Kansas State faced an early bye week and although head coach LHC Bill Snyder on Monday indicated that it remains to be seen if the Wildcats wholly improved during it, the additional time to correct mistakes "was probably a benefit to us." Teams sometimes improve the most between the first two games and Snyder hopes that'll be the case as the Wildcats prepare to face Kent State on Saturday.
Ryan Wallace
Coach LHC Bill Snyder's Kansas State Wildcats made use of their off week last week.
With the bye week and the time you spent in practice, how would you gauge the consistency of the offense in the past week? How well was the offense able to sort some things out since the opener?
SNYDER: "A lot of it still remains to be seen, but I think we made some improvement. Some of the areas, obviously, turnovers were an area of concern for us. It's hard to judge until gameday, but we put some emphasis on it and certainly, I think the youngsters responded. We were penalized more than we needed to be. In other words, there were discipline things and I think our youngsters are more focused on it, and hopefully because of that, there's some more improvement."
How about the offensive line. They were obviously a little nervous in the first game. Were they able to show you more focus in the past week?
SNYDER: "I'm not altogether certain it's a matter of focus. I think to be on the field for the very first time as a very young player isn't an easy task. The experience was something that'll benefit them far more than it would some of the players that we've had that have had game experience. I'd like to think the old adage that you improve the most between game one and game two would apply to the younger guys that we have."
Players were saying last week that the bye week could be a positive if they make it a positive. How did the bye week benefit the team overall? How did you see it become better?
SNYDER: "What we put emphasis on and worked on, our youngsters have seemingly been focused on that and consequently, if you do focus on it, you're probably going to make some improvement. They've done that. It is probably, it remains to be seen, but certainly we had enough that needed to be corrected and to have the additional time to do it en lieu of having to get ready for game planning was probably a benefit for us. But once again, the final judgment will be on Saturday."
What do you see from your opponent Saturday? They come from a conference that can usually be pretty tough on opponents when they step up.
SNYDER: "That's what you worry about, is how well they step up. They haven't been helped a great deal in the last two weeks having to play Alabama in their opening ball game and with a storm-delayed downpour last week, it probably doesn't give you a clear picture of how good of a football team this is. They have a history of being an extremely talented and aggressive football team. Sometimes, that's hard to decipher. Alabama can destroy that kind of a presence, but you certainly can see from previous years and certainly against Louisiana-Lafayette and certainly at times against Alabama that they are a very aggressive defensive football team.
"They were a Top-10 team last year and they're ranked reasonably high in a number of categories this year. In the Alabama game, they had five turnovers that they created against Alabama. It lets you know they get their people in the right spots at the right time. And they've got that tremendously talented All-American defensive interior lineman, who's a tremendously talented player, but they have a lot to go along with him as well."
Can you assess the steps John Hubert and the running backs were able to take during recent practices and how they were able to become a little bit better?
SNYDER: "Everybody, I would think, has taken the time to become a little bit better. We have pretty aggressive drills and over the past week they put in a substantial amount of time trying to improve themselves. If you're not trying to get yourself better, then you're certainly going to be a detriment to your football team. I think they attempted to do that, John included."
