Five things: Storylines of the Kansas State season

1.) It has to start with being the defending Big 12 champions, right? Can Kansas State repeat for the first time in the school’s history? The pieces are in place for it to be an actual conversation. They return their starting quarterback, entire starting offensive line, head coach, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator.

2.) With that being said, there is a lot of star power for K-State to replace. It includes a group of guys that were selected in the NFL Draft in Deuce Vaughn, Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Josh Hayes and Julius Brents. But it also extends to others such as Eli Huggins, Malik Knowles, Ekow Boye-Doe and Ty Zentner. Two of those also found their way to NFL rosters as well, or at least the practice squad. Has Kansas State really built such a roster and program that they can lose that much NFL talent at once and still be equipped to not miss a beat?

3.) Year two of K-State offensive coordinator Collin Klein should provide for more fireworks. The comfort level and understanding of the offense from those on that side of the ball should allow for even more pace and speed in operation but also more complex, creative and dangerous wrinkles as well. It is even easier to graduate to that level of sophistication when you’re saddled with someone at quarterback like Will Howard. But many will also have their eyes on how the Kansas State staff navigates the back-up quarterback situation with Jake Rubley and Avery Johnson and what the workload distribution looks like between running backs DJ Giddens and Treshaun Ward.

4.) If there’s one K-State position that will have a lot of attention, at least early, it is the cornerback spot due to the lack of experience. A few of them have a batch of snaps under their belt but zero career starts return. The Wildcats will need more than satisfactory play from the likes of Will Lee, Keenan Garber and Jacob Parrish.

5.) Kelley Ford is a fantastic college football analyst that really pours into the data and uses it to create different formulas. One of the categories he ranked for this season focuses on watchability. Kansas State happened to be slated at the top spot in the country for that specific trait. A lot of that means he is expecting many close contests. However, K-State had that a year ago as well and even won the Big 12 Championship Game in Arlington because of a time-expiring field goal. Can Chris Tennant rebound from initial struggles and take advantage of a second chance? A lot of narrow scores and finals could suggest meaningful field goals throughout the year.

BONUS: In a sport that is losing its regionality by the day, Kansas State has still maintained a semblance of it, and quite frankly, a good amount of it for the next few seasons. Colorado was already going to be on the schedule in the future, and the Wildcats will see both Kansas and Missouri on the gridiron this year just like last season.

Those are major games for local recruiting purposes. K-State thumped both last year and continuing to assert dominance on rivals within the Kansas City metro can only be a good thing for a team that has seen their recruiting profile already ascend.

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