The Wait is Nearly Over

By: D. Scott Fritchen

"We haven't played a game yet," Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman says, chuckling in response to an inquiry. Over the summer months, suggestions about the Wildcats' potential had wafted across Salina, Great Bend, Hays, Colby, and Scott City, and swept through Liberal, Dodge City and Garden City as well. Klieman had visited each city and had heard the K-State fans cheer at each stop. The cheers that rocked NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, on January 4 after a dominant 42-20 win over LSU in the Texas Bowl, had found their way back into the ears of Klieman once again.

"I like the nucleus we have," Klieman told the Manhattan Catbackers crowd on June 6. "I'm excited. We need a big summer."

The summer blew by in a rush. Like time-lapse photography, the long shadows of Bill Snyder Family Stadium seemingly stretched and turned and disappeared within seconds. The parking lot outside the Vanier Family Football Complex filled and unfilled, filled and unfilled, as the four core values "Discipline," "Commitment," "Toughness" and "Be Selfless" flashed on and off upon the digital boards in the corners of the pristine stadium. Day turned into night, which turned into day. The summer, once here, melted faster than snow cones at a county fair.

And now we are here, nearing Saturday, where all else seemingly stops, except for the cheers of nearly 50,000 ardent fans, who'll pilgrimage from across the Sunflower State to witness the next chapter to a blue-collared program led by a fourth-year head coach, whose penchant for winning championships is legendary, and who is armed with first-year offensive coordinator Collin Klein, fourth-year assistant and third-year defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman, and a mighty cast of 13 returning starters from a team that finished 2021 with an 8-5 record and a bowl victory.

K-State, picked by one news organization as a dark horse to capture the Big 12 Conference Championship, and which The Athletic projects to play in the Sugar Bowl, seemingly seethes with momentum with the run-throw capabilities of record-setting senior transfer quarterback Adrian Martinez while returning Consensus All-American Deuce Vaughn might be the most electric player in college football. The Wildcats possess their deepest wide receiving unit in years, bring back an experienced defense, and their kicker, punter, holder, long-snapper, and both return specialists are back as well.

Momentum?

"We haven't played a game yet," Klieman chuckles while sitting in the season's first weekly news conference at the Vanier Family Football Complex. K-State hasn't played anyone. That's true. But that'll change shortly after 6 p.m. on Saturday, when the South Dakota Coyotes of the Football Conference Subdivision, meet the Wildcats at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. South Dakota almost beat K-State in 2018. That's also true. The Wildcats trailed the Coyotes 24-12 after three quarters and needed a special teams touchdown and a Skylar Thompson touchdown pass to decide the 27-24 outcome — none of which matters Saturday.

Here's what matters: Saturday marks 242 days since Klieman hoisted the bowl trophy, since K-State fans danced as confetti fell, and since the Wildcats met an opponent.

"The bottom line is we need to play," Klieman says. "We need to play somebody else and quit banging around with each other."

South Dakota was 7-5 last year and advanced to the FCS playoffs for the second time in four years under head coach Bob Nielson, who is 215-114-1 in his 30-year career, including 29-34 in the previous six seasons with the Coyotes — "We are the KIGH-yotes (two syllables)," the school wants you to know — who return 16-game starting quarterback Carson Camp, four returning offensive linemen, two experienced running backs, but who are light on wide receivers. The Coyotes return seven starting defensive players, including Preseason All-American middle linebacker Brock Mogensen.

The Coyotes averaged 27.0 points and 376.8 total yards a year ago and allowed 20.7 points and 343.3 total yards. They possess a spread offense and a 3-4 defense.

"Anytime Bob Nielsen is coaching a football team, it's going to be a really disciplined, well-coached football team, and they're going to be ready for the moment," Klieman says. "They will be excited about coming into The Bill and just teeing it up and playing."

Saturday will mark the 39^th career start for Martinez, the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Nebraska transfer, one of just two active quarterbacks in the nation with 8,000 passing yards and 2,000 rushing yards in a career. It'll mark the 29^th career start for wide receiver Malik Knowles, who is tied for eighth in school history with 12 touchdown catches. It'll mark the 22^nd career starts for right tackle Christian Duffie and Preseason All-American left guard Cooper Beebe. And it'll mark the 21^st start for 5-foot-6, 176-pound Vaughn in his career, which seems poised for more memorable moments.

Vaughn, regarded as the top running back in college football, ranks fifth in school history in averaging 134.5 all-purpose yards per game, and needs just 57 yards to enter the school's all-time top 10 list in total all-purpose yards. He rides a streak of six consecutive 100-yard rushing games while he needs 98 receiving yards to reach 2,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards in his career.

"This is my third year here at Kansas State and to see that bond and brotherhood build over the years has been super exciting to see," Vaughn says. "It's something that's going to carry us throughout the season. I'm super pumped."

Saturday will mark 14^th career start for defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah, the Preseason All-Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, and it'll mark the 15^th career start for Preseason All-Big 12 middle linebacker Daniel Green, and it'll mark the 19^th career start for Preseason All-Big 12 cornerback Julius Brents. It'll also mark the 22^nd career starts for sixth-year senior nose guard Eli Huggins and cornerback Ekow Boye-Doe.

