K-State Q&A: Salary reductions, Scott Frantz and the Wildcats’ next NFL Draft pick
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
No need for an elaborate introduction this week, so let’s dive right into your questions. They are good, as always. Thank you for providing them.
There hasn’t been much of a need for Kansas State coaches to accept salary reductions before, so I am pretty sure these are a first. If they have happened, they haven’t happened in a long time.
For anyone who is unaware, Bruce Weber and Chris Klieman both agreed to reduce their salaries by 13% during the upcoming fiscal year. All K-State athletic employees making more than $150,000 per year will also have their pay cut by 10% and anyone making between $100,000 and $150,000 will have their pay cut by 5%.
On top of other budget reductions, those cost-cutting measures will save the athletic department around $3.5 million.
Has this happened elsewhere? Yes. K-State is not one of the first schools to announce salary reductions.
In the Big 12 alone, the following schools have announced similar plans:
- Iowa State (payroll reduction of $3 million and no bonuses for coaches).
- Kansas (10% salary cut for Les Miles, Bill Self and Jeff Long for six months).
- Baylor (delayed construction of new basketball arena).
- Kansas State (detailed above).
Bob Bowlsby and other Big 12 administrators will also take a 10% pay cut.
Scott Frantz is an openly gay football player. Could that have hurt his NFL Draft chances? I certainly hope the answer is no. But I’m willing to say it could have played at least a small role in him missing out on a free-agent contract.
But it certainly wasn’t the main factor. I wouldn’t call it an elephant in the room.
I asked both Frantz and his agent if they thought his sexuality hurt his draft chances in any way and neither one said yes. So there’s that.
Also: Frantz doesn’t fit the mold of a traditional pro prospect at left tackle. At 6-foot-5 with a 32-inch wing span, he is smaller than most NFL tackles. He also lacks the athleticism that scouts love.
Nick Kaltmayer, who landed a free-agent deal with the Miami Dolphins, is 6-8 with a much longer reach.
Tweaking his hamstring a few days before his pro day probably hurt Frantz more than anything. Frantz’s pro day numbers were disastrous.
His 40-yard dash time of 5.73 seconds was a good .13 seconds worse than the slowest participant at the NFL Scouting Combine. His vertical jump of 22.5 inches was worse than every offensive lineman at the combine. His bench press, three-cone drill and broad jump all would have ranked near the bottom of combine participants.
He finished last in several drills at K-State’s pro day.
There are bigger draft snubs out there, is what I’m trying to say.
Even after starting 51 straight games for the Wildcats and proving he can play left tackle at a high level, that scared away some teams. There’s a difference between good college players and good pro prospects.
Then the coronavirus hit and he lost any chance to redeem himself at private workouts with teams. COVID-19 also eliminated all rookie camps, robbing him of an opportunity to prove himself there.
Under normal circumstances, I think a team would have absolutely invited Frantz to a rookie camp. But these aren’t normal circumstances.
I like Frantz. He is a good person from a good family. I think he deserves a NFL opportunity as an undrafted free agent, but a poor pro day was too much for him to overcome.
I’m just glad he is taking the process in stride and has a good Plan B ready for life after football.
Devin Anctil was the biggest surprise for me. He has a powerful enough leg to punt in the NFL.
Alas, punter is not a priority for most teams. He seems like another player that could have taken advantage of a rookie camp, but won’t be able to now.
It’s too bad. Former K-State kicker Matthew McCrane isn’t in the NFL, either. I think he is a pro kicker, too.
Another question I would like to explore here is when K-State will produce its next NFL Draft selection.
Next year seems uncertain. Wyatt Hubert is probably the Wildcats’ next sure-fire draft pick, but he will only be a junior next season. Will he declare early for the draft or return as a senior? That could determine whether K-State begins a new streak in 2021 or has to wait until 2022.
Some other draft hopefuls: Elijah Sullivan, Justin Hughes, Blake Lynch, A.J. Parker, Skylar Thompson and Briley Moore.
Any of them could make the leap with a big senior year.
Hey Kellis! Thought this could be a fun question for your next K-State Q&A. Feel free to use it. Let’s say a team picked you in the NFL Draft. What random factoids would ESPN list about you in their goofy player graphic? - Andrew B.
This is a great question. I found myself more interested in the “goofy player graphics” ESPN used last week than the picks themselves.
The parody graphic someone on Twitter posted about Batman was hillarious.
Anyway, I think my graphic would look something like this:
- Scratch golfer in high school. Every member of his immediate family has hit a hole-in-one — dad, mom, brother and himself.
- Once rolled 16 straight strikes at a bowling alley, though his high score is only 289. (No clutch gene?)
- Played the tuba in middle-school band.
- Friends made fun of him for losing hair before he could drive.
