‘The entire team is ready’: No Kansas State football players opting out of Texas Bowl
Kansas State is one of the few football teams still playing that will have a full assortment of seniors when it takes the field for its bowl game early next month.
Unlike most rosters across the country, the Wildcats haven’t experienced much attrition from transfers and none of their players have “opted out” of their Jan. 4 matchup with LSU at the Texas Bowl in order to focus on the NFL Draft. One senior — defensive tackle Eli Huggins — has even announced he’s coming back for an extra year.
This game is clearly important to them.
“A lot of the players in this locker room are guys who love football and just want to play football,” K-State senior safety Russ Yeast said. “To us, it’s another opportunity to play another game, another opportunity to win. So I think that’s a big, big deal. Nobody really thought about opting out. We want to go out there and have another chance to play the game that we love.”
It also doesn’t hurt that K-State will be going up against a blue-blood opponent that is two years removed from winning a national championship. The Wildcats don’t get many chances to beat a team like LSU. They have only played once previously, and the Tigers won that game 21-0 in 1980.
The fact that LSU needed to pull off an upset against Texas A&M in its final game of the regular season just to qualify for a bowl did little to diminish K-State’s enthusiasm.
“I was actually really excited,” Yeast said. “LSU is a storied program. It’s a program that I grew up watching. So it’s going to be really fun to get a chance to go out there and play against them.”
Running back Deuce Vaughn used to dream about playing in a game like this.
“I’m ready to go compete,” Vaughn said. “We’re going against a SEC football team and, of course, a lot of things come with the name LSU. It’s a big-time opponent. Matter of fact, the entire team is ready to go and get to play against a really good football team.”
K-State coach Chris Klieman thinks there are a few reasons why the Wildcats are fired up for this bowl.
Only the oldest members of the roster were around for K-State’s last bowl victory at the Cactus Bowl in 2017. And they missed out on the bowl experience all together last season. This all feels new to them.
“What a great bowl,” Klieman said. “I have heard nothing but phenomenal things about the Texas Bowl and how they treat the student-athletes and the experience. I know our guys are chomping at the bit, because they really want to play together one more time and that’s a sign of a really good group of seniors and leaders that have stuck together through an awful long time.”
The Tigers seem to have a different mindset.
Shortly after they learned they were heading to the Texas Bowl, several players entered the NCAA transfer portal or announced they planned to skip the game entirely. Defensive tackle Neil Farrell and linebacker Damone Clark were the latest to announce they were “opting out” of the Texas Bowl.
Few can blame them for those decisions. An injury could be devastating for any NFL Draft hopeful. But all that roster movement has left the Tigers with question marks at several positions, including quarterback. LSU will have to choose between starting a freshman, a walk-on or a converted receiver there against K-State.
That is not an issue for the Wildcats, as “super senior” quarterback Skylar Thompson is expected to start one final game in Houston.
Finishing this season with a victory is a priority for him ... and the entire K-State football team.