Belonging on the National Landscape

By: D. Scott Fritchen

The theme of the day was "we belong." As Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman and Alabama head coach Nick Saban shook hands behind the Allstate Sugar Bowl trophy in the ballroom at the Sheraton Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, at their final news conference on Friday, it really set in — that No. 9 K-State will face No. 5 Alabama at 11 a.m. Saturday at Caesars Superdome to decide which teams gets the trophy.

K-State, 10-3, was basically counted out all year. The Wildcats were picked fifth in the Big 12 Conference preseason rankings. They were projected to win six or seven games. They enter Saturday on a four-game winning streak, including the thrilling 31-28 overtime win against No. 3 TCU for the Big 12 Championship.

They have a chance to tie the school record by winning 11 games.

"Kansas State is probably playing as well as anybody in the country at the end of the season this year, winning the Big 12 title, as well as beating a playoff team to do it," Saban said. "This is going to be a tremendous challenge for our team."

K-State is the only team to beat a team playing in the College Football Playoff. For the first time in history, the Wildcats have beaten three top-10 teams.

Now they look to make it four.

"Not many people expected Kansas State to be in this position this year," Klieman said.

The build-up essentially started back in January 2021 when they devised the four core values, and it continued through last season and the win over LSU in the Texas Bowl, and it carried on throughout this fall, and it carried on into Arlington, Texas, and now has reached the Big Easy for a New Year's Six bowl.

"Our players have great resolve and great toughness and I'm excited for them to have this opportunity," Klieman said. "I keep telling the guys, and they truly believe it, that we didn't just fall into this. We've earned the right as Big 12 Champions, and we've earned the right to represent Kansas State and our conference in the Sugar Bowl."

Alabama, 10-2, has won four straight games as well. But Alabama is not used to being in this spot. Although Alabama has appeared in the Sugar Bowl 16 times, this marks just the second time in nine years that the Crimson Tide weren't selected to play in the College Football Playoffs. Alabama entered the CFP as a No. 1 seed in five of the previous eight years. It last didn't make the CFP in 2019-20.

"Preparation has been good, and the attitude has been good with our players," Saban said, "so hopefully it'll show up on the field in terms of how we play."

All week long, the national talk here has centered on Alabama and the CFP — or the lack of the CFP. But there's another story deserving of serious ink, and it rests in what is being built in Manhattan, Kansas. The story has been told and retold, how Klieman left North Dakota State with multiple FCS national championships and set up shop at K-State following the retirement of Hall-of-Famer Bill Snyder, who over his tenure led the Wildcats to multiple New Year's Day Six games under the previous BCS format. K-State was counted out some of those years.

It's precisely where K-State sits today.

"I'm a big believer that football is football and winning cultures are winning cultures and they take time to formulate and develop," Klieman said. "You have to have patience and resolve and have the right kind of guys in the locker room. We had that up north and we've started that down south.

"It's always been a great culture here, don't get me wrong — Coach Snyder had the greatest turnaround in college football history — we've just done it a little bit different, but as we continue to build on his legacy in what he did here, I'm excited about where we are at on the trajectory."

And K-State is doing so will its two-deep intact. No starters, some of them NFL prospects, opted not to play in the game to shift their focus on the NFL Combine. Not one.

"We have a number of kids who are going to have the opportunity to play at the next level," Klieman said, "but we haven't had a kid on our football team that's had an opportunity to play in the Sugar Bowl and to play in a New Year's Six game, and that's really special.

"The kids that you all know and that I know are difference makers for us, I've never seen those kids more excited about playing a football team. They weren't going to let their teammates down and it was never even a conversation that we even had to have.

"I never had to ask anybody, 'Are you going to play in this game?'"

Everyone is focused on one thing: Beating Bama.

"Our guys know the tradition of excellence that Alabama football is, and they know the task at hand," Klieman said. "They're excited that we get to play one of the best programs in the history of the game and over the last few decades that Coach Saban has been there they've been the gold standard for college football."

K-State, too, sets a high standard. Which is why a purple flood of cars has streamed down from Kansas and other states over the past 48 hours. Purple is everywhere in New Orleans. The K-State family has seemingly traveled in droves. They believe in K-State. They believe in this football program. And K-State coaches and players have taken notice.

"I want to thank the Kansas State fan base," Klieman said. "Boy, I see purple everywhere I go."

K-State belongs.

"Our guys have been working a whole year for this," Klieman said. "Those guys who knew this was their last go-around, I'm so excited that they were able to cap it off with a Big 12 Championship. Our ultimate goal every year is to win the Big 12 Championship.

"A lot of people doubted that those kids could do that. They did that. And now they're going to reap the rewards of playing in the Allstate Sugar Bowl."

Kansas State University Athletics

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