K-State Q&A: Will Howard, Adrian Martinez, Jerome Tang’s roster and Gonzaga in Big 12
Basketball season is nearly upon us, and the Kansas State football team is fresh off a 48-0 victory over Oklahoma State that led to a field storming.
Needless to say, there is a lot of ground to cover this week.
Let’s dive right into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
Will Howard.
Had you asked me the same question a few weeks ago, my answer would have been different. But Howard has looked incredible while filling in for Adrian Martinez over the past two weeks.
Sending him back to the bench right now, for any reason, seems crazy.
Howard threw for 225 yards and two touchdowns against TCU. Then he passed for 296 yards and four scores against Oklahoma State. What else is there to say?
First Half Will Howard has looked like a Heisman contender. Four straight touchdown drives before halftime at TCU. Then 35 points before halftime against Oklahoma State. It’s wild to think about how much more impressive his stats could have been without a shoulder injury against the Horned Frogs and a massive lead against the Cowboys.
Talk about efficient.
Howard has the hot hand at the moment, and I would advise continuing to play him until he cools down ... if he ever does.
The offense is much more balanced with Howard at quarterback. Defenses can’t load the box against Deuce Vaughn, because Howard can throw it deep and move the chains through the air. I think that is a big reason why Vaughn erupted for 158 yards and a touchdown against the Pokes, not to mention the four catches he made for 18 yards and another score.
Now, that’s not to say the Wildcats couldn’t also win with a healthy Martinez at quarterback. He can do things on the ground that Howard can’t. But he hasn’t played in a few weeks and he might still be injured.
If the choice is between a healthy, red-hot Howard and a banged up, cold Martinez it shouldn’t be a hard call at all.
Howard seems like the obvious choice for QB1 against Texas, even though the Wildcats are planning to make another game-time decision at the position.
Coaches have mentioned the fact that they would like to preserve Howard’s redshirt this season, which would allow him to play three more years of college football down the road. And Martinez is a one-year rental. So it makes some sense to side with Martinzez on that part of the debate. But the redshirt thing means nothing to me. Even if Howard finishes out the season and burns his redshirt he still has two more full seasons in front of him.
That is more than enough with Avery Johnson and Jake Rubley waiting at the same position.
1. Kansas State 35, Oklahoma 7 in the 2003 Big 12 championship game: The Sooners entered that game as massive favorites. People were calling them the best college football team of all time. The Wildcats improbably made them look like a FCS team.
2. Kansas State 62, Texas A&M 14 in 2009: The Wildcats played Texas Tech a week before this game and lost 66-14. They went from losing by 48 to winning by 52 ... a 100-point swing!
3. Kansas State 55, West Virginia 14 in 2012: Collin Klein played the game of his life. Geno Smith and the Mountaineers never stood a chance.
4. Vanderbilt 14, Kansas State 7 in 2017: I’m still amazed that the Wildcats lost this game with a healthy Jesse Ertz at quarterback. The Commodores got destroyed in their next five games, including 59-0 the following week against Alabama.
5. Kansas State 41, Kansas 7 in 1995: The Sunflower Showdown has only featured a pair of ranked teams one time, and the Wildcats turned it into a blowout in 1995.
There’s nothing wrong with liking a few classic songs.
Personally, I prefer the new music before home football games because it isn’t the same exact thing week after week. But Snyder had a few bangers on his old mix tape.
Every time I hear “Right Now” from Van Halen my brain still signals that it’s time to quit goofing off in the press box and to start paying attention to which K-State players are in uniform, because that’s the song the Wildcats always used to play at the beginning of warm-ups.
Who among us can say no to “Eye of the Tiger?” Is it possible to not hum along when “Stand Up (For the Champions)“ is played?
“Proud of the House we Built” is far from my favorite song in the world, but it works for K-State and is still played at games today. You can still hang on to that one.
In any case, you’ve got me thinking about making a new play list on my phone with the following songs on it: Where the Streets Have no Name, Right Now, Days Like These, I Can’t Hold Back, New Sensation, One Vision and Thunderstruck.
Unless you have money riding on Kansas to miss a bowl this season, I think K-State fans should want the Jayhawks to beat Oklahoma State on Saturday.
Another loss would more or less knock the Cowboys out of the running for a berth in the Big 12 championship game.
The less competition the better for the Wildcats. I think they will make it to Arlington as long as they win one of their next two games against Texas and Baylor, especially if OSU picks up another loss.
The colorful shirts help K-State players easily identify which sideline personnel they need to look to for signals between plays.
Several different people send in signals before every play. Some are decoys. One is relaying actual information.
It’s easier to tell them apart when they aren’t all wearing purple from head to toe.
I am neutral on Harley Day.
Don’t love it. Don’t hate it.
All I can really say about it is that it sure beats driving a motorcycle indoors before a basketball game. Texas Tech used to do that at home games and it filled the arena with smoke and awful smells. Players on both sides could hardly breathe at opening tip.
Harley Day is way cooler than that. It has also given us some quality pictures over the years.
Here are the five instant reactions I had following Kansas State’s exhibition win over Washburn.
A few more:
- K-State fits the Baylor mold. Its roster might not have enough talent and experience to mimic what the Bears have done in recent years, but the Wildcats are athletic and long. They look like basketball players, and that’s a big reason why they destroyed the Ichabods without doing much more than rolling the balls out on the court.
- Keyontea Johnson is going to be good this season.
- Desi Sills is further along than I expected. He should help right away, even if he won’t reach his ceiling until conference play.
- The Wildcats have competent big men for a change. It was stunning to see Jerrell Colbert come in for the final minutes and record five points and five blocks in eight minutes. Sure, it was against dudes half his size. But it was still encouraging. I didn’t find myself cringing every time K-State threw the ball into the paint.
- Jerome Tang is a laid-back coach.
- The Wildcats are turnover-prone and can’t shoot from the outside. Good as they looked against a Division-II team, if those problems persist they will have problems against stronger competition.
One of Jerome Tang’s goals when he took over at K-State was to expand the team’s support staff, and he has been able to do that with a mixture of analysts and graduate assistants who could be full-time assistants at other schools.
You could say K-State has more coaches than other schools.
It reminds me a little of Frank Martin’s first staff when Brad Underwood was the director of basketball operations. Having lots of qualified people on your staff is always a bonus.
I was a fan of the new tradition.
Why not thank the fans after every home game?
Jerome Tang has seemed genuinely grateful to coach at a university that cares about men’s basketball. That wasn’t always the case for him at Baylor, where the Bears have struggled to attract crowds even when they were ranked No. 1 in the country.
I fully endorse the gratitude.
Ask me in a future mailbag for my basketball prediction. I have seen the Wildcats play exactly one time, and the game was against a completely outmatched opponent.
Any projection I make right now would be a complete shot in the dark.
Football is king when it comes to conference realignment, but it isn’t everything.
There are a few basketball powers out there that can boost a league’s profile. Gonzaga is one of them.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has reportedly spoken with Gonzaga leaders about the Bulldogs joining the conference in some capacity. The Big 12 is already regarded as the nation’s best basketball conference in some circles, and adding Gonzaga would only boost that reputation.
Teams like Gonzaga and Kansas would give the Big 12 excellent basketball ratings. BYU and Gonzaga currently play in the same conference for hoops. So they would each have a travel partner. Adding a member that doesn’t play football would make things a little awkward for the conference in terms of scheduling. Would the Big 12 then look to add a football-only member?
I don’t have the answer to that question.
But I will say that adding Gonzaga is most definitely worth exploring.