K-State Should Begin Football Season As A Consensus Top 25 Team

In about a month, conferences will start holding football media days and with that comes top 25 polls from numerous media outlets.

The Big 12 media day will be July 9-10 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Before the preseason polls officially come out, it is fun to look back at a couple of way too early top 25 polls that were released soon after the national championship game and see where Kansas State landed.

According to Sports Illustrated and ESPN, the Wildcats are a top 25 team to start the this season.

Yes, K-State lost a couple of key players to the NFL draft and several others to the transfer portal. But the Wildcats have become that perennial top 25 program that reloads instead of rebuilding.

On Jan. 29, Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated ranked K-State No. 21.

Forde wrote the Wildcats have become recession-proof under Chris Klieman, winning 27 games over the past three seasons. But there is work to do after losing quarterback Will Howard to Ohio State and a lot of transfers.

“Avery Johnson is an intriguing young QB talent who will be a greater dual-threat player, and DJ Giddens is a centerpiece back," Forde wrote. "A young defense that had 23 takeaways in ’23 should be a salty unit.”

Howard passed for 2,643 yards and 24 touchdowns. His experience and throwing ability will be missed. Johnson, though, has the potential to put up better all-around numbers.

Giddens, a junior, is coming off a tremendous season that saw him rush for 1,226 yards and 10 touchdowns. He will be one of the top running backs in the Big 12 this season.

ESPN, in its way too early poll on Feb. 13, viewed K-State in similar fashion, putting the Wildcats at No. 20.

Mark Schlabach said the Wildcats are going to have a new look on offense after Howard transferred to Ohio State and offensive coordinator Collin Klein departed for the same position at Texas A&M. Klieman replaced Klein with co-coordinators Conor Riley (his offensive line coach) and Matt Wells (a former head coach at Utah State and Texas Tech). Johnson is a dual-threat quarterback with a ton of talent.

“The Wildcats will have to rebuild up front after losing Cooper Beebe and three others who combined to make 144 career starts,” Schlabach wrote. “Tight end Ben Sinnott is another big loss. Kansas State added receiver Dante Cephas, who was very good at Kent State.”