It was an exciting week in Manhattan, KS this past week as Kansas State fans savored a big Wildcat victory against the UCLA Bruins. Wildcat fans also had another treat, with the Kansas Jayhawks losing to North Dakota State, which ironically is a Missouri Valley Conference team (Kansas has had notable basketball “chokes” against Northern Iowa/Bradley). Kansas State seems to be moving in the right direction and Kansas is just in a new system, with way too many new players, and are not looking very well. Life is good.
But it is time to move on from last week. The win was good, as was the celebrating, but it is time for Game 2. This week Kansas State will face off against the Missouri State Bears of the Missouri Valley Conference.
A look at Missouri State
Missouri State only returns 9 starters from the 6-5 team that took the field last season. They are led under a head coach with a familiar name in Terry Allen. Allen coached for the University of Kansas from 1996-2001. In those 5 years, Allen never beat coach Snyder and the Wildcats. His only win against Kansas State came back in 1989 when he was the coach of Northern Iowa in a 10-8 victory.
Last Week Recap
Missouri State played Eastern Kentucky, coming away with a 31-9 win. The Bears were led by senior quarterback Cody Kirby, and junior running back Chris Douglas. Kirby had a very efficient game passing for 199 yards and a touchdown, with a 60% completion rate. Douglas ran for 128 yards on only 10 carries, good for a 12.8 yards per carry average. The receivers for the Bears showed that they can share the ball as 6 had catches. Missouri State’s defense gave up 315 passing yards against Eastern Kentucky, but held them to 35 rushing yards on 25 carries.
Last Meeting
Kansas State and Missouri State have only met one time. It was in 2007 during the second year of the Ron Prince Era. Things looked very good for the Wildcats, they had nearly beaten a very good Auburn team, and then dominated a “never say die” San Jose State team. K-State absolutely crushed Missouri State, 61-10 leading to the next game against Texas (of which K-State also dominated, winning 41-21).
The Bear’s Offense
The Bears are led by third year starter Cody Kirby (5’11 202 LB Senior). Kirby is arguably the best quarterback in the Missouri Valley. He has a school record for Missouri State career touchdown passes, and is second in team history in passing yards, competitions, attempts, and plays. He was named the Freshman Player of the Year in 2007, was a 2 nd team all conference quarterback in 2008, and was named honorable mention all-conference in 2009. He has a career completion percentage of 59.5%.
The tailback for the Bears is Chris Douglas (5’9 205 LB RS Junior). Douglas has played for three different colleges. He started his career at Pasadena City College, where he ran for 135 yards on 27 carries with a touchdown. The back then transferred to Fort Scott Community College, where he redshirted. After sitting out a year he returned to football, with Missouri State. Last season he ran for 325 yards, good for 4.5 yards per carry. He started the year big against Eastern Kentucky with his first career 100 yard rushing game.
The receiving core for the bears is a very young group. Their line-up starts three at a time. The most experienced wide receiver is junior Jermaine Saffold. The Z receiver for the bears is true freshman Julian Burton. The B receiver is true sophomore Cadarrius Dotson.
Arguably the best player on the bears team is lineman David Arkin (6’5 305 pound Senior out of Wichita, KS). This three year starter was named a pre-season first team All-American for the FCS. Arkin has started 33 consecutive games. He is a 2 time 2nd team all Missouri Valley Conference player (2007 and 2008) and was named to the first team this past season. Phil Steele rates Arkin as the best offensive guard in the FCS conference.
Bear Defense/Special Teams
The defense for Missouri State is senior-led. They don’t have a lot of playing time combined from the players, but they do have 8 senior starters and 2 junior starters, and only one under-classmen starter in redshirt freshman cornerback Howard Scarborough.
The front 7 did a terrific job against Eastern Kentucky only giving up 35 yards on 25 carries. But the secondary for the Bears looked very sluggish against an FCS team that went 5-6 last season. But lucky for the Bears, Kansas State is known for the running game. If Missouri State wants any chance against K-State, that tough group of senior lineman will have to step up and stop Kansas State’s punishing rushing attack.
For the special teams K-State will be playing a far less experienced group then the previous week. The kicker for Missouri State (Jordan Chiles, Junior) did make a long field goal last week (43 yards) and was 4-4 on PAT’s. He is a decent kicker, but nowhere near the caliber of Kai Forbath from UCLA. Chiles is also the punter for the Bears. He had an average of only 35 yards a punt last week, but did very well last season with an average of 40.1 yards a kick on his way to becoming an honorable-mention All-Missouri Valley Punter.
3 Keys
- Don’t overlook the bears.
Kansas overlooked a 4-8 North Dakota State football team and paid the price. This is a young team, that has a lot of new starters, but for the handful of returning starters bring an immense load of starting experience to the field. Missouri State will play hard, and Kansas State will have to play harder. - Keep to the game plan.
K-State should continue to run the ball. This will be a good game to test the arm of Carson Coffman, but before so K-State needs to do what they are known for and lock this game up early. - Early Knock-Out.
FCS teams use these games as learning tools. They want to win, but realistically most likely don’t believe they can win. Its not till the 2nd half that the hope of winning actually translates into a belief that they can win. K-State needs to send a message, and make sure there is no chance of an upset by piling up points in the first half.
The Prediction
Missouri State did very well against the run last week and has a very experienced defensive line. But they have never seen a back with the talent of Daniel Thomas, or an offensive line as experienced as Kansas States. I expect K-State to pass the ball more than normal, but still to run it down there throats when they have to. Hopefully this one will be over early. I’m going to take Kansas State 45-3.
