K-State Q&A: Skylar Thompson, Will Howard, the Big 12’s flop and some new predictions
The Big 12 went 0-3 against football teams from the Sun Belt last Saturday, and some in the national media called it the darkest day in conference history.
The Big Ten reversed course on Wednesday and decided to try and play football this fall after previously announcing that its teams absolutely, positively weren’t going to play any games until the spring. Once again, at least one national columnist called it the darkest day in that conference’s history.
Good thing no one was around earlier this week when I forgot to turn off the air conditioner before opening a few windows inside my house to enjoy the nice weather. The darkest day in Kellis history? You better believe the national media would have had a field day with that one.
Can we please stop the hyperbole for a moment?
Embarrassing as it was for Iowa State, Kansas State and Kansas to all lose guarantee games to Sun Belt opponents on the same day, I’m here to tell you those results rank nowhere near the top 10 of the darkest days in Big 12 history.
Dan Beebe was once in charge of this conference for crying out loud.
This is the same league that lost four members during conference realignment and seemed to be on the verge of extinction throughout that entire saga. This is also the same league that missed out on a handful of BCS championship games because of upsets in the Big 12 championship game and watched Ohio State leapfrog Baylor and TCU for no good reason for a spot in the first playoff. Have I mentioned that no Big 12 team has won a game in the playoff yet? Or that Big 12 teams have suffered quite a few upsets during the NCAA Tournament?
Let’s quit calling a winless day of football against the Sun Belt as the darkest day in conference history. Was it a bad look for the league? Absolutely. Did it lead to some humorous memes and jokes at the league’s expense? Yes, I even made a few of them. Will it hurt Oklahoma, Texas or Oklahoma State in the playoff race? Maybe. Will it cause irreparable harm to the league for years to come? No.
Iowa State lost to Louisiana because it surrendered a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, an 83-yard punt return for a touchdown and a 78-yard pass for a touchdown. Blame the Cyclones for giving up those big plays, but I’m not going write off their entire season because of three fluky plays.
K-State lost to Arkansas State because Jonathan Adams caught three touchdown passes and the Wildcats were missing around 25 players. The Red Wolves were the better team (based on their 489-374 total yards advantage) but they needed three trick plays and several misses from Skylar Thompson and his receivers to pull off a fourth-quarter comeback. I see no reason why K-State can’t post a winning record the rest of the way.
Kansas was a bit of a different story, as the Jayhawks fell behind Coastal Carolina 28-0 before showing a pulse. But that result wasn’t terribly surprising. Since Mark Mangino left Lawrence, the Jayhawks have lost nonconference games against North Dakota State, Southern Mississippi, Rice, Southern Illinois, South Dakota State, Ohio, Central Michigan and Nicholls. Another loss to the Chanticleers doesn’t seem like much of a black eye for the conference, at this point.
The bad results were, well, bad for the Big 12 in Week 1. But the good results were very promising.
Texas annihilated UTEP 59-3 and Oklahoma crushed Missouri State 48-0. Oklahoma State is a 23-point favorite over Tulsa in its first game, scheduled for this Saturday.
As long as those three teams have strong seasons, the Big 12 will be just fine and remain well positioned for a spot in the playoff, even if it has to endure some Sun Belt jokes along the way.
And now, let’s dive into your questions. Thank you, as always, for providing them.
Bless you for showing enough will power to ask me about Will Howard vs. Jake Rubley next season instead of Will Howard vs. Skylar Thompson this season.
Some K-State fans aren’t being so patient.
Forgive me, but I would like to start there before looking ahead to the K-State quarterback derby of 2021.
A mini QB controversy began bubbling in Manhattan last week when Will Howard entered the Arkansas State game and completed his first pass in a K-State uniform for a 24-yard gain to Jax Dineen.
Some couldn’t help but throw Skylar Thompson under the bus for misfiring on potential game-changing passes to Chabastin Taylor and Malik Knowles, even though he finished with 259 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. That led a few to wonder: Maybe Howard could have done better?
That’s a giant leap. It’s too early to pull out your jump-to-conclusions mat.
By all accounts, Howard is coming off an impressive camp and looked good in limited action against the Red Wolves. But Thompson didn’t play anywhere near poorly enough for K-State coaches to genuinely think about replacing a four-year starter with a true freshman.
Thompson didn’t do enough good things to win the Arkansas State game for K-State. But he can’t be blamed for the loss.
