The Kansas State Wildcats football team lead by legendary head coach Bill Snyder will stroll into Arrowhead Stadium this Saturday looking to get another win notched on their purple belt. They will face an up and coming opponent in the Iowa State Cyclones who themselves will be looking to bounce back from year’s heartbreaking one-point loss to the cats. Arrowhead will be a mad house filled with purple and red come Saturday, and those attending should be in for quite a scrumptious treat of great football.
Last year’s tilt made headlines across the Midwest for the last minute heroics by Kansas State’s Emmanuel Lamur, who blocked an extra point with thirty two seconds left on the ticker to help secure a 24-23 Wildcat victory. The Wildcat offense had a new wrinkle to throw at the Cyclones with the debut of senior quarterback Grant Gregory. Cats’ fans were given an outstanding performance from Gregory as he put up some very impressive and unseen numbers as far as the previous four games had gone. Gregory threw 23 passes completing 16 of them for a total of 206 yards passing and two touchdowns and carried the ball 14 times gaining 29 yards and one touchdown. The Wildcats offense really began to come together during this match up, and they built from this game as the season progressed. A late game rollout by Gregory, which led to a 54-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Banks, was the winning play that helped propel K-State towards a Big 12 season opening win. The Cyclones, with Austen Arnaud at the helm then drove the field late in the fourth quarter and did end up scoring a touchdown with under a minute to go on the clock. After the 23-yard strike from Arnaud to Jake Williams cut the deficit to 24-23, the elusive Lamur blocked the PAT attempt to give his team the victory. As both teams prepare this week for the upcoming rubber match on Saturday, there will be obvious motivation for both sides as practices intensify late in the week. For the Cyclones, revenge will be the flame burning in their minds throughout the week. As for the wildcats, the thought of a good start to the big 12 season continuing the efforts for a successful future this season will be on the line come game day.
The Kansas State offense is a wrecking crew with aim to run down opposing defenses until they can bust through and slaughter their opponent. Daniel Thomas is the most obvious visual aide to this thesis. He is a big, fast, tough running back who can and will take down any opposing defense through fighting and grinding the entire game. This will be no different on Saturday. As we have seen thus far, DT has the ability to do whatever he wants against defenses even though many of those defenses are structuring their game plans around him. This will be an even bigger deal for the Cyclone defense after losing middle linebacker Matt Tao’fo’ou to a broken left leg during the first quarter of the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes last week. Daniel Thomas should have his way with this defense with the lass to Tao’fo’ou, but don’t be too surprised to see Snyder get a little airy on Saturday. The Cyclone secondary has been meager to say the least this year, and the tools necessary to have a very dangerous air attack are in place for the Cats. This could lead to many a hook-up from Coffman to his various wide out weapons. It will require that Coffman make quick and smart decisions when it comes to his reads, which has been a difficulty thus far for the senior captain. I think Coffman can become a successful passing quarterback and this could be the game for him to do so as he should have many opportunities to prove to Wildcat Nation just what he can really do with the multiple weapons he has at the wide receiver position.
Iowa State has found a saving grace for themselves within the last few years. The most evident model of this discovery is Ames native, senior quarterback Austen Arnaud. Arnaud is a quick and agile QB with quite an arm to back up his rushing abilities. The Cyclones offense will look to Arnaud to lead them to a much-needed big 12 season opener win. Arnaud will aim to lock up a win on Saturday with help from his teammate Alexander Robinson, who is the running back that holds down the Cyclone backfield. Robinson has played well the last two weeks, and could be a major factor for the Kansas State frontline. The Wildcats defense will look to improve on their efforts in the second half last week against the Missouri State Bears. Cruising into Kansas City this weekend with a very experienced and talented secondary as well as a hard-working veteran front seven, the wildcats will look to shut down the offensive attack of the Cyclones. Arnaud will be a very big impact on this game, and it will be very important for Alex Hrebec as well as Brandon Harold and the rest of the frontline defensive unit to get to him early and often to pin him into making difficult passes. Also, the wildcat defense will need to be ready to pick up the option and defend it until there are no more options for the Iowa State offense to make. The Cyclones are centered on a dual threat quarterback who can run and manage a very effective option offense. In regards to the option, it will be a very interesting thing to see whether or not the cats’ defense can respond well to such an offense. Nonetheless, the Wildcats defense will need to show up come Saturday in order to stop a very tough and relentless Cyclone offense.
Bill Snyder and staff will weigh heavily on strategy and game plan when it comes to the overall scheme of offense against Iowa State. It will be very important to come ready to go on Saturday because the Cyclones will be raring to get on the scoreboard first. I think that Snyder will need to make up his mind early, what type of game he would like to play. We have the best running back in the nation in my opinion, and we will obviously use him to his fullest potential. The question will be whether or not Snyder wants to take a shot with Coffman down the field a few times. The opportunity will present itself quite a few times throughout the game with the staggering rush game that we have in our front pocket, it will be interesting to see how Bill takes advantage of such opportunities as the game progresses. On the flipside of things, Iowa State head coach Paul Rhoads will come thoroughly prepared to try and stop the wildcats offensive prowess on the ground. Rhoads stated that this is the best running attack that the Cyclones will face all season, and he is ready to go at it head on. The Cyclone offense should show up, but Rhoads focus will be defensive aggression and shutting down Daniel Thomas.
I think that this game presents a great opportunity for both teams involved in the infamously coined “Farmageddon.” For the Cyclones, this game presents a possibility to win a marquee match up with a very good football team and start off their big 12 season 1-0. On the other hand, this game provides the wildcats with an opportunity to continue the success that they have achieved thus far, and also show the league and nation how much talent this team really has. This is really a great way for both teams to highlight their talents and prove to the doubtful that they can each be successful football teams this season. My prediction is that this will be a very hard fought game for sixty minutes, but I think that the Wildcats will pull away come the latter part of the fourth quarter. I would say that the Wildcats will win this game 24-14 and walk away with one interception. Carson Coffman will have a breakout game and throw for over 200 yards, while Daniel Thomas will continue to wreak havoc on the Iowa State defense to run for over 100 yards. The game should be a very fun one due to Kansas State painting Kansas City purple the whole weekend. I would encourage all Wildcat fans to keep the purple on all weekend and show KC how much we love our Cats.
-- Jordan Spencer, 919 Sports Staff
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