K-State Q&A: Adrian Martinez transfer watch, Texas Bowl analysis and Bruce Weber
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
There is a lot going on for the Wildcats right now. The football team is preparing for LSU at the Texas Bowl. The men’s basketball team is coming off entertaining games against Wichita State and Marquette. Early signing day is coming up. Recruiting is kicking into high gear. That means there are plenty of fun topics to cover this week.
No need for any more of an introduction than that. Let’s dive into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
The odds of Nebraska transfer Adrian Martinez playing quarterback for Kansas State next season seem high at the moment.
He made an unofficial visit to campus last week and then checked out everything the California Golden Bears had to offer a few days later. It seems like K-State and Cal are his two main options.
But the Wildcats appear to be in the lead now that K-State Online has reported Martinez is expected to make another visit to Manhattan this weekend with his family in tow.
If the visit goes well, it’s not hard to see him picking the Wildcats.
Martinez has interest in K-State for obvious reasons. His girlfriend is a member of the K-State soccer team and the Wildcats could use a veteran quarterback to replace Skylar Thompson, or at least compete with Will Howard, Jaren Lewis and Jake Rubley for the starting job next season.
Could K-State find a better quarterback in the transfer portal? Maybe. Martinez is incredibly turnover prone and he never won more than five games in a season at Nebraska. He also recently had shoulder surgery and won’t be able to participate in spring practices.
There are more accurate and healthier quarterbacks available.
But this one seems to want to play for the Wildcats and there is no doubting that he has talent. His stats over four seasons with the Huskers (8,491 passing yards and 2,301 rushing yards) prove that. I find it hard to believe K-State will pass on him in hopes of finding someone better.
The Wildcats are actively recruiting him. There is strong mutual interest.
Maybe it won’t work out. Maybe Martinez will see something he doesn’t like this weekend.
But if his second visit to Manhattan goes well, it won’t be a surprise if enrolls at K-State in the near future.
My guess is LSU will spend most of its practice time over the next month doing things that help new coach Brian Kelly best prepare for next season rather than help interim coach Brad Davis beat K-State in the Texas Bowl.
I can’t imagine winning this game without a permanent head coach or many of their best players (opt outs, transfers) is a top priority for the Tigers right now.
Will they prepare for the Wildcats? Yes.
Will they try to win the game? Yes.
Will they care about this bowl as much as K-State? Unlikely.
Still, the Wildcats are only favored by one point in this game. They started out as 2 1/2-point underdogs until starting quarterback Max Johnson entered the NCAA transfer portal.
Chris Klieman likes to split his bowl practices in half, with the early workouts revolving around young player development and the late workouts focusing more on the bowl game.
I can see LSU leaning a little more heavily toward player development.
I am expecting the majority of Kansas State’s assistant football coaches who work at the Texas Bowl to be back next season with enhanced contracts.
But it also wouldn’t surprise me if one or two more position coaches end up going elsewhere.
For example, Collin Klein could be a candidate for other offensive coordinator positions if Chris Klieman doesn’t promote him into that role permanently at K-State.
Old Dominion has an opening that seems like a perfect fit for him. Head coach Ricky Rahne recruited him at K-State and defensive coordinator Blake Seiler used to work with him at K-State. Maybe he gets a look there.
The Wildcats are coming off a strong season on defense. Perhaps other teams try to lure away some assistants on that side of the ball.
Again, I think the majority of K-State’s coaching turnover has already happened with Courtney Messingham and Jason Ray not being retained. But one or two more moves aren’t out of the question.
The Wildcats only have 13 pledges lined up at the moment, so that should tell you all you need to know.
Klieman will always prefer to sign more high school recruits than transfers, but fans are also going to see him take between five and 10 transfers every year, including this one.
K-State needs another infusion of veteran talent on defense, and the transfer portal is the place to find it.
