Category: Kansas State

Kansas State football’s 20 best wins of the last decade

Okay, let’s do this.

The Kansas State football team has had a number of big wins over the past decade. The two-year run in 2011 and 2012 could have filled an entire list by itself. But the program’s success extends beyond those two seasons. And every player who contributed to the program deserves recognition in some way.

So with that in mind, I established a couple of ground rules in putting together a best wins of the decade countdown. Firstly, I figured it would be fairest to all individuals to make sure every single KSU team of the decade was represented. To do that effectively, there was no way I could limit this list to 10 or even 15. So 20 was the number I settled on.

I also wanted every Big 12 opponent K-State defeated to appear on the list and a range of non-conference opponents too. The only exception to this rule here is Missouri, which barely missed the cut as being a part of an ugly-as-sin game and only sharing the conference with KSU for two seasons. Hey, it was satisfying as heck to send them out with a loss, but the concession needed to be made to make room for everything else. Consider that game our honorable mention.

And with that, we can get rolling. Here is my take on K-State’s 20 best wins of the decade.

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Trying to get a handle on the future of the Big 12

Recently, I’ve been reading more message board and social media chatter from Big 12 fans, specifically Oklahoma and Texas fans, about the next round of realignment, and where their schools might ultimately end up.

So let’s roll up our sleeves and jump back into this puddle of mud, shall we?

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The optimistic vs. pessimistic take on 2018 Kansas State football

Ah, Kansas State football.  Coming off a disappointing 2015 season full of injuries and disaster (when your wide receiver is taking snaps at quarterback, it’s a disaster), the program rallied around the athleticism and game management of quarterback Jesse Ertz to rebound to 9 wins in 2016. Naturally, Ertz went down to injury in 2017* to take away all of that positive momentum.  Playing a pair of young kids at quarterback transformed consistent performance into wild highs (such as crazy comebacks against ISU/Texas Tech and a win in Stillwater against a Top 15 OSU) and wild lows (KU and TCU … though in fairness the lowest of lows came with Ertz still in the lineup vs. Vanderbilt).  The end result was a somewhat disappointing 8 wins.

* Hmm, maybe all these quarterback injuries indicate a need for a re-evaluation of an offensive game plan that regularly calls for your quarterback to carry the ball 20 times a game.

In the offseason, Kansas State has suffered massive player and coaching defections, creating even more instability.

So what now?

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Let’s do a preseason Top 25!

This is some mix of how I rank the teams now before the 2017 season, and how I see it ending up … which should line up more than it sometimes does in these kinds of lists. Some folks will be like, “I rank Clemson No. 1 because they’re defending champs even though I predict them to lose five times this year.” This is not that … I want this to reflect this year, not last.

Anyway, here’s how I see it.*

* Most of this will be comically inaccurate, but that’s part of the fun. I know this going in.

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Some Thoughts on the Draft

Let us be clear: the NFL is very “ugh” right now.

But I still find it hard to hate the thing completely.  For one reason, I hear rumors that the New Orleans Saints are still very much a part of the league (even despite the absurd punishments handed down during “Bountygate”).  For another, the good flavor of the Falcons blowing a 25-point lead in the Super Bowl is still fresh.*  And finally, the draft itself is always going to have some merit even for people who hate the NFL because it’s one last chance to see their favorite college players paraded in front of the camera before they’re officially professionals.  So, yay.

* This is one of the more improbable things I’ve seen in my sports-watching lifetime.  Like, the Falcons literally had to have everything go completely wrong for them to pull it off … and they did it!  And my enjoyment of it was fueled by a persistent Falcons hater laughing at them and dancing around my living room throughout the proceedings.  It was truly a memorable and enjoyable experience, even for someone disillusioned by the league and basically anything that it tries to do.

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Could a 14-team Big 12 actually work?

As the Big 12 meanders its way toward an expansion that may or may not be inevitable (per “sources”), fans of the affected institutions continue to wait for some measure of resolution.  The good news for the eager applicants is a move to 14 is apparently still on the table.

I still think 12 makes more sense.  And if you read this, you’ll find out why.  But 14 has its advantages, including the more money thing, but more importantly (to me anyway), the opportunity to rebrand away from the toxic Big 12 name.  Yes!

If 14 is still a realistic scenario, let’s look at how it can actually work.

Once again, I don’t have any particular insider knowledge on any of this, which is pretty much useless right now anyway. The amount of misinformation out there at present is significant.  For that reason, trying to predict how expansion unfolds is equally pointless.  What’s perhaps more useful is attempting to apply logic to the situation to offer a recommendation or two.

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Big 12 Expansion Makes Sense: Here’s Why…

Trying to read the tea leaves and interpret/predict Big 12 expansion is mostly pointless in principle, because one is most assuredly going to be wrong.  And not just wrong, but often times spectacularly wrong.

Since I have no fear of being spectacularly wrong, you’re in luck!  You’ve come to the right place to read a few words on the subject.

First off, a primer.  That link should give you some decent insight.  And this one.  And maybe this one too.  If you don’t want to read all that, the short version recap is this:  The Big 12 is a conference that suffers a fragile ego, due in large part to its having been raided by other leagues earlier this decade.  Stuck at 10 teams and stuck with a TV contract that is by no means terrible but which still lags behind that of its competition (in particular, fellow “major” conferences Big 10 and SEC), several schools in the conference are seemingly unhappy and pushing for expansion.  Or maybe they’re just sort of mildly concerned.  Or maybe this is all an act and we don’t know.

This is the part of the process that I think confuses people the most:  They can’t predict what the institutions will do, and they can’t do that because each institution is subject to the whims of multiple individual people.  Presidents.  Boards of directors.  Powerful boosters.  Athletic directors and coaches (not really, but it’s best to be polite and include them anyway).  The point being, what if one of these people has a louder voice than the others?  What if said person is having a bad day?  Or is just a generally irrational person?  And what if the media and common layman can’t predict who might wield the most influence, what they might think on a given day, or even what they might think today?

You’d be served up a nice helping of “fuck if I know” ice cream, which is what all the reporting on this topic reveals.  The best one can do is try to approach this from a logical vantage point and guess at the things that seem to make sense.  That doesn’t mean the key figures in this play will act rationally at the end of the day, but it does give the observer a better understanding of perhaps what *should* happen.

And thusly, I’ve written well over 300 words without getting around to talking about expansion, which is what this article is supposed to be about.

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Kansas State names Jesse Ertz starting quarterback for 2015 opener and we know … only a little more than that

Much will be written about new Kansas State starting quarterback Jesse Ertz in the coming weeks, months and more than likely years, given his status as a sophomore, and presumably the majority of the words will be fair if not accurate. When he struggles, his game will be taken apart and evaluated on a deeper basis. When he performs well, he will be praised in glowing terms. And when evaluators just don’t know … well, that’s when they’ll be unfair due to bias more than likely, but hey, at least they’ll be informed by the good times and the bad.

Continue reading Kansas State names Jesse Ertz starting quarterback for 2015 opener and we know … only a little more than that