Excited to Show What K-State is All About

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Kansas State has been here before.

Actually, no, K-State has never been here before. Never in the history of the Big 12 Conference has K-State been picked so high in the league preseason poll and done so without a single player earning a spot on the Preseason All-Big 12 team.

K-State was selected second in the new 16-team conference with 889 total points (19 first-place votes), just behind Utah with 906 total points (20 first-place votes) for the 2024 football season.

The Wildcats, who posted a 9-4 record in 2023, had two All-Big 12 First Team selections last season in offensive lineman Cooper Beebe and tight end Ben Sinnott, and four All-Big 12 Second Team picks in quarterback Will Howard, defensive lineman Khalid Duke, linebacker Austin Moore and defensive back Kobe Savage.

Now they have no Preseason All-Big 12 picks — but they're picked second in one of the best Power 4 conferences in the nation.

It was a topic of curiosity for some reporters on Tuesday at Big 12 Football Media Day at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"Kind of makes you laugh a little bit," offensive lineman Hadley Panzer said.

"I've been an underdog my whole life, so this just gives me motivation to burn," free safety Marques Sigle said.

"I don't know who's in charge of that (preseason team), but you could use that as a little motivation," defensive end Brendan Mott said.

"It just says how good Coach Klieman is and how good we play together as a team," Moore said. "We're definitely using it as motivation and using it to play with a chip on our shoulder."

K-State has a proven winner with a championship history in Chris Klieman, who holds a 111-37 career record, as his 75% career winning percentage ranks third among current FBS coaches that have led programs for at least 10 seasons.

Asked his thoughts on the fact that K-State is picked second in the league yet has no preseason All-Big 12 selections, Klieman replied, "I don't pay a lot of attention to it to be honest with you. Everybody sees it, but it's not something that we talk about an awful lot. I hope it shows people the overall depth and value of our roster and how important our role players are and how important our players are, as far as if you're a successful team, individual honors at the end of the season are going to come.

"I'm sure that our players, if you asked them, they probably saw both polls, and I don't know if they're excited, disappointed, but I know they were aware that there was nobody from K-State on one of those teams, but you still have to perform, and we've got a lot of work to do before we get to the end of August."

Panzer put it like this: "In all seriousness, I'm not hurt by it. You'd wish you'd see some of your teammates up there just because you know the type of people they are and the work they put in, but then you look at where they have us ranked at No. 2 and that's just a testament to the type of program we have and that we've been building for a long time.

"It's not just about one player or another player here and there, it's collectively as a group how well we play together. We're not out there just playing for accolades — we're playing for each other."

K-State owns the most Big 12 victories (139) among current schools since the inception of the Big 12 in 1996 and has been ranked in 12-straight College Football Playoff Top 25 polls — only Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon and Michigan have longer active streaks.

"It's about not taking anything for granted," Moore said. "Just knowing any week that anybody can beat you and you can beat anybody and not having that mindset that we deserve to win — we're going to earn this one."

K-State is the only returning Big 12 team with at least eight wins in each of the last three seasons and one of 13 Power 4 programs to claim that feat, joining Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, NC State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Oregon, UCLA and Utah.

"It's just the culture that this team has," Mott said. "That culture started — I wasn't here for Coach Snyder, but I know when Coach Klieman came in and the culture and his wisdom has really shaped and formed this team. He says it's a player-led team and it is. He's just there to guide us along the way. That's what makes this team so special and so close is the culture that we have and the relationships that all of us have with each other."

K-State is also riding a streak of three consecutive seasons with at least eight wins, its first such streak since 2011 (10 wins), 2012 (11), 2013 (eight) and 2014 (nine).

The key to K-State's success?

"It's the love that we have for each other," Panzer says. "That's the biggest thing. We're going out there and I want to see my teammates succeed more than anything. You want to see each guy play his best game and collectively as a group we're playing our best football. That's what makes us so successful."

K-State returns 46 letterwinners, including 15 players who started at least five games last year and 11 that earned All-Big 12 honors in 2023. It has eight super seniors and 11 Division I transfers.

It's a prideful group that plans to continue its winning ways — with or without notoriety.

"Whatever rankings or preseason stuff that comes out, they don't see the work we've put in day in and day out in the winter, spring and summer," Mott said. "We just have a great group of guys and an all-around good team. No matter what the rankings say, I'm excited for the fans and the nation to see what K-State is all about."

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Cooper Beebe

Khalid Duke

Will Howard

Austin Moore

Brendan Mott

Hadley Panzer

Kobe Savage

Marques Sigle

Ben Sinnott

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