The battle for the governors cup will take place tomorrow night in Lawrence, KS, but that’s not the only thing at stake when Kansas State (4-1) takes on Kansas (2-3) in this in state rivalry. The main thing both teams are looking for is redemption from their previous outings. K-State is looking to move past their horrific beating at the hands of Nebraska on national television last Thursday. Before the game, the ‘Cats were garnering some votes in the top 25 and looking to steal the Big 12 North. They received one vote last week, and still hold an outside chance at the division but it would take a Corn Huskers miscue, which doesn’t seem likely. At least they lost to a top-10 team and surefire national title contender though. The Jayhawks are coming off a route by the Baylor Bears 2 weeks ago. KU has had a trying season this far with losses to Baylor, North Dakota State, and Southern Miss. They do own a victory over Georgia Tech which looked impressive at the time, as the Yellow Jackets were ranked 15th in the polls however they have since tailed off. In the game last year the Wildcats were able to win 17-10 behind on the back of halfback Daniel Thomas. Which leads us to the breakdown of this year’s game.
KSU Offense vs. KU Defense
K-State needs for their stud, Thomas, to revert back to his opening season form. That may be asking a lot of him as his opening season form was absurdly good, but they definitely need more production out of him, to lessen the load of QB Carson Coffman. Thomas has been held under 100 yards for 2 straight weeks, granted not many running backs can rush for 100 yards on the black shirts, especially with a mediocre passing game. Coffman has been hit-or-miss this year, but has had a tendency to come through in the clutch, engineering some spectacular 4th quarter drives. This could be the week that Thomas finally returns to form as he is facing a below average defense at stopping the run, as the ‘Hawks are ranked 95th and allowing 187 yards per game. Even so Thomas will continue seeing 8-man fronts until Coffman starts carving up the empty secondary. KU’s pass defense is allowing a modest 189 yards per game good for 40th in the nation. The D lost 8 starters off of last years team, including their whole front line and both safeties. Three of the starters were apart of the team that won the Orange Bowl. The Hawks have returned 2 freshman All-American from last year in LB Huldon Tharp and S Lubbock Smith, as well honorable mention All-Conference DE Jake Laptad. Major Edge: K-State
KSU Defense vs. KU Offense
Flashback to September 11th, as the Jayhawks were rushing the field and tearing down the goalposts, they thought they had found their savior. QB Jordan Webb was inserted after an ugly opening week loss to South Dakota State and if you asked fans in Lawrence he was some sort of mix between John Elway, Peyton Manning, and Joe Montana. Now Fast Forward to present day and those assumptions seem even more ridiculous than they did then (and they were pretty ridiculous then). Webb has at least given them the option of throwing the ball, and the team has put up some points, but they are still a sub .500 team. They have struggled all year to replace their core players from the Mangino era in Todd Reesing, Dezmund Briscoe, Kerry Meir, and Jake Sharpe. The Jayhawks offense is pathetic to say the least. They rank 74th in rushing and 84th in passing in the nation and are barely eclipsing 300 yards a game. On the other side of the ball the K-state Defense has been good or atrocious depending on which aspect you want to look at. The Rush Defense is believe it or not actually worse than KU’s ranking 116th in the nation allowing a meager 246 yards per game. However Webb will have his hands full trying to move the ball downfield on the KSU pass D, as they are allowing a stout 150 yards per game through the air and are ranked in the top 10. Despite the Jayhawks offensive woes one of the bright spots has been tailback James Sims who is averaging 4.9 yards a carry. Kansas will need for him to have a field day for them to have a chance in this game.
Edge: K-State
Special Teams
Last week the only bright spots you could find on the K-State team were the special teams players. Senior William Powell was electric returning the ball, almost to Nebraska territory every time he touched it averaging 31 yards a return. Punter Ryan Doerr pinned the Huskers inside the 20 3 times. The pair turned the field position battle in K-States favor throughout the night, but alas the ‘Cats couldn’t capitalize. Kicker Josh Cherry was perfect on the night hitting 2 field goals and 1 extra point. On the Jayhawks side kicker Jacob Branstetter has been anything but automatic, going 2 for 5 on the year, and already having missed and extra point. Punter Alonso Rojas is averaging a respectable 43.8 yards a boot but has already had 2 punts blocked, and Bill Snyder’s teams love to score non-offensive touchdowns. However returnman D.J. Beshears has been electric with the ball averaging 33.4 yards a return with a score.
Major Edge: K-State.
Coaching
We don’t need to spend too much time going over Coach Snyder’s accolades, as all KSU fans know them by heart. He engineered the “Miracle in Manhattan” and has led the team to 3 BCS bowls. He is a legend. On the flip side it’s harder to get a read on Turner Gill’s ability as a head coach. There is no doubting that he was truly one of the great players ever at the college level leading Nebraska to 3 Big Eight titles and 3 Major bowl games. But rarely do great players make great coaches. They struggle to adjust to the fact that not all players have the same work ethic they had. Gill started his career coaching at the University of Buffalo where his teams improved in his first 3 seasons going 2-10, 5-7, and 8-6. He led them to one conference championship and one bowl game, a loss. His high of coaching was when he led to the Bulls to a victory over then #12 Ball State in the conference Championship. He was then bypassed over the Auburn coaching job which many felt he deserved. But if you look at the teams records it’s hard to overlook the fact that he never established a conference championship caliber team year in and year out, despite playing in a below average conference with no true powerhouse. If Gill was as good of a coach as he was made out to be his teams would have done better than finishing 5th in his final year. It also hurts him that he is replacing Mark Mangino who actually restored some credibility to the KU football program with its 2007 Orange Bowl victory.
Edge: K-State
K-state pass defense will baffle Webb, and slow down the Kansas running attack enough. Thomas will gash the KU D, and Coffman will look better than he has all year as the Cats roll.
Prediction: K-State 34 KU 10
-- Josh Dockendorf, 91.9 Sports Staff
Showing posts with label big 12. Show all posts
Showing posts with label big 12. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Iowa State v. K-State Preview for 9/18/10
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
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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