With adversity, comes opportunity. For the Kansas State Wildcats Men’s Basketball team, it’s an opportunity for younger players to step up and fill the void left by their two senior leaders, Jacob Pullen and Curtis Kelly. Both were found to have received impermissible benefits on the purchase of clothing at a department store in Manhattan earlier this year. Pullen, a first-team All-American guard, will be missing a second of three games tonight as the Wildcats face the University of Missouri/Kansas City at home in Bramlage Coliseum. Kelly, a preseason first-team Big 12 selection, has yet to find out how long his suspension will be. Combined, the two account for over 30% of the team’s scoring and their absence was certainly a factor in a narrow loss to UNLV earlier in the week.

So the question in Wildcat Nation today is whether or not this young team will respond.  The Wildcats played fairly well despite a 23/6 turnover to assist ratio against the Runnin’ Rebels. Poor free throw shooting has also haunted this team all year. Head Coach Frank Martin will be looking for answers with Big 12 conference play just a couple weeks away.

Watching the 6th-ranked Kansas State Wildcats is a lot like watching sausage being made…it ain’t pretty. Nevertheless, the Wildcats are deep and they are relentless, much like the demeanor of their intense head coach, Frank Martin. Now at 9-1 on the young season, Kansas State has for the most part, played to the level of their competition. On some evenings, they’ve looked pretty good, easily beating the likes of Gonzaga, Virginia Tech and Washington State. It’s victories like these where All-American Jacob Pullen is at his best, leading the team in scoring and running the offense well. There is no question this team will only go as far as Pullen and his talents will take them. So far this year, the Wildcats have really had to rely on their senior guard, since the inside play of their “bigs” has been inconsistent to say the least. Senior power-forward, Curtis Kelly, has played well in spurts, but has yet to look like the first-team Big 12 player he was picked preseason to be. For the Wildcats to make a deep run in March, their inside play simply has to improve, thus taking pressure off of Pullen and his backcourt mates, Rodney McGruder and Will Spradling. McGruder, for the most part, has been the most consistent Wildcat so far this year. Not only is he dangerous from the three-point line, he also leads Kansas State in rebounds. Spradling, a true freshman, has made some freshman mistakes, but continues to improve when running the point, which allows Pullen to move to shooting guard, a position he much prefers.

Much like last year, Kansas State fans are relying on Martin to get the Wildcats playing their best when March rolls around. This team is certainly deep enough to make a long run in the NCAA tournament, but clearly up to this point, they are still a work in progress. This week, they travel to the Sunshine State to take on the Florida Gators. Look for the Wildcats to step up to the challenge and play well on a big stage, as they prepare for Big 12 conference play which begins in a couple of weeks.

Despite 269 yards from senior RB Daniel Thomas, the Kansas State Wildcats had to hang on to beat the North Texas Mean Green on Saturday and improve to 7-5 overall on the season. In what can only be described as an “underwhelming”  performance, the Wildcats fell behind the Mean Green 20-7 in the first quarter, allowing North Texas RB Lance Dunbar to rumble for 161 yards and two touchdowns on only five carries. On the fifth play of the game, Dunbar ran for a 52-yard touchdown, giving the Mean Green an early 7-0 lead. Kansas State’s porous rush defense was gashed throughout the afternoon, leaving head coach Bill Snyder in a far from celebratory mood after the game. The Mean Green finished the day with 469 yards of total offense, showing that once again, this Wildcat defense simply hasn’t improved at all as the season has gone along.

But on offense, it was encouraging to see Thomas finish the regular season like he started it. The Wildcat senior running back’s previous high was the first game of the year, where he ran for 234 yards against UCLA.  Over the past several weeks, Thomas had been seeing a lesser role in the offense, and consequently, the Wildcats had lost three out of four games. On this day, Kansas State went back to relying on their big back to carry the load. If anyone on this team deserves to play in a bowl game later this year, it’s Daniel Thomas.

Overall, it’s been a strange year for Kansas State. In a lot of ways, they are extremely lucky to even be in this position of waiting to find out where they will play, which probably is going to be the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium in New York. At 7-5, they had close wins over UCLA, Central Florida and Iowa State, as well as North Texas. Their only decisive victories were over Missouri State, Kansas and Texas. Hopefully, this extra month of practice will give Snyder and the coaching staff an opportunity to address the obvious flaws in this defense. From extremely bad tackling to playing out of position, this Wildcat defense has been over-matched by pretty much everyone.

