‘We Have to Focus on Ourselves and Get Better’
Nov 02, 2022 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Kansas State made history this past Saturday. The Wildcats intend to not allow it to impact this Saturday.
The Wildcats come off a 48-0 win over then-No. 9 Oklahoma State, which was the largest win ever by a lower-ranked team over a higher-ranked AP Top 10 team. The most dominant win ever by K-State over a top-10 opponent catapulted the Wildcats to No. 13 in the AP poll this week.
K-State head coach Chris Klieman in his weekly news conference said it was important for his team to "control what you can control."
"Somebody will tell me that we're ranked somewhere," he said. "Rankings only really matter at the end. There's so much football left to be played inside the top 25 and even outside of it that you're just trying to focus on the things that you can control, and for us, it's not getting caught up in that.
"It'd be easy to get caught up in where you're at, and as soon as you think about that, you'll get beat. We have to focus on ourselves and get better."
That message rings clear for K-State players, as the Wildcats, 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the Big 12 Conference, prepare to face Texas, 5-3 and 3-2, in Saturday's 6 p.m. kickoff (FS1) at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The Wildcats own sole possession of second place in the Big 12 with games against Texas, at Baylor, at West Virginia, and Kansas still left to go in the regular season.
"After TCU we had to have a short memory," center Hayden Gillum said. "It's the same thing this week. Guys are committed to the process that's gotten us to be successful and where we're at. It goes to practice and everything we do transpires into the weekend. We're going to stay that course."
K-State suffered a 38-28 loss at No. 8 TCU and took out its frustration against an Oklahoma State team that had won 20 of its previous 23 games. The Wildcats led 35-0 at halftime en route to handing Oklahoma State its first shutout since 2009.
"Our guys really were focused and fed off the crowd and got off to a great start," Klieman said. "That was really important and just sustaining that level of play was really important. In all three phases, we showed improvement, and we played well at different times. We came out with a big win.
"Now we have to flip the page."
Texas comes off a bye week. The Longhorns suffered a 41-34 loss at Oklahoma State in their last game. The Longhorns squandered a 31-17 lead in the contest.
Texas is 1-6 on the road over the past two seasons and is 1-5 against AP Top 25 opponents over that span. The Longhorns are 11-34 against AP Top 25 opponents since the Big 12 Conference transitioned into a 10-team format in 2011.
"They're a really good team," quarterback Will Howard said. "We've already seen it in the film that we've watched so far. It's going to be a good challenge, but I'm ready for them, and we're ready for them. We know that every week in the Big 12 is going to be a heck of a challenge.
"This one is no different."
Klieman non-committal on naming a starting quarterback early in the week
Klieman indicated that the starting quarterback position remains unsettled heading toward Saturday.
"We'll find out how the week goes," Klieman said. "I don't have that answer now."
Howard earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honors after throwing for a career-high 296 yards and a school record-tying four touchdowns last Saturday in place of senior transfer Adrian Martinez, who wasn't 100% healthy while recovering from an apparent leg injury.
Martinez earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week earlier this season after he rushed for 148 yards and four touchdowns and threw for 234 yards and one touchdown in a victory at then-No. 6 Oklahoma.
"I know that Adrian is closer (to full health)," Klieman said.
K-State entered the season with Martinez as starting quarterback and carrying the possibility of redshirting Howard, a junior. It remains unclear if Howard will continue to play. If Howard plays in more than four games, it will strip him of a redshirt year.
Does the way Howard has recently performed change the mathematics of whether he'll redshirt or play all the time?
"We still have to play that out based on Adrian's health and based on Will's health," Klieman said. "It does, but it's easy to say, 'Hey, we're going to shelf you,' and maybe something happens to Adrian and Jake (Rubley) and then you have to pull it, or Adrian's healthy and you can hold him.
"I have to visit with Will about that. I know how Will feels for now, but I want to make sure he understands the future, too. But right now, he's the healthiest guy we have back there of the two, so that's why he knows he has to stay a viable candidate."
