Not saying it's why we lost, but, goodness, name another team that plays its backups for 50% of the time on defense in a highly contested game. Playing/rotating lots of guys is fine (particularly on the DL), but when you rotate in/out the entire front seven... it was like watching NHL lineup changes.
Everyone this season
Meh - other teams are proving this talking point to be incorrect.
And, as far as positioning this season as "meaningless" (responding to others) that's ridiculous. It certainly isn't to the players on the field. And, you could actually make the case that this is as good a chance as ever that a team like K-State "could" actually make the playoffs (of course, it certainly won't happen now).
What? Playoffs? First of all, we don't even know if there's going to be any playoffs. Even if we did, having a team make it that didn't even sniff the preseason top 25, I think one vote in either poll, is a ridiculous notion. The only way you rationalized that in your head was because this is a season of a bunch of wild, unforseen crap happening, which is a perfect argument against freaking out when something wild and unforseen happens. Yes, some other teams have looked good after one damn week, who's to say that they won't look like total dogshit the next game?
This season is the ultimate house money season for almost every single team playing, including completely crap teams like KU, Vandy, and Syracuse. The only teams that have any expectations at all are like the 10-15 best teams, everyone else should just prepare for weird crap to happen, especially the first few games. I'm going to choose to celebrate the fun stuff and DNGAF about the bad. I don't think anyone believes that this team won't be better next year, no matter what they do this year.