Let's Get a Few Things Straight

[DQ12]

So after scouring the internet over the last few weeks, it seems that the take on the 2013 Cats is that while we have an electrifying offense with Tyler Lockett and "the 2nd or 3rd best QB in the league" (which is another odd point entirely), our defense will likely be our downfall this season.  Just yesterday, I was reading some top 25 where they compared teams to Star Wars stuff, and we were The Death Star, because we had a great offense but no defense.

This talking point is made up.

People ignore the fact that our defense was pretty damn good last season.  In the Big 12, only OU gave up fewer points per game.  Adjusted for pace, only OSU gave up fewer points per play. As far as yardage goes, only OU gave up fewer yards total.  Only OSU gave up fewer yards per play.  We weren't good at 3rd down % (7th in the conference), but we forced 2 turnovers per game (29th in the country, 5th in the Big 12).

If you want to get even nit-pickier, our "Opponent's Fumble Recovery Percentage" was at 59%.  108th in the country, and last in the Big 12.  If you're like me, you throw out the "FUMBLE RECOVERIES ARE HUSTLE PLAYS" and realize that fumble recoveries are due in large part to luck.  If you want to factor that in (you don't have to), our turnover numbers could have been even better.

The point is, is that we had a top 3 defense in the league last season.  We were better than Baylor, better than TCU, better than Texas, better than Tech, and only OSU and OU have legitimate arguments that they were better than us.

Granted, we lose a couple of key players from last year's defense (Daily, Zimmerman), but our other losses (Walker, Slaughter, and Reed) weren't mega factors in last year's defense either.  Today's news of Clinkscales more than makes up for Reed's departure, IMO.  Schellenberg got a considerable amount of PT last year, and Barnett is flat out good.  Evans and Burns are a pretty good one-two punch on the corners, and if McDaniel is as close to as good as advertised, our secondary should be pretty stout, with the only weak spot being the second safety (Schellenberg).

For me, if there are question marks on this team, it ain't about the defense. 

So the next time someone tells you that "K-State is going to have a high powered offense with the Waters-Lockett connection, but then that defense..." go ahead and spit on them.

Based on last season and who we have returning, for me, the two biggest question marks are whether our offense can cool it with the turnovers, and (along those same lines) whether Waters continues to improve the way he did in the last third of last season.

[PowercatPat]

Defense should be solid. We need another pass rusher though besides Mueller.

[Trogdor]

Held Baylor to season scoring low too

[kim carnes]

Held Baylor to season scoring low too

Awesome.  Baylor almost came within 2 TDs of beating ucf.

[cas4ksu]

Fantastic point dlew.

I was EXTREMELY worried about our defense heading into '13. Losing AB, essentially the entire DL, Tuggle, Childs, both corners, depth across the board. The D exceeded my expectations immensely.

If there is any part of the defense I'm concerned about it is the backfield. As you pointed out Barnett is good and you failed to mention Randall Evans. However, Schellenberger is not a good enough athlete to be on the field for a team that is a Big 12 title contender. Just watch his tape against OU. Awful.

We should be markedly better at one CB position now that Dorian Roberts isn't on the team. McDaniel and potentially Mack  will be big upgrades. I am skeptical about Burns as a full time CB.


Moreso, my real concern is on offense with the running back position. I've always said that the RB position is "dime a dozen", "only as good as the OL", etc. But in our games against the best 5 defenses in the Big 12, we averaged only 40 ypg from the running back position.

Yikes.

[#LIFE]

The Jake "I'd rather be in Ames" Waters hatewagon should pick up steam during the season.  I'm calling shotgun right now...plenty of room to jump on later guys

[cas4ksu]

The Jake "I'd rather be in Ames" Waters hatewagon should pick up steam during the season.  I'm calling shotgun right now...plenty of room to jump on later guys

Because he is not a run first QB and that his presence instead of Sams will negatively impact our run game?

[#LIFE]

The Jake "I'd rather be in Ames" Waters hatewagon should pick up steam during the season.  I'm calling shotgun right now...plenty of room to jump on later guys

Because he is not a run first QB and that his presence instead of Sams will negatively impact our run game?

