Yesterday Meets Today
Jul 14, 2023 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Here they are, strolling into AT&T Stadium, and they're dressed to the nines. It's 8:27 a.m. and Will Howard is dressed in a gray suit, Cooper Beebe is dressed in a blue suit, Daniel Green sports a black suit, and Kobe Savage looks dapper in a charcoal suit. They're all business. Their business is winning. Today, they're representing the defending Big 12 Champions. They embark upon Big 12 Media Days like young CEOs eager to replant a flag in Arlington, Texas — a place they know full well.
It's been 222 days since they've been here, yet Kansas State's player leaders take snapshots with their cellphones, as if it's all new, soaking in the atmosphere of big-time college football. The endzone to the right? That's where a fateful field goal ended a classic, a 31-28 overtime win against No. 3 TCU. Below their feet? That's where they danced over confetti.
"Always great to be here," Howard says.
"This brings back a lot of memories," Beebe says.
"It's exciting to be back inside this stadium," Savage says.
"It's starting to feel like home," Green says. "I love this place."
For the next seven hours, they'll saunter through corridors and visit a handful of TV studios — starting with ESPN's College GameDay — and they'll visit with reporters and speak on the radio. In between, they'll eat a lunch of brisket and macaroni and cheese, and in the end, they'll transform into their purple jersey and silver pants, that ageless traditional look, and they'll dance, and scowl and yell into cameras at the high-energy-music, lights-and-action FOX Sports studio set.
But for now, it starts in this place, on the field at AT&T Stadium, where magic and visions and dreams came to life 222 days ago at the 2022 Big 12 Championship Game.
"It's a tremendous honor to be here," Beebe says. "This was always a lifelong goal, to be one of the faces of K-State."
Reporters want to know how it feels — how it feels to be back at the venue where one of college football's best games happened nearly a month before last Christmas. So much time has passed yet so little time has passed at all. It's a mis-mash of emotion — yesterday meeting today meeting the unknown. And so, they talk about the game, they talk about the confetti, and the celebration, and they noticeably aren't wearing their 2022 Big 12 Championship rings. The rings are heavy, understand, and players know they cannot be weighed down with the past in order to move forward into this new, vast gridiron world.
"It's a new year and we're moving on," Howard says. "There's more to be done."
There's more to be done because K-State, 10-4, which finished at No. 14 in the final AP Top 25, bade farewell to 2023 NFL draftees Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Julius Brents, Josh Hayes and Deuce Vaughn, and undrafted free agents Ekow Boye-Doe, Malik Knowles, Adrian Martinez, Kade Warner and Ty Zentner. There's more to be done because there are 15 returning starters, nine sixth-year seniors return with more winning in mind, and six Division I transfers look to contribute, and members of arguably the best K-State recruiting class in two decades strive to enter the fold as well. There's more to be done because K-State hasn't reached its goal of hoisting the National Championship trophy, and there's more to be done because the Wildcats have been picked second — behind Texas — in the 2023 Big 12 Preseason Poll.
"I love it," Green says. "I love when people count us out. We're a team that has a lot of guys with a chip on their shoulder. When we're an underdog, we step up and prove people wrong.
"We love to do that."
Chris Klieman has been here before. Winning is nothing new. He won four FCS Championships in five years as head coach at North Dakota State. He was leader of a football factory. Now entering his fifth season at K-State, Klieman, 102-33 overall, including 30-20 in Manhattan, ranks fourth in winning percentage among current FBS coaches that have led programs for at least 10 seasons.
K-State comes off a season in which it finished No. 9 in the final College Football Playoff Top 25, the Wildcats' highest-ever ranking for the final poll.
K-State also comes off a season in which it beat three AP Top-10 opponents for the first time in history and the Wildcats have defeated five top-10 teams under Klieman. No other Big 12 team has more than three victories over top-10 teams since 2019.
So reporters want to know how it feels to be on top — and how the plan to stay there.
"I'm excited about it, really, to be the hunted," Klieman says. "The fact that we're the defending Big 12 champs means nothing when you go into a game. You have to perform. Fortunately, we've had past experience at a previous school where we've won a championship and had to follow it up with another championship. It's always staying hungry and humble and making sure the guys focus on the task at hand."
