New slogan, old hand signal have helped fuel Kansas State’s undefeated football start
Kansas State football fans of a certain age were left wondering what year it was when they first saw Wildcat defenders celebrate an important tackle this season.
One by one, those players turned to the home crowd and held up a hand signal that hadn’t been seen on campus since the original Bill Snyder era, well before some of K-State’s current players were born.
No one saw the hand signal coming back, but the Wildcats embraced the tradition when they set playing with a “mob mentality” as one of their defensive goals. The hand signal, which can be done by crossing your forearms and then holding both hands high above your head with index fingers up and thumbs out, is meant to remind the world that K-State’s defense is capable of tackling like, well, a mob.
“The coaches showed us old clips of of the defense,” K-State cornerback Ekow Boye-Doe said this week. “We watched them and saw guys running to the ball, fearless and relentless. We wanted to bring that back. It just holds some type of weight, being able to throw that up, because we’re representing an old defense that used to really get busy.”
It might sound silly to suggest a hand signal is at the center of K-State’s undefeated run through nonconference play, but players insist it has helped bring them together as a defense and given them a standard of excellence to strive for.
You certainly can’t argue with the results. Through three games, the Wildcats are allowing 1.9 yards per rush and 6.8 yards per pass, while surrendering 15.6 points per game.
Those numbers are drastically improved from last season when they allowed 4.7 yards per rush, 7.6 yards per pass and 32.2 points per game.
K-State football coach Chris Klieman deserves credit for overhauling the team’s defensive scheme — from an ineffective 4-2-5 to a fast and physical 3-3-5 — but he also thinks there is something to that old hand signal.
“We have a lot of former players that I asked to come back and talk to the team, because they laid the foundation for all of us to be successful,” Klieman said. “We watch a lot of videos about K-State of the past, because why we have all this great stuff is what Coach Snyder did and all those players did. I think it’s just trying to carry on some of the legacy that was built before us and trying to honor those guys.”
Interestingly enough, K-State’s offense has also found a creative way to bond this season.
But instead of bringing back an old tradition, they started a new one. Credit senior center Noah Johnson for that.
At the start of summer practices, he pulled his fellow captains aside and told them that the Wildcats were going on a “revenge tour” this season. After slumping to a 4-6 record last year, that slogan spread like wildfire throughout the locker room.
Teammates decided it would be fun to travel on a metaphorical tour bus to different stops on their “revenge tour,” often saying that their next practice was a tour date at a historic venue in an exotic city like Barcelona or Mexico City. But the tour didn’t truly begin until they took on Stanford at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas earlier this month.
K-State opened with a bang.
Its offense has responded by beating opponents in the trenches and running the ball at will during victories over Stanford, Southern Illinois and Nevada.
Star running back Deuce Vaughn has rushed for 371 yards and five touchdowns. Joe Ervin has rushed for 131 yards and a score. Backup quarterback Will Howard has rushed for 65 yards and three touchdowns. Klieman thinks several K-State offensive linemen are playing at all-conference levels.
Not even an injury to Skylar Thompson and the loss of a consistent passing game has prevented K-State from gaining tough yards and grinding out wins.
“The revenge tour is about more than just the teams that beat you,” Johnson said. “It’s even about the teams you beat. You’re on a revenge tour and you’re coming. It was just a perfect fit for what we’re doing this season with how last year went and how K-State football is going. It’s just a mindset.”
Howard was quick to embrace the “revenge tour” when he took control of the offense against Southern Illinois.
Shortly after K-State improved to 3-0 last week, he told reporters “there are no rear view mirrors on our tour bus.”
In other words, the Wildcats were on to their next game at Oklahoma State, where they hope to keep flashing old hand signals and putting on a good show for everyone following their tour.
“We had a tough year last year, and it’s something that’s kind of keeping us all going and keeping us all together,” Howard said. “It’s been really fun and it really is a revenge tour. We feel like we didn’t have our best year last year and now we owe some teams.”
This story was originally published September 23, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "New slogan, old hand signal have helped fuel Kansas State’s undefeated football start."