More along the lines of he is a shitty QB and can only throw up bombs to TLBL after he clowns fools

[DQ12]

Moreso, my real concern is on offense with the running back position. I've always said that the RB position is "dime a dozen", "only as good as the OL", etc. But in our games against the best 5 defenses in the Big 12, we averaged only 40 ypg from the running back position.

Yikes.

Regarding last year's running back output, I think a lot of that had to do with our qb situation.

I assume the games to which you're referring are TCU, OU, Texas and OSU.  I don't know what other Big 12 game you're counting, because Hubert's next lowest output was 86 yards vs. West Virginia.

Anyhow, yeah, our RBs didn't get great production in those games.  But it wasn't like our O-Line was getting manhandled and we had no running game at all. 

OU is the obvious exception here, but K-State averaged 9.3 ypp in that game, so I'm pretty meh about our run production for that game.   

Against OSU, Hubert ran for 30 yards on only seven attempts.  That's kind of the quintessential Sams game, where he ran for 118 yards on 27 (!!!!) carries.  Their ypc was 4.3 and 4.4 respectively.

Against Texas, we put the game in Waters hands.  Hubert had only 12 rushes at 3.3 ypc.

Against TCU, Hubert had 6 carries at 4.2 ypc.  Sams went on for 19 carries at 5.2 ypc.

So I mean, yeah, against the 4 best defenses in the conference, our RB production was low, but given the carries we gave Hubert, it seems like it was more or less by design -- either because we wanted Sams running it, or because we wanted to put the game in Waters hands, and use Hubert as a means to "keep them honest."

I really don't think we'll look back on this season and say that our RB situation was our fatal flaw.

[_33]

Sean Newlan will take Schnellenburgers spot by week 2 and it's not even close.  <--- overused bbs phrase, but appropriate in this situ

[DQ12]

Sean Newlan will take Schnellenburgers spot by week 2 and it's not even close.  <--- overused bbs phrase, but appropriate in this situ

I hope so.

[cas4ksu]

Moreso, my real concern is on offense with the running back position. I've always said that the RB position is "dime a dozen", "only as good as the OL", etc. But in our games against the best 5 defenses in the Big 12, we averaged only 40 ypg from the running back position.

Yikes.

Regarding last year's running back output, I think a lot of that had to do with our qb situation.

Yeah, I agree with the RB output and the qb situation being related.

Now that we don't have the option of having a glorified running back at QB to take the bulk of the run game, add in we have absolutely zero returning experience at RB position and it leads me to believe that we are going to be terribly unbalanced on offense.

[Kat Kid]

Moreso, my real concern is on offense with the running back position. I've always said that the RB position is "dime a dozen", "only as good as the OL", etc. But in our games against the best 5 defenses in the Big 12, we averaged only 40 ypg from the running back position.

Yikes.

Regarding last year's running back output, I think a lot of that had to do with our qb situation.

Yeah, I agree with the RB output and the qb situation being related.

Now that we don't have the option of having a glorified running back at QB to take the bulk of the run game, add in we have absolutely zero returning experience at RB position and it leads me to believe that we are going to be terribly unbalanced on offense.

It is a major concern.

[PowercatPat]

Sean Newlan will take Schnellenburgers spot by week 2 and it's not even close.  <--- overused bbs phrase, but appropriate in this situ

Sean Newlan looks like another Schellenberg to me.

[420seriouscat69]

The Jake "I'd rather be in Ames" Waters hatewagon should pick up steam during the season.  I'm calling shotgun right now...plenty of room to jump on later guys

Because he is not a run first QB and that his presence instead of Sams will negatively impact our run game?

More along the lines of he is a shitty QB and can only throw up bombs to TLBL after he clowns fools

[Pete]

Lot of HFBIQ from our young bucks in this thread.  I like it. 

_Fan, Catzacker, and Hatter aren't going to live forever. 

[#LIFE]

Hey guys, make sure to watch out for WC at the games.  He will be the guy in the lots complaining about that terribly awful negro that cost us so many games last season, strutting around about a 6-6 team

[DQ12]

Moreso, my real concern is on offense with the running back position. I've always said that the RB position is "dime a dozen", "only as good as the OL", etc. But in our games against the best 5 defenses in the Big 12, we averaged only 40 ypg from the running back position.

