Deuce Vaughn looks to power Kansas State Offense this season: Kansas State Preview - 6 Days Until Kansas Football
The 2022 regular season finale will take place in Manhattan, Kansas on November 26 when the Jayhawks take on Kansas State, KU’s biggest rivals not named Missouri, in the Sunflower Showdown.
Like predicting Kansas weather in November, there are a number of ways the season could play out for both teams leading up to this matchup. It’s also unclear if Willie the Wildcat will be back from his loan to Northwestern by then.
Let’s preview the Kansas State Wildcats.
Pre-Game Notes
We already know how the trash talk will go between the fan bases. K-State fans will bring up the recent domination of KU, and KU fans will say that despite that, the Jayhawks still lead the all-time series (57-48-5). Both are accurate. The Wildcats will come into this 111th meeting (which dates back to 1912) on an 11-game win streak in the series.
The Jayhawks last won a game against KSU in 2008, when a 52-21 win was KU’s fourth in five years against the Wildcats.
Mike Plank Four-Down Scouting Report
First Down
It seems like Bill Snyder just retired, but we’re already entering year four of the Chris Klieman era, and that’s pretty significant. Klieman is the first coach not named Bill Snyder to reach a fourth year as the K-State head coach since 1981 when Jim Dickey entered his fourth of seven (plus two games) career in Manhattan. And by my research, Klieman looks to be the first K-State coach to win 20 games in his first three years ever (Ron Prince won 17 in three years replacing Snyder the first time around).
Second Down
Skylar Thompson is gone and the new starting quarterback is a familiar name to the region: Nebraska transfer Adrian Martinez. In four years at Nebraska, Martinez averaged 2,122 yards through the air with a 63.5 completion percentage, 45 touchdowns and 30 interceptions. But he was also a threat on the ground, eclipsing 500 rushing yards in every season.
The offense also has a new man in charge as former K-State quarterback Collin Klein is the new OC after taking over for the Wildcats’ win over LSU in the Texas Bowl last year.
Third Down
The offense’s best player, though, is running back Deuce Vaughn, who had an incredible sophomore year. Vaughn finished third in the conference in rushing yards (1,404), second in rushing TDs (18), second in total TDs from scrimmage (23), and first in yards from scrimmage (1,872). Those yards from scrimmage were also fourth best nationally. He is a problem for defenses all over the field.
Fourth Down
I’ll get to the defense more in the next section, and one of the pieces that made the unit so successful was Felix Anudike-Uzomah, who is coming off a year when he was the Co-Defensive Lineman of the Year in the Big 12. He did it while collecting 11 sacks and 14.5 tackles for loss.
Matchup On Paper
In a league of gunslinging, fast-paced offenses, K-State is the outlier. The Wildcats averaged 27.5 points per game (eighth in the Big 12) and did it while averaging 57.4 plays per game. That was the lowest mark in the country last year. It’s too small of a sample size, but in the Texas Bowl (Klein’s lone appearance so far as the OC), KSU ran 62 plays.
And Klein’s quote to Max Olson of The Athletic should give some good insight into what to expect: “‘We’re not gonna be a super fast operation, but we have to be able to dictate tempo and try to create a little bit more rhythm and get over 65 snaps a game. That’s important. Every shot matters.’”
The Wildcat defense went through its transformation last year, moving to a 3-3-5 formation, and it paid off. K-State gave up 21 ppg in 2021, good for fourth best in the conference. The run defense was especially stout, only allowing opponents to average 3.7 yards per carry for 129.9 yards per game.
Way-too-Early Trend Lines
K-State is one of three Big 12 teams (Iowa State and TCU) to have its win total over/under set at 6.5 games in 2022, according to DraftKings. Those three are also 16:1 odds to win the league.
Given KSU’s slower pace and defense, the under has been a good bet, and three of the Wildcats’ final five games went under.
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