Three Potential Catalysts To Victory: Part II
Let's think back to the Mississippi State game earlier in the year - late in the 2nd Quarter, Kansas State was handily beating the SEC foe on their home field and was up 17-7 on the Bulldogs. Two bad penalties helped MSU put together a quick touchdown drive before halftime, which shifted the momentum. Mississippi State then went on to score 10 more unanswered points and took a 24-17 lead after a field goal to start the 4th quarter.
The Wildcat offense had gone stagnant in the 2nd half, and it seemed like there wasn't anything going right for K-State. I remember thinking of the moral victories that this new regime was able to put together in their first road game. And then something happened: a spark.
Malik Knowles caught the ensuing kickoff, hesitated for a second, started running to his left before he saw a seam, planted his left foot in the ground, and exploded through the gap. Once he was in the open field, it was apparent that there was not going to be anyone catching him.
Before the Knowles kickoff return, the offense had failed to score a point for over a quarter. The defense had been unable to stop Mississippi State, surrendering 17 straight points.
The rest of the game was pure bliss for Wildcat fans. The defense was rejuvenated - their attitude and physicality were suddenly dominant once again, and the offense put together a quality scoring drive to seal the huge victory.
That's all it took. One spark from the special teams.
Back to the present, the bad news is that Malik Knowles is likely still sidelined with an injury this week against TCU. But that doesn't mean that someone else can't make a play on special teams to help propel the Wildcats to Klieman's first conference win.
I touched on it a bit yesterday when discussing the freshmen that could help create a big play on Saturday - but it is evident that the coaching staff is trying to create some big plays in the return game with Knowles out of the gameplan. Phillip Brooks has been solid in kick and punt returns so far in 2019. He's averaging 23.3 yards per kick return and 10.8 yards per punt return. Solid - but so far, we have not seen Brooks have a huge return, but I think it's too early to write him off as not being capable of a big play.
With Knowles missing the majority of the Baylor game, freshman Joshua Youngblood joined Brooks on the kickoff return unit and averaged 23.7 yards in his three returns. I really like Youngblood's potential in the return game, and if I were going to pick who is the most likely to break a return for a touchdown, it would be Youngblood.
Other potential options we've seen working with the return units are Seth Porter - one of the fastest players on the team, Harry Trotter, Joe Ervin, and Keenan Garber. Jordon Brown was also in the rotation but, like Knowles, is sidelined with an injury.
I'm not going to just be watching for a significant kick return to spark the team on Saturday - the spark could be provided by other areas of special teams as well. It could be a blocked punt to flip the field -- it could be a gunner making a big hit on a TCU return man to force a fumble.
All it takes is one play, and I'm beyond excited to see it happen on Saturday.