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Kansas vs. Kansas St. Matchup Breakdown

Why Kansas? Edge Scenario Edge Why Kansas State?

This feature is beginning to feel like a broken record.  Kansas' offense has become nonexistent and I'm not sure Robert Stack and John Walch combined have the ability to find it.  Still, I just can't fathom that this thing won't eventually get fixed.  They'll be changes on the offensive line and likely in a few other spots this week for the Jayhawks, Todd hit rock bottom in Lubbock and it seems there is only one way to go and that's up.  Eliminate the early mistakes, get some confidence and let's get back to the business of scoring touchdowns.

 

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I'm going push here because if K-State stuffs the run which they are capable of doing, then once again the Jayhawks are stuck trying to let a passing game with zero confidence carry the team against a Kansas State team that is gaining confidence on a weekly basis.

 

 

 




KU Offense vs. K-State Defense

 

 

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Statistically K-State isn't great but they aren't bad either. It's tough to get a great read though because K-State has allowed some pretty big yardage against teams that run a similar pass heavy spread. Oklahoma put up 458 yards of total offense and Tech with a total of 739.  Difference here might be those two teams were also effective in the running game.  If Kansas State keeps the Kansas running game on the backburner it can could cause some problems for Kansas

This is an improving unit for the Jayhawks.  After hitting rock bottom against Iowa State the players have responded to the challenge and the competition is pretty intense for playing time.  Kansas held both of their last opponents in Oklahoma and Texas Tech well below their seasonal averages and will need a similar effort against the Wildcats.  Stop the run, force a turnover and Kansas can win this matchup.

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I give Kansas the edge here based on the effort in the last two games against pretty solid offensive units.  In either game if the offense had given any support and not turned the ball over so often the defense likely would have looked even better.  This is a close call though, because K-State impressed me with their effort and execution in Norman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KU Defense vs. K-State Offense

 

 

 


 





                             

 

 

Daniel Thomas is the real deal and last week against Oklahoma the Wildcats played a disciplined brand of football offensively.  Still they aren't particularly explosive.  If they can get the running game going again though and loosen up the Kansas defense there is no telling when the floodgates might open.  I'll tell you one thing, this offense won't lay down like the Ron Prince teams did.

Well we learned that our kicker apparently doesn't even know how to onside or squib, our punt return game is typically good for negative yardage and our kick return might get us to the 25 if we're lucky.  I guess that means Alonso Rojas is the lone bright spot.  Put DJ Beshears back there and let that guy have a shot at things.  Also it's time to send a message to the guys on special teams that anything less than your best will quickly move you to the end of the bench. Kansas has a long way to go on special teams.

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

Special Teams

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Not even close, Kansas State with the edge here and it's a dangerous possibly gamechanging scenario.  Don't kick it to Banks please, of course that's assuming Branstetter can kick in a specific direction.



Special teams is Bill Snyders specialty isn't it?  Brandon Banks is a stud, they block kicks and they play this area with a sense of urgency.   Keep doing that and this is almost a gimme for the Wildcats.

Right now the Head Caoch and the Offensive Coordinator at Kansas have a lot to prove.  They've done it in the past but something isn't working right now so it's back time to prove it again.  Also, I think Labba needs to refocus some of his attention on hating the special teams coach as well.  Fix it.

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coaching

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Old Balls still has it.  It's still uncertain what the long term results will be of the second coming but one thing is for certain they're going to field a team that plays hard every week.



Bill Snyder has overachieved with what looked to be a disaster of a team left behind in the wake of the Ron Prince experiment.  His teams are focused, fundamental and they play hard from start to finish.  I'm a believer again, Kansas State will have a good gameplan and execute it.  The Kansas staff better find a way to do the same or it's going to be trouble.

 

Eight weeks ago this one looked laughable.  Kansas State appeared to have so many holes and Kansas seemed unstoppable offensively.  Of course all this was before the first kickoff.  Since then Kansas has regressed, K-State has improved and even though I still believe that Kansas has a talent advantage in this one, the outcome isn't so certain.

5-3 at the 8 game mark.  Exactly where we sat last year before pummeling the Wildcats and regaining some confidence.  Can the Jayhawks do it again?  Will the changes offensively solve the problems? and can Mark Mangino find a way to use the frustration of the season to fuel some sort of us against the world mentality.  This team has a lot to prove right now.  There aren't a whole lot of people out there worried about playing Kansas.  Anyone on this team care to make them wish they had?

