Kansas State Wildcats: CFN College Football Preview 2021
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College Football News Preview 2021: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Kansas State Wildcats season with what you need to know.
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– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Kansas State Schedule Analysis
– Kansas State Previews
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2020 Record: 4-6 overall, 4-5 in Big 12
Head Coach: Chris Klieman, 3rd year, 12-11 at KSU (84-38 overall)
2020 CFN Final Ranking: 58
2020 CFN Preview Ranking: 41
2019 CFN Final Ranking: 41
Kansas State College Football Preview 2021: Offense
– Kansas State’s offense could only hold on for so long. QB Skylar Thompson was solid over the first few games – even in the loss to Arkansas State – he got hurt, freshman Will Howard was thrown to the wolves, the team survived, and then it all went wrong as the schedule got tougher.
Converting on third downs was a problem, the passing game didn’t do enough, the running attack was just okay, and the defense did nothing to help the cause in the five-game losing streak to close things out.
Thompson is back, healthy, and the no-question main man for the attack, and Howard is the now-veteran No. 2. Overall, the QB situation is better than it was this time last year.
– Deuce Vaughn is only 5-5 and 171 pounds, but he plays big for the Wildcat O. (Sorry about that lame line.) He led the team with 642 yards and seven scores, and he’ll get help from the quarterbacks no matter who’s under center. It’s a very, very thin group of backs, but the Wildcats are just fine at finding other options and FB Mason Barta is a 236-pound pounder who can help. Now the O line has to do its part.
It wasn’t bad considering it underwent a wholesale change. The front five was decent for the running game and was solid in pass protection. Now everyone is expected to be back including the top backups – this should be the strongest line yet in the Chris Klieman era.
– Vaughn was the top receiver with 25 grabs, and he made the most of his big plays. Now the wide receivers have to show up. 6-2 Malik Knowles and 6-4 Chabastin Taylor have the size and big play ability, but the corps as a whole has to be more consistent – no wideout hit the 20-catch mark.
No. 2 target Briley Moore is done at tight end, but former star USC recruit and Illinois get Daniel Imatorbhebhe is coming in and should make an immediate impact.
– What You Need To Know: Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Kansas State Schedule Analysis
NEXT: Kansas State College Football Preview 2021: Defense 4. Kansas State College Football Preview 2021: Defense
– The defense wasn’t the worst in the Big 12, but it wasn’t a positive. It was dead last against the pass even with a good pass rush to help the cause, and the run D wasn’t anything special. Not helping things going into 2021 is the loss of all-star pass rusher Wyatt Hubert up front, but …
2020 seems like an aberration. The Wildcats have parts that just have to all mesh together better. It stars with finding someone to pick up the slack for Hubert on the outside and Drew Wiley in the middle.
Getting back Bronson Massie for another senior year helps for the outside, and the return of Eli Huggins and addition of transfer Tommy Horne from Charlotte should lock up the inside.
– Linebacker could be an even bigger problem than the lost pass rush production if the right rotation doesn’t emerge right away. Three key guys are gone, but Cody Fletcher was third on the team with 44 stops and the talented 6-2, 233-pound Daniel Green is experienced enough to be okay. After those two, the coaching staff will throw options at the 3-3-5 alignment wall and see what sticks.
– Let’s just say the secondary will be interesting. The group struggled, and there’s no one who’s irreplaceable, but for good and for bad, several parts are gone. However, leading tackler Jahron McPherson returns to one of the safety gigs in what should be a deep group as the season goes on.
The corners might turn from a struggle to a big positive with a little bit of luck. Iowa transfer Julius Brents is a 6-3, 203-pound mauler who might take over one side, but Ekow Boye-Doe and Justin Gardner made a lot of plays last year.
– What You Need To Know: Offense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Kansas State Schedule Analysis
NEXT: Kansas State College Football Preview 2021: Top Players Kansas State College Football Preview 2021: Top Players Best Kansas State Offensive Player
RB Deuce Vaughn, Soph.
The lightning-quick 5-5, 171-pounder just needs a little bit of room and he’ll make things happen. He led the team with 642 rushing yards and seven scores, led the way with 25 grabs for 434 yards and two scores, and he closed strong with two 100-yard running games. He’s not going to be a workhorse, but he’ll keep getting fed the ball in a variety of ways.
