K-State Q&A: Will Howard, Kobe Savage, Keyontae Johnson and basketball predictions
One of these days I will get back to writing a fun introduction for my weekly K-State mailbag. But today is not that day.
With men’s basketball, women’s basketball and football all happening at the same time (plus back-to-back road trips with Friday travel) my creative juices and free time are running low. So we’re going to dive right into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
K-State defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman said earlier this week that he was excited to use a number of players in the secondary with Kobe Savage out for the season with an injury.
One of them was VJ Payne.
I expect that you will see him out there against West Virginia along with Cincere Mason and T.J. Smith.
On your second point, I think most fans are with you with when it comes to getting reserves on the field earlier at the end of blowout victories. Keeping Deuce Vaughn and Will Howard healthy the rest of the season is of the utmost importance. There isn’t a drop-off between Adrian Martinez and Howard. There is a big dropoff between Howard and Jake Rubley.
Klieman was asked why he kept his starters on the field until the bitter end against Baylor, and he said he wanted them to be out there when the game went final so they could celebrate their first victory over the Bears. Not exactly the best reason but at least nobody got hurt.
Will Howard is a great reminder that not all college quarterbacks mature at the same pace.
He wasn’t great during his first two seasons with the Wildcats, but he was also far from awful. I wrote several times in this space that it was too early to write him off. Some quarterbacks look bad as underclassmen but excel once the game slows down for them as juniors and seniors.
That is exactly what has happened with Howard.
He knows the offense like the back of his hand after leading K-State in spring practice the past two seasons and having all those game reps while filling in for Skylar Thompson. Now it is translating to big plays and he looks the quarterback of the future and the present.
Collin Klein followed a similar path.
Most K-State fans only remember the way he played as a junior and senior, when the Wildcats won 21 games and played in back-to-back major bowl games. But he was so green as a freshman that he played wide receiver and backed up Carson Coffman as a sophomore.
Outside of one game against Texas when Daniel Thomas and Klein ran all over the Longhorns, he showed little to make you think he was going to become a Heisman Trophy finalist.
But he made a big leap as a junior. So did Howard.
This is just speculation on my part, but I think Howard knows much more about the K-State offense than Martinez and Collin Klein can be much more aggressive when he is the quarterback.
That makes sense, because Martinez is a Nebraska transfer who only started learning the K-State offense earlier this year. Howard has been here for three seasons and got a head start working as QB1 under Klein last spring when Martinez was recovering from a shoulder injury.
Howard is also a better passer than Martinez, which opens up much more of the offense.
On Ben Sinnott: You have to give him credit for his own development. K-State brought him in as a skinny walk-on mostly because he grew up in the same Iowa town as Klieman. I never expected him to evolve into an elite pass-catching tight end.
But here we are.
He has added a lot of muscle to his frame and he has figured out how to get open for his quarterbacks.
Earlier this season, I wrote that linebacker Austin Moore was the best walk-on success story for this team. Maybe that is still the case, as he has been terrific at linebacker all season long. But Sinnott is right there with him.
My jaw dropped after each of his touchdown catches against Baylor, especially the second one when he high-pointed a pass from Howard and looked like Randy Moss catching a ball over his defender’s head.
I’m not expecting any Kansas State players to opt out of the postseason if the Wildcats make it to the Sugar Bowl.
K-State hasn’t played in a major bowl in a decade. It hasn’t won a major bowl since 2000.
It will be a big deal.
Maybe I could see that happening if K-State had a top five pick on its roster, but it does not. Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Deuce Vaughn, Cooper Beebe and others will be playing in the NFL before too long. But they aren’t the type of prospects who typically opt out of bowl games.
Skylar Thompson and Russ Yeast didn’t opt out of the Texas Bowl last season. It’s hard for me to see K-State players bailing on a much bigger game this year.
Now, if things go poorly the rest of the season and K-State ends up in the Liberty Bowl then maybe some players will look for reasons not to participate.
I am more optimistic than I was before the season began.
It won’t surprise me if K-State finishes not last in the Big 12 standings. Heck, it won’t shock me if the Wildcats climb up to the middle of the pack and challenge for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
That seems like the ceiling for this team, but it isn’t impossible.
The Wildcats have lots of athleticism, depth and talent. They play great defense and they play hard. Those are all good things.
But the halfcourt offense is hard to watch, the Wildcats are turnover prone and they don’t have many good outside shooters. California and UMKC both outplayed them in the second half, almost solely because the Wildcats couldn’t buy a bucket.
Those shortcomings are bound to catch up with them in Big 12 play.
Ken Pomeroy has K-State projected to finish 15-14 with six conference wins.
That feels about right now. The Wildcats should go undefeated, or close to it, in nonconference play. The teams Bruce Weber lined up for this season are all struggling right now. But the Big 12 with be a monster.
I’m thinking 16 wins right now, which honestly would be a good first season for Jerome Tang considering what he inherited. But they could also overachieve. They have done enough good things to make fans hope for the best.
Keyontae Johnson.
He is far and away the best player on the team. I don’t see how it could be anyone else.
Math has never been my strong suit, so let’s just say I think it is more likely than not that K-State wins its final two games against West Virginia and Kansas and earns a berth in the Big 12 championship next month.
ESPN has a win-out percentage included on its Football Power Index and gives the Wildcats a 30%, which seems on the low side.
But like I said, I’ve never been good at math.
The Wildcats are favored by 7 1/2 at West Virginia. They will also be favored at home against the Jayhawks. By no means is either game a gimme, but K-State can win both by taking care of business.
As far as all these prime-time road games go, I can tell you more confidently that I was happy when the West Virginia kickoff was set for 1 p.m.
Afternoon games are way better for us in the media, especially when they are on the road. I like prime-time kickoffs for home games, because I can get in some family time in the morning and afternoon before kickoff. That is taken away with a morning kickoff or an afternoon time slot. You miss the whole time, and when you get home everyone is asleep.
But night games are a pain on the road, because you have stay up late working and then worry about driving home or catching an early flight the next morning. It’s tiring. There also aren’t many night owls who are clicking on my stories when they post at midnight after a late game.
So I will gladly go with a 1 p.m. kickoff this weekend.
Well, the top of the conference is going to be incredibly strong. Kansas has already beaten Duke. Texas just made Gonzaga look unworthy of a Big 12 invitation. Baylor is destroying people.
Good luck beating those teams.
But TCU has started the season incredibly slow and Oklahoma has already suffered a home loss to low-major opponent Sam Houston State. It’s not like every team is unbeatable.
But the Big 12 does once again look like the best basketball conference in the country.
One more thought: Some of the teams in the Big 12 appear to have greatly upgraded their home-court advantages. Allen Fieldhouse is always a tough place to play, but it now looks like Texas and Texas Tech are just as raucous for big games. Bramlage Coliseum is on its way back to becoming the Octagon of Doom. Hilton Coliseum is always loud.
There are some great environments in this league.
This story was originally published November 18, 2022 at 1:12 PM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Will Howard, Kobe Savage, Keyontae Johnson and basketball predictions."