It will be interesting to see if, in fact, the Wildcats can truly take advantage of this opportunity to improve themselves enough so as to not get completely humiliated in whatever bowl game they attend. Unfortunately, based on the way this defense has regressed as the year has gone along, don’t count on it.

The ugliness that is the Kansas State defense showed up once again, as the Wildcats fell to the Colorado Buffaloes, 44-36, in Boulder. With the loss, the Cats fell to 6-5 overall and 3-5 in the Big 12, and will have one final shot to improve their bowl standing with that all-important seventh win next week at North Texas. Colorado RB Rodney Stewart tore through the sad Wildcat defense to the tune of 195 yards and two touchdowns, as well as throwing a 23-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. In addition, Buffalo quarterback Cody Hawkins threw for over 200 yards and three touchdowns as the Colorado offense simply had their way throughout the afternoon, moving the ball at will against the hapless Wildcats.

Words can’t describe the frustration in watching this team try to slow an opposing offense down, giving up yards in huge chunks both on the ground and through the air. Whether it’s a single running play, where giant holes are opened up and opposing running backs are able to successfully run almost untouched, or it’s a play-action pass play that Wildcat safeties and corners are constantly biting on and getting torched by more talented wide receivers and tight ends, it’s been constant all year long. Many blame defensive coordinator, Chris Cosh, for not adequately preparing his players or having them playing out of position to begin with. Head Coach Bill Snyder rarely, if ever, fires a coordinator, so it will be interesting to see what happens this off-season as to who comes back next year on his coaching staff. Others in Wildcat Nation question the level of talent this team has on defense, and to some extent on offense as well, more than just the coaching staff. Recruiting “quality” talent definitely fell off in Snyder’s final two seasons in 2004 and 2005 before he initially “retired” after the 2005 season and that continued for three years under then head coach, Ron Prince. When Snyder returned last year, it was expected that would continue for a few years before the future Hall of Fame coach would be able to get back to that level of finding the type of athlete to get the Wildcats back to contending for Big 12 championships like they used to from 1997 to 2003.

Nonetheless, it’s still frustrating to watch.

With bowl season quickly approaching, the Kansas State Wildcats are in a position to improve their stock as they travel to Boulder this weekend in a match up against the Colorado Buffaloes. At 6-4 overall and 3-4 in the Big 12, the Wildcats are being looked at by both the Pinstripe and Texas bowl committees, but if they were to lose their final two games could fall out of the post-season picture altogether. Thus, a seventh victory is crucial to lock up Kansas State’s first bowl game since 2006. The Wildcats will also be looking for only their second road win of the year and first since soundly beating in-state rival Kansas back at the beginning of October.  In fact, Kansas State has lost it’s last nine road games outside of the State of Kansas and 16 of their last 19 road trips overall.

This week, the Cats face a Buffalo squad that fired their head coach, Dan Hawkins, just last week and seems to have found new life, beating Iowa State last Saturday, 34-14. Under interim head coach, Brian Cabral, Colorado showed a new energy that can happen when a coach is replaced mid-season. In addition, Colorado heads to the Pac-10 next year, so this will be the Wildcats final opportunity to play the Buffaloes for the foreseeable future.

Kansas State needs to go right at Colorado with a strong running game, led by sophomore QB Collin Klein. Last week, head coach Bill Snyder started rotating his quarterbacks and, in my opinion, was to the detriment of the team. The Wildcats are at their best when they can pound the ball on the ground with Klein and senior RB Daniel Thomas. Klein doesn’t throw the ball very well, but had some success last week against Missouri, throwing his first touchdown pass of his career.

The Buffaloes will be motivated to play for their new coach and it’s Senior Day in Boulder. Nevertheless, look for Kansas State to control the ball on the ground and pull out a close one.

Kansas State – 31

Colorado – 27

As a nearly two touchdown underdog, the Kansas State Wildcats really weren’t supposed to even hang around with a highly-talented Missouri Tiger team on Saturday. The Wildcat defense had been torched all season by big-play offenses from Nebraska to Baylor to Oklahoma State, and this Tiger offense was no different. To Kansas State’s credit, they in fact, did hang around with the Tigers, falling 38-28, dropping to 3-4 in the Big 12 and 6-4 overall. For the Wildcats, this became a game of missed opportunities and mental blunders, both from a player as well as a coaching perspective.

