K-State Q&A: Extra eligibility, the Wildcats’ best football ticket plan and more
This is one of those special weeks when your questions are so good that I don’t have any desire to start my mailbag with an elaborate introduction.
It’s time for another K-State Q&A. Let’s jump right in. Thanks, as always, for your participation.
Let’s pretend for a moment that you’re a season-ticket holder for Kansas State football and that you’re brave enough to attend games with your family this season. Which ticket package would you pick? The one with Arkansas State, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech? Or the one with Kansas and Texas? I think I could go either way - Andrew B. via e-mail.
This is a good question that I’m sure many loyal K-State fans asked themselves when the Wildcats announced that fans could only purchase mini plans for the upcoming season that included a portion of the team’s home games instead of its complete five.
The answer they settled on probably depends on how confident they each are on college football completing a full season.
If you think the Wildcats will be able to play all 10 of their games without any problems, then maybe Kansas and Texas is the way to go. Those are always big games on the schedule, and they are arguably the two best games on K-State’s upcoming home slate. The Sunflower Showdown is all about rivalry. The Texas game is all about the opportunity to beat those Austin snobs on senior day. Both appear to be better games than what you get from the other three, although Oklahoma State could also be fun.
Friend of the mailbag John Kurtz asked his Twitter followers this question early in the week and 66% of the vote came in for the two-game package of Kansas/Texas over the three-game package of Arkansas State/Texas Tech/Oklahoma State.
It’s not hard to understand why.
Still, I would choose the three-game plan ... in a heartbeat. Both plans have appeal, but the three-game plan is like a Pirate Nancy from Taco Lucha while the two-game plan is just a regular old Nancy. They’re both good, but one is clearly superior.
Everything I wrote in the paragraphs above is undoubtedly true, but those words ignore the fact that the college football season will need to make it all the way to Oct. 24 (Kansas) and Dec. 5 (Texas) in order for those games to be played.
This choice would be easy for me, mostly because of timing. Arkansas State is the season-opener on Sept. 12 and Texas Tech comes three weeks later on Oct. 3. The odds of games being played as originally scheduled are much higher before stores start selling pumpkins than after. The Arkansas State/Texas Tech/Oklahoma State plan also gives fans three games instead of two. Quantity over quality!
And the weather will presumably be better for early games than anything you will get on Dec. 5.
Bottom line: I have doubts college football will make it to December. Sign me up for the early games.
That’s the plan!
I don’t know that it’s a good plan to play football in front of 12,500 fans in the middle of a pandemic, but the elected government officials in Riley County are OK with it so I’m willing to give it a shot given all the safety precautions K-State will be taking on game days.
There will most definitely be fans in the stands for K-State’s first game against Arkansas State, assuming it doesn’t get canceled between now and Sept. 12. But problems could arise after that. Yet another reason why taking the three-game plan is a smart option.
Local county commissioners seemed hesitant to grant K-State permission to move forward with 25% fan capacity at games this season, but athletic director Gene Taylor played hard ball with them and got the plan approved like a total boss. Good on him. But the approval came with a caveat: if K-State fans behave like maniacs and a COVID-19 spike gets traced back to the Arkansas State game, fan capacity will probably be reduced (maybe all the way down to zero) for future games.
So K-State fans will need to act responsibly and follow the rules while they are at games this season.
After watching the commissioners meeting earlier this week, I can tell you they were much more comfortable with the idea of starting at 2,000 fans and allowing K-State to increase capacity if everything went perfectly at the Arkansas State game than they were for the plan that actually got approved. They will back track before the Texas Tech home game if need be.
With that in mind, I suppose my three wishes are as follows:
1. Nobody tests positive for the coronavirus after attending a K-State football game this season. Not one single fan, worker, player, coach or media member.
2. Alcohol sales are deemed a success and continue in 2021 and beyond after the pandemic is over. There’s no good reason why K-State shouldn’t sell beer and wine everywhere at its football games.
3. I don’t mistakenly try to talk while my microphone is muted during any of the postgame press conferences on Zoom. It’s super embarrassing when that happens!
If you set the over/under at 2.5 I bet you would get a lot of action on both sides.
My mind immediately jumped to K-State’s 2021 quarterback competition when I saw the news that the NCAA Division I Council decided to freeze eligibility for all fall sports this year.
That recommendation still needs to be approved, but things could get mighty interesting on lots of rosters if it does get rubber stamped.
At K-State, it’s not crazy to think Skylar Thompson may want to try and play a fifth season with the Wildcats. He has pro aspirations, but NFL scouts aren’t exactly drooling over him at the moment. If he returns after starting, say, 38 games, it would be hard for just about anyone to unseat him as the team’s starting quarterback. Then again, Will Howard is already turning heads and Jake Rubley is the highest-profile recruit Chris Klieman has landed since arriving in Manhattan.
There will certainly be some who think it’s time for Thompson to move on and for K-State to infuse some new blood into the position.
I think there would be a competition for the starting job, if he returns. But I think it would be that way at lots of positions.
It’s also crazy to think about how old K-State could be at linebacker next year with Justin Hughes (24) and Elijah Sullivan (23) potentially coming back. BYU might have some players in their early 30s.
Alas, I think it is wise we all pump the brakes on these hypothetical situations and position battles until a formal plan with new scholarship restrictions gets approved and current seniors make decisions after this season ends. Just because a senior wants to come back for a fifth or sixth season doesn’t necessarily mean his coach will allow him to do so. Just because a senior is allowed to come back to school for an extra year doesn’t mean he will do so.
