In Pursuit of Increased Production
Mar 30, 2023 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Collin Klein will enter his second season as Kansas State offensive coordinator in the fall, and already the former Heisman Trophy finalist appears pleased with improvements that he's seen in senior quarterback Will Howard, who came on strong with several standout performances down the stretch of last season.
"You could spend every minute of all day every day watching tape and fundamental principles and drills and improvements and you'd still be busy," Klein said in a spring practice news conference on Wednesday. "For him, it's just continuing to push the envelope of his own game."
The 6-foot-5, 242-pound Howard played in seven games with six starts over the second half of last season, including the Big 12 Championship victory over No. 3 TCU and Sugar Bowl against No. 5 Alabama. He threw for 1,633 yards and 15 touchdowns and four interceptions, while he rushed for three scores. One of the most efficient quarterbacks in the nation over the second half of the season, he recorded multiple touchdown passes in six-straight games, the longest streak ever by a Wildcats in a single season. He tied a school record with four touchdown passes against No. 9 Oklahoma State while his 296 passing yards and 21 completions set career marks en route to Manning Award Star of the Week honors.
"Whether it's footwork or progression discipline or defensive recognition, he was great at the line of scrimmage last year but his comfort level this year compared to this time last year of being able to manage and run the offense, whether it be little tweaks here or there, or massive play changes, he's doing a fantastic job," Klein said.
K-State began the first of 15 spring practices on March 7 and will complete workouts April 15.
Howard is the bonafide starting quarterback for a K-State team that finished 10-4 with a New Year's Six appearance and a No. 14 final ranking in the AP Top 25 poll.
"It was so fun to watch through the process of last year how he was able to express how competitive he is because he's so laid back and he's so – everything that you want out of that leader and trigger man, he's so stable and so confident and consistent," Klein said, "but then being able to watch as he grew and took more of a role and everything materialized how it did, his ability to communicate and show how competitive and tough he is really cool."
K-State returns seven other starters on offense. That includes All-American left guard Cooper Beebe and the entire offensive line, All-Big 12 First Team tight end Ben Sinnott, and sixth-year wide receiver Phillip Brooks.
K-State lost All-American Deuce Vaughn, quarterback Adrian Martinez, wide receivers Malik Knowles and Kade Warner, and tight end Sammy Wheeler.
Brooks and his experience are "huge" for K-State, and his versatility allows him to play any position across the board, Klein said. Iowa transfer wide receiver Keagan Johnson, a 6-foot, 196-pound sophomore, has been "ahead of the curve." Senior wide receiver Seth Porter has stepped up and has made big plays the last couple days in practice. Sinnott is money and is "fun and exciting to watch" given his heightened chemistry with Howard.
K-State figures to have a potent one-two punch at running back with Florida State senior transfer Treshaun Ward and returning sophomore running back DJ Giddens.
As for whether the K-State offense will look much different without Vaughn, Klein indicated that's a no-brainer.
"Just like any special player, there's no replacing him," Klein said. "It's not fair to him and it's not fair for anybody else trying to fill those shoes. Will we be different? Sure."
However…
"There's a lot of capacity for guys to step up, no question," Klein said. "There's a lot of opportunity and people in every room have taken advantage of their opportunities to contribute."
Thus, the Wildcats continue to go through the grind of spring practice albeit with a year under their belt with Klein in command.
"It's been a learning process for all of us," Klein said. "It's been extremely exciting. Obviously in any journey there are going to be challenges and things you have to overcome but now that we have a lot – this time last year we were really trying to build and re-establish some things foundationally offensively with how we wanted to do things.
"To now build upon that so everyone isn't learning how to operate or communicate, we're able to push into those second and third levels of how we want to use what we have."
"It's nothing flashy and there's no flashy wand to anything, truly," Klein added. "It's going to be the same thing we started and tried to do last year of really breaking things down to the simplest minute details that win you games. From being assignment sound to fundamentally sound and then playing extremely hard. If we do those things we'll be just fine."
Last season, K-State finished seventh in total points (452), second in total offense (5,863), fifth in yards per game (418.8), ninth in yards per play (6.1), second in total plays (958), sixth in passing yards (2,947), first in lowest interception percentage (1.54%), fourth in rushing (2,916), third in yards per rush (5.1), and 10th in rushing touchdowns (32).
How much more is left to uncork within this K-State offense?