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Comments

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Good stuff...

as always, Denver.

What are you thinking about this week? With what we’ve seen recently, I’m at a complete loss for predicting these things right now.

With that said, I don’t expect to have a ton of running room, but I really think we should be able to throw on these guys (Landry Jones was 70% for 300 yards and we all know what Stix did to them in Lubbock). I think it will take about 30 points to win this one, and the two things that worry me most are brandon Banks returning kicks and us losing contain on Gregory.

by hiphopopotamus on Nov 3, 2009 7:51 AM CST reply actions  

I’m concerned with our ability to run as well, but unfortunately I haven’t seen enough in 3 weeks to believe we can throw on anyone if there isn’t some balance. We know there are changes coming, I’m just hopeful the players respond.

Defensively I’m concerned because it sure seems like K-State has the ball for a long time when they do get moving. Our defense has improved but this is a game where our opponent could very well wear us down if we keep this thing too close for too long.

I’m at a loss too as far as predicting things. I still have a hard time believing we don’t get on track at some point but I’m becoming less and less optimistic. This is the game we have to do it in though, Nebraska’s D is good, Texas is Texas and if we don’t have anything going by Mizzou…forget about it.

Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.

by Owen Kemp on Nov 3, 2009 8:03 AM CST reply actions  

^should have been a reply to hiphop

Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.

by Owen Kemp on Nov 3, 2009 8:04 AM CST up reply actions  

Agreed on all counts...

They really aren’t a big play offense – running or passing. But they keep churning out 4-5 yards a pop, get themselves in very manageable situations, keep moving the ball and bleed that clock. If we don’t figure out a way to put them in 3rd and long, we’ll only have a couple chances to score.

What I like about this matchup for us though is that we shouldn’t be worried about Gregory’s ability to connect deep, much like we weren’t with Doege. ideally, this will allow us to crowd them and take away their high percentage routes and hopefully keep Thomas bottled up.

by hiphopopotamus on Nov 3, 2009 3:24 PM CST up reply actions  

As I'm sure most of you know...

that’s exactly what we did to Tech. For a half….

It didn’t hurt that Doege held onto the ball way too long, but you get the idea.

by hiphopopotamus on Nov 3, 2009 3:28 PM CST up reply actions  

I'm convinced: we need to hit someone early

I’ve thought about this a lot lately. I can think of only two players this season who have actually laid a hit on someone this season:

1) Tim Biere destroyed an ISU safety on that broken play…and he did it right in front of the ISU coaches.
2) Toben Opurum has run over several people.

After 8 games only having two players come to mind is just piss poor. The physical part of our game must be turn up a bunch of notches. This isn’t about strength or size, it’s about want-to. Our players have to want to hit someone. And hit someone hard. We must do this early in the KSU game to send a message: hey guess what? You’re playing a wounded animal and sometimes a wounded animal is the most dangerous animal there is.

Secondly, someone on both sides of the ball needs to step up and be a leader. A vocal leader. An in-your-face leader. A lead-by-example leader.

Sawin' wood

by Rivethead on Nov 3, 2009 8:24 AM CST reply actions  

I agree with both points 100% right now...

We are missing both. Not that any of our receivers are run over you type people but it sometimes seems those guys are more concerned with getting to the ground to avoid the big hit than they are with making the catch. Toben certainly provides a pop but Jake Sharp got molested on Saturday.

Defensively I’ve seen Stuckey flying around a lot more the last three games but he’s about the only one looking to lay a pop. I really wish Harris had been able to stay at that Nickel spot he was pretty good in run support and it allowed him to throw some decent hits rather than worry so much about coverage.

As far as the vocal leader I’ve been told Stuckey does provide that but it sure doesn’t look like it on Saturday’s, offensively I definitely don’t see it.

Bring back the TRFP and the Dezmon Briscoe that broke 25 tackles against LaTech last year. Bring back the K-Magic that dominated last season on one leg. Bring back the Jeremiah Hatch that played an entire touchdown drive in the Insight Bowl with his helmet broken and stuck sideways. Bring back the Darrell Stuckey who made Chase Daniel a turnover machine. Bring back the Justin Thornton who matched our All American Aqib Talib in INT’s. It’s time to find these guys again.

Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.

by Owen Kemp on Nov 3, 2009 8:50 AM CST up reply actions  

I wonder if part of that has to do with all the changes we keep making. Players are out there reacting, not acting, since their roles are somewhat unfamiliar. To get a big hit, you usually have to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, and we just aren’t seeing that this year.

We often talk about how the game “slows down” for players as they go from freshmen to sophomores. Maybe all the position changes have sped the game up too much for guys like Harris to be able to get out there and lay some wood on somebody.

Also, whenever you move someone from offense to defense, you have to wonder if they have the right mentality to want to inflict pain on their opponents. Does Patterson dream at night about blowing a guy up? Or does he dream about picking one off and getting into daylight?

by KennyGregoryRockThaCradle on Nov 3, 2009 1:35 PM CST up reply actions  

another great point...

there is a huge difference mentally speaking in playing offense vs. defense. Some guys don’t really have it. I’m also beginning to think that it seems we recruit so many guys with one position in mind and they end up switching. That makes sense if a guy matures physically or something in his makeup changes as he matures, but to just do it to try and make something happen doesn’t seem like the best decision.

Now Mangino has had a lot of success with guys and changing positions so I’m willing to give a whole lot of slack on that front but you’d have to think there comes a time when our program is recruiting a higher level player and it’s easier for us to identify where they will be most effective based on our evaluations of them as a recruit.

Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.

by Owen Kemp on Nov 3, 2009 2:30 PM CST up reply actions  

FWIW

KU looks to be about a 3 point favorite in Vegas. Of course, they don’t put much effort into games involving teams outside the Top 25, so that probably doesn’t mean very much.

Please just win this game, Jayhawks. Please?

by KennyGregoryRockThaCradle on Nov 3, 2009 1:54 PM CST reply actions  

Don't worry.

If they get too obnoxious we’ll remind them of the president of their university putting his buddy in as AD and looting the athletic department of millions. There’s still a lot of run to go in that story.

by hunter s. royal on Nov 3, 2009 6:57 PM CST up reply actions  

Is there?

Because last I checked, none of those guys work at K-State anymore.

We'll carry the banner high!
Bring On The Cats

by TB on Nov 3, 2009 9:58 PM CST up reply actions  

Did Wefald, Krause & Prince apologize

and pay all the money back to the athletic department donors? Or are you just going to pretend it never happened and let the lawyers fight it out under the radar for the next 5 years?

by hunter s. royal on Nov 4, 2009 8:40 AM CST up reply actions  

Why do we need an apology?

They aren’t trying to keep their jobs. Wefald was retiring, and Krause and Prince were fired. If they were trying to keep their jobs, I could see where maybe an apology would be in order, but that’s not the case. I don’t give a damn whether they apologize or not. I know that what they did was wrong, but they’re gone, so it really doesn’t make any difference to me now whether they realize they were wrong or not.

No, they didn’t pay the money back to the donors, because they can’t do so legally. The point is, there’s not going to be anything “new” about this story, because the principals involved — Wefald, Krause, Prince — can no longer cause harm to K-State. The contracts were made. We can’t go back and change the past. At this point, the only real question is whether/how much of Prince’s secret buyout we end up paying. I’m quite certain that case will command headlines as it progresses.

As for any harm or suspicion it may have caused to the donors, only a fool would refuse to donate money to the athletic department based on the actions of people no longer employed by the athletic department. They may choose to withhold donations for now, waiting to see if John Currie and Kirk Schulz are better leaders than the previous regime, but that’s the only sound reason. The other reason would be like if KU donors refused to donate to Lew Perkins because Al Bohl was an idiot.

It’s not that I’m pretending it never happened, I’m just suggesting to you that your suggested retort to us getting “too obnoxious” is a pretty dull barb.

We'll carry the banner high!
Bring On The Cats

by TB on Nov 4, 2009 12:06 PM CST up reply actions  

totally agree

but Old Balls will not be around long and so far KSU is a one-trick pony. this could be a turning point for the two programs in the near-term, however.

"He once had an awkward moment, just to see how it felt...he lives vicariously...through himself- He is the most interesting man in the world"

by Home Run Tony Cogan on Nov 3, 2009 9:51 PM CST up reply actions  

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