Asked if Howard was playing so well that he would have to consider playing him regardless of how Martinez is feeling, Klieman replied, "Potentially, yeah."
"(Howard) played a really good game at TCU without taking the reps of the ones (in practice) and then he played really well on Saturday," Klieman added. "It's something that we're considering everything right now and we have to because we still have a good grind of the season left and obviously the health is going to be the No. 1 part of that."
Would Klieman entertain the possibility of playing both quarterbacks if both are at full health?
"It'd be something we'd look at but based on what we're trying to maybe do with Will or maybe not do with Will, I wouldn't want him to play 15 plays and lose a year," Klieman said.
K-State players believe the offense will be in good hands regardless who assumes the starting role.
"We have two really, really good quarterbacks in our stable right now and we're going to keep handling it the way it needs to be handled, because we understand both those guys have the utmost confidence in their abilities to be able to run this offense," running back Deuce Vaughn said. "Whoever is in, man, we're rolling."
Added wide receiver Kade Warner: "We're phenomenal. We have two Big 12 Offensive Player of the Weeks that can ball out and the rest of the team believes in both those guys. To have that multiplicity back there — we don't know who's going to be back there week to week but we know they're going to ball out — it's a really cool feeling to have."
The Wildcats' defense is playing like a Mob
K-State swarmed, stomped and stupefied No. 9 Oklahoma State while holding the Cowboys to just 217 total yards and issuing its first shutout in the series since 1992. Pretty incredible considering Oklahoma State entered tied for No. 3 in the FBS in scoring (45.7) and 24th nationally in total yards (466.9).
Here's something else incredible: Coupled with a 34-0 win over South Dakota, this marks the first time since 2002 that the Wildcats have posted multiple shutouts in a season. K-State is one of three teams to have two shutouts this season (Georgia and Minnesota also have two) and now ranks ninth among Power 5 conference teams in scoring defense (17.2), which is on pace for the best scoring defense by the Wildcats since 2003.
A huge credit to defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman and his defensive coaches as well as the players, K-State has kept every Big 12 opponent under its season scoring average entering its game against the Longhorns.
What's making the defense so good?
"We're playing faster as the season has gone on," Klieman said. "You always have to be careful because I didn't think we played as well on defense against TCU — I know some of those kids on defense had a chip on their shoulder Saturday because I don't think they felt like they played to their capabilities and to the best of their ability the week before against TCU.
"That's what it comes down to, again, is whatever happened last Saturday means nothing compared to what's going to happen for your preparation this week to get to next Saturday."
This week, K-State ranks in the top 30 in eight defensive categories and leads the Big 12 in scoring defense (17.2), tackles for loss (6.6), sacks (2.88) and total interceptions (11).
The Wildcats now prepare for a Texas team that ranks 22nd in scoring (36.4) and 31st in total yards (444.8), and that has scored at least 34 points in five of seven games this season. The Longhorns have also scored at least 24 points in a half seven times.
"We were pretty dominant (against Oklahoma State)," safety Kobe Savage said. "We had a few mental errors and a couple missed tackles, but it's nothing we can't fix. We were pretty dominant our last game."
The Wildcats' offense is off to its best start in its Big 12 history
For the first time in Big 12 history, K-State has started league play with five-straight games of 375 total yards. That includes Oklahoma (509 yards), Texas Tech (459), Iowa State (388), TCU (390) and Oklahoma State (495).
K-State's 413.1 total yards this season currently ranks sixth all-time in school history and its 6.3 yards per play ranks fourth. K-State's total offense ranks only behind 1998 (478.4), 2003 (441.0), 2002 (423.0), 2014 (421.6) and 2007 (418.2).
Even more remarkable? In a league known for its powerful offenses, K-State's 6.9 yards per play in Big 12 play ranks second in the league behind only TCU (7.3).
K-State was arguably at its best against Oklahoma State with a season-high 48 points and 495 total yards — a huge credit to offensive coordinator Collin Klein, the offensive coaches, and players.
"Every week we say it's a one-week season, 12 one-week seasons, and this game is the most important game on our schedule, and that's what we said last week, so we're trying to have that same mindset we had all last week," Howard said. "We prepared really well. We need to do that again."