This is already Thompson’s fifth year in Manhattan. Are we sure he wants to come back for a sixth season? That’s a question all seniors may need to answer in a few months.
Speaking from experience, I intentionally delayed my own graduation from college for one semester so I could be the sports editor at the student newspaper as a “super senior.” I only took two classes that semester and treated those few months like a college football player that hoped to get drafted as soon as it was over, pouring everything I had into my craft.
The only difference was I spent my free time in a newsroom instead of on a practice field and I blindly sent out dozens of writing samples/resumes to newspapers hoping for a job instead of hiring an agent when it was over. By that point, I was done with college and vowed never to take another class. Most of my friends had already graduated, my then girlfriend (and now wife) already had a job. Had someone given me the choice to remain in school another year, even on a scholarship, I would have declined the offer. I imagine there’s a good amount of college football players that will do the same.
Some will want to go pro in football. Some will want to go pro in something other than sports.
I’m going to wait and see how things unfold before I proclaim this to be a horrible decision for future recruiting classes or try to seriously break down any hypothetical position battles.
My eyes are always open during our video chats with K-State coaches and players, but I can tell you which statement made me think the word “wow” in my head.
Joshua Youngblood made what I still believe to boldest comment of preseason camp when he stated his four goals for the upcoming season.
They aren’t small.
1. Eclipse 1,000 yards as a receiver.
2. Top 1,000 yards as a rusher.
3. Exceed 1,000 yards as a return specialist.
4. Help the Wildcats go undefeated.
I’m not going to say those are impossible goals to reach, but if Youngblood reaches all four I promise to scale the press box at Bill Snyder Family Stadium and dance the same way Willie did to celebrate victory over Nebraska on a wintry night all those years ago.
As a freshman, Youngblood rushed for 55 yards. He also caught nine passes for 73 yards last sason. And he totaled 646 yards as a returner last year. Despite his touchdowns on special teams and his mouth-watering potential, he will need to make a MASSIVE jump this season.
In order to reach his goals, that means he will have to ...
1. Total 945 more receiving yards than he did as a freshman.
2. Improve by 927 rushing yards.
3. Gain 354 more yards on special teams.
4. Help the Wildcats go undefeated.
There have been other bold statements, to be sure. I wasn’t expecting the entire team to anoint Khalid Duke as a preseason Heisman candidate or for Courtney Messingham to single out Chabastin Taylor as an impressive receiver, but they are all behind Youngblood’s aspirations.
More power to him. It’s better to set your sights too high than too low.
Also: here’s guessing Van Malone dunks on me the next time we are on a Zoom call together. It’s only a matter of time before my kids break into my office and cause a commotion during one of those things.
Unfortunately, there won’t be any excess games for the Big 12, the SEC or any other conference to sell to other broadcasters.
One of the main reasons the Big 12 opted for a schedule that includes one nonconference game on top of a full conference slate instead of just league games is money. I’m told playing just nine games would have reduced the conference’s TV inventory to the point where it would have cost each school around $4 million in TV revenue.
Big 12 teams usually provide 11 games to its TV partners at ESPN/Fox and keep one for themselves to put on ESPN+, a regional channel or the Longhorn Network. With only 10 games each, there won’t be any extra inventory to profit from.
The video is really funny, especially the part where the guy pretending to be the Big 12 commissioner says he will need to ask Texas before agreeing to anything. Check it out!
The line, while humorous, is not as true as it was a decade ago during the crazy age of conference realignment. Back then, whatever Texas (and to a lesser extent, Oklahoma) wanted, Texas got. That’s why the Longhorn Network is a thing and the Big 12 looks like it does today.
The other schools in the conference need Texas and Oklahoma just like the schools in the Pac-12 need USC and UCLA and like the schools in the Big Ten need Ohio State and Michigan.
Strip away the biggest and most storied football programs from any conference and they will lose luster. It’s just a fact of life.
But there is more unity in the Big 12 than there was back then. Most athletic directors have changed and so have many of the presidents. Texas and Oklahoma probably still have more power and influence than, say, Iowa State and West Virginia, but they’ve all got a seat at the table.
I can tell you the Big 12 came very close to not playing football this season even with schools like Texas and Oklahoma pushing for the conference to move forward. It wasn’t until some of the other school presidents felt comfortable about playing that a vote was taken and the league announced its revised schedule.
The conference didn’t just yield to Texas, even though it is funny to think it did.
Hey Kellis. Please consider the following question for your next K-State Q&A: Which new football player are you most excited about watching this season, and why? - Stanley T. via e-mail.
I am very eager to see what Briley Moore can add to Courtney Messingham’s offense.
K-State’s coordinator loves throwing to the tight end to keep defenses off balance. Loves might not even be a strong enough word. Let’s say he adores it.
Tight ends added tons of versatility to North Dakota State’s offense when Messingham and Chris Klieman worked there together. The Bison bludgeoned teams on the ground, surprised them with passes to the perimeter and took advantage of the middle of the field by throwing to tight ends whenever defenses got preoccupied with other things.
Moore brings that element to K-State’s offense, and I expect him to be targeted quite often.
On defense, I am interested to see what Kiondre Thomas can do after transferring in from Minnesota as a defensive back. I have heard good things thus far in practice. Justin Gardner also intrigues me as a 6-2 defensive back that played at Hutchinson Community College last season.
This story was originally published August 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Extra eligibility, the Wildcats’ best football ticket plan and more."