How To Get Another Wildcat Victory: Texas
It’s coming to the end. Two games left and a 10-2 record within sight for the best season of K-State football since the magical season of 2003. This season has exceeded all expectations but there still plenty to come. Today the Wildcats take the field in Austin to battle the Texas Longhorns. Most of the talk this week has been about K-State’s recent record when playing the Longhorns which might have provided a little extra motivation for the burnt orange uglies, but it’ll take a lot more than that to beat the Wildcats. K-State should have a great chance of heading home with another win but continue reading to see exactly what needs to take place for them to nab another Wildcat Victory!
Offense – Collin Klein continues to get better every single week and as long as that continues, everything will be great. Texas had to be discouraged after watching last week’s game film and noticing that its not possible to focus solely on K-State’s running game anymore. K-State was hard enough to stop when completely one dimensional and with the surprise passing game starting to show up, it may just be too much for Texas to stop. They’ll definitely try though. Texas enters the game with the nations 14th best defense overall. Their passing defense ranks 47th while the rushing defense checks in at 10th. This is by far the strength of the Longhorns and if they are able to keep K-State at bay, this will be why. For the Wildcats to overcome the Longhorn’s strength, like always, they just need to keep on keepin’ on. The Co-offensive coordinators combined with Bill Snyder’s mythical abilities have had the offense prepared for every contest this season and I don’t expect to see anything different. K-State has to continue to play wide open with the playbook, control the clock, quit turning the ball over, and for the love of all that is holy get the play into Klein with more than 10 seconds left on the play clock!
Defense – Texas’ offense is basically a mirror image of what K-State does. They have a tough time throwing the ball and rely heavily on pounding the ground. That’s great news for the Wildcat secondary after all the struggles of the past few games. All they need to do is support the run and not allow anything big over their heads. The test is how the front four and linebackers do filling the running lanes and limiting Texas’ ability to pull a K-State on K-State. Currently, the Longhorns average 227 yards per game rushing which is 20 more than the Wildcats. Same style, same ball control, same idea. The only difference is that Texas is now missing the first, second, and third string running back. That hurts, but remember, every athlete Texas recruits and signs is more than able to produce at any given time. The Wildcat defense needs to play their zone soundly, flock to the ball, and not miss tackles on the first try. If they can do that, good things will come.
Special Teams – It’s taken 10 games to get here, but all the special teams needs to do is every thing they did last week. Cantele had the game of his career against Texas A&M knocking two game-on-the-line field goals through the uprights and Doerr continued to boot the ball solidly when needed. The return game took a hit with Tyler Lockett being knocked out for the season but Tremaine Thompson picked up where he left off and had a long of 40 yards. That return team is built on solid blocking which allows just about anybody to gain yards. Mistake free play is all that’s required, but K-State special teams is more than capable of changing the game on its own.
Prediction – After going 0-2 against the state of Oklahoma, K-State finishes 3-0 against Texas teams. The ownage continues as the Wildcats roll to 9-2 and slap the Longhorns around which is becoming the norm.