Quick look: Ravaged by COVID in the opener, Kansas State had even more setbacks last week

Kansas State is planning to bring its football team to Norman for Saturday’s Big 12 Conference opener with Oklahoma.

That’s it. That’s the plan.

But will it happen?

K-State coach Chris Klieman seemed to indicate during his weekly radio show on Thursday night that the Wildcats’ COVID situation could be going from bad to worse.

“We haven’t had a good week dealing with COVID already this week, with losing some guys,” Klieman said, per a Kansas.com report. “It’s just going to be a nonstop battle.”

In their season opener on Sept. 12, the Wildcats inexplicably dropped a 35-31 home loss to Arkansas State. Except it was explicable: Klieman said K-State was without 35-40 players, and that about a dozen of the players who did play against the Red Wolves had been quarantined for two weeks until midweek before the game.

“That’s not an excuse,” Klieman said, “it’s just a reality of where we are at.”

Klieman said during a video press conference last week that losing the opener was the culmination of a lot of things — all bad. First, Arkansas State had already played a game (a 37-23 loss to Memphis) and looked like it.

“They were much better prepared than we were and they outplayed us,” Klieman said.

“Didn’t go the way we wanted it to go. A lot of things played into that. You could say COVID played into that. It sure did. You could say lack of spring ball played into that. It sure did. Lack of summer training. It sure did. Losing time in fall camp, losing players, all that stuff. It did. But the bottom line is, you have an opportunity to compete. … You don’t know how many opportunities you’re gonna have this year. Are we gonna play nine more? Or are we gonna play two more? None of us know this.

“Our guys have to learn that (if the) first guy goes down, second guy goes down, third guy goes down, it doesn’t matter. You’re wearing K-State. And you have to make plays. We didn’t make enough plays.”

On the same night K-State was getting shocked, Oklahoma was without 20 members from its two-deep. The Sooners still played sharp in almost all areas during an effortless 48-0 victory over FCS Missouri State. That came just one day after MSU’s president declared the game had been in “serious jeopardy.” After the game, OU coach Lincoln Riley said it had “hung in the balance.”

The Wildcats played against Arkansas State without offensive lineman Christian Duffie, linebacker Khalid Duke, wide receiver Wykeen Gill and All-American kick returner Joshua Youngblood, among others.

K-State took a 31-28 lead late, but the Red Wolves won it on a last-second touchdown pass. Skylar Thompson threw for 259 yards and two touchdowns, but the Wildcats’ ground game generated just 91 total yards and averaged 2.3 yards per carry behind a completely rebuilt offensive line.

The Kansas State situation was so bad, Arkansas State had to postpone last weekend’s game against Central Arkansas due to a spike in COVID numbers.

Still, Klieman actually seemed hopeful about getting in the game against Oklahoma. The team had a regular practice scheduled for Saturday after practicing mostly according to schedule last week.

“It’s difficult to be in college athletics right now and obviously college football,” Klieman said, “with the climate we are in and COVID-19.”

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