Yikes.

Regarding last year's running back output, I think a lot of that had to do with our qb situation.

Yeah, I agree with the RB output and the qb situation being related.

Now that we don't have the option of having a glorified running back at QB to take the bulk of the run game, add in we have absolutely zero returning experience at RB position and it leads me to believe that we are going to be terribly unbalanced on offense.

It makes me think that last year's RB production was artificially low because the QB was getting a significant portion of the carries, and averaging roughly the same YPC -- just with more carries.  The truth is probably somewhere in the between.

Historically, RB experience really isn't very important.  In 2011, Hubert had no more experience than some of our backs this year.  Hell, Patton and Johnson in 2006 was a great question-mark-ladened duo.  I'm just of the opinion that whether it's mainly one guy, or by committee, we'll probably be looking at a season of roughly 90 ypg on 20-25 carries. 

Waters and Lockett need to be very good this season.  Period.  If they are, that'll do a lot to free up the ground game to keep us a little balanced.

[DQ12]

Hey guys, make sure to watch out for WC at the games.  He will be the guy in the lots complaining about that terribly awful negro that cost us so many games last season, strutting around about a 6-6 team

Gosh almighty.  Your dumbass is insufferable.

Take your Sams misery elsewhere.  Most of us have moved on.

[_33]

Sean Newlan will take Schnellenburgers spot by week 2 and it's not even close.  <--- overused bbs phrase, but appropriate in this situ

Sean Newlan looks like another Schellenberg to me.

And you look like another PowercatPat to me.  Which is a bad thing because PowercatPat sucks and you're him.

[#LIFE]

Hey guys, make sure to watch out for WC at the games.  He will be the guy in the lots complaining about that terribly awful negro that cost us so many games last season, strutting around about a 6-6 team

Gosh almighty.  Your dumbass is insufferable.

Take your Sams misery elsewhere.  Most of us have moved on.

Better to agree with your buds than admit that the most glaring weakness on this team is a QB that can do nothing but throw a deep ball to a guy that can beat double coverage all by himself.  Let's book a charter to Ames...that's where most of you losers belong

[Pete]

I hope we are like the Rich Gannon Raiders.

[420seriouscat69]

Hey guys, make sure to watch out for WC at the games.  He will be the guy in the lots complaining about that terribly awful negro that cost us so many games last season, strutting around about a 6-6 team

wtf is this?!

[420seriouscat69]

Hey guys, make sure to watch out for WC at the games.  He will be the guy in the lots complaining about that terribly awful negro that cost us so many games last season, strutting around about a 6-6 team

Gosh almighty.  Your dumbass is insufferable.

Take your Sams misery elsewhere.  Most of us have moved on.

Better to agree with your buds than admit that the most glaring weakness on this team is a QB that can do nothing but throw a deep ball to a guy that can beat double coverage all by himself.  Let's book a charter to Ames...that's where most of you losers belong

Jesus! You're a rough ridin' dumbass.

[Katpappy]

Fantastic point dlew.

I was EXTREMELY worried about our defense heading into '13. Losing AB, essentially the entire DL, Tuggle, Childs, both corners, depth across the board. The D exceeded my expectations immensely.

If there is any part of the defense I'm concerned about it is the backfield. As you pointed out Barnett is good and you failed to mention Randall Evans. However, Schellenberger is not a good enough athlete to be on the field for a team that is a Big 12 title contender. Just watch his tape against OU. Awful.

We should be markedly better at one CB position now that Dorian Roberts isn't on the team. McDaniel and potentially Mack  will be big upgrades. I am skeptical about Burns as a full time CB.


Moreso, my real concern is on offense with the running back position. I've always said that the RB position is "dime a dozen", "only as good as the OL", etc. But in our games against the best 5 defenses in the Big 12, we averaged only 40 ypg from the running back position.

Yikes.

Damn, I was really worried that I have never heard of this player; then I realized you were actually saying "more so"