Remember, the Wildcats have been low on receivers for weeks and took the field without Joshua Youngblood, Landry Weber and Wykeen Gill. One of Thompson’s active targets on Saturday was converted defensive back D.J. Render.
Thompson’s timing was off with his receivers. He threw bad balls to Phillip Brooks, Knowles and Taylor, which cost him a potential 350-yard, four-touchdown day. But he also showed more pocket awareness than he did as a junior and delivered some good passes under pressure. That was admirable considering K-State was down to its third-string center in the fourth quarter and shuffled offensive linemen all day long.
With K-State rushing for a pathetic 91 yards on 38 attempts, and the defense allowing 35 points, it’s not fair to blame that loss on the quarterback.
Should Thompson have been better? Yes. Is it time to roll with Howard? No.
But I will say Howard has shown quite a few K-State fans that it might not be easy for Rubley, a four-star quarterback in the 2021 recruiting, to win the job immediately next season.
I can’t tell you what the future holds, but that could be the most entertaining quarterback competition K-State has had in quite some time. Coaches love everything that Howard has done since he arrived on campus. That’s why he is already the backup quarterback. But every school in the country wanted Rubley and his highlights look very impressive.
My guess is they will both play next season in some capacity. And they should be fun to watch.
I’m no longer picking K-State to win seven games, I can tell you that.
But I see no reason why the Wildcats can’t still win five or six games. As you mentioned, the Big 12 doesn’t seem to have an abundance of quality teams at the moment. After Oklahoma, the Wildcats will play four straight winnable games against Texas Tech, TCU, Kansas and West Virginia. They will have an opportunity to get right after an opening loss (or two).
The most discouraging thing I saw from the first game was on the offensive line. Losing Noah Johnson hurt badly. If he can’t return to action soon, then maybe K-State is in for a long year. The Wildcats didn’t seem to have anything figured out up front against Arkansas State other than Josh Rivas at left guard and Ben Adler at right guard.
It was a revolving door at both tackle positions, without anyone looking very good. And things went as expected with a third-string center in the middle of it all.
The defense also looked overmatched without Jahron McPherson and Wayne Jones.
Oklahoma probably won’t have much trouble throwing the ball against a beat-up secondary.
Then again, maybe some key players will be active for that game. That’s what makes this season so unpredictable. My 7-3 forecast was made on the assumption that every team would be at full strength for every game. But there are going to be surprise absences. We’ve already seen it.
My new prediction for the season is 5-5, but that may change at this time next week.
K-State coaches and Justin Hughes have adamantly said it all comes down to discipline. As long as defenders follow their assignments and don’t get caught trying to cheat up, trick plays shouldn’t happen.
But I think the Wildcats play a bit too aggressively on defense at times, and that has hurt them against trick plays.
Going back and looking at the trick plays that Arkansas State pulled off against K-State (all contained in the video above), I can say both Ryan Henington and Lance Robinson got caught off guard when Jeff Foreman caught a pass behind the line of scrimmage on the first one. Henington, a walk-on who only recently made the switch from quarterback to safety, let Rashauud Paul slip behind him for an easy touchdown.
Chalk that up as inexperience.
The second one, a fake punt, was simply horribly defended. Everyone in the world could see a fake coming there and K-State actually left its defense on the field to stop it. Henington got caught out of position and held.
The third, a pass to the quarterback, was a good call by Arkansas State. It had K-State’s defense completely out of sync.
K-State was also duped by a double pass against Navy in the Liberty Bowl last season.
Me thinks you will see more trick plays from opponents until the Wildcats prove they can stop them. I guarantee Oklahoma will have some ready.
As I’ve mentioned in previous mailbags, no decision has been made on bowl eligibility. I can’t even tell you if there will be bowl games this season.
But we do have some clarity on the basketball front.
The official start date of the 2020-21 college basketball season is set for Nov. 25. Teams will be allowed to play 24 or 25 games, plus an early season tournament. Practice will begin Oct. 14.
Bob Bowlsby told the Des Moines Register that the Big 12 will proceed with its standard double round-robin schedule. So figuring out nonconference schedules might be a bit of a headache.
There has been a lot of talk about cities setting up bubbles for teams to play in throughout the season. And no one really knows what the NCAA Tournament will look like. Much still needs to be worked out.
But basketball will be here before you know it in some form.
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Skylar Thompson, Will Howard, the Big 12’s flop and some new predictions."