It’s no way to enter an intense rivalry game – reeling over a bad loss to a team having a down year.
But Kansas State’s football team is heading into today’s 11 a.m. clash with Kansas University lacking any hint of momentum, a product of Saturday’s futile 43-21 loss to Oklahoma.
This past week of practice especially was critical for the Wildcats, after mental blunders, no run game and a porous defense did K-State in early and often against the Sooners.
“Games are played on Saturdays, but games are won Monday through Thursday,” KSU offensive lineman Jeromey Clary said. “They have to pick it up during practice in order to execute on Saturdays.”
Clary leads a young offensive line, which, until the OU game, was impressive at catapulting the KSU running game. On the legs of running back Thomas Clayton, KSU ran for 246 yards against Florida International and 208 more against Marshall, both victories. Clayton sat out K-State’s victory against North Texas after an arrest, but freshman Parrish Fisher filled in to the tune of 169 yards on 21 carries. As a team, KSU garnered 305 yards rushing against UNT.
Without a doubt, Kansas State needs to re-establish the run game if it wants to win today. The Wildcats rushed for just 22 yards on 32 carries against Oklahoma. Fisher led KSU in yardage with 13 on two carries.
“I feel like I let the team down,” said Clayton, who had 14 carries for eight yards against OU. “I feel like, as a playmaker, I should make plays. Though there were times where I was hit in the backfield and there wasn’t really anything I could do, there were opportunities that I did have that I didn’t make the best of.”
Kansas State’s murky quarterback situation makes Clayton and Fisher all the more important. While Dylan Meier, brother of KU quarterback Kerry, continues to heal from a shoulder injury, KSU has gone with Allen Webb as its primary quarterback.
This week, though, Snyder told the media that freshman Allan Evridge was gaining ground – a sign that Snyder isn’t completely satisfied with Webb.
That, of course, puts KSU in a bit of a quarterback controversy not unlike the Jayhawks, who have Brian Luke, Adam Barmann and Marcus Herford all battling for snaps.
“The name of the game is reps, especially at the quarterback position and in the offense that we run,” Evridge said of his progress.
“With every rep, the game slows down, and it becomes more and more second-nature.”
With Kansas State fielding a young team, repetitions probably are the key. And despite getting pasted at Oklahoma, Clary feels the Wildcats learned things that will help the Wildcats in future contests.
“What went right is that we got some experience on the road against 80,000-plus fans,” Clary said. “We didn’t handle it well, so that’s the negative of it, but we got that experience under the young kids’ belt.”