Interestingly, Saturday, too, will also mark the 26^th career start for Josh Hayes, who transferred from North Dakota State to Virginia to K-State, and who moved from cornerback to free safety in the spring, and who knows plenty about FCS competition, including South Dakota, as a former member of the FCS national champion Bison.

"This isn't a game where we can sleep," Hayes says. "We've got to come out and play football, because if we let them, South Dakota can stick in this game. If we aren't on our Ps and Qs, things can get tough, but if we play to the level that we can, it should be a walk in the park."

Klein, a 2022 Ring of Honor inductee, has built an offense that will be multiple with various personnel groupings — one tight end, two tight ends, three tight ends, a tight end and a fullback, two speed backs, four wide receivers — while utilizing different tempos. With just under four weeks of preparation, Klein, as interim offensive coordinator, guided the Wildcats to a season-high 42 points in the Texas Bowl. With a spring, summer and fall camp under the Wildcats' belt, this offense carries the potential to emerge as one of the school's best in years.

"(The offense) will be in large part about execution, and we're only going to be able to go as fast as we're able to execute and operate in making sure we stay sharp and are getting ourselves in certain positions," Klein says. "This is going to be a great first challenge for us."

Klanderman will showcase his 3-3-5 defensive alignment that he utilized for the first time last season, as the Wildcats surrendered their fewest points since 2003 and fewest total yards since 2009. He and his staff fortified three safety positions with experienced transfers — Kobe Savage, Drake Cheatum and Hayes — to complete a defense that hasn't spurred this much anticipation in a decade.

"It's still potential right now," Klanderman says. "Until we actually put it on the grass, I don't want to say anything. We've got to go out there and earn it, and we've made that clear to them from the outset, that this is not necessarily a carryover from the 2021 team, but this is a new whole group of guys, and we can carry that legacy with us, but that's not our team. We've got to go out there, execute, get off the field, keep the points off the board, and get the ball back to our offense.

"I'm extremely excited about this group, but the proof is in the pudding."

Anticipation? Yes, there's anticipation, a cousin of momentum, which is felt across the Flint Hills. One storefront sign along Fort Riley Boulevard simply reads, "BRING ON THE CATS." Klieman's weekly radio show at Powercat Sports Grill on Wednesday night was packed with purple. Players feel the anticipation while walking across the K-State campus or sitting in class.

"I'm hearing from everybody in school," right guard Taylor Poitier says. "Everybody is electric for this game. Everybody is really excited for this season."

Adds center Hayden Gillum: "There's definitely a buzz. We have good people in the program and it's the culture. We're starting to see the fruition of that, and all the good things and the work that's being put in — people are hearing about it. People are excited."

Excitement? Yes. Klieman feels it.

"Sure seems to be a lot of energy around," he says. "It's exciting because to start off a fall, everybody loves fall Saturdays, and fall Saturdays in Manhattan are really special with our fan base. I'm excited for the guys that are new to our program, for us to pull up in those busses, to get out and walk into The Bill on our Cat Walk that we have now, it just sends chills up my spine to think about it — and to run out of the tunnel with these guys and say, 'Let's go! No regrets! No excuses! Let's just play!'"

Vaughn can appreciate the enthusiasm around the Little Apple. It whets his appetite to help the Wildcats go places this fall.

"I'm unbelievably hungry," Vaughn says. "It's been so long since I've put on the helmet and the uniform. I'm ready to go."

The great wait is nearly over. On Saturday, stadium shadows will stand still, a locker room door will creep open, and the cheers, which began long before, will ring out like thunder, and Klieman will pause at the tunnel exit, toeing the football field in his trademark K-State ballcap, allowing himself, his staff, and his players to bask in their thoughts for just a moment before jogging out and embarking upon this grand journey.

"I'm going to think about how fortunate we are to have the fan base that we have," Klieman says, "and the fact that 50,000 people are going to come watch these players that have put their heart and soul into the offseason, the summer, the fall, to be in position to play another game at home in front of the greatest fans and in a great stadium. I'm so excited for that part.

"I'm going to think about how fortunate I am to be at Kansas State, and it's hard to believe this is going to be year four — I'm blown away that we're going to start our fourth year as a staff here — and how excited I am for the season, but how proud I am of what we're building, and the quality of student-athletes and quality of kids that we have in this program."

K-State hasn't played a game yet. That's true. But that'll soon change, and the sweaty temperatures of September will soon dissolve into crisp leaves in October, and the sounds of fall Saturdays in Manhattan will echo into November, and the momentum and anticipation, yes, that too, might only build to a crescendo, day by day and week by week, until cold December hits, and the head coach, and his staff, and his players, and the K-State faithful, might again amble across the state line to a warm, sunny destination.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Felix Anudike-Uzomah

Cooper Beebe

Ekow Boye-Doe

Julius Brents

Drake Cheatum

Christian Duffie

Hayden Gillum

Daniel Green

Josh Hayes

Eli Huggins

Malik Knowles

Adrian Martinez

Taylor Poitier

Kobe Savage

Skylar Thompson

Deuce Vaughn

Related Videos