Oh my word. Where do we start? Let's start with the first half.
The first half (barring "the play," which was hilarious and doesn't really even count as a "negative") was the most impressive half of football I've seen K-State play since 12/6/03. Just totally and completely dominant.
YES we gave up yards in the air and YES I think our secondary will have problems this season. Lucky for us, none of the pass offenses we see this year (even WVU and OU) will be better than the pass offenses we saw last season. That should comfort us.
But the RUN defense! Remember the hype Duke Johnson had coming into this game? We didn't give him an inch. In fact, the Miami boards were BEGGING Golden to stop running the ball because it wasn't working. Felt very, very Lynchmobby. Are you afraid of that Texas run game? Me neither. The Lynch Mob is back. We've arrived. Show that _|m|_ signal with pride.
The Offense was absolutely incredible. Kleinsy was Kleinsy and in the future, I think he'll be Kleinier than ever. More on that in a second. But his throwing has gotten better. I'm at the point now, where if I see Klein drop back, step up and throw downfield, I have full confidence that good things are going to happen. 9-11 for 210 yards and 70+ yards rushing? Those are Bishop-esque stats, folks.
Hubert? I'm just so proud of him. LOL at the dumbasses who didn't, or don't, think he is a quality back. He has shown it, and will continue to do so.
Now it's #lifetime. That guy is the real deal. We haven't seen him pass, but he can't be (skill-wise) worse than what we saw out of Klein last year. The only potential draw-back could be (COULD BE) his decision making. Ell was a good passer, but made dumbass decisions in his youth. My point is here, is that we're set at QB until Sams leaves us. What a luxury for a LHC Bill Snyder team.
Further, he proved he is an effective quarterback against BCS competition. What does that mean? That this business of "Klein getting hurt ruins the season for K-State" ends, here and now. We have a defense, we have a good running back, we have a terrific offensive line, and we have a future All-Big 12 talent as a back-up quarterback. We're a worse team without Klein, but we're still a very good team without Klein.
I'm not worried about Klein getting hurt. Run him 50 times a game if we have to. That's what's best for our offense, and now we can do it without being terrified about the risk. That's bad news for the rest of the Big 12, and the rest of the national title contenders (you read that right).
We are a good team and there is no ceiling as to what this team can accomplish. I'm one of the most optimistic people when it comes to K-State football, and I was optimistic throughout the off-season about this team's capabilities. And I underestimated them. We can get the Dr. Pepper, and we have as good a shot as anybody to go to the national championship game. Will it happen? Probably not, but it can and that's an incredible realization. As far as I'm concerned, this season is two games long: OU and WVU. Those teams are not unbeatable. I think we're better than both.
That said they're both on the road and they'll both be very hard games and we'll be dogs in both of them - the only two times in the season we'll be dogs, imo.
9-8-12 Expectations
11 WINS
1 LOSSES
MO STATE
MIAMI (FL)
N TEXAS
Ou
KANSAS
Iowa State
W Virginia
T TECH
O STATE
Texas Christian
Baylor
TEXAS