Five things we learned about Kansas State football this spring, even without practice
Spring football practice was supposed to come to an end last week at Kansas State.
Skylar Thompson was supposed to throw long passes to Malik Knowles. Justin Hughes was supposed to return from a ACL injury at linebacker. Joe Klanderman was supposed to start working with players as the team’s new defensive coordinator. And fans were supposed to get an up-close glimpse at the Wildcats for the first time since the 2019 season drew to a close at the Liberty Bowl.
Alas, none of that happened.
When K-State was scheduled to fire up the lights at Bill Snyder Family Stadium and invite fans into the stands last Friday, the Wildcats were spread out all across the country in quarantine because of the coronavirus pandemic unsure of when they will be allowed to reunite as a team.
“I just miss seeing the guys on a daily basis,” K-State football coach Chris Klieman said. “I’m not in on the position meetings right now because I have so many other things to do. So, I don’t have the chance to go through with (Jason Ray) and talk to the wide receivers or Courtney (Messingham) with the tight ends or Joe (Klanderman] with the safeties. So, I miss that camaraderie.”
We were supposed to learn a great deal about K-State football this spring, as the Wildcats are expected to break in new starters and coaches next season.
In that sense, it was a disappointing spring for anyone that follows K-State football. But we did learn a few things about the Wildcats, even without the team going through 15 practices.
Here is a look at the top five:
1. Offensive line coming into focus
Kansas State’s biggest question mark of the spring, and next season, resides up front.
Who will start for the Wildcats on the offensive line?
K-State lost all five of its starters to graduation last season, meaning it will go from starting five seniors on the offensive line to five players with limited playing experience.
It would have been interesting to see where offensive line coach Conor Riley would have worked blockers during spring practice. Still, Klieman and offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham have provided some clues recently.
K-State coaches are very high on Cooper Beebe and Josh Rivas, and they had positive things to say about Kaitori Leveston, Noah Johnson, Christian Duffie and Ben Adler. Quarterback Skylar Thompson also said he spent time working specifically with Johnson, because he is projected to start at center next season.
If K-State released a depth chart right now, it might feature Leveston at left tackle, Beebe at left guard, Johnson at center, Rivas at right guard and Duffie at right tackle. But the Wildcats like to rotate in fresh blockers and use more than just five offensive linemen in games, so potential backups like Adler, Carver Willis and Dawson Delforge could all be factors.
It seems like K-State coaches have identified their most talented blockers. Selecting the five that play the best together is a unit will be their challenge whenever preseason practices begin. Messingham said that will be more important than simply playing the Cats’ best five linemen.
2. Experience is more important than ever, especially at QB
There are many unknowns about 2020 football season, but one thing is for sure: experienced teams will have a big head start on young teams.
That is one reason why K-State’s coaches are grateful that they return Thompson at quarterback. Thompson will be a fifth-year senior next season, and he has started games for the Wildcats since he was a redshirt freshman.
Now is not the time for a quarterback competition.
Coaches around the country are talking about simplifying their schemes next season, because they won’t have as much time as usual to devote to installing new plays.
K-State won’t have to worry about that as much as some with Thompson returning as the unquestioned leader of the offense. Thompson came into his own as a quarterback under Klieman last season by completing 167 of 283 passes for 2,191 yards and 12 touchdowns on top of 402 yards and 10 touchdowns as a runner.
He could improve by taking more chances and getting his receivers more involved next season, but he did enough last year to guide the Wildcats to eight victories and some truly impressive offensive outings like a 48-41 win over Oklahoma.
Thompson has continued to lead K-State as best he can with text messages and video calls during quarantine. His knowledge of the offense will also pay dividends whenever football resumes.
“That has been really important because I know, from a leadership standpoint, he’s reaching out to everybody on that side of the ball, visiting with our skill guys and continuing to watch film with those guys,” Klieman said. “He is continuing to challenge those guys to stay in the playbook. Continuing to challenge them to watch whether it be a non-conference opponent or an early conference opponent.”
3. New coordinator. New scheme?
A year after making solid progress on defense under Scottie Hazelton, K-State will now start over with a new coordinator.
Joe Klanderman has been promoted from safeties coach to defensive coordinator, a job that he says he has been auditioning for as one of Klieman’s assistant coaches for the past six years.
The Wildcats also welcomed Steve Stanard as their new linebackers coach this spring, meaning they will look different in multiple areas next season. But their overall defensive scheme shouldn’t change all that much, even after some coaching turnover.
The secondary was the strength of K-State’s defense last season, and Klanderman is unlikely to change much in that regard. He says he wants to be more aggressive with his coverage schemes than his predecessor, but otherwise use a similar play book.
It will be fascinating to see how much differently Klanderman calls a game than Hazelton, but Klieman says both “players and fans” won’t recognize much of a change in K-State’s base defense. Without spring practice, Klanderman has more or less scrapped any major changes he had planned.
4. Unsung leaders
It didn’t come as much of a surprise to hear K-State coaches identify returning starters like Thompson, Harry Trotter, Wyatt Hubert, Elijah Sullivan and Justin Hughes as offseason leaders during this unusual time. But it was eye-opening to hear them mention Brock Monty and Noah Johnson in the same sentence as that group.
K-State fans can probably expect to see more of both of them next season.
Johnson, originally from Wichita, seems ready to compete for starting center duties after transferring in from Butler Community College
Monty is a Kapaun Mt. Carmel product who helped on virtually every special teams unit last season and could emerge as a contributor in the secondary next season.
The Wildcats will take as much leadership as they can get during this unusual time. Johnson and Monty are providing some.
5. Staying in shape
Even though Klieman says he would like nearly eight weeks of workout and practice time with his team before beginning the 2020 football season, it sounds like the Wildcats are doing a good job staying in shape on their own this spring.
Senior running back Trotter works out multiple a times a day at Manhattan parks and hits his home weight room hard. Thompson safely throws at the same field with other college and professional quarterbacks a few times each week in Kansas City. Justin Hughes has done so much running that he already feels in football shape. Some players have even worked out their legs by pushing cars and trucks.
A few K-State players are bound to return to campus in need of conditioning, but they may not face as big an uphill climb as other teams because of the hard work they are currently putting in.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 2:45 PM with the headline "Five things we learned about Kansas State football this spring, even without practice."