SE: K-State Looks to Complete Season of Improvement with Bowl Victory

Dante Barnett walked up the tunnel of Rice Stadium, stepped onto one of K-State’s team busses Monday afternoon and sat down. Soon after, he proudly proclaimed an opinion — one shared by more than just the senior safety.

“I think that was one of the best practices we had all season,” Barnett recalled sharing after K-State’s final practice of the season concluded in the humid December sun of Houston, Texas.

K-State (8-4) entered its preparation for Wednesday’s Texas Bowl battle against Texas A&M (8-4) with more than three weeks to work with. Starting right tackle Dalton Risner lightly compared it to going through fall camp again. The main difference, quarterback Jesse Ertz added, is where this group of Wildcats is now in terms of their comfort level and ability to execute.

“I think you can just feel it in practice,” Ertz said. “Everyone is relaxed, everyone is having fun, but they’re doing what they need to do. There’s less mistakes, and when you can have fun and there’s less mistakes, that’s when things are going good.”

Since the Wildcats’ season-opening loss at Stanford, inexperience has faded, talent has developed and positive results have followed in the form of six wins in their last seven games.

“I think we’ve gotten better through the course of the season. That’s the intent of our program, is that daily and weekly improvement,” K-State head coach Bill Snyder said. “It always has, as I say all the time, its ups and downs and is not 100 percent consistent, but we have gotten better.”

Junior linebacker Trent Tanking called the improvement within this K-State team, which has started more underclassmen than any Snyder team before it, since Stanford “tremendous.”

“Every position, you can go down the line of young guys who started their first game at Stanford,” Tanking said, “and their progress through game 13 has just been tremendous.”

K-State’s defense, coming off a down season in a number of ways, rebuilt itself into a formidable unit in 2016.

Boasted by the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in Jordan Willis, K-State ranks 12th nationally in rush defense (112.6 yards per game) and sixth nationally in turnover margin at plus-11, a year after finishing 88th in the latter category.

“It’s been amazing to see the train keep on rolling, not going backwards but going forward and toward improvement,” added senior linebacker Charmeachealle Moore, “which is what we’re trying to continue to do.”

What began as relative unknowns in Ertz and K-State’s offensive line, which collectively had less starts than Barnett entering the season, formed into one of the most potent rushing attacks in the country.

Ertz is now the fifth-leading rusher among FBS quarterbacks, with a team-best 945 yards and a 5.9-yard average per carry. The Wildcats’ offensive line has paved the way into the program’s record book, including six-straight games with at least 200 yards on the ground and a school-record 5.3 yards per carry average.

“We had so many new players early that we were trying to establish what our style really was because we feel like we’re strong in every area,” Ertz said. “For whatever reason, we started hitting big plays in the run game, we stuck with it and it’s been great for us. It’s kind of established as who we are. It’s been a positive thing for us and I hope we can keep doing it well.”

Standing in K-State’s way of finishing off a remarkable turnaround from a 3-3 start to the season is Texas A&M, which began the season 6-0 with wins over ranked teams in UCLA, Auburn, Arkansas and Tennessee.

Despite a 2-4 finish to the regular season, K-State knows full well the capabilities of the Aggies, a former Big 12 foe the Wildcats last played in 2011.

“Texas A&M is a great team,” Tanking said. “They’re going to be a handful, tough to defeat, but we’re confident that if we do everything right we’ll give ourselves a pretty good chance.”

Texas A&M senior quarterback Trevor Knight, also a former Big 12 opponent who transferred from Oklahoma, leads a charged attack for the Aggies. Knight, who is 1-1 against K-State as a starter, has recorded more than 2,700 yards of total offense and combined for 26 touchdowns this season.

“He’s the kind of quarterback we’ve been blessed to have throughout my tenure here, someone that can bring a balance to your offense, someone who can run and execute all the option type stuff that exists in college football today, and he can throw the ball around quite well,” Snyder said of Knight. “Like Jesse, he’s a young guy who seems to have command of their offense. That tells me he has quality leadership as well.”

The Aggies also bring multiple playmakers to the table, highlighted by Trayveon Williams and Christian Kirk, nicknamed “Captain Kirk.”

Williams, a true freshman, leads the team with 1,024 rushing yards, while Kirk, a sophomore receiver and All-America punt returner, averaging 24.5 yards per return, leads the SEC with 77 receptions and has a school-record five touchdown returns on 25 career tries.

“They have a lot of weapons. Captain Kirk, he’s an amazing player,” Moore said. “They’ll try to get him the ball in open space and he’ll try to make you miss, so we’ve been working on open field tackling, not letting him get downhill and not getting beat deep.”

Defensively, the Wildcats will also have their hands trying to slow down unanimous All-American defensive end Myles Garrett, who has 8.5 sacks and 15.0 tackles for loss in his junior campaign.

“He’s a very talented football player. He’s got size, strength, quickness to go along with athletic ability,” Snyder said. “It’s important for our players to truly understand that, and they do. They understand the kind of player that he is.”

Snyder also emphasized the importance of “staying on schedule” when K-State kicks off against the Aggies in Wednesday’s 8 p.m., game at NRG Stadium that will be nationally broadcast on ESPN. In other words, the Wildcats, who rank in the top 20 nationally in third and fourth down percentage offense, red zone offense and time of possession, need to stick to what got them to Houston.

“That’s kind of the way we play. We control the ball and we have to end the drives with points,” said Ertz. “That’s the way we do things so hopefully we can do that.”

The Wildcats also know how vital a strong start to the game will be. Fortunately, it’s been a strength of K-State’s this season, as the Wildcats have outscored opponents 225-123 in the first half this season.

“It’s definitely been a point of emphasis,” Tanking said. “We’ve started slow the last couple of bowl games, and to be able to not fall behind the eight ball and start well on offense, defense and special teams is a huge point of emphasis for us.”

A win against the Aggies would mark K-State’s eighth bowl victory, give the Wildcats at least nine wins in a season for the 15th time in school history and the fourth in six years. Maybe most important, it would send this group of Wildcat seniors out of the locker room with smiles instead of tears — a feeling Barnett wants more than anything.

“I was fortunate to be on that team that won in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, and that feeling was amazing, ending that season with a win,” Barnett said. “I’ve watched a lot of seniors walk out the locker room for the last time sad and crying after losing a game, so I know I just want to go out on a good note and win the game.”

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: K-State Looks to Complete Season of Improvement with Bowl Victory

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