‘Now we are practicing for a reason’: Kansas State motivated by Big 12 football plans
When Kansas State’s football players suited up for their first day of preseason camp last week, there were understandably many distracted student-athletes on the practice field.
Constantly wondering whether your team is going to play any games in the fall is a difficult concern to ignore.
“There’s a lot going through my head. I’d be lying to you if I said there wasn’t,” K-State quarterback Skylar Thompson said this week. “Any any senior in the entire country would say the same thing. There’s a lot of things being said about possible outcomes of our football season, our last football season. It’s pretty crazy.”
Thompson’s mind was put to ease a few days later. All of the K-State players could breath a little easier when the Big 12 announced plans to move forward with the 2020 football season. It remains unclear whether the pandemic’s progression will allow any teams to actually take the field for games before the year ends, but the Wildcats are pleased to know they are part of a conference that will at least try to play with a revised schedule.
K-State’s players went from not knowing if they were going to play in the fall to learning they were going to open the season against Arkansas State on Sept. 12 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
That was a good feeling for them.
“When we got the announcement the other day after a walk through, there was a big (cheer from the players),” K-State running backs coach Brian Anderson said Friday. “They were fired up about it.”
Their energy carried over to the practice field.
“Our kids were excited,” K-State defensive ends coach Buddy Wyatt said. “You could tell the next meeting and the next practice that we had a new attitude. They feel like now we are practicing for a reason.”
It’s not that K-State players weren’t already working hard in practice. They were. Coach Chris Klieman applauded his team for blocking out distractions as best as possible earlier this week. He has asked them to control what they can control and not worry about anything else throughout the summer, and they have done exactly that.
But it was getting hard to stay focused when the Big Ten and Pac-12 both postponed their football seasons until the spring.
Thompson said he spent one day this week worrying way too much about possible outcomes for the Big 12, and it hurt his performance. He thought he wasn’t being a good leader.
“It definitely put some of the players at ease,” Wyatt said of the Big 12’s determination. “Mentally, not knowing is the biggest issue with everybody during this pandemic, not knowing what is going to be happening one day to the next.”
The Big 12’s announcement erased some level of fear. Now the Wildcats can focus on Arkansas State, just like they would in any other preseason camp.
“Our guys are fired up to play,” Anderson said. “They have put in a lot of work this summer and I think they are ready to get the pads on and hit somebody else.”
This story was originally published August 14, 2020 at 12:12 PM with the headline "‘Now we are practicing for a reason’: Kansas State motivated by Big 12 football plans."