K-State Q&A: What are realistic rest-of-season football expectations for the Wildcats?

It’s time for another K-State Q&A.

There is an abundance of excellent questions to tackle this week, so let’s dive right in. Thanks, as always, for providing them.

Yes.

It’s rare that I get to answer two questions with just one word. I had to take advantage of the opportunity.

Some K-State fans definitely overreacted to the Oklahoma State loss. The same people who went on social media to promote Will Howard as the best quarterback in the Big 12 and a Heisman Trophy contender during the preseason were suddenly calling for him to be benched. The same people who cheered when Chris Klieman signed a long contract extension just months ago were calling for him to step down.

One K-Stater reached out to me and asked if I thought the Wildcats could still make it to a bowl game.

In the famous words of “BoJack Horseman” character Sarah Lynn, “That’s too much, man!”

Complaining about losses is what fans do. I get it. But let’s take a breath and remember that we can’t cut ties with every coach or player who has a bad game. This isn’t “Varsity Blues.”

K-State will likely be favored in five of its final seven games. The Wildcats will almost certainly qualify for a bowl and they are still in decent shape to go over their preseason win total of 7.5.

The season is not over ... Unless you thought they were going undefeated after losing Deuce Vaughn and Felix Anudike-Uzomah.

But there are several reasons to be worried about this team. The Wildcats don’t look like a contender in the Big 12 race. They are 0-2 in road games, and they needed an epic game from running back DJ Giddens (293 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns) to get their lone conference victory against UCF.

K-State is dealing with injuries on defense and Howard can’t stop throwing interceptions. Wide receivers aren’t playing up to expectations. The offensive line has only been average. The defense isn’t forcing many turnovers.

Those are all legitimate problems that won’t be easy to fix.

The best way to sum up this season compared to last: K-State hammered Missouri (40-12) and Oklahoma State (48-0) a year ago. It has lost to both those teams in 2023.

Beyond that, the Wildcats seem to be catching teams at the wrong time. Oklahoma State was the beneficiary of an off week and Texas Tech gets to host K-State now that it appears the Red Raiders have figured things out. Playing at Texas and at Kansas late in the year is less than ideal.

Still, let’s put things in perspective.

The Wildcats lost at the buzzer against Missouri because the Tigers kicked the longest field goal in SEC history. The Cowboys threw the kitchen sink at K-State and only won by eight.

And if K-State can find a way to win at Texas Tech it will be sitting pretty at 4-2 with upcoming home games against TCU and Houston.

It’s not time to panic. But another unexpected loss would bring that option into play.

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict K-State to finish 8-4 and end up in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, which is played in Orlando, Florida.

Here’s my reasoning.

The best-case scenario for the remainder of K-State’s football season is 9-3 with a 7-2 mark in conference play. There is no way the Wildcats will run the table with road games against Texas Tech, Texas and Kansas remaining on the schedule. But it’s plausible that they could win most of those matchups.

Most K-State fans would probably take that right now, no questions asked.

My worst-case scenario for K-State is 6-6. That would probably mean the Wildcats lose to all three teams I mentioned above, plus TCU or Iowa State at home.

Boy, that would be a disappointing season.

The law of averages suggests that the Wildcats will finish somewhere in the middle. It’s a tough call between 7-5 and 8-4, but I’m going to go the optimistic route. Chris Klieman has never lost to Texas Tech or Kansas. I’m guessing he finds a way to at least split those games, which make 8-4 the most likely final record.

K-State hasn’t been great on special teams this season, by any means, but I do think the Wildcats have played better in that area than some fans want to admit.

Jack Blumer is averaging 43.1 yards per punt, with a long of 69. Phillip Brooks is averaging 20.3 yards per kickoff return. Marques Sigle blocked a field goal last week against Oklahoma State.

That doesn’t sound like awful special teams to me.

Injuries have hurt K-State special teams more than anything this year.

The Wildcats no longer have a coordinator designated to special teams like they did during the Bill Snyder days. It was a low key loss for the football team when Stanton Weber left his spot on the K-State staff for South Carolina and then Toledo.

But K-State also thrived on special teams last season without a coordinator thanks to Ty Zentner stepping up and having a great year.

The Wildcats put plenty of effort into special teams with or without a coordinator. I honestly don’t think that is the problem.

That’s a great stat.

I didn’t realize it had been that long since Kansas State won a regular season game in the middle of the week. But I will point out that the Wildcats have won a few recent bowl games that weren’t played on Saturday.

In any case, I don’t think that losing streak is anything more than coincidence.

Sure, you can point to less preparation time or a break from routine as the reason why K-State lost those games. But it might also be that North Dakota State was the best FCS team ever, Stanford had Christian McCaffrey, Skylar Thompson didn’t play at Texas in 2021 and Oklahoma State was playing in front of a sellout crowd coming off an open week.

The trend is bad enough that K-State should probably not volunteer to play any more weekday games in the future. Unfortunately, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has said that the conference will play more of those in the years to come.

So K-State will need to figure out how to start winning midweek games.

OK, that’s not bad.

Well done, Ryan. I haven’t laughed that hard at a mailbag question in a long time.

You know what my answer is going to be.

Hair ... by a mile.

Sure, I wish I could run 23 miles per hour and throw the ball a country mile. But I really wish I had long, flowing locks of hair. As a bald man, I can’t begin to imagine what that must feel like.

E-MAIL QUESTION: Which school has the inside track on Michael Boganowski? - John S.

Never say never in recruiting. Nothing is final until a high school player signs with a school. Anymore, there is even some wiggle room after that happens.

But it sure seems like Oklahoma is in the lead for Junction City linebacker Michael Boganowski.

Recruiting experts at both 247sports and On3 have predicted that Boganowski will commit to the Sooners next week. The people I have talked to behind the scenes also think that OU will be his final destination.

It may not mean anything, but Boganowski was wearing OU gloves in the graphic he sent out announcing that he was ready to make his decision. The Sooners are also coming off an enormous victory over Texas.

Everything seems to be lined up in their favor.

But Kansas and K-State are both “local” schools for Boganowski. It’s possible that the Wildcats could make a strong late impression on him and he ends up wearing purple.

Or he could just change his mind between now and his announcement ceremony. Just about anything is possible in the world of football recruiting. He will announce his decision next week between KU, K-State, Oklahoma and Florida State. So we will know soon enough.

But Oklahoma is currently the betting favorite.

Kansas State baseball coach Pete Hughes is always looking for new jerseys with fun details, so I bet we do see something with Wildcats in script from them.

I’m not so sure about football, though. The Cats script they tried out on their helmets a few years ago seems like as far as they were willing to go.

Probably well over 1,000.

Texas Tech is expecting a big crowd for a night game against K-State. A good chunk of their fans will surely smuggle in tortillas and waste them at kickoff.

I’ve followed Big 12 sports for most of my life, and I’m still not sure what to make of that tradition.

Throwing tortillas on the field is kind of cool, because nobody else does it, and there’s no way anyone can get hurt by a flying tortilla. But tortillas are also delicious, so I hate that they become trash or bird food.

Maybe I will walk down into the stands and throw a tortilla on Saturday. Then I can properly make a ruling on the strange tradition.

Anything will be possible when K-State hosts Baylor and Houston in a few weeks.

The Cougars are allowing 242.2 passing yards per game, and the Bears are allowing teams to gain 8.4 yards per attempt. Those are two bad defenses, and the Wildcats will get to play them at home.

I could see Phillip Brooks or RJ Garcia eclipsing 100 yards in one of those games.

But otherwise it seems like tight end Ben Sinnott is the best 100-yard threat on the team.