K-State is racking up Big 12 Player of the Week honors at an alarming rate in 2022
For a third time this season, a pair of K-State players earned weekly Big 12 honors on Monday, as Howard was named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week and senior punter/kicker Ty Zentner earned Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week.
While Howard enjoyed the performance of his career, Zentner handled all three kicking duties for K-State for the first time this season. Two of his four punts were downed inside the 20-yard line in addition to hitting a 51-yarder, while five of his nine kickoffs were touchbacks. The senior also connected on both of his field-goal attempts and all six extra-point attempts.
"It just shows all the work we put in during the week pays off on Saturdays," Zentner said. "It could've gone to anybody, but it's an honor to receive the award."
Phillip Brooks earned Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week (September 12), Martinez earned Offensive Player of the Week and Savage earned Newcomer of the Week (September 26), Martinez earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Week and Khalid Duke earned Defensive Player of the Week (October 3), and Josh Hayes earned Defensive Player of the Week (October 10).
K-State players have earned eight Big 12 weekly honors this season, second most in the league (Oklahoma State has nine) and its most since the Wildcats had nine in 2012.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian says he almost went to school at K-State
The question posed to second-year Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian during his Monday news conference was this: Had he ever been to Manhattan, Kansas?
Sarkisian was a BYU star quarterback in the mid-90s, and has been a part of various coaching staffs over his career.
"Oddly enough, I have been to Manhattan, Kansas, more than once," Sarkisian said. "I almost went to school there. I took a visit with Coach Snyder and ended up going to BYU and ended up playing them in my final college game in the Cotton Bowl. I got a great notecard from Coach Snyder after the game just about the ballgame. That just exemplifies what that program is built on. There's a lot of integrity about how they go about their business. They do it the right way.
"That started with Coach Snyder and obviously Coach Klieman has done a good job of continuing that process. I've been there, I went back there as a coach with USC in 2002 and Darren Sproles got the best of us. I've been there a couple times. It's a great environment for college football."
Kansas State made history this past Saturday. The Wildcats intend to not allow it to impact this Saturday.
The Wildcats come off a 48-0 win over then-No. 9 Oklahoma State, which was the largest win ever by a lower-ranked team over a higher-ranked AP Top 10 team. The most dominant win ever by K-State over a top-10 opponent catapulted the Wildcats to No. 13 in the AP poll this week.
K-State head coach Chris Klieman in his weekly news conference said it was important for his team to "control what you can control."
"Somebody will tell me that we're ranked somewhere," he said. "Rankings only really matter at the end. There's so much football left to be played inside the top 25 and even outside of it that you're just trying to focus on the things that you can control, and for us, it's not getting caught up in that.
"It'd be easy to get caught up in where you're at, and as soon as you think about that, you'll get beat. We have to focus on ourselves and get better."
That message rings clear for K-State players, as the Wildcats, 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the Big 12 Conference, prepare to face Texas, 5-3 and 3-2, in Saturday's 6 p.m. kickoff (FS1) at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The Wildcats own sole possession of second place in the Big 12 with games against Texas, at Baylor, at West Virginia, and Kansas still left to go in the regular season.
"After TCU we had to have a short memory," center Hayden Gillum said. "It's the same thing this week. Guys are committed to the process that's gotten us to be successful and where we're at. It goes to practice and everything we do transpires into the weekend. We're going to stay that course."
K-State suffered a 38-28 loss at No. 8 TCU and took out its frustration against an Oklahoma State team that had won 20 of its previous 23 games. The Wildcats led 35-0 at halftime en route to handing Oklahoma State its first shutout since 2009.
"Our guys really were focused and fed off the crowd and got off to a great start," Klieman said. "That was really important and just sustaining that level of play was really important. In all three phases, we showed improvement, and we played well at different times. We came out with a big win.
"Now we have to flip the page."
Texas comes off a bye week. The Longhorns suffered a 41-34 loss at Oklahoma State in their last game. The Longhorns squandered a 31-17 lead in the contest.
