| Shut the fuck up if your going sit here and try to prove me wrong on KState shit Im seriously sick of it because the points you guys try to prove me wrong on you have no idea what your talking about and for all you Missouri fans 12 years and counting for football!
Wildcats getting little respect this offseason
Matt Hall
GoPowercat.com Editor
Reading this column will save you time, money and disappointment. That's not just some clever line written in an attempt to get you to read my thoughts, it's the truth. Save yourself the $7 you were going to spend on one of those new college football magazines that has recently hit the shelves (unless it's Athlon, because D. Scott Fritchen does a great job with his K-State preview), because I can sum up those magazine's rankings of the Wildcats in three words, "K-State isn't good."
I've only had the chance to look at five previews so far, The Sporting News, Lindy's, Street and Smith's and Phil Steele's along with Athlon, and I'm sorry to say K-State's highest projected standing out of the five was fourth in the North. Athlon pegged the Wildcats at fifth in the division, while Lindy's had K-State firmly in the cellar of not only the North, but almost the entire Big 12 at 11th overall, ahead of only Baylor.
Those rankings bring just one simple question to mind…are you kidding me? Last in the North? Eleventh in the Big 12? I'm fully aware that K-State went 4-7 a year ago, but, contrary to popular belief, that doesn't guarantee another disappointing season. If that were the case, how did the Cats win just four games last year after a Big 12 Championship and BCS appearance in 2003?
K-State shouldn't necessarily be the favorite in the North, although I do personally believe Coach Bill Snyder will lead the 2005 Wildcats back to the Big 12 Championship Game. It's just amazing at how people now look at this program as one whose "best-case scenario" is a 5-6 season with only two conference wins. Yes Athlon, I'm talking about you, and by the way, don't blame Fritchen for K-State's projected spot in the North, it wasn't his call.
So it seems that all these experts are counting on the idea that K-State will show absolutely no improvement from the 2004 season, and why should they? I guess there's no reason to believe either of the Wildcats quarterbacks, who were both just sophomores last year, will be better in their second year on the field. Apparently the same can be said for K-State's young receiving corps, more experienced linebackers or more talented secondary.
Makes sense to me…wait a second, no it doesn't, not even a little bit. Snyder said during the spring that this year's team is already further along than the 2004 group was at the end of last season. I think I'll go ahead and take his word for it, especially since comments like that from Snyder come just about as easily as Missouri wins over K-State. For any Tiger fan reading this, that means 12 years and counting.
Maybe all the experts do expect K-State to improve, it's just that the North will be so strong next season that a high finish in the division would be too much to ask. Here's some help for anybody new to my columns, if a word like "so" is in Italics, I'm being sarcastic. The North was horrible last year, and I'm not sure it's going to be much better this year.
I will give Street and Smith's some credit; the magazine lists Dylan Meier as the Big 12's best passing quarterback, then again, they do call Colorado Coach Gary Barnett the league's best strategist.
Phil Steele earns some points in my book by saying he wouldn't be surprised if the Wildcats were in contention for the North crown despite picking them fourth, but he lost a great deal of crediblity by not listing K-State junior linebacker Brandon Archer as even a fourth-team All-Big 12 member. To make that even more puzzling, Steele lists Ted Sims as a second-team selection and Marvin Simmons, yes, that Marvin Simmons, as a fourth-team pick.
There's absolutely nobody in the division K-State can't beat at home or on the road, and to be fair, as of right now the opposite is probably true as well. Still, nobody in the North is even relatively scary and although the talent level at K-State has dipped a bit there's nobody in the division I see as a more talented team, and I know there isn't a better-coached team.
Plenty of magazines will come out in the months leading up to the start of the 2005 season, and I fear that many will predict the same type of year for K-State the others already have. You can let that bother you, or you can realize that many of these same people picked K-State to win the North last season, and we learned the hard way how accurate they were then. |