Kansas State Head Coach Bill Snyder started the game with his senior quarterback, Carson Coffman, who was coming off an ankle injury that kept him out of last week’s game against Texas. Coffman clearly wasn’t effective in either of his two series and was replaced by sophomore Collin Klein, who proceeded to pick up right where he left off last week by running right at the Missouri D-line and was successful throughout the day. Klein finished the game running for 141 yards on 18 carries as the Wildcats went toe-to-toe with Missouri in the first half. Trailing 21-14 late in the second period, Klein once again led the Wildcats towards a game-tying touchdown, but was replaced by Coffman when it looked like there wasn’t going to be enough time to get any points if they continued to just run the ball. Coffman did make a couple of clutch completions and got the Wildcats down to the 1-yard line with under 30 seconds to play. Yet with a first and goal at the one, Snyder mysteriously left Coffman in the game, rather than put Klein back in for what should have been an obvious quarterback sneak play. Klein had earlier run a sneak on a fourth and one to keep a touchdown drive alive, so it seemed it would be safe to try that again. But it was Coffman who stayed in on the play and who then fumbled the center/quarterback exchange. Missouri recovered and the halftime score remained 21-14 and for the most part,  killed any momentum the Wildcats had built up in the first half.

For the day, the Wildcats committed four turnovers which led to 10 Tiger points. None bigger than with 5:34 left in the third quarter, Coffman was blindsided by Tiger DE Aldon Smith due to extremely poor blocking by the Wildcat offensive line. Coffman fumbled and the ball was picked up by Missouri’s Jacquies Smith for a 53-yard touchdown, putting the Tigers up 28-14. Coffman later threw an interception in the fourth quarter, but did hit WR Aubrey Quarles for a 26-yard touchdown pass with just a little over a minute left in the game. Earlier in the period, Klein threw his first touchdown pass of his career, connecting with WR Adrian Hilburn for 35 yards.

Nonetheless, the Wildcats were playing catch-up throughout the game, and couldn’t capitalize on the opportunities they had. This one is going to sting for a while in Wildcat Nation, watching their team roll up over 420 yards of total offense against a superior team in a hostile environment. But the turnovers were killers, and Snyder’s quarterback substitutions, while effective at times, proved costly. This was especially costly when he chose not to replace Coffman with Klein right before halftime.  But based on the coach’s post-game comments, look for more of the same next week against Colorado.

The big question for Kansas State fans this week is who will be behind center for tomorrow’s contest against the Missouri Tigers. Sophomore QB Collin Klein got a surprise start last week and performed very well in leading the Wildcats to an easy conference win over the Texas Longhorns. Playing in place of injured senior QB Carson Coffman, Klein ran the option well in accumulating over 120 yards rushing and scoring two touchdowns. What he didn’t do was throw the ball, attempting only four passes for nine yards. With that in mind, Head Coach Bill Snyder will have to decide who to call on this week as the Wildcats look to get back above .500 in the Big 12 and solidify their bowl chances with a seventh victory of the year.

If Snyder turns to Coffman, the Wildcats will present a more balanced offensive attack, despite losing two wide receivers to injury. But whether it’s Coffman or Klein, Kansas State will still rely heavily on senior running back Daniel Thomas. Thomas is second in the Big 12 and seventh in the nation in rushing at over 122 yards per game. The Wildcat’s face a Missouri defense that ranks eighth in the conference against the run allowing 148 yards per game, yet have only allowed seven touchdowns which is tied for fewest in the league. Where this game could be decided may be in the red zone, as the Wildcats have had success scoring on 28 of 30 opportunities which ranks second in the Big 12. Conversely, the Tiger’s defense is quite stingy inside the 20 yard line, having only allowed 14 scores on 25 opportunities while forcing five turnovers.

