injury last month during Kansas State’s second football game of the season.
“That was just my last play of football,” Thompson remembers saying at the time. “All the flashes of coming back from my previous injury and all the hard work that I put into play this year ... Just like that, it was gone.”
Thompson, like many others, assumed the worst. His career as a K-State quarterback appeared to be in jeopardy when he needed help from trainers to make it off the field. But good news was on the way. Tests revealed the injury wasn’t severe. The senior captain wasn’t out for the season. There was a chance he might only miss a few games while his body healed.
With No. 6 Oklahoma looming on the schedule three weeks away, Thompson made it his mission to play against the Sooners.
“I was excited and very happy considering the situation I was dealing with,” Thompson said. “I regrouped and attacked my rehab as hard as I possibly could. Our training staff did a tremendous job of pushing me in that aspect and getting me healthy. I just continued to stay involved with the game plan, watching film and doing all those things as if I was playing, because I knew there would be a time where I would come back and I wanted to stay sharp.”
Thompson overcame a roller coaster of emotions and took command of the team’s offense during Saturday’s 37-31 loss to Oklahoma.
Wearing a brace underneath white tights on his injured right knee, Thompson was clearly not at full strength. The senior captain threw the ball with noticeable zip and moved around the pocket as well as normal, but he didn’t attempt a single rush.
The only other time that has happened in his college career was against Southern Illinois when he left the game early with that scary knee injury.
Thompson has played in 38 games for the Wildcats since he took his first college snap in 2017, and he had never previously attempted fewer than three scrambles or designed runs as a healthy starter. He averages 8.3 carries per game.
So it was a surprise to see him stay in the pocket against Oklahoma and attempt a career-high 41 passes. But no one was complaining when he completed 29 of those throws for 320 yards and three touchdowns.
In a weird way, playing on an injured right knee made him a better passer. Rather than bailing on passing plays and trying to make something happen with his legs, Thompson went through his progressions like never before and moved the chains with his arm.
Perhaps he should play that way more often.
“I do feel like if there was no hesitation at all with what was going on (I would have rushed the football),” Thompsons aid. “There would be some times there where stepping up I felt a huge a huge lane to run. But instead there’s Deuce (Vaughn) or there’s Phillip (Brooks), having that sixth sense of where my guys were at and being able to distribute.”
Thompson did most of his damage with throws to Vaughn. He targeted the sophomore running back 13 times and connected with him on 10 completions for 104 yards and a touchdown.
But Brooks also caught six passes for 55 yards and a score to go along with five catches for Malik Knowles and four catches for Landry Weber.
None of K-State’s receivers caught a touchdown in the first four games of the season. That changed with Thompson slinging the ball.
“He played really well,” K-State football coach Chris Klieman said. “He doesn’t want to tell you that, because we didn’t win the game. But to think that he has not played since the first quarter of Southern Illinois, to do what that kid did against that defense and be under duress ... No, he’s not running all over the place. We didn’t run options and we didn’t run a lot of the read-zone stuff that we have done with Will (Howard). He hung in there and said, ‘I’m going to pitch it around.’ The kid was on point.”
It will be interesting to see if Thompson continues to play that way as he returns to full strength.
Thompson is a gifted runner, especially in the red zone, but the Wildcats gained a season-high 420 yards with him operating as a pocket passer.