As for K-State having a target on its back?
"You don't shy away from it, you talk about it, and yeah, the target is on our back, and there are expectations, but that's why you come to K-State — to have high expectations, to be the team that people want to beat," Klieman says. "That's how we did it in the past and it really worked because it just kept elevating. That's what we want to continue to do."
And so, K-State players lift weights in the morning and run in the afternoon and hold captains' practices late in the afternoon four or five times a week, the lights of Bill Snyder Family Stadium flickering on before sunrise, the stadium videoboards, which once read "BIG 12 CHAMPIONS" now pitch black — the slate clean.
There is no hint that K-State was the 2022 Big 12 champion on the front of its 2023 media guide. The media guide displays the image of Howard, Beebe and Green in white uniforms — the very uniforms they wear on the road when it's us-against-the-world and the Wildcats dig in just a little bit deeper knowing they must rely upon themselves amid a hostile environment.
The Big 12 is immersed in an ever-changing environment as it turns into a 14-team conference, and gridiron battles are expected to be even fiercer than before. The Big 12's unofficial theme this year is to celebrate the four newcomers to the league (BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston) and to celebrate the eight returning teams in the league (Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, K-State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia) and to celebrate the two departing teams in the league (Oklahoma and Texas), yet there's unfinished business for K-State, which, if it takes care of each day, could find itself in a high-stakes game at Texas on November 4 in Austin, Texas.
"That's one I'm definitely looking forward to — playing those guys," Howard says. "I've never beaten them. It'll be a hell of an environment. I'm looking forward to that."
For as much as the Wildcats are putting the 2022 season behind them, it bears repeating that they enjoyed one of the most productive offenses in school history in 2022 and gave up their fewest points since 2003.
Howard was one of the country's most efficient quarterbacks over the second half of last season, preseason All-American Beebe is regarded as the top interior offensive lineman in the country, and 2023 Preseason All-Big 12 selection Ben Sinnott is one of the nation's most dangerous tight ends. The entire starting offensive line returns, including sixth-year seniors Christian Duffie, Hayden Gillum and KT Leveston. Wide receiver Phillip Brooks is back for a sixth season and Keagan Johnson is regarded as one of the best wide receiver transfers in the league. Running back Treshaun Ward is regarded as one of the top transfers in the country, and DJ Giddens is a star in the making.
K-State averaged 36.0 points per game over the final seven games of the 2022 season, a mark that ranked first in the Big 12 and 12th among Power 5 programs. The Wildcats scored at least 34 points seven times last season, their most in seven years.
They did so under the watchful eye of first-year offensive coordinator Collin Klein, the 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist and one of the greatest quarterbacks in school history, the consummate competitor, and a guy who simply cannot sleep after defeat.
"The continuity is huge, especially on the offensive side," Klieman says. "Now we're going into year two (under Klein), and I'm excited because we're just scratching the surface of what we can do offensively. I really believe that. Collin in his first year was phenomenal, and I saw some innovation and even more things in spring ball that they were able to do. When you have a guy like Will who's so smart, we're going to be able to be advanced in a lot of things that we've done."
Green and Savage, a 2023 Preseason All-Big 12 selection, help headline a defense that held every opponent under its scoring average at the time that it faced the Wildcats. Linebacker Austin Moore is the team's top-returning tackler, Khalid Duke is returning to his natural position at defensive end, Nate Matlack is poised for a breakout campaign, and Jacob Parrish and VJ Payne could be among of the top up-and-coming sophomores in the league. Transfer defensive tackle Jevon Banks is expected to be a contributor in the middle. Looking for a breakout star? Junior college transfer safety Marques Sigle could emerge as a ball-hawking nightmare for opposing quarterbacks.
"We have a lot of younger guys and a lot of guys that got experience last season that are finally going to make those strides and be that dominant starter, that all-conference and All-American type of player," Savage says.
K-State went up against a plethora of All-Americans when it faced No. 5 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl — quarterback Bryce Young, linebacker Will Anderson and running back Jahmyr Gibbs each went in the first 12 picks of the 2023 NFL Draft — and the Wildcats fell short in a 45-20 defeat to the Crimson Tide in the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
"We're absolutely not forgetting that one," Howard says. "That's a blessing in disguise. As much as we wanted to win that game, we learned so much from it."