Texas is 1-6 on the road over the past two seasons and is 1-5 against AP Top 25 opponents over that span. The Longhorns are 11-34 against AP Top 25 opponents since the Big 12 Conference transitioned into a 10-team format in 2011.
"They're a really good team," quarterback Will Howard said. "We've already seen it in the film that we've watched so far. It's going to be a good challenge, but I'm ready for them, and we're ready for them. We know that every week in the Big 12 is going to be a heck of a challenge.
"This one is no different."
Klieman non-committal on naming a starting quarterback early in the week
Klieman indicated that the starting quarterback position remains unsettled heading toward Saturday.
"We'll find out how the week goes," Klieman said. "I don't have that answer now."
Howard earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honors after throwing for a career-high 296 yards and a school record-tying four touchdowns last Saturday in place of senior transfer Adrian Martinez, who wasn't 100% healthy while recovering from an apparent leg injury.
Martinez earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week earlier this season after he rushed for 148 yards and four touchdowns and threw for 234 yards and one touchdown in a victory at then-No. 6 Oklahoma.
"I know that Adrian is closer (to full health)," Klieman said.
K-State entered the season with Martinez as starting quarterback and carrying the possibility of redshirting Howard, a junior. It remains unclear if Howard will continue to play. If Howard plays in more than four games, it will strip him of a redshirt year.
Does the way Howard has recently performed change the mathematics of whether he'll redshirt or play all the time?
"We still have to play that out based on Adrian's health and based on Will's health," Klieman said. "It does, but it's easy to say, 'Hey, we're going to shelf you,' and maybe something happens to Adrian and Jake (Rubley) and then you have to pull it, or Adrian's healthy and you can hold him.
"I have to visit with Will about that. I know how Will feels for now, but I want to make sure he understands the future, too. But right now, he's the healthiest guy we have back there of the two, so that's why he knows he has to stay a viable candidate."
Asked if Howard was playing so well that he would have to consider playing him regardless of how Martinez is feeling, Klieman replied, "Potentially, yeah."
"(Howard) played a really good game at TCU without taking the reps of the ones (in practice) and then he played really well on Saturday," Klieman added. "It's something that we're considering everything right now and we have to because we still have a good grind of the season left and obviously the health is going to be the No. 1 part of that."
Would Klieman entertain the possibility of playing both quarterbacks if both are at full health?
"It'd be something we'd look at but based on what we're trying to maybe do with Will or maybe not do with Will, I wouldn't want him to play 15 plays and lose a year," Klieman said.
K-State players believe the offense will be in good hands regardless who assumes the starting role.
"We have two really, really good quarterbacks in our stable right now and we're going to keep handling it the way it needs to be handled, because we understand both those guys have the utmost confidence in their abilities to be able to run this offense," running back Deuce Vaughn said. "Whoever is in, man, we're rolling."
Added wide receiver Kade Warner: "We're phenomenal. We have two Big 12 Offensive Player of the Weeks that can ball out and the rest of the team believes in both those guys. To have that multiplicity back there — we don't know who's going to be back there week to week but we know they're going to ball out — it's a really cool feeling to have."
The Wildcats' defense is playing like a Mob
K-State swarmed, stomped and stupefied No. 9 Oklahoma State while holding the Cowboys to just 217 total yards and issuing its first shutout in the series since 1992. Pretty incredible considering Oklahoma State entered tied for No. 3 in the FBS in scoring (45.7) and 24th nationally in total yards (466.9).
Here's something else incredible: Coupled with a 34-0 win over South Dakota, this marks the first time since 2002 that the Wildcats have posted multiple shutouts in a season. K-State is one of three teams to have two shutouts this season (Georgia and Minnesota also have two) and now ranks ninth among Power 5 conference teams in scoring defense (17.2), which is on pace for the best scoring defense by the Wildcats since 2003.
A huge credit to defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman and his defensive coaches as well as the players, K-State has kept every Big 12 opponent under its season scoring average entering its game against the Longhorns.
What's making the defense so good?
