Love/Hate Relationship

Saying I’m a fan of Carson Coffman may not be the best way to put it.

Saying I’m a fan of the way he led the Wildcats down the field on a 67-yard game-winning drive would be accurate.

Still, it seems like there are more questions than answers with the quarterback position, which has been the major topic of discussion despite the Wildcats first 4-0 start since 2003.

There have been several instances on the young season where you just shake your head and honestly wonder how bad Coffman’s back-ups are at manning the starting position that Bill Snyder has given him.

Are Sammuel Lamur and Collin Klein that bad in their pre-snap judgments that Snyder would rather stick with a senior who looks like he’s trying to aim nearly every pass he throws?

Then again, why would you take a quarterback who tossed the perfect ball to Aubrey Quarles for a 58-yard touchdown strike to tie the game.

Better yet, why would you remove a senior quarterback who has more starting experience at the position than anyone else on the team, and one who converted on two third down plays in the closing minutes of the game.

Don’t forget the perfect read he made on second down from the seven yard line, when he didn’t panic and force a pitch to Daniel Thomas and then quickly pump-faked to his receiver on the wing to keep the cornerback at bay before tucking the ball and darting into the endzone for the game-winning score.

Now some of these plays worked based on the perfect timing they were called, but it still takes a knowledgeable athlete to make the right reads for these plays to work.

Through four games, K-State is undefeated. They haven’t been the prettiest of wins, but they are wins none the less and wins that can be directly attributed to the Wildcats coaching staff.

K-State now has a bye week to prepare for the toughest game thus far, and quite possibly the season.

No doubt the Wildcats have plenty of holes to fill before their Oct. 7 matchup with sixth-ranked Nebraska at home. UCF exposed K-State’s running game holding Thomas to just 76 yards, while the Wildcats run defense looked porous allowing 252 yards.

Those are the two biggest concerns heading into this showdown between two unbeatens. Without a productive game from Thomas or a more solid showing from the Wildcats defense, Nebraska will roll through Manhattan for the last time as a Big 12 opponent with ease.

Check out my game-by-game preseason prediction blog

The 2010 Season: My Predictions

The Wildcats are coming off a 6-6 season and looking to get back to a bowl game after missing out in five of the last six years. Here are my predictions on how K-State will fair this season.

Sept. 3 vs. UCLA
Win – The “K-State Family Reunion” is back for the second straight year and all indications are pointing to this game as being a sell-out, or very close to one. UCLA defeated the Cats 23-9 a year ago in Los Angeles, but the Bruins have been decimated by injuries this offseason. The Wildcats have the upper hand with a strong running game and what should be an improved defense from a year ago. Expect a low-scoring affair with a handful of turnovers, but K-State starts the year off on a good note with a win.

Sept. 11 vs. Missouri State
Win – The Wildcats last faced the Bears during the 2007 season when K-State rolled to a 61-10 victory. The matchup will give the Wildcats a chance to fine-tune any issues from the week before and get the team ready for their conference opener in Week 3.

Sept. 18 vs. Iowa State at Arrowhead
Win – Iowa State is no longer a pushover, especially for a K-State squad that has run into its share of issues the past few years. The Wildcats knocked off the Cyclones a year ago in KC, but it took a blocked extra point in the game’s final minute to seal the victory. Iowa State finished the season 7-6 with a bowl victory in Paul Rhodes first season at the helm. Dual-threat quarterback Austen Arnaud is back for his senior season to lead the offense. This should be another tight battle, but an experienced offensive line and balanced running attack gives K-State the edge against relatively inexperienced Cyclone defense.

Sept. 25 vs. Central Florida
Win – This game could present an interesting challenge for the Wildcats. Central Florida went 8-5 last year, losing to Rutgers in the St. Petersburg Bowl. The Knights last game against a Big 12 opponent came in a 35-3 loss to Texas last year in Austin. UCF is coached by veteran George O’Leary who most notably led Georgia Tech from 1994-2001 and is entering his seventh year at UCF. The Knights have matchups against South Dakota, North Carolina State and Buffalo before coming to Manhattan.

Oct. 7 vs. Nebraska
Loss – There will be a ton of hype around this game, especially if the Wildcats enter the Thursday night nationally televised showdown undefeated. The crowd will be electric but the Cornhuskers defense will be too overpowering for an offense without a solid option at quarterback. A relatively low-scoring Nebraska offense might keep this one close, but don’t expect K-State to pull of the miracle upset in their final Big 12 matchup against the “Children of the Corn.”

Oct. 14 at Kansas
Push – Under a new head coach, a young Kansas squad will likely struggle mightily this season. However, the Wildcats have fallen to their in-state rival four of the last six years and have not won in Lawrence since 2002. The Jayhawks inconsistencies at quarterback this year are even more numerous than K-State’s which may give the Cats the upper hand. KU will once again have a good deal of time to prepare for this game with a bye-week leading into the Thursday night matchup.

Oct. 23 at Baylor
Win – The Bears went just 4-8 last season but return many of their top performers from a year ago including highly-touted quarterback Robert Griffin. Baylor has the advantage of playing at home and may catch the Wildcats sleeping after back-to-back rivalry games against Nebraska and KU. K-State gets the advantage of having a few extra days to get prepared for another road game, and should have a more experienced group than Baylor. Griffin keeps the Bears in this one until the final minutes but K-State’s defense will come up big to give K-State a key road win in the run for bowl eligibility.

Oct. 30 vs. Oklahoma State
Win – The Cowboys graduated a majority of their top talents from a year ago and will be going through a rebuilding phase this year in a division loaded with talent. The Pokes enter the K-State game after matchups with Texas Tech and Nebraska. Kansas State should pull out a comfortable win barring a barrage of mistakes in this Homecoming showdown.