Yesterday meets today meets the unknown.
"Everyone is still going to remember our 2022 team and what we did," Howard continues. "(Alabama) kind of helped a little bit because it left a little bad taste in our mouth, so we weren't just riding high at the end of the year. Obviously, you don't want to let things get to your head, and I don't think that we do, but that helped with that. That definitely kept us grounded that we still have a lot of work to do and have to raise the bar if we want to get to where we want to get."
It's 12:52 p.m. and Savage, in his charcoal suit and light-lavender tie, sits on a black leather couch slowly chewing gum when the gleam from the Big 12 Championship Trophy catches his attention. The trophy sits upon its own podium at the 20-yard line at AT&T Stadium and is the object of photos for hours — an unclaimed treasure surrounded by a sea of turf, patiently awaiting a deserving suitor.
Two hours later, at 2:50 p.m., Savage is dressed in uniform and helmet, bobbing his head to the bass at the FOX Sports studio set. He throws up the Mob sign. He yells. He flexes his biceps. Howard, Beebe and Green join in on the stage.
"It's a long offseason," he tells cameras. "I'm ready to tee it up right now."
Just before 4 o'clock, Klieman, Howard, Beebe, Green and Savage head into the sunny, 103-degree air outside of the stadium, and load into an awaiting black miniature luxury bus idling by the front doors — a head coach and his players, young CEOs dressed in suits, relishing in the unknown, and eager to return for another business trip.
Yesterday meets today meets the unknown.
Today was a very good day.
Here they are, strolling into AT&T Stadium, and they're dressed to the nines. It's 8:27 a.m. and Will Howard is dressed in a gray suit, Cooper Beebe is dressed in a blue suit, Daniel Green sports a black suit, and Kobe Savage looks dapper in a charcoal suit. They're all business. Their business is winning. Today, they're representing the defending Big 12 Champions. They embark upon Big 12 Media Days like young CEOs eager to replant a flag in Arlington, Texas — a place they know full well.
It's been 222 days since they've been here, yet Kansas State's player leaders take snapshots with their cellphones, as if it's all new, soaking in the atmosphere of big-time college football. The endzone to the right? That's where a fateful field goal ended a classic, a 31-28 overtime win against No. 3 TCU. Below their feet? That's where they danced over confetti.
"Always great to be here," Howard says.
"This brings back a lot of memories," Beebe says.
"It's exciting to be back inside this stadium," Savage says.
"It's starting to feel like home," Green says. "I love this place."
For the next seven hours, they'll saunter through corridors and visit a handful of TV studios — starting with ESPN's College GameDay — and they'll visit with reporters and speak on the radio. In between, they'll eat a lunch of brisket and macaroni and cheese, and in the end, they'll transform into their purple jersey and silver pants, that ageless traditional look, and they'll dance, and scowl and yell into cameras at the high-energy-music, lights-and-action FOX Sports studio set.
But for now, it starts in this place, on the field at AT&T Stadium, where magic and visions and dreams came to life 222 days ago at the 2022 Big 12 Championship Game.
"It's a tremendous honor to be here," Beebe says. "This was always a lifelong goal, to be one of the faces of K-State."
Reporters want to know how it feels — how it feels to be back at the venue where one of college football's best games happened nearly a month before last Christmas. So much time has passed yet so little time has passed at all. It's a mis-mash of emotion — yesterday meeting today meeting the unknown. And so, they talk about the game, they talk about the confetti, and the celebration, and they noticeably aren't wearing their 2022 Big 12 Championship rings. The rings are heavy, understand, and players know they cannot be weighed down with the past in order to move forward into this new, vast gridiron world.
"It's a new year and we're moving on," Howard says. "There's more to be done."
There's more to be done because K-State, 10-4, which finished at No. 14 in the final AP Top 25, bade farewell to 2023 NFL draftees Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Julius Brents, Josh Hayes and Deuce Vaughn, and undrafted free agents Ekow Boye-Doe, Malik Knowles, Adrian Martinez, Kade Warner and Ty Zentner. There's more to be done because there are 15 returning starters, nine sixth-year seniors return with more winning in mind, and six Division I transfers look to contribute, and members of arguably the best K-State recruiting class in two decades strive to enter the fold as well. There's more to be done because K-State hasn't reached its goal of hoisting the National Championship trophy, and there's more to be done because the Wildcats have been picked second — behind Texas — in the 2023 Big 12 Preseason Poll.
