‘We don’t care about stars’: Why K-State players aren’t intimidated by Alabama roster
Every team gets to play the role of underdog against Alabama. That is just part of college football.
It doesn’t matter if you are a fellow power from the SEC or a directional school from the FCS ranks. Most people expect the Crimson Tide to win regardless of their opponent. You could probably find some fans crazy enough to pick them against a NFL team.
Alabama was favored by at least nine points in all 12 of its games in the regular season this year. Even with Nick Saban’s team slumping (by its standards) to a 10-2 record and the No. 5 spot in the final playoff rankings, a long line of bettors backed Alabama each and every week. It was favored by as many as 49 1/2 points in one game ... and it covered that number with ease by beating Louisiana-Monroe by the score of 63-7.
All things considered, Kansas State is getting quite a bit of respect in the betting market this week as it enters the Sugar Bowl as an underdog of just 6 1/2 points. This comes a few weeks after the Wildcats closed as a slim betting favorite against TCU in the Big 12 championship game.
But none of that has stopped the Wildcats from describing themselves as a team full of underdogs when they arrived in New Orleans earlier this week.
“We’re always going to be an underdog,” K-State defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah said. “I saw the other day we only had three four-star recruits on the team, zero five-stars and a lot of three-stars. We were the lowest in the Big 12 with star players. This whole season we had the underdog attitude, but we know our guys get ready to play. We don’t care about stars or anything. We’re just ready to roll.”
The Alabama roster is certainly filled with star power. Quarterback Bryce Young has won a Heisman Trophy, linebacker Will Anderson is a projected top five pick in the NFL Draft and Saban has recruited 17 five-star players over the past four recruiting cycles.
To put that in perspective, K-State has never signed a five-star recruit directly out of high school.
Now, the Wildcats have still found ways to produce high-level talent. They were the only school from a power conference that took a chance on Anudike-Uzomah before he matured into the best defender in the Big 12. They were one of only a few schools that looked past Deuce Vaughn’s size and made him a recruiting priority. And Cooper Beebe turned out to be a gem of a recruit from nearby Kansas City.
All three could leave early for the NFL Draft after the Sugar Bowl, same as Alabama’s star players. They just took a different path to this point.
K-State has a roster that is defined by something other than recruiting ratings.
“Heart,” Beebe said. “We have been in games where we are down before and nobody bats an eye. We always know that we are in the game. We fight until the last minute.”
“Our team is very underrecruited and we have a lot of people that should be highly recruited,” added Anudike-Uzomah. “It shows that it doesn’t matter what your stars are, doesn’t matter if you’re a five-star recruit. It matters how much heart you have to play the game. If you really love the game and really want to play, you can win games.”
The Wildcats will carry that attitude into this game no matter what the odds say or how much more talented the Crimson Tide may appear on paper.
They may be underdogs, but they aren’t intimidated by Alabama.