Missouri is led on defense by sophomore DE Aldon Smith. Smith and the rest of the Tiger D-line will be called upon to bottle up Thomas and the Wildcat running game, regardless of who’s at quarterback. Unfortunately for the Tigers, the last time they faced a running attack like Kansas State’s, they gave up 328 yards on 47 attempts to Nebraska’s Roy Helu, Jr. In fact, Missouri’s defense hasn’t been the same since their last victory, a 36-27 win over Oklahoma almost three weeks ago. If the Wildcats start the more mobile Klein at quarterback, the question becomes will they attack the Missouri defense in the same way as they went after Texas, which was primarily on the ground? Or will Snyder turn to Coffman, who seems to have recovered from a nagging ankle injury, and try to be more balanced on offense? Either way, the Wildcats could still be in for a long day if they can’t slow Missouri’s high-powered offense, which is looking to get back on track after an “off-day” last week against Texas Tech.  Bottom line, it’s Senior Day in Columbia and the Wildcat’s haven’t had much success on the road this year, with the exception of a 59-7 blowout win over the hapless Kansas Jayhawks.

Missouri – 42

Kansas State – 27

For Kansas State Head Coach Bill Snyder, the formula for victory over the Texas Longhorns was really quite simple: Give your second-string QB the first start of his career, completely abandon the passing game by allowing said second-string QB to attempt only four passes for the entire game, and finally let your Big 12′s worst rush defense shut down the Longhorn running game and force Texas QB Garrett Gilbert into throwing five interceptions. Throw in both a fake field goal and punt attempt by the Longhorns that was successfully snuffed out by the Wildcats, and there you have it:

Final score: Kansas State 39, Texas 14.

Replacing the injured Carson Coffman, Wildcat sophomore quarterback Collin Klein ran for 127 yards on 25 carries and two touchdowns, as the Wildcats routed the lifeless Longhorns and improved to 3-3 in the conference and 6-3 overall. For the Kansas State faithful, there had to be a collective sigh of relief to finally get over the proverbial ”hump” and get that illusive sixth victory, while becoming bowl eligible for the first time since 2006.  For the Longhorns, who fell to 2-4 in the Big 12 and 4-5 overall, there are only questions and very few answers for one of college football’s powerhouses. The Wildcats took control of this game right from the opening kickoff as senior RB William Powell returned it 62 yards and the Kansas State offense scored two plays later on a Daniel Thomas 34-yard touchdown run. Thomas finished the game with 106 yards on 18 carries and eclipsed the 1000-yard mark on the season.

Next for the Wildcats, a trip to Columbia and a meeting with the now reeling Missouri Tigers. Realistically, a win there will be difficult, but not impossible. The much-maligned K-State defense has somewhat stiffened up over the past two weeks and seems to be playing with more energy and urgency. Yes, the Longhorns still finished with over 400 yards of total offense, but a lot of those yards came in garbage time, late in the fourth quarter. It will be interesting to see what Snyder does with the lineup next week. Will Klein remain the starter? Will the Wildcats pass attempts reach double-digits?

Based on yesterday’s easy victory, who needs a passing game anyway?

For the Kansas State Wildcats, a once promising season is slowly beginning to slip away. After a 4-0 start, including victories over UCLA and Central Florida, the Wildcats now sit at 5-3 and will be challenged again this Saturday by an equally disappointing Texas Longhorn team on Senior Day in Manhattan. In what can only be described as “odd scheduling”, it’s the final home game of the year as the Wildcats finish with road contests at Missouri, Colorado and North Texas. Obviously, Kansas State needs to find a sixth victory somewhere over the next four weeks, and even that might not be enough. Realistically, the Cats need to find two wins to insure a bowl game and the struggling Longhorns might just give them that opportunity for one of those victories this weekend.

Having lost four out of their last five contests, all of which were at home, Texas has had their share of problems, especially on offense. Averaging 140 yards per game, the Longhorns rank 80th in the country in rush offense and really haven’t found that power running back to compliment QB Garrett Gilbert. Gilbert has thrown for 1788 yards and six touchdowns, but hasn’t shown consistency on a weekly basis. Last year, Texas scored 63% in the red zone, this year that has dropped to 43%. Fortunately for the Longhorns, they are facing a much beleaguered Wildcat defense that’s been shredded over the past month both on the ground and through the air, giving up over 438 yards per game.

On offense, Kansas State is coming off a less-than-spectacular performance against Oklahoma State last week. QB Carson Coffman suffered an ankle injury that limited his abilities in the second half against the Cowboys and the rest of the offense became ineffective along with him. The Wildcats have had to rely heavily on senior RB Daniel Thomas and respective defenses have keyed on him, slowing his performance over the past month. Thomas is still second in the Big 12 in rushing, averaging 125 yards per game and is only four yards from another 1000 yard season, but it hasn’t come easy for him lately. Look for the Longhorns to load up the line against Thomas and force Coffman to test the talented Texas defensive secondary. The Longhorns lead the Big 12 in defense, allowing only 267 yards per game and should be able to take advantage of an injury-filled Wildcat group of wide receivers.

