Tag: Kansas State

Saturday Big 12 morning rush: Headlines from around the conference

The Saturday Big 12 morning rush is here. Headlines are provided from USA TODAY Sports, Phil Steele and College Football News.

Each morning Longhorns Wire will share the top stories from around the Big 12 Conference. For this edition of the Big 12 Morning Rush USA TODAY Sports, Phil Steele and College Football News provide the headlines.

BYU out for Big 12 if needed for 10-game conference schedule, per report

One idea that we were tossing around was the thought of adding BYU to the Big 12 Conference for one season. A very similar move that the ACC pulled by adding Notre Dame to their entire schedule. However our colleagues at Sooners Wire says that isn’t on the table.

The hot idea to mention was BYU. And that didn’t even reach the rumor phase of social media this time around.

During the last two rounds of realignment for the Big 12, BYU was a common name, but the conference never got to the point to invite or accept the Cougars bid to join.

Phil Steele releases Big 12 order of finish predictions

The annual Phil Steele magazine is out and he laid out just how he interprets the Big 12 finishing in 2020.

College football analyst Phil Steele made his predictions for the 2020 college football season, including the Big 12. And those rankings reflect the potentially wild nature of the conference; Steele has three teams tied for one spot.

Steele’s 350-page season preview is available exclusively at Books-A-Million and Barnes & Nobles book stores or online at PhilSteele.com. Known as “the book experts can’t do without,” Steele’s magazine is celebrating its 26th anniversary as one of the most accurate — and certainly information-packed — preseason previews in the country.

(1) Oklahoma

(2) Texas

This year they return 16 starters including QB [Sam] Ehlinger, a deeper stable of RB’s and a defense that is even more [experienced] than 9 [returning starters] with a lot of players having experience due to ’19’s injuries.

(3) Oklahoma State

(4) Texas Christian

(5) Iowa State

(6) West Virginia

(T-7) Texas Tech

(T-7) Baylor

(T-7) Kansas State

(10) Kansas

Big 12 Rankings: 2020 CFN Five Year College Football Program Analysis

Our colleagues at College Football News performed a five-year analysis on the 10 Big 12 programs to come out with an average ranking. Here is how they are laid out.

(1) Oklahoma: 142.10

(2) Texas: 86.01

Texas has won just 53% of its Big 12 games over the last five years? Seriously? The mere 13 drafted players are almost as embarrassing, but the huge Attendance Score of 9.49 and huge Elite Win Score helped provide the bump.

(3) Oklahoma State: 84.31

(4) Texas Christian: 83.06

(5) West Virginia: 74.45

(6) Baylor: 70.18

(7) Kansas State: 62.38

(8) Texas Tech: 56.12

(9) Iowa State: 51.81

(10) Kansas: 16.46

Notre Dame makes offer to 2022 star wideout

Darrius Clemons already has a bunch of scholarship offers. Today the 2022 wide receiver added one from Notre Dame. Who else has offered?

Wednesday was a busy day in the Notre Dame recruiting world as they landed their 13th commitment in the 2021 class from Chance Tucker, a three-star corner from California.

Notre Dame also got word that they’ll know if they ultimately land a commitment from Michigan’s top receiver in the 2021 class as he announced Wednesday that he’ll be announcing his school choice on July 31.

And the 2022 recruiting class saw another scholarship offer get made, this one to a star receiver.

Darrius Clemons is a four-star wide receiver from Portland, Oregon and holds over 20 offers already.  Notre Dame joined the party on Wednesday as they extended a scholarship offer his way.

Just two days ago the University of Washington offered Clemons and on July 12 it was Stanford who did the same.

Oregon, Michigan, Minnesota, Penn State and Kansas State are among the over 20 schools to offer.

Clemons checks in at 6-3, 195 pounds and drew a comparison to Allen Robinson of the Chicago Bears by 247Sports National Recruiting Editor, Brandon Huffman.

It’s still plenty early in the game for Clemons and the rest of the 2022 class but Notre Dame would like to see their first commitment to that class come sooner rather than later.

Sunday Big 12 rush: Headlines from around the conference

The daily report on the Big 12 conference. The top headlines from the Texas Longhorns competition.

Each morning Longhorns Wire will share the top stories from around the Big 12 Conference. For this edition of the Big 12 morning rush Sooners Wire, College Football News, and Saturday’s Down South provide the headlines.

Continue reading “Sunday Big 12 rush: Headlines from around the conference”

Locked On Spartans Podcast: COVID-19 still lingers over college football

Schools across the country are having troublesome COVID-19 test results.

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Wil and Matt talk about the troubling COVID-19 test results at schools around the country and try to paint an optimistic picture for college football returning. Then they compare Mark Dantonio’s MSU run to other similar coaches in the conference.

You can find the episode on iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

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Coronavirus in College Football Tracker – June 22

College football players are back on campuses nationwide. Which schools are having an uptick in coronavirus cases? Follow along here.

