K-State Q&A: Thoughts on more football transfers and Manhattan’s recruiting appeal
Manhattan is a great college town.
I feel the need to remind the world of that after an ESPN article contained some less than flattering quotes about the Little Apple from anonymous Big 12 basketball coaches earlier this week. One called Manhattan, “not a great place.” Another coach called it “a very difficult draw for kids.”
That understandably ruffled some feathers around these parts. The only thing K-State fans hate more than outsiders throwing shade at Manhattan is their rival athletic department in Lawrence. Well, they don’t like Sirr Parker, Ron Prince, ESPN+ or John Higgins much, either. But you get my point.
If you have something bad to say about Manhattan, you better be ready for the locals to raise their fists in anger against you.
I have lived here since 2009, so long that I suppose you can throw me in with those upset locals. I could go on a long spiel about Aggieville, Poyntz, our parks, our running trails, our schools, our airport and, of course, “the people” that Bill Snyder loved so much. But I won’t.
Bottom line: It doesn’t matter what some random coaches say about Manhattan.
Now, if a star recruit came out and said he absolutely, positively would not consider K-State because he hated the town, then that would be something. But these quotes are nothing more than a way for us to pass time until games return in the fall.
This isn’t, or at least shouldn’t, be worth getting genuinely angry about. K-State basketball has signed some impressive recruits since Bob Huggins breathed life back into the program in 2007 -- 10 four-stars players and three five-star players. So Manhattan can’t be that bad of a place, right?
Manhattan was ranked No. 32 nationally among college towns this year, per one ratings system. It has been ranked No. 2 and No. 1 in some of those polls before. K-State reminds fans of that on the outside of the football stadium.
It’s current ranking puts Manhattan ahead of Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Athens, Georgia and Eugene, Oregon. Three powerhouse football programs reside in those cities. And yet, they seem to have no problem reeling in blue-chip recruits.
Recruiting is complex. Athletes choose colleges for a wide assortment of reasons. The city or town a college is located in can be a factor. But I don’t personally think it’s near the top of the list for most recruits. Anymore, they seem more interested in a program’s prestige or coach and how they will be used in his system. That is especially true in basketball, where the best players are only looking to spend a year or two in college.
Is Manhattan a hard place to sell with recruits? Yes and no.
Yes, because it’s hard to get certain players to visit. Kansas City and Wichita offer some regional talent bases, and playing in the Big 12 opens doors to Texas. But K-State faces fierce competition for those recruits. KU isn’t much of a threat in football, but it certainly is in basketball.
No, because it’s a fun city that supports K-State sports. Coaches have said for years that K-State is a much easier sell once they get a recruit on campus and he or she realizes Manhattan isn’t as rural or isolated as they may have thought.
I’ve been to some great college towns that recruits avoid like the plague. I’ve been to some awful college towns that recruits love unconditionally.
Maybe there’s no such thing as a bad college town. There really isn’t much difference between Manhattan and Ames, Iowa or Stillwater, Okla. and Morgantown, W.V. Austin and Fort Worth are a little different, but they aren’t really college towns, now are they?
This is my long way of saying that if K-State could improve its recruiting in a number of ways, none of which involve making any changes to Manhattan.
And with that, tt’s time for another K-State Q&A. Thanks, as always, for your participation.
E-MAIL QUESTION: I thought the coaching staff was pretty high on Keyon Mozee. They talked him up during the spring and he had a good freshman year. What gives? - Andrew B.
No transfer should really surprise me anymore. But I was not expecting Keyon Mozee to enter the NCAA transfer portal on Thursday.
He did some nice things as a freshman, and he seemed to have good upside moving forward. Mozee didn’t get a ton of playing time last season, but he made things happen when he was on the field, including a 78-yard yard reception against Oklahoma.
Someone on Twitter suggested to me that his departure was “a huge loss.”
I wouldn’t go that far. I think “disappointing” is a better word choice. Did Mozee have potential? Yes. Was he going to be one of K-State’s top three running backs next season? Probably not. I can’t even be sure that he would have ranked fourth in the backfield rotation.
Deuce Vaughn is obviously king of K-State’s running back committee. Joe Ervin is probably the vice president, followed by Jacardia Wright.
That is a nice trio of running backs, and they are all underclassmen with several years of eligibility remaining. Fun as it would have been to throw Mozee into the mix as a fourth runner or as an extra scatback, there wasn’t much of a path for him to become the team’s No. 1 ball carrier.