"I love it," Green says. "I love when people count us out. We're a team that has a lot of guys with a chip on their shoulder. When we're an underdog, we step up and prove people wrong.
"We love to do that."
Chris Klieman has been here before. Winning is nothing new. He won four FCS Championships in five years as head coach at North Dakota State. He was leader of a football factory. Now entering his fifth season at K-State, Klieman, 102-33 overall, including 30-20 in Manhattan, ranks fourth in winning percentage among current FBS coaches that have led programs for at least 10 seasons.
K-State comes off a season in which it finished No. 9 in the final College Football Playoff Top 25, the Wildcats' highest-ever ranking for the final poll.
K-State also comes off a season in which it beat three AP Top-10 opponents for the first time in history and the Wildcats have defeated five top-10 teams under Klieman. No other Big 12 team has more than three victories over top-10 teams since 2019.
So reporters want to know how it feels to be on top — and how the plan to stay there.
"I'm excited about it, really, to be the hunted," Klieman says. "The fact that we're the defending Big 12 champs means nothing when you go into a game. You have to perform. Fortunately, we've had past experience at a previous school where we've won a championship and had to follow it up with another championship. It's always staying hungry and humble and making sure the guys focus on the task at hand."
As for K-State having a target on its back?
"You don't shy away from it, you talk about it, and yeah, the target is on our back, and there are expectations, but that's why you come to K-State — to have high expectations, to be the team that people want to beat," Klieman says. "That's how we did it in the past and it really worked because it just kept elevating. That's what we want to continue to do."
And so, K-State players lift weights in the morning and run in the afternoon and hold captains' practices late in the afternoon four or five times a week, the lights of Bill Snyder Family Stadium flickering on before sunrise, the stadium videoboards, which once read "BIG 12 CHAMPIONS" now pitch black — the slate clean.
There is no hint that K-State was the 2022 Big 12 champion on the front of its 2023 media guide. The media guide displays the image of Howard, Beebe and Green in white uniforms — the very uniforms they wear on the road when it's us-against-the-world and the Wildcats dig in just a little bit deeper knowing they must rely upon themselves amid a hostile environment.
The Big 12 is immersed in an ever-changing environment as it turns into a 14-team conference, and gridiron battles are expected to be even fiercer than before. The Big 12's unofficial theme this year is to celebrate the four newcomers to the league (BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston) and to celebrate the eight returning teams in the league (Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, K-State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia) and to celebrate the two departing teams in the league (Oklahoma and Texas), yet there's unfinished business for K-State, which, if it takes care of each day, could find itself in a high-stakes game at Texas on November 4 in Austin, Texas.
"That's one I'm definitely looking forward to — playing those guys," Howard says. "I've never beaten them. It'll be a hell of an environment. I'm looking forward to that."
For as much as the Wildcats are putting the 2022 season behind them, it bears repeating that they enjoyed one of the most productive offenses in school history in 2022 and gave up their fewest points since 2003.
Howard was one of the country's most efficient quarterbacks over the second half of last season, preseason All-American Beebe is regarded as the top interior offensive lineman in the country, and 2023 Preseason All-Big 12 selection Ben Sinnott is one of the nation's most dangerous tight ends. The entire starting offensive line returns, including sixth-year seniors Christian Duffie, Hayden Gillum and KT Leveston. Wide receiver Phillip Brooks is back for a sixth season and Keagan Johnson is regarded as one of the best wide receiver transfers in the league. Running back Treshaun Ward is regarded as one of the top transfers in the country, and DJ Giddens is a star in the making.
K-State averaged 36.0 points per game over the final seven games of the 2022 season, a mark that ranked first in the Big 12 and 12th among Power 5 programs. The Wildcats scored at least 34 points seven times last season, their most in seven years.
They did so under the watchful eye of first-year offensive coordinator Collin Klein, the 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist and one of the greatest quarterbacks in school history, the consummate competitor, and a guy who simply cannot sleep after defeat.
