Kids at K-State caught a break
By JOE POSNANSKI
The Kansas City Star
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MANHATTAN, Kan. | Before the game, Bill Snyder took one final lap around the field. He sat in the back of a convertible, and he blew kisses to the fans. He gave the two-handed wave that looked like the wax-on, wax-off move from the movie “The Karate Kid.” Then, the man who in 17 years turned Kansas State football from joke to powerhouse rode off, leaving his program to the kids.
In one short evening, those kids almost took Kansas State football back to 1989.
There’s no telling how the Ron Prince experiment will work out at Kansas State. It’s not fair to make judgments after only one game. But, this was one bad game. The Wildcats did beat Division I-AA Illinois State. By a point. That point difference was created by one of the five worst coaching decisions I’ve ever seen in any sport.
Here was the scenario: Illinois State had more or less dominated the game but still trailed by seven points late in the game because Kansas State had scored two special-teams touchdowns. With the game on the line, the Redbirds offense went on an emotional drive. With 3 minutes left, they scored the game-tying touchdown — one of the biggest touchdowns in the history of Illinois State football. Only … it wasn’t the game-tying touchdown. Why? Because amazingly, astonishingly, incredibly, astoundingly, unbelievably — there are not enough adverbs here — Redbirds coach Denver Johnson had his team go for two points (run failed).
Why? Did he misread the scoreboard? Get a counterfeit two-point conversion chart? Did his kicker leave town? Maybe he didn’t know they have overtime in Division I college football.
“We didn’t come here to tie the game,” was Johnson’s explanation, which leads me to think, maybe he really didn’t know they have overtime in Division I college football. He went on to say that Illinois State’s best shot to win was one glorious gamble from the 3-yard line. He said that his head, heart and gut all told him to go for two. He said that he would go for two 100 times in a row. I appreciate Denver’s passion, but I suspect based on this judgment that he might not get a hundred chances.
Anyway, Denver’s nugget helped Ron Prince avoid a major disaster in his first game. Still, you could call it a minor disaster. Let’s make no mistake: The school took a major gamble by hiring Ron Prince. He was a 36-year-old offensive coordinator at Virginia. I mean, that was pretty much his whole resume. Well, he did coach Cornell’s running game for two years. He seemed very sharp. He clearly wasn’t overqualified for the job.
Prince then proceeded to hire a 29-year-old defensive coordinator and a 34-year-old offensive coordinator. Neither had ever been a coordinator before. Neither had ever been coach at a major college football program. In other words, Prince searched America and somehow managed to find two coaches in America who had less experience than he did. The offensive coordinator, James Franklin, coached wide receivers for the Green Bay Packers. The defensive coordinator, Raheem Morris, was the assistant defensive backs coach in Tampa Bay.
Not to knock the importance of that position, but best I can tell the Chiefs don’t even have an assistant defensive backs coach.
So, Kansas State entered the post-Snyder era led by three men with only slightly more coaching experience than, for example, you. Heck, even that may not be true, I don’t know you. Maybe you coached at Florida State or something.
Now, I do want to say that all three men seem impressive enough, and they have some new ideas. I’m all for new ideas. For instance, Ron Prince has banned newspapers and magazines from the Vanier Sports Complex. He has not, as far as I know, given a full explanation for how this will make Kansas State football better, but I suspect it has something to do with the comics. They’re not as good as they used to be.
Prince also opened up some practices for fans and media members, thus lifting the iron curtain that had descended over Kansas State. He instituted something called the “Wildcat Walk” — on game day the players are dropped off on the street and they then walk the rest of the way to the stadium, a prudent move with gas prices so high. Prince also refused to divulge the name of the team’s third-string quarterback, which was shrewd because lately third-string quarterbacks at Kansas State have been transferring faster than Prince could name them.
Even after all that, though, we still didn’t know anything about Prince and Co. until Saturday’s game. And we didn’t learn that much Saturday. The Wildcats played lousy. Then, lots of teams struggle early in the season. We’ll find out more in the next month.
We did learn a few things. Both the young offensive and defensive coordinator coached from the sideline rather than the booth, which was odd but entertaining. They are both quite demonstrative.
Prince went for it on fourth down one time and ran the ball on third and long another, showing he can coach conservatively and liberally. Wildcats quarterback Dylan Meier unveiled a fun series of audible signals. At one point, he flapped his arm like a chicken. At another, he made puppet motions with his hands. At yet another, he scraped his right foot in the dirt like a bull getting ready to charge a matador. I kept waiting for him to do that mime thing where he pretended to be in a box.
And, in the end, Kansas State did win. The key to victory was a Wildcats punt return for a touchdown, and a Wildcats fumble recovery for a touchdown. Other than that, Illinois State had twice as many rushing yards, more passing yards, more first downs, fewer penalties and the Redbirds were better in the red zone. Illinois State looked to be both the better team and the better prepared team. And it wasn’t close.
But, again, Kansas State won. The Wildcats made the plays, Denver Johnson’s head, heart and gut all told him to go for two, and Ron Prince is undefeated after his first game. It should be noted that as of right now, he’s way ahead of Bill Snyder’s pace. Snyder lost his first game by 31 points.