As we continue to get closer to the scheduled start of college football, more news comes out seemingly daily about different college football teams getting hit by coronavirus.  We’ve decided to try and make it as easy as possible for everyone by starting a tracker of what teams are publicly acknowledging issues they have had.

Earlier in the week we saw the University of Texas football team announce that 13 players tested positive.  This comes after the University of Houston suspended voluntary workouts just over a week ago because of six athletes testing positive for coronavirus.

The last couple of days saw more schools come forward with announced cases of coronavirus, including:

Clemson had 28 student-athletes test positive for coronavirus this week, 23 of which play football.

At least 30 players at LSU are being quarantined due to a COVID-19 outbreak.  There is no word on how many of those players tested positive or how many are believed to have been exposed to the virus.

Kansas State has shut down football workouts for two weeks after 14 of the 130 student-athletes they’ve tested came back with positive tests.

In-state rivals Alabama and Auburn have both dealt with positive cases in the last week.

Also, recently two players at South Florida tested positive while a second player at West Virginia tested positive on Saturday.

We’ll do our best to keep you up to speed on the outbreaks and if other schools have to suspend workouts like Kansas State and Houston have now had to.

Let’s hope first that those who have the virus recover quickly and don’t suffer any lasting effects.  On top of that, let’s also hope that it’s a rough patch early on after reporting back to campus and that these outbreaks go down significantly in a matter of days, and not just because of less tests being administered.

Greatest NFL Draft Picks of All-Time From Every Big 12 School

Who are the best NFL Draft picks from each of the Big 12 programs. Which players turned into the greatest stars at the next level?

Who are the best NFL Draft picks from each of the Big 12 programs. Which players turned into the greatest stars at the next level?

The current Big 12 programs have more than their share of good all-time NFL players and draft picks, but the superstars aren’t there compared to the other top leagues. Even so, who are the Big 12’s best NFL draft selections of all-time?

This isn’t a list of the top pro players to come from the Big 12 schools – these are the best draft picks.

That means that guys who had great careers for someone other than the teams that drafted them get knocked down a peg, or aren’t on the list at all.

The goal for any draft pick is to get a player who performs at a high level for a long period of time, so longevity matters over one short burst of greatness. You’ll get the idea.

CFN in 60: Why You Don’t Take A QB Early

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CFN 2020 NFL Draft Prospect Rankings
from the college perspective …
QB | RB | WR | TE | OT | OG & C
DE | DT | LB | CB | Safeties

Baylor Greatest NFL Draft Picks

LB Mike Singletary
1981, 2nd round, 38th pick overall, Chicago

Silver: DT Tom Sestak, 1962, 17th round, 132nd pick overall, Buffalo
Bronze: OT/DE Jimmy Ray Smith, 1954, 6th round, 64th pick overall, Cleveland

The Chicago Bears got their leader and quarterback for some of the greatest defenses in NFL history. Singletary was a seven-time All-Pro who went to the Pro Bowl in each of the last ten seasons of his 12-year Hall of Fame career. He was named the 1985 and 1988 NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Tom Sestak was a three-time All-Pro for Buffalo in the early 1960s. He only played seven years, but he was the anchor of the line.

Jimmy Ray Smith played seven years for Cleveland as a mainstay of the O line at left guard. He was a three-time All-Pro and went to five Pro Bowls.

Iowa State Greatest NFL Draft Picks

LB Matt Blair
1974, 2nd round, 51st pick overall, Minnesota

Silver: OG Keith Sims, 1990, 2nd round, 39th pick overall, Miami
Bronze: S Marcus Robertson, 1991, 4th round, 102nd pick overall, Houston

One of the leaders and stars of the amazing Purple People Eater defenses of the 1970s and 1980s, Blair played 12 years for the Vikings and was named to the 1980 All-Pro team with six Pro Bowl appearances.

Keith Sims got to three straight Pro Bowls as a starting left guard for Miami for eight years, while Marcus Robertson was named an All-Pro for the Houston Oilers, finishing with 22 interceptions in a ten-year run with the franchise.

Kansas Greatest NFL Draft Picks

RB Gale Sayers
1965, 1st round, 4th pick overall, Chicago

Silver: FS Nolan Cromwell, 1977, 2nd round, 21st pick overall, Los Angeles Rams
Bronze: QB John Hadl, 1962, 3rd round, 24th pick overall, San Diego

It might have been a way-too-short run, but Gale Sayers managed to earn All-Pro recognition five times in his five years as a starting running back.

John Riggins is a Hall of Famer, but that’s mostly for what he did for Washington, not the New York Jets. The same goes for tackle Mike McCormack, a Hall of Famer for Cleveland after spending one year with the New York Yanks.