"The continuity is huge, especially on the offensive side," Klieman says. "Now we're going into year two (under Klein), and I'm excited because we're just scratching the surface of what we can do offensively. I really believe that. Collin in his first year was phenomenal, and I saw some innovation and even more things in spring ball that they were able to do. When you have a guy like Will who's so smart, we're going to be able to be advanced in a lot of things that we've done."
Green and Savage, a 2023 Preseason All-Big 12 selection, help headline a defense that held every opponent under its scoring average at the time that it faced the Wildcats. Linebacker Austin Moore is the team's top-returning tackler, Khalid Duke is returning to his natural position at defensive end, Nate Matlack is poised for a breakout campaign, and Jacob Parrish and VJ Payne could be among of the top up-and-coming sophomores in the league. Transfer defensive tackle Jevon Banks is expected to be a contributor in the middle. Looking for a breakout star? Junior college transfer safety Marques Sigle could emerge as a ball-hawking nightmare for opposing quarterbacks.
"We have a lot of younger guys and a lot of guys that got experience last season that are finally going to make those strides and be that dominant starter, that all-conference and All-American type of player," Savage says.
K-State went up against a plethora of All-Americans when it faced No. 5 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl — quarterback Bryce Young, linebacker Will Anderson and running back Jahmyr Gibbs each went in the first 12 picks of the 2023 NFL Draft — and the Wildcats fell short in a 45-20 defeat to the Crimson Tide in the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
"We're absolutely not forgetting that one," Howard says. "That's a blessing in disguise. As much as we wanted to win that game, we learned so much from it."
Yesterday meets today meets the unknown.
"Everyone is still going to remember our 2022 team and what we did," Howard continues. "(Alabama) kind of helped a little bit because it left a little bad taste in our mouth, so we weren't just riding high at the end of the year. Obviously, you don't want to let things get to your head, and I don't think that we do, but that helped with that. That definitely kept us grounded that we still have a lot of work to do and have to raise the bar if we want to get to where we want to get."
It's 12:52 p.m. and Savage, in his charcoal suit and light-lavender tie, sits on a black leather couch slowly chewing gum when the gleam from the Big 12 Championship Trophy catches his attention. The trophy sits upon its own podium at the 20-yard line at AT&T Stadium and is the object of photos for hours — an unclaimed treasure surrounded by a sea of turf, patiently awaiting a deserving suitor.
Two hours later, at 2:50 p.m., Savage is dressed in uniform and helmet, bobbing his head to the bass at the FOX Sports studio set. He throws up the Mob sign. He yells. He flexes his biceps. Howard, Beebe and Green join in on the stage.
At 3:36 p.m., Howard sits in his purple jersey high above the action below. He sits in a 50-yard-line seat on the seventh row of the second level – the suite level – taking it all in. The caters have long since removed the luncheon feast, located in the end zone of AT&T Stadium where the magic happened on December 3.A lot of big things #KStateFB ⚒️ #Big12FB pic.twitter.com/1N7rYYRaJc
— K-State Football (@KStateFB) July 14, 2023
"It's a long offseason," he tells cameras. "I'm ready to tee it up right now."
Just before 4 o'clock, Klieman, Howard, Beebe, Green and Savage head into the sunny, 103-degree air outside of the stadium, and load into an awaiting black miniature luxury bus idling by the front doors — a head coach and his players, young CEOs dressed in suits, relishing in the unknown, and eager to return for another business trip.
Yesterday meets today meets the unknown.
Today was a very good day.
Players Mentioned
DE
/ Football
DT
/ Football
OL
/ Football
CB
/ Football
CB
/ Football
WR
/ Football
OL
/ Football
DE
/ Football
RB
/ Football
OL
/ Football
LB
/ Football
S
/ Football
QB
/ Football
WR
/ Football
WR
/ Football
OL
/ Football
QB
/ Football
DE
/ Football
LB
/ Football
CB
/ Football
S
/ Football
S
/ Football
S
/ Football
TE
/ Football
RB
/ Football
RB
/ Football
WR
/ Football
P/K
/ FootballWednesday, June 10
Wednesday, June 10
Tuesday, June 09
Monday, June 08
