Kansas State Insider
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By CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
Here's an inside look at the Kansas State Wildcats.
Kansas State averagesPoints
Offense: 35.3
Defense: 34.4
Yards
Offense: 412.7
Defense: 451.3
Rush
Offense: 135.9
Defense: 210.8
Pass
Offense: 276.8
Defense: 240.5
Time on field
Offense: 28:17
Defense: 31:43
Base formations
Offense: Multiple one-back, three-wide spread
Defense: 3-4
KEEP AN EYE ON ’EM
Brandon Banks
WR/Jr./5-7/142 pounds
If Bo Pelini was taken back by Todd Reesing’s short stature, wait ’til he gets a look at Banks. Don’t let his size fool you — the JUCO transfer is a legit candidate for Big 12 Newcomer of the Year.
Joshua Moore
CB/So./5-11/184 pounds
Played as true freshman and earned Freshman All-Big 12 honors by The Sporting News before redshirting last season. Moore leads K-State with 60 tackles and the Big 12 with 11 pass breakups.
Josh Freeman
QB/Jr./6-6/250 pounds
Not that he needs pointing out —Freeman’s already K-State’s career leader in pass attempts (1,103), completions (656), yards (7,685), TD passes (39) and total offense (7,993). This year, he has a Big 12-best 14 rushing TDs.
Quarterbacks (3 balls)
A lot of folks think Freeman will bolt to the NFL now that Ron Prince is being replaced as coach. Freeman could thrive at the next level, as he’s definitely got the necessary physical size, arm strength and enough speed. For the Wildcats, he’s often left having to make plays on his own. If Freeman is left with unhindered views, he can pick anybody apart. Ask the 2006 and ’07 Texas defenses that he shredded. Freeman, who’s running the ball a lot more this season (he has 90 rushes, compared with 107 his first two years combined), has converted 17 third-down plays by himself. This year, he’s steered 17 TD drives of 2 minutes or less, which ranks 12th nationally.
Running backs (1 ball)
It’s probably not a good sign if your quarterback is the team’s top rusher. That’s the case with Freeman and his 369 yards. Six-foot-3, 225-pound sophomore Lamark Brown was a wide receiver to start the season, then switched after the third game and rushed 29 times for 137 yards in his backfield debut against Louisiana-Lafayette. But after carrying 25 times the next week against Texas Tech, Brown missed three games with an injury. He returned to score three TDs against Kansas, but has just 100 yards on 33 carries the past two games. True freshman Logan Dold, the No. 2 all-time rusher in Kansas high school history, is next after Freeman with 297 yards. He had a 115-yard effort in a win against Texas A&M.
Receivers (2 balls)
Banks needs 91 yards to surpass Quincy Morgan for the most receiving yards for a Wildcat junior (the record is 1,007). He leads K-State with 57 catches and eight TDs (averaging a team-best 16.1 yards per grab), and is fifth in the Big 12 averaging 91.7 yards per game. He also lined up in the backfield against Missouri last week and produced a 93-yard TD run. Deon Murphy and Ernie Pierce have had big games (Murphy had 94 yards and a pair of TDs against Oklahoma; Pierce burned the Sooners for 11 catches and 176 yards), but they’ve also disappeared, at times. Murphy, who has 30 catches (27 fewer than last season), just became the 22nd Wildcat to reach 1,000 yards for a career. Aubrey Quarles, who rotates with Pierce, is third on the team with 34 catches. Jeron Mastrud (36 catches, 412 yards) is one of the top tight ends in the league. The junior needs just 37 yards to become the fourth K-State tight end to hit 1,000.
Offensive line (2 balls)
There’s been way too much rotating here for the Wildcats to ever get really comfortable, and as Big 12 O-lines go this one’s rather small, with three starters listed at 287 pounds or less. Right tackle Nick Stringer is the only one to start every game. There have been three starters at three of the other four spots — left tackle, left guard and right guard — while left guard Zach Kendall had to step in for injured center Jordan Bedore for three games. The only change the past two games has been at left tackle, where Alesana Alesana (yes, he’s got the same first and last name) has replaced Brock Unruh, who made six starts at left guard before moving outside against Kansas.