Texas is an undisciplined team and can be prone to committing a lot of penalties. Hopefully for the Wildcats, that trend will continue this week and along with winning the battle on special teams, it could give Kansas State a shot at an upset. Back-up running back William Powell has had a good year returning kickoffs and the Wildcats will need big returns from him to give the offense a short field to work with. In addition, the defense will have to create turnovers  and the offense will have to score off those turnovers for Kansas State to pull this one off. It’s a lot to ask for, but if Kansas State can win this battles, they should be able to keep this one within reach and win it with a field goal late in the game.

Kansas State – 24

Texas – 21

Last week in Waco, Texas, it was the Kansas State offense that needed to produce to keep the Wildcats in the game against Baylor. The Bears rolled up almost 700 yards of total offense against an over-matched Wildcat defense. Meanwhile, K-State’s offense, for the most part, matched Baylor score for score only to come out on the losing end, 47-42. Conventional wisdom said that this week, against another high-powered offense in Oklahoma State, Wildcat QB Carson Coffman, RB Daniel Thomas and the rest of the offense would be called upon again to score frequently, since the Cowboys were ranked 3rd in the country in total offense. On the other hand, Okie State’s defense, while not as forgiving as Kansas State’s, could be scored upon and allow the Wildcats to hang around in this game.

So much for conventional wisdom.

Saturday afternoon at the Bill Snyder Family Stadium, the Kansas State defense performed admirably, holding the lethal Cowboy offense to only two touchdowns and a field goal in a 24-14 defeat. The Wildcat’s fell to 2-3 in the Big 12 and 5-3 overall and are looking down the barrel at 5-5 over the next two weeks with the Texas Longhorns coming to Manhattan, followed by a trip to Columbia to face the Missouri Tigers. Coffman, who was hampered by an ankle injury in the second half, completed 23 0f 35 passes for 170 yards and two interceptions. One of the picks was costly, though, as Cowboy DB Johnny Thomas intercepted Coffman in the fourth quarter and ran it in for the Cowboys final touchdown of the game. On an afternoon when it was figured Kansas State could put points on the board they, in fact, sputtered throughout the day and were simply unable to capitalize on the opportunities Oklahoma State gave them, particularly since the Cowboys were turning the ball over themselves, especially in the first half.  With Coffman hobbled, the Wildcats leaned heavily on Thomas, running the “Wildcat” formation frequently in the second half and having some success. Thomas finished with 101 yards rushing on 29 carries and became the focal point of the offense, which eventually Oklahoma State was able to key on and slow down as the game progressed.

Meanwhile, the Cowboy’s racked up over 500 yards of total offense, despite only putting 17 points on the scoreboard. Considering Oklahoma State was without the services of their star WR Justin Blackmon, who was suspended for the game due to a DUI arrest, as well as committing two turnovers and not converting on a 4th and short early in the game, Kansas State was fortunate the final score wasn’t more lopsided. Cowboy QB Brandon Weeden threw for almost 300 yards and two touchdowns, RB Kendall Hunter ran for 143 yards and freshman RB Joseph Randle added another 123 yards of total offense. In addition, the Cowboys committed 10 penalties for 100 yards, several of which were very untimely and ultimately stopped what would have been productive drives.

The good news for Kansas State in all of this? No one seems to be pointing fingers at each other in losing three out of four and falling out of the Big 12 North race. The offense knows it needs to show more consistency and balance and simply can’t rely on Thomas to carry the load. Coffman, who had begun to show the leadership qualities over the previous three contests necessary to lead the team, clearly regressed on Saturday, making several poor decisions including the game-deciding Cowboy interception. On defense, it is impressive to hold the potent Oklahoma State offense to 17 points, but if not for the Cowboys shooting themselves in the foot, it should have been a lot more. Somehow, Legendary Head Coach Bill Snyder needs to figure out how to get both sides playing well together to get that illusive sixth victory and become bowl eligible. Based on recent play, especially on defense, that may not have a realistic chance of happening until the final week of the season against North Texas.