"We're playing faster as the season has gone on," Klieman said. "You always have to be careful because I didn't think we played as well on defense against TCU — I know some of those kids on defense had a chip on their shoulder Saturday because I don't think they felt like they played to their capabilities and to the best of their ability the week before against TCU.
"That's what it comes down to, again, is whatever happened last Saturday means nothing compared to what's going to happen for your preparation this week to get to next Saturday."
This week, K-State ranks in the top 30 in eight defensive categories and leads the Big 12 in scoring defense (17.2), tackles for loss (6.6), sacks (2.88) and total interceptions (11).
The Wildcats now prepare for a Texas team that ranks 22nd in scoring (36.4) and 31st in total yards (444.8), and that has scored at least 34 points in five of seven games this season. The Longhorns have also scored at least 24 points in a half seven times.
"We were pretty dominant (against Oklahoma State)," safety Kobe Savage said. "We had a few mental errors and a couple missed tackles, but it's nothing we can't fix. We were pretty dominant our last game."
The Wildcats' offense is off to its best start in its Big 12 history
For the first time in Big 12 history, K-State has started league play with five-straight games of 375 total yards. That includes Oklahoma (509 yards), Texas Tech (459), Iowa State (388), TCU (390) and Oklahoma State (495).
K-State's 413.1 total yards this season currently ranks sixth all-time in school history and its 6.3 yards per play ranks fourth. K-State's total offense ranks only behind 1998 (478.4), 2003 (441.0), 2002 (423.0), 2014 (421.6) and 2007 (418.2).
Even more remarkable? In a league known for its powerful offenses, K-State's 6.9 yards per play in Big 12 play ranks second in the league behind only TCU (7.3).
K-State was arguably at its best against Oklahoma State with a season-high 48 points and 495 total yards — a huge credit to offensive coordinator Collin Klein, the offensive coaches, and players.
"Every week we say it's a one-week season, 12 one-week seasons, and this game is the most important game on our schedule, and that's what we said last week, so we're trying to have that same mindset we had all last week," Howard said. "We prepared really well. We need to do that again."
K-State is racking up Big 12 Player of the Week honors at an alarming rate in 2022
For a third time this season, a pair of K-State players earned weekly Big 12 honors on Monday, as Howard was named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week and senior punter/kicker Ty Zentner earned Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week.
While Howard enjoyed the performance of his career, Zentner handled all three kicking duties for K-State for the first time this season. Two of his four punts were downed inside the 20-yard line in addition to hitting a 51-yarder, while five of his nine kickoffs were touchbacks. The senior also connected on both of his field-goal attempts and all six extra-point attempts.
"It just shows all the work we put in during the week pays off on Saturdays," Zentner said. "It could've gone to anybody, but it's an honor to receive the award."
Phillip Brooks earned Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week (September 12), Martinez earned Offensive Player of the Week and Savage earned Newcomer of the Week (September 26), Martinez earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Week and Khalid Duke earned Defensive Player of the Week (October 3), and Josh Hayes earned Defensive Player of the Week (October 10).
K-State players have earned eight Big 12 weekly honors this season, second most in the league (Oklahoma State has nine) and its most since the Wildcats had nine in 2012.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian says he almost went to school at K-State
The question posed to second-year Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian during his Monday news conference was this: Had he ever been to Manhattan, Kansas?
Sarkisian was a BYU star quarterback in the mid-90s, and has been a part of various coaching staffs over his career.
"Oddly enough, I have been to Manhattan, Kansas, more than once," Sarkisian said. "I almost went to school there. I took a visit with Coach Snyder and ended up going to BYU and ended up playing them in my final college game in the Cotton Bowl. I got a great notecard from Coach Snyder after the game just about the ballgame. That just exemplifies what that program is built on. There's a lot of integrity about how they go about their business. They do it the right way.
"That started with Coach Snyder and obviously Coach Klieman has done a good job of continuing that process. I've been there, I went back there as a coach with USC in 2002 and Darren Sproles got the best of us. I've been there a couple times. It's a great environment for college football."
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