Last week Kansas State bounced back, as I correctly predicted, and now it’s time for them to keep sawing that wood. There’s plenty of other teams out there with saws that have plenty of 2×4’s to tackle. We’ll tackle what I think they will do this weekend rightcheer. You know, I have a saw myself for the picks. It’s time I get back on the track. Now where’s that wood.
Seeing as I graduated from K-State, I figured I would cover them just a little more than the rest of the area teams in Kansas City. If any other fans/alumni of schools around the area want to write for this site, please drop us a line. That said, everyone predicted that K-State would drop as well this year. What was expected to be a major blow off year turned into a massive surprise. K-State fans should be more than happy with what turned out this year in Wildcat football. It wasn’t perfect, but it was damn close.
So the only real big game hyped up in the area this week is Kansas State taking on Iowa State at Arrowhead Stadium. The other local teams are on break and getting ready for conference play next week. This is a great opportunity for these two teams to showcase themselves (on a national spotlight even). Both programs are suffering a bit right now. Both of them will be run centric and defense heavy. Both have new coaches (albeit one is returning). Both teams were projected to be in the cellar of the Big 12 North this year. Well it may not mean much for everyone else, but it means the whole season for these two team.
For Iowa State, they’ve always been in the shadow of Iowa for years. Sure, there’s been times when the Cyclones were up and the Hawkeyes were down. But last year and especially this year, Iowa State is taking a back seat. They axed coach McCarthy last year and ended up with what looks like a trade with Auburn. McCarthy went on the head coach the Tigers where Iowa State got defensive coordinator Paul Rhodes. It’s a new regime for the Cyclones and expectations are that this guy will be instilling defense into a league that forgot how to spell it.
Meanwhile, Manhattan’s favorite son has returned in the form of Bill Snyder 2.0 to build back the program that was once a national title contender. After the embarrassing skid mark that was Ron Prince, Snyder 2.0 is back to bring street cred back to the Wildcats. And he’s doing it in the same way that Rhodes is trying to do up north. Defense and a big ole running game is what was missing last year and Snyder 2.0 is hell bent on bringing it back. Fortunately he has help in a JuCo transfer by the name of Daniel Thomas to help lead the way.
So today’s game is much more than deciding who will share the cellar with Colorado in the Big 12 North this year. It’s a progress game. The winner will have a better shot at making the most improvement this year. The loser will have to eat it and plan on building for much longer. Being the Kansas State grad that I am, I’m pulling for Snyder 2.0. But I think the fact that I’m not going to Arrowhead shows just how close this game might be. Let’s hope it’s not on ugly game on both sides of the field. Now off to the bunker. IT’S FARMADGEDDON!
This week finds us in the middle of Johnson County and at a neat little place called Scoreboards. We’ve been there before the blog started off and we’re pretty sure it’s a good time. There used to be a Scoreboards in Manhattan but we don’t think it’s the same bar. Sometimes sports bars survive on their own without a website, but we think these guys could use one. It was super hard to find a pic or logo of the place. Maybe we can open up a KCCGD hosted space for bars around the area. Or post some ideas for Scoreboards below and we’ll talk to the manager Saturday.
It seems recovery from the float trip took longer than expected. Well, that and KCCGD headquarters purchased a new laptop that’s in the middle of indoctrination. The radio shows are starting to talk more college ball and the preview magazines are popping up on the stands. We have about a month and a half to go for the big show and the new laptop will help us in getting ready for the relaunch. In the meantime, here’s this week’s belated Crib Sheet: