SE: K-State Looks to Regain Consistency at Texas Tech

By Corbin McGuire

If there was one overarching lesson from K-State football's loss to West Virginia last week, it's that consistency is king. Specifically, consistency at crucial times and in a few areas.

"We're still fighting consistency," K-State head coach Chris Klieman said in Tuesday's press conference. "That's the biggest thing."

One of the biggest things the Wildcats (6-4, 3-4) are leaning on going into their road game against Texas Tech (4-6, 2-5) on Saturday at 6 p.m., on FS1, is past success in these areas.

"For us, we all know what we need do. We did it before," running back James Gilbert said. "It's just being consistent and doing what our coaches ask us to do. I feel like we can do that as a team. We just have to stay positive and not point the finger at anybody."

Take third down defense, for instance. The Wildcats rank first in the Big 12 and fourth in the NCAA in third down defense, allowing opponents to convert only 26.9 percent of the time this season.

They were near that number last week, too. They just did not win the timeliness factor.

The Wildcats allowed West Virginia to convert only 4 of its 12 third down opportunities, a respectable defensive number on the surface. Two of those conversions, however, went for touchdowns — a third-and-13 and a third-and-22, the former made possible by an untimely K-State penalty on a West Virginia missed field goal. Another conversion on third-and-7 inside K-State's 20 also led to a touchdown.

On the other side of the ball, same story.

The Wildcats rank fourth in the Big 12 and 27^th in the nation in third down conversion percentage this season. K-State converted 8-of-17 such opportunities against WVU.

Again, a few missed chances proved costly. K-State failed to convert a third-and-goal from WVU's 4-yard line and a third-and-1 from the Mountaineer 15. Both led to field goals instead of touchdowns for K-State, which holds the nation's sixth-best red zone scoring percentage (0.953) and is tied for the fifth-most red zone touchdowns (25) in the country.

"We don't have to play perfect, but we have to play more consistently in all three phases," Klieman said. "We need to continue to improve because we knew we were going to have some problems. We knew we were going to have some tough times, but we have to move on. We have to keep getting better."

K-State junior quarterback Skylar Thompson echoed his coach's message. After throwing two of his three interceptions for the season against West Virginia, along with recording a career-high in passing yards (299) for the second week in a row, Thompson said this week presents an opportunity to get back on track after consecutive losses.

"It's going to be a good challenge for us to come out and attack and play with confidence and bounce back from last week and take care of the football," Thompson said. "I need to get back to that because that's what keeps us in ball games is taking care of the football and moving the chains. So, we have to stick to the foundation of our offense and just trust our coaches and trust one another when we go out there and play."

Thompson added that the team's energy and confidence has not been lost from the last two weeks. If anything, he said both have grown from knowing how close they were to both victories and staying in the Big 12 Championship hunt.

Now, the focus is on finishing the right way.

"There's definitely a lot of fire in our whole football team. We've lost two games back to back that came down to making one play and we just haven't been making that play," Thompson said. "We've had some undisciplined things taking place, some lack of urgency and some miscues on some blocks or me missing a throw or somebody missing a route. Just little things that we haven't been executing and doing, and that definitely lights a fire in your belly.

"I know as much as I wish I could have that last throw back last week, it's a great learning opportunity for me. It's not a thing I'm going to lose any confidence over because I know I can make that throw. That's how our whole team feels. We know the team we're capable of being. We've seen it all. We've had some really great wins and a couple bad losses this year, too, so we just have to get back to what makes us K-State and play with confidence and have fun."

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

James Gilbert

Skylar Thompson

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