K-State Q&A: Thoughts on the Oklahoma upset, Adrian Martinez, Jerome Tang and more
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
No need for a lengthy introduction this week. Let’s dive right into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
Well, I wouldn’t say no one is talking about K-State allowing 550 yards and 34 points against Oklahoma.
I gave the K-State defense a C in my Sunday grades and mentioned that the secondary looked shaky after conceding 330 yards and four touchdowns passing in my game takeaways.
But negatives tend to be swept under the rug when you beat No. 6 Oklahoma on the road.
To answer your question, yes, I think K-State’s secondary is most definitely a concern moving forward. The Sooners really should have thrown for more than 330 yards last week. Gabriel missed Drake Stoops at least three times when he was wide open and overthrew another receiver after he got behind the K-State defense.
If those passes are completed, I don’t think the Wildcats win.
Credit K-State for making enough plays to beat Oklahoma. I’m not trying to say the defense is doomed, or anything like that. But the Big 12 has some excellent passing attacks. The Wildcats will be tested again, starting on Saturday with Texas Tech.
It would behoove K-State to come up with a few more sacks and interceptions against the Red Raiders.
That was a big play, and I wrote about it earlier this week. I wonder what kind of meal Adrian Martinez ended up buying Malik Knowles.
I know they both like Taco Lucha. Maybe they went there.
K-State weaponizing the rulebook to force Oklahoma off the field on fourth down was also a big play in that game.
But let’s get real for a second. The biggest play in that game was kinda obvious.
Adrian Martinez turning into Vince Young on third-and-16 with the game on the line is the easy choice.
So far, we have seen Adrian Martinez play three bad games and one Heisman game for the Wildcats.
He basically went from Bruce Banner to the Hulk against Oklahoma last week.
I doubt we see him play that poorly or that well again this season.
The real question is: What does his happy medium look like? Can he find the perfect mixture like Smart Hulk in the last Avengers movie?
It’s possible. He can clearly run as well as any quarterback in the country, and Oklahoma had no idea how to defend zone-read plays involving both Deuce Vaughn and Martinez.
But Martinez is still only averaging 5.38 yards per pass. And that’s not good.
K-State benefited from a 14-0 lead against Oklahoma, which allowed Martinez and Vaughn to run as much as they wanted in that game. But things might not go as swimmingly for the K-State offense if they fall behind 14-0 against a decent team and are forced to throw.
That was a fun celebration picture.
Little known fact: Oklahoma band instruments are programmed to play only one song.
That’s why you hear “Boomer Sooner” on an endless loop in Norman.
I am expecting this to be Deuce Vaughn’s final season at Kansas State.
Not saying he will absolutely declare for the NFL Draft after the conclusion of his junior season, but it would be the smart move.
He is already a projected draft pick, and running backs rarely improve their NFL stock by returning to college. Rookies can also excel at his position.
Why wait?
Running backs also age like dogs at the next level. Most of them only have a few years to maximize their potential. If Vaughn only has a certain number of football years ahead of him, it would make more sense to spend the next one making money in the NFL rather than coming back to school for NIL deals.
Now, Darren Sproles had an extremely long NFL career. So maybe Vaughn looks at that and thinks he can follow in his footsteps. That could crack the door open for a potential return next season.
But there is no chance he returns for a fifth-season of college football.
K-State beating Oklahoma was a little more impressive than Texas Tech beating Texas, because the Wildcats won that game on the road.
They also didn’t need a miracle fumble from Bijan Robinson in overtime to get the victory.
Biggest surprise player in the Big 12: Jalon Daniels. I had him pegged as maybe the ninth best quarterback in the conference, and now he is in the Heisman race.
Biggest surprise team in the Big 12: I don’t think anyone expected KU to be 4-0.
Runner-up player: Spencer Sanders. I didn’t think that highly of him last season, even though he was the Big 12’s first-team quarterback. But he has Oklahoma State’s offense humming this year.
Runner-up team: Texas Tech. Beating Houston and Texas in the same year has already made Joey McGuire look like a smart hire.
Most disappointing team in the Big 12: Texas. If Quinn Ewers stays healthy, the Longhorns are probably undefeated with a win over Alabama on their resume. Instead, he’s been injured and UT is 2-2.
Best Octoberfest beers: Free State, Samuel Adams, Sierra Nevada, Saint Arnold and any of the main imported ones straight from Germany.
Everything Jerome Tang touches seems to turn to gold in the eyes of most K-State fans.
It is quite the change from Bruce Weber.
That is probably what surprises me most.
Example: K-State landed a three-star recruit from the St. Louis area earlier this week and fans were euphoric about it on social media. Now, Macaleab Rich might turn out to be a tremendous basketball player for the Wildcats. I really like his potential.
But Weber signed several four-star prospects from St. Louis late during his time as coach and fans never reacted with anything close to those kinds of positive vibes. Sometimes they acted like it was a bad thing.
People expect good things from Tang. They expected the opposite from Weber.
Tang hasn’t won any games yet, but he seems to have already won over the fan base. That is not easily done.
A few K-State fans already hopped into my mentions and made it known that they would be more devastated about losing Jerome Tang.
So I guess that’s your answer.
Klieman has been good but not great at K-State. Until he wins 10 games in a season, I don’t think fans will deem him as irreplaceable. Tang benefits from being undefeated at the moment. His potential remains limitless. But maybe things wil change if the Wildcats don’t hit the ground running in Year 1.
All I can really say here is that K-State fans don’t like it when another school comes in and poaches one of their coaches. They were angry when Bob Huggins left for West Virginia and they were irate when Frank Martin left for South Carolina.
I suspect losing either Klieman or Tang would be a painful experience.
This story was originally published September 30, 2022 at 5:30 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Thoughts on the Oklahoma upset, Adrian Martinez, Jerome Tang and more."