Defensive line (3 balls)
Ian Campbell, who originally walked on, is a two-time, first-team all-Big 12 pick, but he’s not been able to put up the same kind of numbers as his 111/2-sack, 67-tackle sophomore season of 2006. Part of that is because Campbell (37 tackles, team-best 41/2 sacks this year) receives more attention. Part of it is the emergence of junior Eric Childs. A speed rusher, Childs had 13 tackles last week against Missouri. His 32 stops in league play rank second among Big 12 linemen. Meanwhile, Brandon Harold leads all freshmen nationally with 10½ tackles for loss. Harold, listed at end, has started six times as a tackle in a 4-3 look. Despite these guys’ efforts, K-State is giving up an average of 5.1 yards per rush.
Linebackers (2 balls)
Since being elevated to starter at one of the two inside spots four games ago, walk-on redshirt freshman Alex Hrebec has 35 tackles and now ranks fifth on the team with 48. Hrebec got his first sack last week, a 22-yard drop of Chase Daniel. JUCO transfer Ulla Pomele is No. 3 on the team with 52 tackles and has two forced and two recovered fumbles. But the last two weeks, the Wildcats opened in a nickel package and the more mobile Reggie Walker started for Pomele. Walker (42 tackles, four for loss) moved outside after two games and has played in every contest the last three seasons. Olu Hall, seeing his first action since his freshman year at Virginia in 2005, has started six game and has 21 tackles.
Defensive backs (2 balls)Not only does Moore lead the Cats in tackles, he’s made 42 of those on his own (also a team best) and has picked off two passes. Strong safety Courtney Herndon is No. 2 on the team with 53 tackles. The Wildcats will blitz him on occasion (he has 41/2 tackles for loss). Billy McClellan and No. 1 cornerback Blair Irvin (a former minor-league baseball player taken by Tampa Bay in the 12th round of the 2002 draft) have been used in nickel packages the last two games. Redshirt freshman Tysyn Hartman, who used to be the backup quarterback, has started the last six games at free safety over preseason all-league pick Chris Carney, who’s still the fourth-leading tackler.
Special teams (3 balls)
The Wildcats lead the nation with eight blocked kicks (four punts, two field goals, two PATs). All of the blocked punts have resulted in touchdowns. Herndon has been the point man, blocking or returning three of the four. Murphy also returned a punt for a score. Kickoff coverage has been stellar (the average allowable return of 17.97 yards ranks fifth nationally). Senior Brooks Rossman is 8-for-11 on field goals, with the Big 12’s longest this season of 53 yards. For his career, he’s 30-for-39. Rossman added kickoff duties this year and his 20 touchbacks are ninth most in the nation. The one area of concern is net punting, where the 31.9-yard average ranks 107th.
SCOUTING REPORT
Both Kansas and K-State were coming off lopsided losses (the Jayhawks to Texas Tech and the Wildcats to Oklahoma) when they met in Lawrence on Nov. 1. Mark Mangino’s club was able to shake it off the best, as Kansas got 257 yards and four touchdowns from Jake Sharp, and the defense came up with four takeaways (three from Freeman) to roll to a 52-21 win.
“We put a great deal of pressure on the quarterback, or at least didn’t give him as much time as he would like to have. He’s a talented guy, he can hurt you, he made some very good throws … some tough throws,” Mangino said. “There were a couple of times I thought we had good coverage (and) he put the ball in there. If you give him a lot of time to stand back there, you’re going to have a long day, and we’ve learned some lessons about that in the past, so we didn’t want that to happen.
“He has really matured. He is probably doing a better job of looking for his second and third progressions than he has done in the past.
“On the defensive side, the guy that jumps out is Ian Campbell. He is a good pass-rush guy and he is a good run stopper. He uses his hands and he has good quickness. … There are some elements of the spread in there. There are times when they play power football and there are times when they feature the quarterback carrying the football.
“… Offensively, we noticed during the week that they were giving some opportunities to run the ball, and we felt that they played us on defense the way we expected. Our offensive line did a terrific job of getting off the ball and knocking the defensive line back a little bit, and gave Jake Sharp room, and Jake just had a great day.
“ On special teams … you name it and they do it. They fake punts, block field goals, surprise on-side kicks.”
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