Kansas State University Athletics
Ask the AD Transcript - November 14, 2018
Nov 14, 2018 | Athletics
K-State Athletics Director Gene Taylor dropped by the K-StateHD.TV studio for another installment of Ask the AD. Taylor and host Brian Smoller touched on a number of timely topics, including the close of the football regular season, dealing with a tragic loss in the department, sky high expectations K-State basketball and hoops trends, a quick facilities update and thoughts on Wildcat football's Mr. Congeniality, Dalton Risner.
BS: Football is obviously a hot topic - frustrated seems to be the word around town.
GT: I'm a surprised that it's at the end of the season, it's happened so fast and typically football goes fast. There's a lot of frustration. The expectation and the anticipation for the season that we had going into the season on everybody's part, whether it's the coaches or the players, we haven't met those expectations. We've fallen short. We've had some games that we probably should've or could've won - the Texas game, the Baylor game, the TCU game, then we have some things go our way in the Kansas game and we get the win. There's nobody more frustrated - if the fans are frustrated, if I'm frustrated, whoever - there's nobody more frustrated than those coaches and those players. They're out there every day, I watch how hard they work, I watch how hard they prepare. I see a team that's still very much together in the locker room and on the field. I see coaches that are still giving it their all. If you think you're frustrated about where we are come out to practice - which we don't allow - but watch how hard these kids work, watch how hard the coaches are coaching. Hopefully we can turn it into two wins. The win over Kansas, the excitement in the locker room was a lot of fun, the excitement on the sidelines - hopefully that can parlay into two wins and finish off strong.
BS: Texas Tech and Iowa State upcoming still, with the game against Texas Tech serving as Senior Day and hopefully another crowd can brave the cold - it won't be as cold this Saturday.
GT: The crowd was great against Kansas, we had a great turnout. They were a factor late in the game, that's what we need and we need that again this week against Texas Tech.
BS: No doubt, the highest scoring offense coming in. Recently the Wildcat family was shattered by the loss of one of our own in rower Samantha Scott. No one obviously hurting more than the Scott family and we continue to send prayers their way, just a tough thing all the way around it seems.
GT: People have asked me have I ever been part of a program that lost a student-athlete and fortunately that had never happened. That's always tough. You've got a group of rowing team members that are all very young and some of them have never experienced loss. How they dealt with that and the coaches - what was very special was how the entire athletic department and the entire K-State family really wrapped their arms around not only the Scott family but the rowing team members and coaches to help them get through it. Each team that played recently had a recognition for Samantha either on their helmets or warm-ups, what we did Saturday at the Kansas game pre-game, the moment of silence, the message from Coach Snyder. The Scott family was here for that and they were very, very touched deeply about how the K-State Family rallied around them. It's helped them through it, it's a very difficult situation. I think the rowers are ready to continue to get through this as best they can, but they've been able to get through it because everybody stepped up and wrapped their arms around them.
BS: Basketball is underway right now, both team's have started out with wins at home. Now they haven't been as lopsided perhaps as people wants to see, you want to pick-up right where you left off at the end of last year and be beating people by 30 right out of the gate.
GT: That's fair, I think our players want to do that too. They probably want to get through the season, get back to the Elite 8 run but the target on their back is much bigger, these teams that we're playing are coming in a lot more focused. Not that our guys are looking past them, but they're also still kind of picking things up - Dean didn't play towards the end of year. They're still working through to meld as a team. On the women's side they're kind of a mix of a couple veteran players and a couple of young players - they need to kind of learn how to play together. It's going to take some time and I think as we go through the season, I think coach is going to remind them on the men's side, you've got to stay focused, got to get better each week and on the women's side you've got to play together, and I think we'll be fine. A lot of excitement behind both the men's and women's team right now.
BS: We've seen some good student crowds early on for men's basketball. The Big Ten recently added conference games in December with some perceived success as students are on campus, have there been any talks in doing similar with the Big 12 slate?
GT: Not really. We haven't talked a great deal about it, other than the fact that it's frustrating for everybody in the room, the ADs, the fans, when you're playing those early January games when your students aren't on campus. A lot of those games have a tendency to be big games and so you want that student crowd. We've seen it early on, certainly on our men's side, because they bring a lot of energy, they bring a lot of passion, they kind of help our other fans as well. We haven't talked a great deal about it, we may get into that at some point. It is important to have them, yet those critical games are games during the break that our students aren't here and we have to kind of work through that.
BS: Facility updates, what do you have for us?
GT: If you go out and have a chance to look at the track, it's beautiful. It's purple and gray. It's being finished, striping, we'll be finished with that here shortly. We've taken down the stands on the soccer stadium and we're going to be moving in our construction trailers and finishing the bidding process and that's going to get started in earnest here in the next month or so. So you're going to see a lot more construction out there probably during the winter months, but it's exciting to see things progress on the soccer and baseball projects. The track is going to be a beautiful addition as well.
BS: Any update on the facilities masterplan as to what would be next?
GT: We've had a lot of chances to visit with donors and try to get a chance to sense where the priorities are with our donor base. Right now, of all the plans we put out there, the top three or four are the south end zone project, the volleyball and olympic sport training center, and the indoor facility. That's where people have expressed their interest. Now, we haven't gone out and asked for specific gifts yet but we'll probably be doing that in the next few months, but those are the top three that are garnering interest from our donor base.
BS: Dalton Risner was recently named a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy, which is somewhat the academic Heisman. You've gotten to know Dalton a little bit, he's a pretty special individual.
GT: He really is. Obviously he's a very good football player and his career has a chance to continue beyond K-State clearly. He's just a tremendous individual and the awards that he's being recognized for, potentially being recognized for, are well deserved. He spends a lot of time outside of the sport of football giving back to communities. Obviously he's a great student in the classroom. The National Football Foundation Award, which will be recognized here in a few weeks in December in New York City, is a very, very special award. Everything he gets, he's deserving of. He's just a great young man, a great representative of our athletic program and of the football program. We're lucky to have him.