‘The game is still on’: K-State, LSU remain cautiously optimistic about Texas Bowl
A handful of Kansas State football players arrived in Houston on Wednesday to start preparing for next week’s Texas Bowl. They will be joined on Thursday by all of their coaches and teammates when the vast majority of the team arrives on a charter flight from Manhattan.
There is understandably some fear that the Wildcats’ postseason game against LSU on Tuesday will eventually be canceled because of COVID-19 issues on one or both of the team’s rosters. But, for now at least, everyone involved with the bowl and its pre-game events is proceeding like normal.
“Everything is on schedule at this time,” Texas Bowl executive director David Fletcher said in a phone interview. “We’re continuing to work with both schools to monitor the situation. As of this moment, we continue to plan as scheduled.
“We are evaluating each of our activities to ensure safety for the student athletes and the coaches traveling down, but our plan is to have a great celebration come next week at NRG Stadium.”
K-State athletic director Gene Taylor also expressed cautious optimism.
“The game is still on,” Taylor said Wednesday. “Everybody’ is doing everything they can to play. LSU has made a verbal commitment to the bowl and to us that they are going to do everything they can. We are certainly going to do everything we can.
“We want to play. As long as everyone took care of themselves while they were on vacation we should be good to go.”
College football fans everywhere have questioned which bowl games will actually be played in recent days.
Five postseason games have been called off because of COVID-19 issues (Arizona, Fenway, Hawaii, Holiday, Military) and they won’t be rescheduled this season. The majority of bowls (23) have been played without major issues, but that hasn’t stopped K-State fans from wondering if their bowl game could be one of the unlucky ones that doesn’t reach kickoff.
That was most evident earlier this week when the Texas Bowl posted a lighthearted question on its Twitter account asking fans if they should douse the winning coach of next week’s game with sweat tea instead of water or Gatorade? The first response was a serious question from a K-State fan.
“Can you guarantee the game will be played?”
Those fears were heightened when the K-State men’s basketball team had to twice cancel games with Morgan State and then replacement opponent North Florida on Wednesday.
Unfortunately, no one can promise anything. UCLA pulled out of the Holiday Bowl less than five hours before kickoff on Tuesday, leaving its opponent, North Carolina State, to awkwardly accept the game’s trophy without even taking the field.
If both teams make it to Houston later this week, there is at least hope the game can avoid a similar last-second cancellation.
Taylor said K-State will test all of its players and staff in Manhattan that are not vaccinated or are experiencing COVID symptoms before they board the team plane on Thursday morning. All of K-State’s non vaccinated or symptomatic players already in Houston will be tested before they interact with the rest of the team.
K-State plans to isolate players who test positive and proceed with caution from there.
“After we get down there we’re going to pretty much go into protect mode,” Taylor said. “We’re going to make sure that players are only with players and we’re going to make sure they’re kind of in a semi-bubble environment.”
K-State and LSU are scheduled to participate in several team-building activities leading up to the game, including a rodeo competition and a Houston Rockets game.
The Texas Bowl announced Wednesday that its Rodeo Bowl will no longer be open to the public in hopes of keeping both teams safe. Taylor said the Wildcats will only attend the Rockets game if the team can remain separate from other fans in the arena. Masks will be worn in all public settings.
Fletcher said the Texas Bowl will do everything within its power to provide both teams with a safe and enjoyable week.
“They have both been great partners throughout all this,” Fletcher said. “We continue to stay in contact with them and we have been making modifications to ensure a safe environment for them leading up to Tuesday’s game.”
One wild-card about potential bowl cancellations is that there is no set criteria for teams to follow. A year ago, when games were lost to COVID every week, conferences had their own roster thresholds to follow. In the Big 12, any team with 53 healthy players — including seven offensive linemen, four interior defensive linemen and one quarterback — was required to play.
For bowls, teams seem to be operating according to their own thresholds. Taylor said that has made some of the bowl cancellations frustrating.
For that reason, he understands why some fans may be nervous about traveling to Houston. But he also has a message for them.
“Just press ahead,” Taylor said. “That’s what we’re going to do. Both teams have indicated that they definitely want to play the game and we’re going to do everything we can to play. We’re moving forward.
“Unless something drastic happens between now and the game, we’re planning on playing the bowl with both teams.”
This story was originally published December 29, 2021 at 4:59 PM with the headline "‘The game is still on’: K-State, LSU remain cautiously optimistic about Texas Bowl."