Nov. 6 vs. Texas
Loss – The Longhorns reload after their run to the national title game last year. Garrett Gilbert leads the offense this year and will be much more prepared than he was after being thrown into the title game last season. Yes, the Wildcats defeated Texas in each of the last two meetings but the program no longer has the “bold and daring” Ron Prince leading the charge (insert sarcasm). The Longhorns have been the more talented team in each of the past two games, but the Wildcats had several breaks fall their way. K-State may keep this one close, but Texas breaks the streak and comes out on top.

Nov. 13 at Missouri
Loss – Blaine Gabbert is back for his junior season and will lead a talented squad that will give Nebraska their strongest challenge in the North. This year’s team will be stronger and more experienced than last season’s team that finished 8-5 and defeated K-State in Manhattan. Mizzou has just three true home games, with one being against OU, so the Tigers will be fired up for Senior Day against the Cats.

Nov. 20 at Colorado
Push – Dan Hawkins is on his final straw with the Buffaloes and will need a strong season if he wants to tag along for Colorado’s move to the PAC-10. The Wildcats have split the last eight games with the Buffs with each team going 3-1 at home. K-State last defeated CU in Boulder in 2006 and lost by just a point during the 2008 season at Folsom Field. A win for the Cats would go a long way to assuring a bowl game appearance, but the team will need a strong showing in an often tough environment (both physically and mentally) to play.

Nov. 27 at North Texas
Win – A puzzling way to finish the season for sure, matching up against North Texas on the road in the last game of the regular season. K-State last played against the Mean Green in a 45-6 victory during the 2008 season. The Wildcats also defeated UNT 54-7 in the 2005 season. If things get a little bumpy down the stretch, this game should provide the Wildcats with a confidence boost to close the season and as a worst case scenario, ensure bowl eligibility.


*So according to my expert analysis, I have the Cats going 7-3 with a pair of swing games. If the Wildcats split those two games it means an 8-4 season for K-State and a bowl game.

I still think that 8-4 is a little lofty, but on paper eight wins seems doable especially if the Wildcats can develop a balanced passing attack to complement Daniel Thomas and whatever tricks Bill Snyder has up his sleeve.

Predicted best case scenario: K-State wins both swing games and goes 9-3 on the year with losses to Nebraska, Texas and Missouri and earns a solid bowl game berth.

Predicted worst case scenario: K-State drops both swing games and slips in one other game (UCLA, Iowa State or Baylor) and finishes 6-6. Even at .500, this should be enough to get the program back to a bowl game.

Fact Check

As I was browsing through my Sports Illustrated College Football Preview issue, I noticed a small but glaring error...at least to me.

SI picked the Wildcats to finish 8-4 on the season with a 4-4 conference record (that wasn't the error).

The magazine also picked Central Florida, a team K-State plays on Sept. 25, to finish 8-4 overall with a 4-4 conference record.

So apparently the two teams will both finish the non-conference season with 4-o record.

I understand they're probably just making generalizations but a little fact-checking would be nice when it's clear that one of these teams has to lose a non-conference game.

*I know these are a year old, but they should still help you get pumped for Saturday.

Snyderman Returns & Purple, Get Ready to Roll

Another year, another quarterback controversy

Having trouble deciding on starting quarterback is nothing new for Bill Snyder.

Unfortunately in his past three seasons coaching the Wildcats, the indecision and/or inability to find the right signal caller has hurt the program.

A year after winning the Big 12 Championship, the team went 4-7 in 2004 while the offensive unit relied on both Dylan Meier and Allen Webb calling plays.

The next season the Wildcats threw Allan Evridge into the mix; a season in which K-State went 5-6 and missed a bowl for the second straight year.

After a three year break, Snyder returned to the helm and faced the same problem he had in his last two seasons coaching.

Ultimately it came down to a sixth-year player who had never started a game, and the son of a former K-Stater who spent the previous three seasons watching from the sidelines as Josh Freeman anchored the offense.

Carson Coffman got the first crack at it in 2009, going a lackluster 2-2 in four starts, which included a road loss to Louisiana.

In the fifth game of the season, Snyder elected to go with Grant Gregory to lead the team down the stretch. Gregory went 4-4 in his short tenure and put the Wildcats within reach of a North Division title.

K-State faltered in their final two games though, losing to Missouri and Nebraska, and missed out on a bowl for the fifth time in six years after finishing 6-6.

More shocking though is the way Gregory muscled his way through the season. He played with multitude of injuries which included a “torn rotator cuff and torn labrum in his right shoulder, a slightly torn meniscus in his right knee (suffered in the season opener) along with playing his final 7 1/2 games with a dislocated left shoulder,” according to report in fanhouse.com.

And he did all this while junior Carson Coffman watched from the sideline.

So what does this say about Coffman? How bad must he have been last year if he wasn’t better than a guy with two dead arms and bum leg?

This year several indications point towards Coffman as being the starter. That won’t be without controversy though as sophomore Collin Klein is sure to be in the mix. Other options range from junior Sammuel Lamur to freshman Billy Cosh who both participated in this year’s spring game. Cosh though remains a likely candidate to redshirt.

However it plays out, it doesn’t seem likely that just one quarterback will lead the team this year.

If Coffman does indeed get the start in the season opener, he will need a strong showing against UCLA to quiet several of the skeptics.

Of course, this could all be made a lot simpler if K-State just put All-American candidate Daniel Thomas in charge of the offense…just a thought.

Coming Soon

Thanks for visiting my blog. Keep checking back as the season nears for my take on K-State sports throughout the year.

Eric