Tag Archives: Daniel Thomas

Kansas State Wildcats 2009 Year End Review

willie the wildcat

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.

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Manhattan Makes Us Miss The College Life

The Manhattan Miracle was once thought to be just a one time thing.  Fast forward to 2009 and we now know it never left.  Are we talking about football?  Partly.  We’re also talking about the little city of Manhattan and the miracle that it can play with the big dogs when it comes to having a great time.   We revisited some old school places and discovered some new ones.  Then we went to the Sunflower Showdown and witnessed the rise of the miracle on the field.  All in all it was a top notch time and we were happy to see the good ole days just one more time.

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GameDay: Going Old School

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Ah, yes the Sunflower Showdown.  I was at the game last year and it was a blowout.  I’m heading to the game this year and it’s a homecoming in a way.  I make no bones about being a K-Stater and while I do my best to be objective, the Purple Pride eeks out ahead.  So when I go to the game today, I will be reliving the days of past when I was a student.  I will also be going back to the source and inspiration for this website.

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Pick It Standings Week 05: Feeling Overhyped

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The non conference schedule is over and the Big 12 is limping out.   Oklahoma losing another close on to Miami capped off a 34-14 non conference schedule with one more game remaining.   The Arkansas rout of Texas A&M Saturday especially stung because it was from a SEC team.  So it looks as though that the Big 12 won’t end up being the 2nd strongest conference.  That can hurt Texas if they notch a loss and there’s no undefeated team in the conference.  Heaven forbid USC or even Ohio State sneaks into the national title game again.   One thing is for sure, the SEC is living up to the hype this year.  Now it’s time to figure out if we lived up to our Pick It hype:

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GameDay: FARMAGEDDON HAS COME!

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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!

Crib Sheet: Strapping It On

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Here we go people!  We’re strapping on the helmet and hunkering down for another season of college football.  To get us ready, we have a cavalcade of previews and a new redesign coming down the pipe.  Until then we’ll produce another news heavy Crib Sheet for all of you to digest.  Depending on the schedule, we may be dropping the Crib Sheet  here and there during the season.  There’s always news to munch on.  So grab a bib and some silverware and chow down on this week’s Crib Sheet:

  • It’s the wave of the future for the Texas Longhorns and monitoring football players.  They make select players swallow temperature pills to make sure their body temperature doesn’t get too high during practice.  The NCAA should take a look at these little doo-wops for all of the players that have a high risk for sickle cell disease.
  • There’s a big jumble and shuffle going down in Manhattan.  Kansas State coach Bill Snyder is moving around transfer Daniel Thomas from quarterback to running back, among other movements that also saw running back Logan Dold moving to safety.  It seems that ‘Wildcat’ might mean more than just a team this year in Snyder-land.
  • It seems Florida State is getting a head start on the 2 game series with Oklahoma by being the snitcher on old guy type linebacker Mike Balogun.  Balogun is suing the NCAA for eligibility because of some issues with semi-pro playing before he joined Oklahoma.  One of the Seminole officials noted the story of Bolgun during last year’s national championship game and dug further after the Big 12 was okay with Oklahoma’s ‘light’ investigation.  Ruh roh.  Seems like there will be some major unsportsmanlike penalties in this two game series.
  • Oklahoma State has gone dark until the week of their opener against Georgia, at least to the media.  They need to prepare all they can for the big game because it will set the tone for the Cowboy’s whole season.  It should be a great game and has the potential for being the game of the week.
  • Oklahoma backup linebacker Tom Wort went down with an ACL injury and is out for the season.  Combine that with the questions of Tom Balogun’s eligibility and we’re looking at a depleted linebacking core for the Sooners.  This may affect their chances of going all the way this year.
  • Joseph Kassanavoid, redshirt freshmen quarterback for Kansas State, up and got arrested for domestic battery.  Officials for Kansas State stated that the incident will be handled internally.  We won’t be surprised if this guy gets booted from the team.  Tune in to find out.
  • The Associated Press Top 25 Preseason Poll came out over the weekend and in the biggest non-surprise of the year, the Florida Gators are number one, followed by the Big 12’s Texas and Oklahoma.  Everyone and their mother are picking the Gators but the ball is up in the air for who will meet them in the title game.  We’re not sure who will be there, but tune in for our preview in the next couple of days.
  • Meanwhile, Lou Holtz gives his analysis on the AP poll and pulls a prediction of all predictions out of his always sounding drunk mouth.   According to Holtz, Notre Dame will be in the national title game.  Give to Lou for being a homer.  He makes a good case pointing to 11 returning offensive starters, 7 home games, and a weak opponent’s schedule.  The schedule is going to kill them and we’re not to sure they are that big on offense.  Nice to hear Lou slur his words again, though.
  • Husker running back Quentin Castille was dismissed from the Nebraska squad due to team rule violations.  That’s a shame as it will hurt their chances to live up to the preseason Big 12 North title prediction.  Even ESPN Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin is switching his prediction.  Indeed, maybe the media were drinking the red kool-aid, but there are questions all over the North this year.  Again tune in for our Big 12 predictions in the next couple of days.