- Drank beer before he turned 21. (possible red flag)
- Smoking hot wife.
- Still learning how to use Zoom.
- Skilled multi-tasker, capable of writing sports stories with three kids at home 24/7.
- Favorite fast food restaurant is Whataburger.
- Grandparents died when he was young. (tragedy)
- Lived in Idaho for three years.
- Beer snob.
- Barbecue snob.
- Drinks too much Dr Pepper.
- Zero fast-twitch muscles.
- Uses BoJack Horseman as his Twitter avatar.
I would not just be honored if readers bet with each other on which questions I choose to answer each week, I would be extremely honored.
Right now, it’s a safe bet I answer just about everyone’s questions, because there isn’t a whole lot to ask about at the moment.
As your question is on a valid K-State sports topic, hasn’t been addressed in a recent Q&A and doesn’t contain inappropriate language I’m almost certainly going to include it.
The hard part of this job is when, for example, you have seven different people asking about K-State’s NFL Draft streak on the same day. I’m probably only going to include the best, or funniest, one in that scenario.
Random questions are a bit more of a wild card. Sometimes I will get a truly great off-the-wall question, but I don’t include it because it takes me too long to come up with an appropriate answer. So if you’re thinking about asking a random question in the future you want to aim for something right down the middle. Not so good that I have to think long and hard about it. But also not so bad that I don’t want to bother with it.
Referencing The Simpsons or BoJack Horseman usually helps!
I can’t offer much in the way of prizes with questions. But I’m always happy to provide shout-outs on Twitter.
It really depends on if Hot Dog Kellis is covered in toppings. And if so, which ones.
If I’m a plain old hot dog, then I can probably resist the urge to eat myself. Same goes for if I’m covered with mustard or relish. Yuck!
But if I’m covered with ketchup, mustard, bacon, peppers and cheese AND I am wrapped in a toasted bun then it will be pretty hard for me to resist. Of course, if that were the case, I could just eat all my toppings and continue living without eating myself.
That’s what I would aim for.
OK all you cool cats and kittens. Let’s do this!
Oklahoma = Joe Exotic: He is the Tiger King. The Sooners are football kings of the Big 12. Exotic’s old zoo is located kinda close to Norman. I think the comparison works.
Jeff Lowe = West Virginia: The Mountaineers seemed cool before they joined the Big 12 and made a lot of promises during conference realignment. But they haven’t kept all of them and have been a weird addition. But Lowe is still a vital member to the documentary, and he could definitely fit in with the fine folks of Morgantown.
Texas = Doc Antle: If any team in this conference can ride an elephant down a street and support several wives, it’s the Longhorns.
Kansas = James Garretson: For some reason, I can totally picture Les Miles riding a jet sky and taking off his sunglasses for effect as the cameras roll. Put it in slow motion, and there’s the next KU football recruiting video.
Baylor = Carole Baskin: I was tempted to go with Texas here, because the Longhorns have lots of money, but I’m going with Baylor instead. If there’s one school the rest of the conference would like to get rid of, it’s Baylor. The Bears also have some history with crime.
Iowa State = Barbara Fisher: She briefly worked for Antle and then moved ... to Ames!
Texas Tech = John Reinke: The manager of the GW Zoo gets a heck of a lot done, considering he doesn’t have any legs. The same can be said for the Red Raiders’ athletic department, which has been without good football for quite some time.
TCU = Allen Glover: The Horned Frogs could be called the handymen (or hit men) of the Big 12, willing to do whatever is needed for the good of the conference.
Kansas State = Rick Kirkham: The Wildcats’ 1998 loss to Texas A&M rivals the day Kirkham’s reality show footage mysteriously burned up in a fire. But, like Kirkham, K-State bounced back and won a few Big 12 championships in the years ahead.
Oklahoma State = Carole Baskin’s living husband: Did you see their wedding photos? How embarrassing! Reminds me a little of the antics Mike Gundy likes to pull.
The basketball team’s scheduled trip to Europe for a string of exhibition games this summer is, indeed, not happening.
When will the team be allowed to return to practice? That remains unclear. K-State has suspended all in-person classes until at least July 31, making it unlikely for Bruce Weber to hold any practices or workouts before then. But some insiders have told me there’s an outside chance athletes might be allowed on campus before the general student body at some point in July.
We will just have to wait and see on that one.
Sports reporting is a challenge right now, mostly because none of the normal things people want to read about are happening. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t good stories out there. Believe it or now, some of my busiest working days of 2020 have occurred without sports taking place.
Recruiting never stops. Neither do transfers. And everyone wants to know when sports will start back up again.
One blessing to sports writing at the moment: Everyone is a little bored. Some sources who are normally too busy to talk are happy to do so right now.
This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Salary reductions, Scott Frantz and the Wildcats’ next NFL Draft pick."