2. QB Skylar Thompson, Sr.
3. C Noah Johnson, Sr.
4. TE Daniel Imatorbhebhe, Sr.
5. WR Malik Knowles, Jr.
Best Kansas State Defensive Player
S Jahron McPherson, Sr.
All of a sudden, Kansas State is solid at safety in a secondary that should be far stronger. The 6-1, 200-pound senior led the team with 54 tackles from his strong safety spot, and he’s decent at making plays in the backfield, too.
2. CB Julius Brents, Jr.
3. DE Bronson Massie, Sr.
4. LB Daniel Green, Jr.
5. CB Ekow Boye-Doe, Jr.
Top Incoming Kansas State Transfer
CB/S Julius Brents
Go ahead and make a case for USC-to-Illinois-to-Kansas-State transfer Daniel Imatorbhebhe at tight end, and Louisville’s Russ Yeast should be an interesting option at safety, but the 6-3, 203-pound Brents might just find a home right away with the big numbers to follow.
Brents only made 17 tackles with a pick and four broken up passes for Iowa, but he’s too big and too good to not shine somewhere after a strong spring.
NEXT: Kansas State College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season Kansas State College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season Kansas State Biggest Key: Offense
The Kansas State formula hasn’t changed for a long, long time, and now the offensive side has to get back to what has always worked for the program – control clock, move the chains, don’t turn the ball over, repeat.
It sounds easy enough, and every team tries to do that, but there were too many turnovers, not enough third down conversions, and not enough clock controlling.
This year, with all five offensive linemen returning along with a healthy and veteran Skylar Thompson at quarterback, everything should start to click again like it’s supposed to. That helps take all the pressure off the …
Kansas State Biggest Key: Defense
Stop more teams from throwing touchdown passes. It’s not like the Wildcats were torched by everyone – TCU couldn’t do anything down the field and Oklahoma State sputtered and coughed – but the wheels came off late in the season.
Getting roasted by Iowa State and Texas is one thing, but Baylor went nuts, too. In all, Kansas State allowed nine touchdown passes and failed to pick off a pass over the last five games.
The 2019 team allowed 12 touchdown passes in 13 games. The 2020 version allowed 20 scores in ten games.
Kansas State Key Player To A Successful Season
WR Chabastin Taylor, Sr. & WR Malik Knowles, Jr.
The 6-4, 223-pound Taylor has the size and the deep play ability to do a whole lot more than the 19 catches for 293 yards and one score of last year, and the veteran Knowles needs to be more like the 27-catch guy of 2019 than the 13-grab man of 2020.
We’re not talking DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle here as a twosome of targets, but they’re talented, they’re a matchup problem, and they’ve been around long enough to start making more big things happen.
Kansas State Key Game To The 2021 Season
Iowa State, Oct. 16
There are a whole slew of statement games for Kansas State – starting with the opener against Stanford in Arlington and with Oklahoma State and Oklahoma to kick off the Big 12 season – but with a week off to get ready for Iowa State, this is when all the kicks have to be worked out.
Iowa State might the darling of the media world going into 2020, and it’ll get a week off to rest up too, but after a 45-0 loss last year, this is massive for K-State. The Wildcats need a win to make it 12 wins out of the last 14 in the series.
– Kansas State Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2020 Kansas State Fun Stats
– Punt Return Average: Kansas State 22.1 – Opponents 2.0
– 3rd Quarter Scoring: Opponents 105 – Kansas State 59
– Total Offense: Opponents 444.7 yards – Kansas State 337.4
NEXT: Kansas State College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction Kansas State College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
It’ll be interesting to see what happens if Kansas State can be a fully-functioning team for an entire season.
The team was able to push past the injury to QB Skyler Thompson for a little while, but it didn’t last long. The offense couldn’t keep thing moving consistently, the defense couldn’t hold up, and the program that’s known for being able to control games and tempo suddenly couldn’t catch a break.
There’s enough experience and talent to be stronger even if injuries hit – it should be a deeper team – but it’ll take more offensive pop and more production from the defensive back seven to make any sort of a push in the Big 12.
Set The Kansas State Regular Season Win Total At … 7
The offense gets just about everyone back – and the missing parts appear to have received an upgrade – the defense will be better in the back eight, and the Big 12 is still the Big 12. It’s not that good.
The team that lost to Arkansas State but beat Oklahoma will have its flaky moments, but it’ll take home the winnable games, pull off one victory it probably shouldn’t, and it’ll be back on track after the off 2020.
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– Kansas State Schedule Analysis
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