Want the silver lining?
Kansas State would be atop the conference standings right now – if the Wildcats were competing in the Sun Belt Conference. Yep, they’ve beaten North Texas – which lost 42-10 yesterday to Florida International, which lost to Kansas, 40-10 – and Louisiana-Lafayette.
K-State would own the Sun Belt.
And not to be too flip, but was this the ultimate goal? To lower expectations to this degree? All we kept hearing in August was how this team was going to be compete for championships – in the Big 12 North and the Big 12 overall.
Really? How foolish does that sound now? Ask yourself this – do you think K-State could win the Sun Belt championship? I’m not so sure.
These are issues of confidence and trust, and the Wildcats are suffering from a dearth of each. There is internal unrest – the players will never admit it publicly, but it’s there – and I’m only guessing on this, but running sprints at 3 a.m. in the morning probably didn’t sit well with all of the veterans. But there is some optimism, if only because there are games left to be played. While it’s impossible to know what will happen, with what we’ve seen so far, it’s not hard to predict what might happen, and it doesn’t look pretty.
But that’s the not the point.
Want to know how bad it is? There were Tech critics – and really, they’ve piped down a little but they’re still out there – who said all week the Red Raiders hadn’t played anybody. The case could be made that they still haven’t. Look at who Tech beat in non-conference, and note that the 30-point margin of victory was worse than the Red Raiders’ triumphs against Eastern Washington and at Nevada – and this was IN MANHATTAN?
In the closing moments of the debacle, I asked K-State president Jon Wefald – a good, possibly great man -
what he thought. He kind of shrugged his shoulders, looked at me and said, “That’s a really good football team.”
This is where K-State football is? Back to being a punchline on Saturday afternoons? The mere thought of what Oklahoma, Missouri and even Kansas might do this team must be terrifying. And you have to think A&M feels good about its chances next week, and you think Dan Hawkins isn’t drooling at the prospect of his team getting back in the win column when K-State comes to Boulder? Remember, Hawkins hasn’t beaten Ron Prince yet, and he probably feels as if he’s due.
Then again, with that logic, Prince probably feels as if he’s due against Pinkel and Mangino, and the odds are slim of that happening this season.
In closing, maybe the Wildcats were right all along. Maybe this is a championship team – in the Sun Belt. Then again, if K-State played Louisiana-Lafayette on the road, the outcome might have been different. At this point, can you be certain otherwise?
19 Comments
I really didn’t think I’d ever see K-State football this bad again. I figured there would be down seasons, but not the utter laughingstock that this team is become, or possibly already has become. What kind of a job will this be for the next guy, whenever that time may come?
The last time I saw a KSU team this bad was in 1989…I was in eighth grade. I really wanted Ron to succeed, but we’ve gotten progressively worse in his three years. So disappointing.
whenever that time may come? i’m not sure we’ll win a game the rest of the way out. could we possibly keep this unpopular of a coach around if we go winless in the conference?
Jmart what are the odds that RP is here next year?
Tibs? assuming rp is here?
I’d say we’ve hit rock bottom, but we’re not even close to rock bottom with OU, MU, and KU coming up. Maybe when KU beats us 70-20, that will be enough for the administration to cut their ties with Mr. Prince. Our only other victory may be against Nebraska. I think Iowa State might pound us.
Thank You! This is what I’ve been feeling for a year now. People I talk to seem to want to settle for mediocrity and give RP another three years to see how low it can really go (or get back to).
Time to go back and get someone from the Snyder coaching tree.
I miss Bill Snyder.
Princes ineptness is finally surfacing. Can’t recruit, can’t develop a game plan, can’t lead young men, can’t keep good coaches, can’t game day coach, etc. College football head coaching is not a EEO opportunity. His qualifications at Virginia were below standards. His offenses there were bottow tier of the ACC. He will singlehandedly bring down what Synder built up in 3-4 years while everybody else in the Big XII north get stronger. Fire him and cut your losses now before we lose another recuiting class.
K-State is definitely struggling. The coaching staff is simply not getting it done. I don’t know if there will be a change at the end of this year…but if things don’t improve by the end of next year, Prince has to go. Gut the whole program. Talk to Gary Patterson…get him in here. Let him start the rebuilding process by hitting the recruiting trails like crazy. I’m talking high school recruiting here, NOT Juco.
There is no quick fix for the current situation. We need to go back to improving just a little bit each and every week. I’m just not so sure that Prince is going to be the man to do that. We all know that his teams haven’t shown the ability to improve throughout the season.
With all of that said, I’m a KSU fan…always will be. I’ll continue to fly a KSU flag on gamedays. I love the school and the town too much to just jump ship.
We need to go and get, like someone said earlier, someone from the Snyder coaching tree. My #1 prospect would be Brent Venables from OU. He will bring the nasty back to the K-State Defense that we so deperatly need.
On another note. Does it annoy anyone else when they show the stands and the college kids are flashing the “lynch Mob” sign? These poor kids have no idea what the “Lynch Mob” is. This defense defenitly is not the lynch mob and I’m a little annoyed that they seem to think it is, the lynch mob died in 2003 or maybe even sooner than that.
Lane Kiffin anyone?
Would Kiffin be able to recruit to KSU? That’s the number one requirement of our next coach. There are a lot of coaches out there that can coach….
Kiffin would be a disaster.
My understanding is that the team does not have any respect for Prince. I also heard that the football players had a beer party the night before the game all at one house and didn’t care what the coach thinks as they have absolutely no respect for his coaching abilities and would just as soon lose really bad than play decent football.
I don’t think Kiffin would be a good hire. If he succeeded, then he’d likely bolt after that for a higher profile job. If he didn’t win, then we would be right back where we are right now. From my point of view it would be a lose/lose situation.
My #1 choice would definitely be Venables. He should have some pretty good ties down in the Oklahoma and Texas regions for recruiting. And he’s a defensive minded guy, which I think that the next guy that leads K-State should be. My #2 choice would be Gary Patterson. Has K-State ties, and has built a solid program at TCU.
Venables would be the top choice but I highly doubt we would be able to pull him away from Stoops and OU. As long as a change is made for a Defensive minded coach we can start to stop the bleeding.
It’s my understanding the nation has no respect for the entire program. The time machine has hit Manhattan, welcome back to the 80’s!!!
Go Sooners!!!
You make me laugh thinking you can name a coach and he would be interested. You do not have tradition nor attractions that would lure a good coach from a good program. You might check the winning D2 schools, they may have an interest.
Go Sooners!!!
nojunk, nobody wants to hear from a stuck up sooner such as yourself. keep on your own teams blogs. are you serious about k-state having no tradition? do you remember not too long ago the 2003 big 12 championship? the “supposedly #1 team in the nation, and quite possibly the best of all time” oklahoma sooners came into arrowhead stadium with a confidence such as yours and got put to shame by a team with “no tradition”, as you suggest, 35-7. remember where bob stoops came from big guy. ksu. mangino? ksu. venables? ksu. Bielema? ksu. leavitt? ksu.