K-State Q&A: Daniel Imatorbhebhe, basketball analysis and the Sunflower Showdown
From time to time someone will ask me on here or in real life if there’s anything I wish I could change about Kansas State sports.
Obviously, I would love more media access, detailed injury reports and open practices. But outside of selfish things that would help me do my job at a higher level, I would also like to see the Sunflower Showdown become a more competitive rivalry. It’s been boring for way too long.
Since I began covering the Wildcats in 2009, K-State has gone a perfect 12-0 against KU on the football field. Only two of those games were remotely close. Switch to men’s basketball, and the Jayhawks hold a 27-4 advantage over that same time frame.
There is plenty of anger to go around when they play. I love the atmosphere leading up to basketball games and reading all the signs that students bring into those games. It was major news when the basketball teams brawled in 2020. Ditto when K-State fans rushed the court at Bramlage Coliseum in 2015 and controversy ensued. We all had a good laugh when back-to-back holding calls cost the Jayhawks in 2018 and one of their players responded by trying to hide the second flag from game officials.
But the games themselves in this rivalry have been incredibly dull. That’s why I have argued in recent years that Farmageddon is the more entertaining rivalry. Neither fan base serenades the other with vulgar chants like they do in the Sunflower Showdown, but at least the games are fun to watch.
Did you know KU and K-State have only played one time when they were both ranked in football? That’s incredibly sad, considering they have played 118 times.
I know K-State fans like dominating the football rivalry, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if Lance Leipold improved KU and started beating the Wildcats once every five years and regularly played them tough in Lawrence. It would be fun. What if you could trade an occasional football loss for more basketball wins?
The basketball rivalry reached highly entertaining levels when Frank Martin and Bruce Weber put together strong teams. I wish that happened more often, too.
A more balanced rivalry would be fun for everyone.
Now, it’s time for another K-State Q&A. Thanks, as always, for providing so many great questions.
An argument could certainly be made that Daniel Imatorbhebhe deserves (a lot) more targets within Kansas State’s offense.
The senior tight end has only made nine catches this season, but he has turned them into a whopping 274 yards and two touchdowns.
That means he is averaging 30.4 yards yards per reception.
Not bad.
His 73-yard touchdown against TCU last week was a thing of beauty. He lined up on the right edge of the offensive line as a blocker and ran undetected through the secondary. A TCU linebacker did eventually notice him and chased him down, but Imatorbhebhe kept him away with a wicked stiff arm that brought back memories of Jesse Ertz in a K-State uniform.
It seems like every time he makes a play, it goes for big yardage.
Why haven’t they featured him more? My best guess is that he’s not someone who is going to burn a defender with his speed. Nor is he the type of player who can physically dominate a defender out of the slot. When he’s open, he will make something happen. But he’s not always open. You can’t target him 10 times a game. His run blocking could also use some work, so he has to share time with other K-State tight ends.
Furthermore, if K-State threw to him all the time it would be impossible for him to catch defenses napping for a big catch every game. Nevada didn’t expect him to run a post route, but he did and roasted the Wolf Pack for a 68-yard touchdown. TCU didn’t expect him to run a vertical route out of a running formation, but he did and burned the Horned Frogs for a highlight score.
Those opportunities might disappear if K-State tried them on every drive.
The Wildcats should definitely feature him more than they currently are in the passing game, but he’s not exactly a go-to receiver. They need to find a happy medium.
Arthur Brown had a few games where it felt like he was a black hole in the center of K-State’s defense and any ball-carrier that dared approach him instantly got swallowed up and sent to an alternate dimension like Homer Simpson in Treehouse of Horror 6.
But Felix Anudike-Uzomah was even better against TCU. Not only did he have four sacks, but he also forced a pair of fumbles and had four regular tackles as a run defender.
It was also fun to watch his sack dance so many times.
I was shocked the Horned Frogs didn’t take him out of the game in the second half by running plays away from him as his sack total kept growing. I suppose that was Gary Patterson’s final mistake at TCU.
I totally understand where you are coming from. Part of me cringes every time I see the Wildcats line up in a shotgun formation at the goal line, too.
But that is part of modern college football.
My advice is to get used to it.
We can focus solely on how K-State surrendered a safety while running out of the shotgun formation last week against TCU, or we can highlight the fact that they also scored three rushing touchdowns out of a similar formation.
Skylar Thompson’s four-yard touchdown run came out of the shotgun formation. Deuce Vaughn’s 42-yard touchdown run (on fourth and one) came out of the shotgun formation. Vaughn’s one-yard touchdown leap came out of the shotgun formation.
The play inside their own 1 that resulted in a safety didn’t work because it was horribly blocked. Noah Johnson got blown back after snapping the ball and Vaughn had nowhere to run. Any other play would have also failed with similar blocking. But that play was set up to work with good blocking.
K-State doesn’t run all that many plays under center anymore, so it is a little silly to demand the Wildcats use a formation they clearly don’t have confidence in, such as the Power I or QB sneak, just because they are in short-yardage situations.
They tried to score on a QB sneak against Texas Tech and got denied. TCU, another team that predominantly plays out of the shotgun, tried to score on a QB sneak last week and missed badly.
Trying to run straight ahead for a yard when the other team knows that’s what you are doing is one of the hardest things to accomplish in all of football. The shotgun formation at least keeps defenses off balance and guessing.
I say they should keep doing it.
Doubtful.
Even if Kansas somehow takes a halftime lead the Jayhawks aren’t going to want to let in a bunch of purple-clad fans for free. They were able to do it against Oklahoma because there weren’t any Sooners fans hanging around the stadium.
