Musings: A Kansas State recap of Big 12 Media Days
SURE BETS
1. Howard: There may not be a more confident player than Kansas State quarterback Will Howard. He clearly has more belief in himself after his accomplishments of last season. It seems like he is poised for even greater achievements because of how great he feels about himself. It was the key to his success last year. Once the ball got rolling, there was no stopping him. It has pushed him to work even harder and become even more of a leader for K-State.
2. Longevity: One of the items we asked both Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman and athletics director Gene Taylor was how long they planned on continuing at it before retiring. Though Taylor is creeping up a bit in age and not many expect Klieman to coach for ages and ages like some tend to do in the profession, it was obvious that neither believe they are on the doorstep of hanging it up.
3. Sigle: A player that Klieman certainly loves is new safety Marques Sigle. The K-State football boss even mentioned the former North Dakota State defensive back as someone that could be a transfer that reaches the NFL just like Josh Hayes, Russ Yeast and Julius Brents.
SURPRISES
1. Romaine: Kansas State linebacker Austin Romaine had his name on the tip of everyone’s tongue at Big 12 Media Days. Who knows how much he will impact the field in year one, but it is apparent he is a true freshman with a bright, bright future. All of his teammates and coaches were eager to attest.
2. OU’s comparison: Every team has a particular pitch they use for a recruit that they are chasing. When it comes to Junction City linebacker Michael Boganowski, Oklahoma has likened him to Isaiah Simmons. It makes sense since that is a fellow Kansan that was coached by Brent Venables. The Sooners’ head coach did so while a defensive coordinator at Clemson. It’s just a little surprising they are going that route since it is not an ideal match or comparison. The body types, high school production levels and athletic traits are too different. Some say he’s closer to former K-State linebacker Arthur Brown.
3. Schedule difficulty: I’m still a little stunned at how tough Kansas State chose to schedule on the basketball side. Between LSU, Villanova, Providence, maybe Miami, Nebraska, Wichita State, and USC, that may be a challenging non-conference slate. But I can’t help but be excited about opening up the season versus the Trojans in Las Vegas. You can probably count on KSO being in the house for it.
JURY STILL OUT
1. Brix: It remains a mystery as to which of Nebraska, Oklahoma or K-State will win out for four-star offensive lineman Grant Brix.
2. Other 2024 pieces: Besides guard commit David Castillo and potentially landing Patrick Ngongba for the post, where else will Kansas State go in the 2024 recruiting cycle? That remains to be seen, but they did host Derrion Reid for an official visit.
3. Secondary: For those that have not listened to the 3MAW podcast with Chris Klieman, he revealed that one of the items they still need to check off is to sort out the secondary. For the superstitious types, that was also the case this time last year for K-State.
HAS MY ATTENTION
1. Weiser’s comments: Tim Weiser used to be the Kansas State athletic director and is in the twilight of his career as the Big 12 deputy commissioner. He stepped up to the mic at Big 12 Media Days last week and sounded off on a number of topics. It is a must-listen, to be sure, but he was the most critical about Texas and Oklahoma. In fact, he called OU the “reluctant bride” because of how they are riding the coattails of the Longhorns.
2. Rebuttal by Sankey: To follow that up, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey had a rebuttal to that comment from Weiser when he was asked a question at the conference held by the Texas High School Football Coaches Association. He bluntly stated that the league received strong interest and desires from both Texas and Oklahoma and called the claim that the Sooners were less energetic about the move “complete fiction”.
3. Boganowski’s visits: Three more visits are on tap for Boganowski. It shows us that he remains pretty torn between Kansas, K-State and Oklahoma.
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