K-State Q&A: Chris Klieman, Deuce Vaughn, basketball analysis and football attendance
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
There are two things I want to say before we dive into your questions. They are both about Thanksgiving.
1. Never hesitate to fry your turkey. I suppose there is no bad way to cook a bird in late November. I have smoked turkeys and warmed them up in an oven before, and they both came out tasting good. But fried turkey tastes even better, especially the dark meat.
2. Don’t bother debating between pecan and pumpkin pie. Eat both!
Now, without further ado, let’s jump to your questions.
Well, if Deuce Vaughn played for Oklahoma then he would have to battle Caleb Williams or Spencer Rattler for the right just to be the Sooners’ top Heisman candidate.
Anymore, it seems like starting at quarterback for Lincoln Riley is enough to give you a shot at the Heisman.
It might be even harder for Vaughn at Alabama, where he would be going up against Bryce Young, and Will Anderson for Heisman attention.
All that talent on the same team would split the vote.
But that’s probably not what you’re actually asking. You probably want to know if Vaughn would be getting more attention if he played for a blue blood instead of K-State.
It’s possible. He ranks eighth nationally in scrimmage yards per game (141.4) and he is the only player in the nation with 900 rushing yards and 400 receiving yards. Vaughn might be the best all-purpose running back in the country, even though he’s only a sophomore.
Perhaps he would be getting more national love if he played for a traditional power.
Then again, that didn’t stop players like Michael Bishop and Collin Klein and Darren Sproles from getting Heisman votes while they were playing for K-State.
Enough people know about Vaughn that he was named a semifinalist for the Doak Walker Award this week. That’s a big deal.
At least one sports book gave him top 20 odds of winning the Heisman coming into the season. If he keeps putting up impressive stats, there’s a chance he will get legit Heisman hype by the time he’s a senior ... even at K-State.
I’m not sure how well known this is, but Chris Klieman is one victory away from earning another contract extension for himself.
One of the clauses in his contract states that he gets an extra year added onto his employment agreement at a salary of $4.3 million after each of the first three times he guides K-State to eight victories and a bowl game.
That means if K-State wins one more game this season Klieman’s contract will automatically extend through 2027. His buyout to leave for another school would remain $5 million and it would cost the Wildcats $18.5 million to terminate him without cause.
Nice work if you can get it.
I don’t think you can point to any one thing as the reason why attendance is down at K-State football games this season.
The main reason would appear to be the coronavirus pandemic. The last two years have forced people to create new habits and perhaps realize that watching games at home is much cheaper and less time consuming than attending games in person like they once did.
Some fans are also understandably hesitant to return to mass gatherings while COVID-19 remains a problem.
But who’s to say there aren’t other factors?
K-State losing three games at the start of Big 12 play appears to have had a negative impact. The Wildcats played in front of at least 47,600 fans in their first four home games. Then attendance dropped to 44,339 and 43,392 the past two games.
Those are the two smallest crowds to watch a home game at K-State since 2009, excluding last year when attendance was limited to 20%.
Personally, I still think they have been good crowds, all things considered. The upper deck on the east side of the stadium hasn’t been full, but all the other sections have been packed or close to it.
Time will tell, but the days of long sellout streaks for any college team outside of the traditional powers may be over.
It will be interesting to see what kind of crowd shows up on Saturday. No. 11 Baylor is a good opponent and K-State is on a winning streak, but Thanksgiving week is coming up and plenty of tickets remain available on the athletic department’s website. Maybe some folks will be too busy to go.
In any case, K-State can help matters in the future by finishing the season strong. A winning team always boosts attendance.
This question is much easier for me to answer.
It’s still football season.
K-State fans care deeply about basketball and make Bramlage Coliseum a difficult place to play every year ... they just usually wait to attend games until after every bowl game has been played and Bruce Weber’s boys are hosting games against quality Big 12 opponents.
It has been that way for as long as I can remember. Even when Weber coached teams that won conference championships with familiar faces like Barry Brown and Kamau Stokes and Dean Wade, fans didn’t show up to watch when they played directional schools in November. It was the same way under Frank Martin, too.
The announced attendance for Wednesday’s victory over Omaha was 5,529. Actual attendance was closer to half that. The student section hasn’t been bad, though.
Perhaps COVID-19 and the state’s mask requirement has played a role in tiny basketball crowds thus far, but fans still focusing on football is probably the bigger factor.
It’s like that at most college basketball games right now. Kansas packs Allen Fieldhouse for every game, but KU fans are the exact opposite of K-State fans. Once basketball starts, football no longer matters in Lawrence. The possible exception is when they go on the road and beat Texas 57-56 in overtime.