Malik Knowles and Phillip Brooks have both returned kicks/punts for touchdowns in the past, so they are each thinking they can put six points on the scoreboard whenever they catch the ball ... even in their own end zone.
It’s risk vs. reward.
They haven’t been bringing kicks out of the end zone as much lately, because Knowles has lost a pair of fumbles on returns. But that is their thinking. They would rather go for the home run than take the ball at the 25.
Sometimes, it’s worth the risk. Sometimes, it’s not.
If Klieman wanted Sean Snyder or a special teams coordinator on his staff, he would have retained Snyder when he was originally hired.
Instead, he kept Snyder on staff as an analyst. After Snyder left for USC, Klieman brought in other analysts, graduate assistants and quality control coaches to more or less run special teams.
I don’t see his approach changing in that area.
Could K-State be better in special teams? Perhaps. But Ty Zentner also had a game-changing punt that went 63 yards two weeks ago. Malik Knowles has returned a pair of kickoffs for touchdowns. I doubt Klieman views special teams as a weakness.
I think the Wildcats have benefited on both offense and defense with a staff that puts more resources into those areas while still dedicating practice time to special teams. Don’t expect any big changes anytime soon.
Jaw Dropping: Markquis Nowell, because of his shooting range and his tenacity. He lives by the Texas football motto -- “All gas, no brakes.” He could be a tremendous player for the Wildcats if he learns to slow down a little bit.
Intimidating: Kaosi Ezeagu, because he is nearly 7 feet tall and his biceps are the size of tree trunks.
Consistent: Nijel Pack, because you know he’s going to make shots and protect the basketball.
Best Leader: A tie between Mike McGuirl and Mark Smith. McGuirl has been around K-State long enough to play in the NCAA Tournament and share a Big 12 championship. That means a lot. But Smith has played in the Big Ten and SEC. Players respect him a lot, too.
The fact that teams scrimmage against each other is no longer really a secret. The schools promote it and release picture and videos afterward. Any school that doesn’t play two exhibition games is clearly playing a scrimmage, so why hide it?
But box scores are still mostly kept under lock and key.
Why? Well, because in college basketball, “secret scrimmages” aren’t true games.
Coaches set up different situations, request the other team to play a specific defense and then they watch to see how their team responds. The goal is rarely to win. So the NCAA, and the teams themselves, presumably don’t want box scores floating around publicly that might make the loser look bad.
The matchups are often uneven (like KU vs. Tulsa) and the losing team doesn’t want those stats released.
Many years ago, some stats leaked out that made it look like Wichita State wiped the floor with K-State in a closed scrimmage when the Wildcats treated it like a glorified practice.
K-State went on to earn a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament that year and nearly reached the Final Four. It was a much better team than Wichita State, but you wouldn’t know it looking at those stats.
Frank Martin was beyond angry about it, and that’s a big reason why K-State and Wichita State are just now renewing their basketball rivalry.
On Nijel Pack ... He has been dealing with some hip pain, but that didn’t stop him from starting against Pittsburg State on Thursday. He should be good to go in the season-opener next week. Though I will say his role will probably decrease this season with so many other quality guards now on the roster.
On redshirts ... Maximus Edwards and Seryee Lewis will both likely redshirt after suffering preseason injuries, but every other scholarship player on the roster will be available to play. Logan Landers was the only other guy that I could have seen maybe considering a redshirt, but he had 11 points and eight rebounds in K-State’s exhibition game. No way he’s sitting.
Probably the College Football Playoff Committee.
As much as I disagree with the NCAA infractions committee’s decision to uphold a postseason ban against the Oklahoma State basketball team, I will admit they are in an awkward position.
Personally, I think the NCAA needs to find new ways to punish cheating programs. Why penalize student-athletes that had nothing to do with the violations, especially now when the season is about to get underway?
Former K-State coaches Frank Martin and Brad Underwood both employed Lamont Evans as an assistant, enabling him to violate NCAA rules. Why are Oklahoma State players getting punished instead of them? Evans has already been severely punished. Why add on?
But I digress ... They felt the needed to punish Oklahoma State and they did so. That is understandable on some levels.
The CFP selection committee, however, really dropped the ball on its first top 25 rankings.
Do losses not count against (2) Alabama and (5) Ohio State? Why are they saying (6) Cincinnati hasn’t played anyone when the Bearcats beat Notre Dame? Do they not realize the Buckeyes have played a pillow-soft lineup of teams such as Minnesota, Tulsa, Akron, Rutgers, Maryland, Indiana and Penn State?
Oh, and did I mention that Ohio State has a loss or that Cincinnati is undefeated?
It is also ridiculous that Mississippi State (17), North Carolina State (19), Minnesota (20) and Wisconsin (21) are ranked while undefeated UTSA wasn’t included at all.
Here’s hoping those issues resolve themselves on the field as the season rolls on, but it was very annoying to see where they ranked certain teams.
I have always thought John Currie was under-appreciated as K-State’s athletic director.
Not trying to say he belongs in the school’s athletic Hall of Fame or anything like that, but the fans who curse his name like he’s Ron Prince are way off base.
K-State drastically upgraded facilities while he was on campus and the Wildcats won Big 12 championships in baseball, football and men’s basketball in the same glorious athletic year (2012-13). He wasn’t bad.
Now, he couldn’t get along with Frank Martin or Bill Snyder. And those are two pretty big strikes against any K-State athletic director. That’s why I think he left at a good time and the athletic department is now better off with Gene Taylor. But Currie raised the bar in several areas while he was around.
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 9:57 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Daniel Imatorbhebhe, basketball analysis and the Sunflower Showdown."