My suspicion is that Oklahoma State would have passed Cincinnati for the final spot in the College Football Playoff had the Cowboys gained a few more inches on their final offensive play of the Big 12 Championship Game.
I don’t agree with that. I have been voting the Bearcats No. 2 on my AP ballot ever since they beat Notre Dame. But the CFP selection committee really didn’t like Cincinnati for some reason.
That much is clear by their seeding. How is the only undefeated team in the playoff ranked fourth?
It would have been an interesting debate between Baylor, Notre Dame, Alabama, Michigan and Cincinnati had the final three teams listed in this sentence lost.
Personally, I would have pushed for Baylor because the Bears had some really good wins on their resume. But the committee probably would have favored the traditional powers.
This is a difficult question to answer, because K-State can’t seem to avoid bad luck on the injury front.
If Nijel Pack and Selton Miguel both get healthy over the next week and stay healthy for the remainder of the season, I can see things still going well for the Wildcats.
After running through the schedule, I could realistically see a 20-11 finish to the regular season if the team gets healthy and stays healthy.
If not? Who knows.
They beat Wichita State without Pack. Then they lost to Marquette without Pack, plus a limited Miguel. They’re going to need both to win in the Big 12. Iowa State looked like the worst team in the league during the preseason, but the Cyclones are off to a 9-0 start. The league is going to be as strong as ever.
Ken Pomeroy currently projects K-State to finish 15-16 and 6-12 in conference play.
Winning the next four games will be important against Green Bay, Nebraska, McNeese State and Morgan State. If the Wildcats accomplish that, they will enter Big 12 games at 9-3 with legit hopes of reaching the NCAA Tournament.
I’m not saying that will happen, but it could happen.
Fans jumping off the bandwagon because K-State lost by single digits to Arkansas, Illinois and Marquette are overreacting a bit.
K-State is much improved from last season. The Wildcats are blowing out bad teams and playing competitively against good teams. But they are still unpredictable because few of their players bring a high floor to the court.
Kaosi Ezeagu can score 14 points against Wichita State and then two against Marquette. Luke Kasubke can look a future contributor against the Shockers and then screw up every play against the Golden Eagles. Ismael Massoud and Davion Bradford can be unplayable one night and heroes the next.
They all have high ceilings, but low floors.
Until those players learn how to contribute something in every game, K-State won’t reach its potential.
Most likely, the Wildcats will win between 15 and 20 games, which would put them in contention for a NIT berth.
But it seems like Weber is facing more challenges than just winning games. The student crowd for the Marquette game was great, but there were still only 7,184 in attendance.
If his team can’t figure out a way to convince more fans to show up to Bramlage Coliseum it might not matter what his record is this season.
I learned the most from the Wichita State game.
Intrust Bank Arena was rocking last Sunday, and I can’t thank the Wildcats and Shockers enough for renewing their rivalry. We need more games like that. It was loud in there and both teams played well, but K-State found a way to win away from home.
That is something they haven’t done much of in recent years. It at least shows what K-State basketball is capable of. Losing to Marquette in heartbreaking fashion was no way to capitalize on that momentum, but the Wildcats were down two key players in that game. I’m not sure we can learn a ton from that one, other than that Markquis Nowell deserves a permanent spot in the starting lineup.
The Big 12 tried that approach last season and K-State played Iowa State and Baylor in December before returning to nonconference games.
It’s an interesting idea.
The Big Ten schedules games this way. So does the ACC. It’s not a terrible plan.
But I don’t see it working for the Big 12. Coaches like Weber complain enough as it is that the Big 12/SEC challenge game interrupts league play every season. I don’t see them voting to interrupt it any further. Also the vast majority of Big 12 fan bases don’t care much about basketball until football ends. It’s probably best to postpone conference games as long as possible.
Big 12 teams would be better off scheduling stronger nonconference opponents to attract crowds early in the season.
This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Adrian Martinez transfer watch, Texas Bowl analysis and Bruce Weber."