"There's a lot more to this offense," running backs coach Brian Anderson said. "After we got back from vacation and went back and watched last season's cutups, we left a lot of plays out there and there were a lot of opportunities we missed that we can handle. We shore up those things with things we're working on this spring – we couldn't get over that 50-point mark, so we left some things out there we needed to get corrected. We get those things corrected and the sky's the limit for this offense."
So Klein's offense could aspire to score 50 points in the 2023 season opener?
"With Coach Klein it'd be 80 points," Anderson replied.
Offensive line coach Conor Riley added: "How we can get into a more consistent pattern, you're going to see more of an evolution of an explosive offense. We can become a lot more efficient in some areas while still maintaining the explosiveness we have. Those are things I'm really excited about."
Informed that Anderson indicated the potential for Klein's offense to score 50 points in the fall, Riley replied, "I think that's a conservative number, quite honestly.
"(Klein) echoed to me at the conclusion of the season how frustrated he was that we got to in between 46 and 49 (points) a few times and we just weren't able to eclipse 50. I think 50 is a baseline for Coach Klein, and I mean that 100%. I mean that with all sincerity."
K-State averaged 36.0 points per game over the final seven games of last season, a mark that ranked first in the Big 12 and 12th among Power 5 programs. The Wildcats ranked second in the league in averaging 35.2 points against Big 12 opponents and reached at least 34 points seven times last season, the most since 2015.
K-State topped 45 points each of the final two weeks of the regular season. It scored 48 points at West Virginia and 47 points against Kansas, marking the first time the Wildcats reached at least 45 points in back-to-back league games since 2012 — Klein's senior season as K-State quarterback.
Howard has goals for himself and the team for 2023.
"We have a lot of team goals, and obviously, first, we want to defend that Big 12 Championship," Howard said during a phone interview prior to the start of spring practice. "Last year, we were chasing that Big 12 Championship, and now we're defending it. We've said that it's in the past now and what happened last year happened last year and now we have to go out there and do everything we can every day to defend it. That's the first step, but there's so much more out there for us.
"I feel that being in the top four, playing in the College Football Playoff, is very, very achievable. I'd like to say we're coming for it all this year. This is going to be an exciting year. I think we have the potential to be as good as any team that's ever come through here, and it all starts with how we are attacking things right now. We're doing a really good job with that, and we just have to keep it going. I'm really, really, really excited to see what happens this year.
"It's going to be a fun year, to say the least."
Collin Klein will enter his second season as Kansas State offensive coordinator in the fall, and already the former Heisman Trophy finalist appears pleased with improvements that he's seen in senior quarterback Will Howard, who came on strong with several standout performances down the stretch of last season.
"You could spend every minute of all day every day watching tape and fundamental principles and drills and improvements and you'd still be busy," Klein said in a spring practice news conference on Wednesday. "For him, it's just continuing to push the envelope of his own game."
The 6-foot-5, 242-pound Howard played in seven games with six starts over the second half of last season, including the Big 12 Championship victory over No. 3 TCU and Sugar Bowl against No. 5 Alabama. He threw for 1,633 yards and 15 touchdowns and four interceptions, while he rushed for three scores. One of the most efficient quarterbacks in the nation over the second half of the season, he recorded multiple touchdown passes in six-straight games, the longest streak ever by a Wildcats in a single season. He tied a school record with four touchdown passes against No. 9 Oklahoma State while his 296 passing yards and 21 completions set career marks en route to Manning Award Star of the Week honors.
"Whether it's footwork or progression discipline or defensive recognition, he was great at the line of scrimmage last year but his comfort level this year compared to this time last year of being able to manage and run the offense, whether it be little tweaks here or there, or massive play changes, he's doing a fantastic job," Klein said.
K-State began the first of 15 spring practices on March 7 and will complete workouts April 15.
Howard is the bonafide starting quarterback for a K-State team that finished 10-4 with a New Year's Six appearance and a No. 14 final ranking in the AP Top 25 poll.
"It was so fun to watch through the process of last year how he was able to express how competitive he is because he's so laid back and he's so – everything that you want out of that leader and trigger man, he's so stable and so confident and consistent," Klein said, "but then being able to watch as he grew and took more of a role and everything materialized how it did, his ability to communicate and show how competitive and tough he is really cool."
K-State returns seven other starters on offense. That includes All-American left guard Cooper Beebe and the entire offensive line, All-Big 12 First Team tight end Ben Sinnott, and sixth-year wide receiver Phillip Brooks.
K-State lost All-American Deuce Vaughn, quarterback Adrian Martinez, wide receivers Malik Knowles and Kade Warner, and tight end Sammy Wheeler.
