Chris Klieman expects these K-State football players to ‘get healthy’ during off week
There are plenty of things that Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman would like to accomplish this week while the Wildcats get a rare Saturday off.
But one goal towers above the rest.
“You have to try to get healthy,” Klieman said. “This is our one shot at trying to get ourselves as healthy as we can.”
The Wildcats dealt with more injuries than they would prefer during the first four weeks of the season.
Starting quarterback Will Howard suffered a leg injury against Missouri and had to play through it during a 44-31 victory over UCF. Veteran linebacker Daniel Green has been lost for the year with a torn pectoral muscle. The Wildcats have also played without wide receivers RJ Garcia and Keagan Johnson, running back Treshaun Ward, offensive lineman Christian Duffie and linebacker Jake Clifton.
Klieman’s top priority at the moment is trying to get most of those players ready for a Friday game at Oklahoma State on October 6.
“We need all those guys back,” Klieman said.
As of now, most of them seem on track to play against the Cowboys.
Klieman said Garcia and Ward are expected to return to practice at some point this week. He said “the hope and the plan” with Johnson is to increase his playing time after the off week. He is also optimistic that Duffie and Clifton will both be ready to contribute more than they did against UCF when they were just returning from injuries.
Duffie made a noticeable impact at right tackle in his first game back.
Garcia, Johnson and Ward could further help the offense as skill players. Without them, the Wildcats had to give the ball to running back DJ Giddens 38 times against UCF. Fortunately, he handled the large work load beautifully and delivered 293 total yards and four touchdowns.
But K-State wants more versatility.
Clifton could definitely provide that on defense whenever he is completely healthy.
The Wildcats will try to make that happen in the next few days.
“He’s going to have to be that Swiss-army knife,” Klieman said. “We’ve got Austin (Moore) and Desmond (Purnell) playing at a really high level right now. We’re putting an awful lot on a true freshman in Austin Romaine, but he can handle it. Beau Palmer, I think, is getting better and better.
“I think Jake is going to be have to be a guy who maybe is a third-down inside backer or maybe it’s a base-down outside backer. That’s something we had some discussion about on Sunday, how we can best utilize him. We are fortunate, because he is kind of like Cooper Beebe on offense. He can play multiple spots. He is probably going to play as much as Desmond and Austin, but he might be playing all three positions.”