Big 12 North Preview - Kansas State Wildcats

A preview from the "Little Apple."

The Kansas State Wildcat’s tale (not tail) is that of a program that was almost there. Former K-State coaching legend Bill Snyder turned a perennial loser into a national powerhouse in the late 90’s and early on this decade. Not long before his retirement you could tell that the grind of the season and the season of recruiting had taken its toll on Snyder, with the Cats going 9-13 in his final two seasons. There was a time in the not too distant past that going for nine wins in a single season was considered a letdown in Manhattan, Kansas.

Last season was an up and down affair for first year head coach Ron Prince. Big wins against Oklahoma State and Big 12 South power Texas were huge for a first year coach trying to turn around a once promising program. This was something that even a team like Nebraska, with it’s media attention and it being tagged as a team on the upswing, could not pull off last season. However, losses against division rivals Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri negated any real progress. This year with sophomore sensation Josh Freeman at quarterback will be an exciting one. Prince is hoping that the excitement does entail a lot of mistakes, which were happening more often than not while Freeman was a freshman. The 37-10 drubbing in the Texas Bowl at the hands of 2006 Cinderella story (until Boise State upset Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl) Rutgers Scarlet Knights was also a downer after being selected to a bowl game.

This season will start off with a bang when the Wildcats travel down to Alabama to face an SEC power in the Auburn Tigers. It’s a far cry from when the Snyder regime would schedule Sister’s of the Poor University and other assorted cream puffs to pad the record before turning to conference play. This is a trend in college football I’d like to see continue, and that’s big time BCS conferences playing other big time BCS conferences during the opening of the season.

At 6’-6” and 238 pounds, Freeman is an imposing threat for the defenses he will face. Scheming for him will be a challenge for any defensive coordinator and his staff. Freeman took the freshman quarterback records and smashed them last year with 1,780 yards passing and six tosses to the end zone. In the final four games he played in, the Cats went 3-1 and Freeman hit 64.5 percent of his passes. Maybe not as important as his understanding of the offensive game plan and his conventional quaterbacking skills, but none the less a huge upside to Freeman is his ability to create plays with his legs when the called plays break down.

At running back, K-State doesn’t have much experience, but they do have some talent in the backfield. Two backs from last year will compete for the lion share of playing time this season. Sophomore Leon Patton and senior James Johnson will create a 1-2 punch of small back excitement for the team. Johnson is a bit bigger and packs a little bit bigger of a punch, but at 5’-11” and 200 pounds, he’s not going to be running over too many strong safeties across the Big 12. Patton set another K-State freshman record last year rushing for 609 yards on 108 attempts. He finished on top of the running back heap with six touchdowns and three 100-yard rushing performances.

In the receiving core there are a couple of question marks, however there will be on explanation point on the roster at the end of summer camp. That point is the return of senior receiver Jordy Nelson. Nelson has led the Cats in receiving the last two seasons, he has amassed 84 receptions for 1,216 yards and nine touchdowns in his career in Manhattan. Last season, he was a pre-season Biletnikoff Award candidate and came away with 30 receptions for 500 yards. Along side Nelson will be other experienced receivers in senior Daniel Gonzalez and junior Cedric Wilson. Prince is injecting the receiver squad with two solid junior college performers in Ernie Pierce and Deon Murphy. Look for freshman Lamark Brown and Danny Hogan to rope in some playing time as well. That’s a lot of receiving firepower, and their deepest position will be at tight end. Senior Rashaad Norword, who had the second most catches on the team last season (26) will be joined by sophomore Jeron Mastrud who is a monster on the line and will no doubt be lining up against opposing defenses and handling them quite well. They’ll both be challenged by a pair of late bloomers in senior Michael Pooschke and junior Brett Alstatt. The surprise end could be freshman stud, and the number one rated end to come out of Texas, Dante Pinchback.

The offensive line needs to be more consistent this year than they were last season. They played in games where they were responsible for helping the team score over 30 points. At other times they were plagued with inconsistency and were on the losing end scoring less than 10 points a game. The anchor of the line will be junior Jordan Bedore who is not only strong and mobile, but relishes his role as the “quarterback” of the offensive line. The only other solid starter will be All-Big 12 freshman performer Nick Stringer. If he can avoid being bitten by the injury bug, he’ll be the starter for the duration of the year. The rest of the lineup will be fought over by players waiting for their shot and season transfers from other programs.

Kansas State will have a potent defensive line in junior Ian Campbell and senior Rob Jackson. Campbell was at the top of the conference in terms of performance, he lead the team in tackles, tackles for loss and sacks with 11.5, which is a school record. His 17.5 tackles for a loss was also tops in the Big 12 in 2006. Johnson is big run stopper who is a perfect compliment to Campbell’s athletic style of play. Despite being big boys, either of the aforementioned players are athletic enough and could be standup outside linebackers in the 3-4 defense. In the middle of these two ends in the revamped 3-4 defense will be filled by two players primarily in senior Steven Cline and junior Alphonso Moran.

The linebacker core is going to be a little tougher to find answers for. Out are the top two stoppers Brandon Archer and Zach Diles who had 205 tackles between the two. When you lose two guys that can play on Sunday, that will set your team back a couple of years. There will be serious competition for linebacker spots on this team in the month of August. Junior Reggie Walker, senior Justin Roland and Sophomore John Houlik will take their turns shuffling around in the midfield and trying to find their niche. They Cats also have All-American JUCO transfer Chris Patterson at their disposal and incoming freshmen Kevin Rohleder and Brandon Walls.

The defensive backfield is no doubt, by any stretch of the imagination the strongest facet of the K-State defense. Senior safety Marcus Watts was a second-team All-Big 12 selection in '06. He along with other experienced players in junior Andrew Erker and sophomore Courtney Herndon will give the safety position big hits and a lot of game time experience. The depth gets deeper when you look at the amount of playing experience at defensive back. All of them can play, and all of them will play in what will be probably one of the most experienced backfields on the defensive side of the ball in the conference.

Kicker Jeff Snodgrass is gone, which will no doubt make an impact on the team. He wasn’t the greatest on field goals (17-for-24) but what he lacked in accuracy he made up for in distance, scoring on many 50 plus yard attempts. He was also perfect on extra points. They’ll replace him with senior Time Schwedt and junior Jared Parker. They’ll get competition from freshman Josh “I should have been a Husker” Parker. Parker is out of Nebraska and one of the best kickers to come out of high school in 2007.

Ron Prince has his work cut out for him trying to rebuild a once promising program into a program that is consistently at the top of it’s conference. He’s got the tools and the supporters to back him, all he has to do is recruit and execute. Easier said than done in the Big 12, especially with the strides Kansas and Missouri have been making the past few years, no longer willing to play second fiddle in the North to the Cats or the Huskers. If they can make it out of Auburn without being beaten to death, they’ll do okay in the weaker North division. Oh, did I mention they start out their conference schedule in Austin, Texas? Yeah, good luck boys.

2006 Overall record: 7-6
2006 Conference record: 4-4
Offensive returning starters: 7
Defensive returning starters: 6

Offense: B-
Defense: B-
Special Teams: A-
Overall: B

2007 Prediction: 7-5 (5-3, Big 12)
2007 Big 12 North Ranking: 3rd

Next Preview: Missouri Tigers