Brooks and his experience are "huge" for K-State, and his versatility allows him to play any position across the board, Klein said. Iowa transfer wide receiver Keagan Johnson, a 6-foot, 196-pound sophomore, has been "ahead of the curve." Senior wide receiver Seth Porter has stepped up and has made big plays the last couple days in practice. Sinnott is money and is "fun and exciting to watch" given his heightened chemistry with Howard.
K-State figures to have a potent one-two punch at running back with Florida State senior transfer Treshaun Ward and returning sophomore running back DJ Giddens.
As for whether the K-State offense will look much different without Vaughn, Klein indicated that's a no-brainer.
"Just like any special player, there's no replacing him," Klein said. "It's not fair to him and it's not fair for anybody else trying to fill those shoes. Will we be different? Sure."
However…
"There's a lot of capacity for guys to step up, no question," Klein said. "There's a lot of opportunity and people in every room have taken advantage of their opportunities to contribute."
Thus, the Wildcats continue to go through the grind of spring practice albeit with a year under their belt with Klein in command.
"It's been a learning process for all of us," Klein said. "It's been extremely exciting. Obviously in any journey there are going to be challenges and things you have to overcome but now that we have a lot – this time last year we were really trying to build and re-establish some things foundationally offensively with how we wanted to do things.
"To now build upon that so everyone isn't learning how to operate or communicate, we're able to push into those second and third levels of how we want to use what we have."
"It's nothing flashy and there's no flashy wand to anything, truly," Klein added. "It's going to be the same thing we started and tried to do last year of really breaking things down to the simplest minute details that win you games. From being assignment sound to fundamentally sound and then playing extremely hard. If we do those things we'll be just fine."
Last season, K-State finished seventh in total points (452), second in total offense (5,863), fifth in yards per game (418.8), ninth in yards per play (6.1), second in total plays (958), sixth in passing yards (2,947), first in lowest interception percentage (1.54%), fourth in rushing (2,916), third in yards per rush (5.1), and 10th in rushing touchdowns (32).
How much more is left to uncork within this K-State offense?
"There's a lot more to this offense," running backs coach Brian Anderson said. "After we got back from vacation and went back and watched last season's cutups, we left a lot of plays out there and there were a lot of opportunities we missed that we can handle. We shore up those things with things we're working on this spring – we couldn't get over that 50-point mark, so we left some things out there we needed to get corrected. We get those things corrected and the sky's the limit for this offense."
So Klein's offense could aspire to score 50 points in the 2023 season opener?
"With Coach Klein it'd be 80 points," Anderson replied.
Offensive line coach Conor Riley added: "How we can get into a more consistent pattern, you're going to see more of an evolution of an explosive offense. We can become a lot more efficient in some areas while still maintaining the explosiveness we have. Those are things I'm really excited about."
Informed that Anderson indicated the potential for Klein's offense to score 50 points in the fall, Riley replied, "I think that's a conservative number, quite honestly.
"(Klein) echoed to me at the conclusion of the season how frustrated he was that we got to in between 46 and 49 (points) a few times and we just weren't able to eclipse 50. I think 50 is a baseline for Coach Klein, and I mean that 100%. I mean that with all sincerity."
K-State averaged 36.0 points per game over the final seven games of last season, a mark that ranked first in the Big 12 and 12th among Power 5 programs. The Wildcats ranked second in the league in averaging 35.2 points against Big 12 opponents and reached at least 34 points seven times last season, the most since 2015.
K-State topped 45 points each of the final two weeks of the regular season. It scored 48 points at West Virginia and 47 points against Kansas, marking the first time the Wildcats reached at least 45 points in back-to-back league games since 2012 — Klein's senior season as K-State quarterback.
Howard has goals for himself and the team for 2023.
"We have a lot of team goals, and obviously, first, we want to defend that Big 12 Championship," Howard said during a phone interview prior to the start of spring practice. "Last year, we were chasing that Big 12 Championship, and now we're defending it. We've said that it's in the past now and what happened last year happened last year and now we have to go out there and do everything we can every day to defend it. That's the first step, but there's so much more out there for us.
"I feel that being in the top four, playing in the College Football Playoff, is very, very achievable. I'd like to say we're coming for it all this year. This is going to be an exciting year. I think we have the potential to be as good as any team that's ever come through here, and it all starts with how we are attacking things right now. We're doing a really good job with that, and we just have to keep it going. I'm really, really, really excited to see what happens this year.
"It's going to be a fun year, to say the least."
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