Bill Snyder says effort (not talent) will determine playing time in remaining games

Kansas State football coaches usually honor a handful of players with weekly awards following games, but they took a different approach after studying the team’s 51-14 loss to Oklahoma on Saturday.

The Wildcats singled out defensive end Kyle Ball as their player of the week, choosing not to share the accolade with any of his teammates on offense or special teams for the first time all season.

Why? The answer boils down to one word — effort.

“Kyle made some plays in the ballgame, but I think the thing you see about him is a young guy that just plays as hard as he possibly can snap after snap,” K-State coach Bill Snyder said. “When someone else might (give up) because of how far behind we were, he just keeps playing as hard as he possibly can. And he played well. It’s not that he just played hard, he played well in the course of the ballgame, got in the backfield, got a sack and forced some scrambles.”

By only honoring Ball, a junior from Shawnee Mission East, Snyder sent a message to everyone else on K-State’s roster.

Coming off a blowout loss in the middle of an already disappointing season, he will value effort over talent as the Wildcats prepare for their next game against TCU.

“I shared that with our players after the ballgame, that the guys who are going to get on the field are the guys that we can count on to provide the best effort that they have,” Snyder said, “whatever that happens to be.”

The Oklahoma game was a humbling experience for everyone involved. K-State was coming off its best victory of the season, a 31-12 win over Oklahoma State, and had two weeks to prepare. Few picked the Wildcats to win, but many expected them to cover the 25-point spread.

Instead, the Sooners amassed 702 yards (the fifth most allowed in K-State history) and pulled their starters midway through the third quarter. The score could have easily been worse.

Snyder said players would need to do some “soul-searching” immediately after the game. He did some of that himself. That could lead to some personnel changes this week, based on effort.

“He was pretty disappointed and pretty upset,” quarterback Skylar Thompson said following the Oklahoma game. “He was questioning who is committed to this program and who isn’t. He is going to play the people who care and who are committed to this team.”

Translation: Snyder wants K-State players to emulate Ball.

Though Ball was far from perfect against the Sooners, he relentlessly chased Sooners quarterback Kyler Murray and finished with seven tackles (one for loss) and two QB hurries. He ran as hard and as long as anyone else that took the field.

K-State could certainly use more of that when it heads to TCU this weekend.

The Wildcats don’t think effort will be a problem in that one. K-State players that spoke with media on Tuesday said just about everyone on the team played hard against Oklahoma, it was just hard for some of them to stay fully involved mentally as the Sooners raced to a massive lead.

“We just didn’t come with the right mindset, it seems like,” receiver Zach Reuter said. “We weren’t mentally prepared to compete at the level we needed to. The game plan seemed solid. I think we just need to execute better as a team, simple as that.”

To that end, Snyder stressed competition with players when they met for practice on Monday.

He even started the session with a game of tug of war between defensive back AJ Parker and receiver Isaiah Zuber. The first player to run five yards while linked to the other, won. Zuber emerged victorious, and the drill fired up players on both sides.

K-State usually saves games like tug of war for summer workouts, but Snyder wanted to break up the monotony of fall practices. Anything to create more competition and boost energy before the Wildcats embark on their final four games.

“We are trying to get energy up and really bringing that competitive edge,” Reuter said. “Moving forward, that is what we are focused on, approaching every snap like the game depends on it.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2018 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Bill Snyder says effort (not talent) will determine playing time in remaining games."