If those other running backs all stay at K-State, it would be hard for him to climb the depth chart at all.
From that perspective, his decision to transfer makes a little more sense.
K-State did receive some good news from the portal this week, though. Its secondary is in much better shape now that Cincere Mason and Reggie Stubblefield (yes, that Reggie Stubblefield) are in the fold.
I actually have a few streaming suggestions at the moment.
Netflix: Startup. I had never heard of this show before it landed on Netflix late in the spring, but I wish I had because it’s really good. I don’t have the most time to stream anything with four kids constantly stealing the remote from me. But when I do have complete control of my TV, this is what I’ve been watching most lately.
Disney+: Loki. Unlike Wanda Vision, the folks over at Marvel didn’t make the first two episodes of this series as boring as humanly possible. I gave up on that show. I don’t care how good people say the later episodes are, I can’t do it. What I watched was way too boring. Loki, on the other hand, looks entertaining. I want more.
HBOMAX: Godzilla vs. Kang. This movie is every bit as loud and fun as the title suggests. It won’t win any awards, but it’s a lot of fun to watch. I liked it quite a bit more than the new Mortal Kombat, which was mediocre.
Hulu: A new season of Dave is out. I know I will be watching.
Or, if you are just looking for something to watch with your kids that isn’t completely insufferable, I have also enjoyed Penguin Town on Netflix.
I’m sure Chris Klieman has lots of hobbies, but I sadly don’t know what most of them are.
It would be cool if he played a musical instrument (the drums?) or knew how to juggle. I would gladly watch him perform either of those acts at a talent show. Alas, he probably doesn’t do that.
Three things I know he likes outside of football: baseball, golf and weight lifting.
Klieman is the most jacked football coach in the Big 12, so maybe he could go viral benching 300 pounds. That’s probably our best bet.
The Purple and Black seem to be on hiatus.
The team’s Twitter account hasn’t posted anything since February 2020, and there has been zero buzz from The Basketball Tournament about K-State alumni trying to field a team this summer. They skipped last year’s event, too.
That’s unfortunate. It was fun watching former K-State players reunite in previous events.
Honestly, though, there aren’t a ton of former K-State players that are currently playing overseas to make a team feasible. What would Purple and Black look like right now?
Jordan Henriquez was the ring leader of those early teams, but he is now a member of Bruce Weber’s support staff. D.J. Johnson took the baton from him a few years ago, but he’s now a realtor. Shane Southwell was heavily involved, too, but he is now a full-time K-State assistant. Dean Wade and Wesley Iwundu are in the NBA, so they’re out.
I suppose if Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes and Xavier Sneed really wanted to put a team together they could wrangle up enough former players to fill half the roster. Maybe Thomas Gipson, Justin Edwards and Stephen Hurt. I could suggest Makol Mawien or Cartier Diarra. But do you really want to see them? Marcus Foster was willing to play with them one year. Perhaps he would be willing to do that again? Jacob Pullen would be the home-run option.
They would still need to bring in a handful of players to complete the team. But they could make it work. I just doubt those players are looking to play in a winner-take-all basketball tournament at this stage of their professional careers.
I’m a fan of brunch.
There’s something about combining bacon, eggs and pancakes with a few lunch items that just never gets old. Brunch buffets going away was one of the worst casualties of the pandemic. Not sure if they’re back yet, but here’s hoping!
Anyway, I like to force my family to eat brunch with me on Father’s Day. It is the one day each year when my kids quiet down and actually let me pick a restaurant without complaint. Or we stay home and they make me brunch while I sip a Bloody Mary. I like that, too.
Letting me do that is a pretty good gift. I take them to Chick-Fil-A and McDonald’s all the time. Now it’s my turn!
My kids (with lots of help from mom) are actually solid gift givers. Never got something like a potato clock. I like opening their presents.
I’m not sure what the perfect Father’s Day activity would be. Playing golf is always fun. I like baseball in the back yard, too. I’m always down for a trip to the swimming pool or the lake, especially this time of year. We made watching the U.S. Open into a Father’s Day tradition with my dad. I wouldn’t hate doing that again.
Anything simple with the family will do. I like to keep a low profile on Father’s Day. Just don’t try to take me to an amusement park. That’s not for Father’s Day.
This story was originally published June 18, 2021 at 2:25 PM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Thoughts on more football transfers and Manhattan’s recruiting appeal."