Kansas State in desperate need of interceptions against Texas Tech

There’s a good chance you don’t remember the last time an active member of Kansas State’s secondary intercepted a pass.

It happened more than a year ago.

K-State has played 15 football games and defended nearly 600 passes since last October, when cornerback Morgan Burns intercepted a Trevor Knight pass in the end zone, helping the Wildcats pull off a wild road victory over Oklahoma.

This season, the only K-State players with interceptions are linebackers. Elijah Lee has two and Will Davis has one. That’s it. The Wildcats need two more picks to avoid becoming the first team in school history to finish with fewer than five interceptions.

Those statistics seemed unthinkable at the season’s outset.

“I probably would have told you it was a joke,” Lee said. “Our defensive backs are usually the ones that get all of the interceptions.”

They have come up empty this season for myriad reasons. Injuries are the major culprit. Dante Barnett, a preseason all-conference selection with seven career interceptions, hasn’t played since the first half of the opener. Danzel McDaniel, a physical cornerback that returned an interception for a touchdown last year, is also out for the season. Burns and Kaleb Prewett have also missed time.

Duke Shelley, perhaps the top current performer of the group, is a freshman that expected to redshirt until the fifth game. Sean Newlan was supposed to be a reserve, not a multi-game starter.

The veteran secondary many expected to anchor K-State’s defense is a shell of its former self.

Execution and scheme are also at fault. Against Baylor, Shelley was in position to jump a route against top Bears receiver Corey Coleman and attacked the pass, but his timing was off. Coleman ended up with a huge gain. A sign of how badly K-State fans miss interceptions: Shelley was applauded for almost creating a turnover.

“They have not thrown it to us yet,” K-State coach Bill Snyder said. “That always creates a problem for you. You always drill diligently on guys being able to catch the ball, because they do not have the same opportunities that the receivers do. It is not a matter of us dropping balls.”

Baylor pulled off two other long passes when K-State’s safeties were out of position. A play-action pass brought safeties to the line of scrimmage on a 55-yard touchdown that Burns was unable to defend one-on-one.

Later, K-State’s entire defense looked fooled on an 81-yard touchdown pass to Coleman. He was uncovered while other receivers on underneath routes faced double teams.

“You have to credit the offense for the ability to get guys in open areas,” Snyder said. “The other part of it falls back on our shoulders to get our guys into positions where they have opportunities to compete for thrown balls. That is not just secondary players, that is underneath players as well.

“Part of it probably stems from the concerns about giving up substantial yardage plays and not getting beat over the top, consequently, maybe you end up being a little softer than you should.”

Something needs to change, starting with Saturday’s game at Texas Tech.

K-State has defended 285 passes this season, meaning it intercepts one out of every 95 attempts while allowing an average of 288.4 passing yards. It’s hard to win with those numbers.

Maybe the Wildcats can turn things around against the Red Raiders. Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes has thrown 13 interceptions this season, more than any other quarterback in the Big 12.

“It would be huge if we could get some,” Newlan said. “We have been pretty unfortunate. We haven’t had a lot of production out of our secondary in terms of interceptions and turnovers. But sometimes all it takes is one. If we are able to get that first one, who knows, maybe we can get a few more after that.”

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Kansas State in desperate need of interceptions against Texas Tech."