The Kansas State season still has a path forward, but the margin for error is gone.
A lot was supposed to click for the Wildcats this fall. It was Collin Klein’s first year at the helm, with the former K-State quarterback taking over as coach.
Avery Johnson was back for his third season as the starter. And before the year even got rolling, there were people talking about Kansas State as a sleeper in the Big 12 race and a team with College Football Playoff potential.
The early returns backed up the buzz. Kansas State opened with convincing home wins over Nicholls, Washington State and Tulane, and the first month had the look of a team settling into something bigger.
Then came Cincinnati.
The Wildcats carried a seven-point lead into halftime of their conference opener, but the second half turned into a collapse. Derrick Salley’s fumble on the first play of the third quarter opened the door, and Cincinnati kept leaning on the run game while Kansas State never found a response. By the time it was over at Nippert Stadium, the Wildcats were staring at a 31-26 loss that stalled all that early momentum.
Now the question is whether that loss becomes a defining setback or just a bump in the road.
The answer, at least for now, is that Kansas State still has a shot. The Wildcats are 3-1 and coming out of a bye week, which gives Klein and his staff time to sort through what went wrong and move on.
The frustrating part is that they had every chance to leave Cincinnati with a win. If they had, they would have been 4-0 for the first time since 2012, the same season they won the conference and lost to Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl with Klein at quarterback.
Instead, the Wildcats head into next week’s home game against Houston needing to make up ground in a Big 12 that already looks crowded. Utah, BYU and defending champion Texas Tech are in the mix, but Kansas State’s schedule gives it a real opening. The Wildcats don’t play any of those top teams, and most of their biggest Big 12 games come at home, including Houston.
That doesn’t make the road simple.
For Kansas State, the remaining schedule still carries plenty of danger. Right now, the only ranked teams left are No.
20 Houston and No. 19 Oklahoma State, and both of those games will be played in Manhattan.
That leaves the Wildcats with a clear chance to stay in the race - but also very little room to stumble again.
In Other News...
Kansas State May Have Found A Recruit Worth Chasing Hard
Kansas States recruiting board picked up another intriguing name this week when Collin Klein extended an offer to junior college defensive lineman Jekai Lee out of Butler County Community College. Lee has started to draw real national attention, with 247 Sports rating him a three-star prospect and placing him second among defensive linemen in the country, the kind of profile that usually gets a staffs full attention rather than a passing glance.
Lee now joins a growing list of targets the Wildcats are tracking, a group that includes Mason Pearsall-Brown, Quinn Jacobs, Dailon Denkins, Julian Dwyer, Brady Reeves, Sloan Blackwell, Jerry Richmond and Asher Megonnell. Kansas State has been active on the trail, and with Lees stock rising, this looks like the sort of recruitment that could tell you a lot about how aggressively the Wildcats want to attack the line of scrimmage in this cycle. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas State Run Defense Is Suddenly Under Real Pressure
Kansas States run defense has gone from strength to concern in a hurry, and the timing could hardly be worse. The Wildcats have been gashed on the ground in back-to-back games by Cincinnati and Tulane, leaving first-year coach Collin Klein with different problems to sort through before Houston comes to town. Klein said the issues were not the same from one game to the next, which only makes the correction work more complicated for a defense that now has to brace for another opponent built around the run.
Houstons backfield gives the Wildcats little margin for error, and this is the kind of matchup that can expose whether the fixes are real or just talk. While Kansas State tries to steady itself on the field, there is also some major business being worked out off it, as the school is reportedly finalizing a $12 million payment agreement with former basketball coach Jerome Tang to settle the remaining $18 million on his contract. For a program already dealing with pressure in one sport, it is a reminder that the off-field ledger can be just as complicated. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas State Just Missed A Big Recruiting Chance In Alexander's First Year
Kansas State had a real seat at the table for one of the more interesting names in the recruiting cycle, but Malik Olajuwon ended up heading elsewhere. The son of Hakeem Olajuwon, and one of the top basketball recruits in the class, had the Wildcats among his six finalists before committing to SMU, a reminder that Casey Alexanders first year in Manhattan is already bringing the usual mix of opportunity and pressure that comes with trying to build a roster on the fly.
The miss does not end the search, though, and Kansas State is still working the board on several other targets. William Powers, David Cochran and Teke Deng are among the prospects the Wildcats have either offered or continued to pursue, which means Alexanders early recruiting file is still very much in motion as he tries to land the kind of pieces that can shape the program beyond one splashy battle. [Read more 🡒]