But if you go to Baylor or TCU or Oklahoma right now, I guarantee their basketball teams are also playing in front of small home crowds.
I have had the (mis)pleasure of covering sparsely attended early season nonconference basketball games at places like UCLA, Wisconsin, Marquette, BYU and Utah over the years. If it’s still football season, few fans are showing up to watch the men’s basketball team drub Idaho State.
K-State could help itself out by winning more, but this team has shown promise in its first two games. The Wildcats could also benefit from a better home nonconference schedule than Florida A&M, Omaha, North Dakota, Albany, Marquette, Green Bay, McNeese State, Morgan State and Mississippi.
Outside of Marquette and Ole Miss, there’s not a single game that will motivate a casual fan to make the drive over from Wichita or Kansas City, especially on a weekday.
But I digress ... The crowds will be better when Big 12 games arrive in January. They always are.
It seems like an easy fix to me.
All he needs to do is keep his best lineup on the floor.
The Wildcats clobbered Omaha when they had Nijel Pack, Mark Smith and Ismael Massoud on the floor at the same time. They all outscored Omaha by at least 31 when they were in the same lineup.
But Weber experimented with different players and that is when the Mavericks had some success. Mike McGuirl needs to play better. That will help. So will Davion Bradford getting back to full speed.
Until those things happen, I doubt Weber will be as quick to substitute next week in Kansas City.
I feel like a lot of college basketball teams would like to name Kim English as their head coach in waiting now that George Mason is off to a 4-0 start and coming off a road victory over Maryland.
At his current trajectory, he will be coaching the Los Angeles Lakers before too long.
I have a confession to make.
As much as I love Whataburger, the odds of me waiting in a monstrous line to eat there are extremely low. Do I enjoy their hamburgers, chicken strips, fancy ketchup, Dr Pepper milkshakes, breakfast sandwiches and taquitos? Yes ... to the moon and back. But it’s still just fast food. It’s not worth waiting hours to eat.
I have “tailgated” in long lines for Texas barbecue before. I won’t do the same for Whataburger, unless they open a Manhattan location. I would probably eat there the day it opened.
So just about anything is more likely to happen than me standing in line to eat fast food.
With that in mind, let’s just rank your three options.
1. K-State men’s basketball finishes top six in the Big 12 standings. I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen from the Wildcats so far. They are much improved from last season. A top six finish isn’t that far fetched.
2. Five or more K-State players make first team All-Big 12. Felix Anudike-Uzomah will make it as a defensive end. Malik Knowles might make it as a kick returner. Skylar Thompson has an outside shot at quarterback and Deuce Vaughn can make it as a running back. But I’m not seeing a fifth contender.
3. Deuce Vaughn named a finalist for the Doak Walker Award. He’s having a tremendous season, but there will only be three finalists, and I don’t see him making the cut.
1. Pecan pie.
2. Pumpkin pie.
3. Coconut cream pie.
4. Apple pie.
I gave the top spot to pecan, because it tastes the best. It’s awfully filling and kinda makes me want sleep after I’m done eating it. But it’s still the best.
Pumpkin comes in a close second.
Really, though, everyone should eat both pecan and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving with a side of vanilla ice cream.
My father-in law always takes it a step further and eats coconut cream pie, too. I respect him for that. My kids really like apple pie, so I threw that in there at No. 4, even though it’s not the most traditional Thanksgiving dessert.
Wish I could go off script and say Torchy’s Tacos.
Lawrence has one and the taco chain announced plans to move to Manhattan a while back. Then the coronavirus pandemic happened. Now it looks like the Little Apple isn’t getting a Torchy’s.
Blast!
Of your choices, I’m going to go with QuikTrip. There’s no good reason why Manhattan doesn’t have one already.
The answer would have to be three Big 12 championships in men’s basketball, right?
If that happens, and it’s a very big if we’re talking about here, Bruce Weber would be the first coach to accomplish that feat since Jack Hartman in the old Big Eight days. And Weber would have done it while going head to head with Kansas and Texas Tech at the height of their powers.
Hanging two banners is already quite the accomplishment, even if they were both technically shared.
The caveat here is that Chris Klieman has a more realistic shot of winning 10 games in his third season.
That would be mighty impressive, too. Mike Ahearn and Bill Snyder are the only other coaches to win 10 football games at K-State.
This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 9:50 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Chris Klieman, Deuce Vaughn, basketball analysis and football attendance."