Nolan Cromwell was an all-star quarterback for the Jayhawks, but he turned into a three-time All-Pro safety for the Rams over his 11-year career. John Hadl spent 11 years with San Diego throwing for close to 27,000 yards with 201 touchdowns going to five Pro Bowls.

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Kansas State Greatest NFL Draft Picks

RB Larry Brown
1969, 8th round, 191st pick overall, Washington

Silver: QB Steve Grogan, 1975, 5th round, 116th pick overall, New England
Bronze: CB Terence Newman, 2003, 1st round, 5th pick overall, San Diego

Larry Brown only lasted eight years with Washington, but he was a two-time All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowler running for 5,875 yards and 35 scores. In 1972, he earned the NFL MVP honor running for 1,125 yards and five scores and catching 37 passes.

Steve Grogan was with New England for 16 years, and while he was never an elite quarterback, he finished with close to 27,000 yards with 182 touchdown passes. He also ran for 35 scores.

Terence Newman was a slight disappointment for Dallas considering he was the fifth pick overall, but he went to two Pro Bowls and lasted nine years with the team making 32 interceptions before moving on to keep the career rolling.

Oklahoma Greatest NFL Draft Picks

RB Adrian Peterson, Minnesota
2007, 1st round, 7th pick overall

Silver: DE/DT Lee Roy Selmon, 1976, 1st round, 1st pick overall, Tampa Bay
Bronze: CB Bobby Boyd, 1960, 10th round, 119th pick overall, Baltimore

Outside of a massive scandal, Adrian Peterson worked out just fine for the Vikings in his sure-thing Hall of Fame career, running for close to 12,000 yards in his first nine seasons in Minnesota. He ran for ten touchdowns or more in every year but the suspended 2014 and injured 2016 campaigns.

Lee Roy Selmon was the first ever draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, going on to have a nine-year Hall of Fame career with six straight Pro Bowl appearances. He was named the 1979 NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Bobby Boyd doesn’t have a highway named after him like Selmon, but the three-time All-Pro was among the best defensive backs of the 1960s, coming up with 57 career interceptions.

NEXT: Big 12 teams Part 2

Pages: Page 1, Page 2

Badger moments: Wisconsin reaches 2011 Sweet 16 by staying together

The Badgers persevere

The Wisconsin Badgers have a well-defined identity. It has existed for the past quarter of a century under three different coaches: Dick Bennett, Bo Ryan, and now Greg Gard.

That identity is rooted in unselfish team basketball, rugged and resilient and resourceful at both ends of the floor. Everyone sacrifices for the team. Everyone does what it takes to win without needing personal glory. Five as one. The Way.

This identity has been embodied by the many high-quality Wisconsin teams we have seen over the years, but one of its best examples — among many good ones — was the 2011 win over Kansas State which sent the Badgers to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2008.

At the heart of Wisconsin’s “all for one” team identity is the fact that the Badgers didn’t have the best player in this game against the Wildcats — not by a long shot — but they had the winning team.

Jacob Pullen almost carried Kansas State to the Final Four in 2010. Butler stopped him and KSU in the Elite Eight in Salt Lake City. Pullen had one more chance to make the Final Four in 2011, and he did his very best against the Badgers, scoring 38 points on 13-of-22 shooting.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin point guard Jordan Taylor — forced to defend Pullen — did not do well at the offensive end of the floor. The difficult nature of Taylor’s defensive assignment made it harder for him to function well on offense. Taylor was 2 of 16 from the field.

Purely going by statistics, shooting lines, and scoring totals, the point guard matchup in this game was a complete mismatch in favor of Kansas State.

Wisconsin won anyway.

The Badgers committed just five turnovers. They made 19 of 23 foul shots. They outscored Kansas State by 10 points — 15-5 — on the bench. They hit 9 of 20 3-pointers, even with Taylor having a rough game in Tucson at the McKale Center.

They did whatever it took.

Bo Ryan praised Taylor for holding the Badgers together, even though his own offense just wasn’t flowing:

“He was having a rough shooting night, but he was a taskmaster of his own skills and his own abilities,” Bo Ryan said. “He’s not going to throw the rest of it away simply because things have gotten away from him. He’s that dedicated to being the leader on this team on the floor.”

The non-Pullen Kansas State players scored a total of only 27 points in this game, going 9 of 26 from the field. Conversely, the non-Taylor Wisconsin players hit 19 of 34 shots and scored 58 points.

The team beat the individual. It was a classic Wisconsin win, and it delivered another Sweet 16 to the Badgers.

Badger moments: Wisconsin thumps Kansas State, makes 2008 Sweet 16

Wisconsin rolls

The Wisconsin Badgers were not the sexiest team in the 2008 NCAA Tournament subregional in Omaha. The top-seeded Kansas Jayhawks — the team which eventually won the 2008 national championship — were there in Nebraska. So were the USC Trojans and Kansas State Wildcats, who boasted two of the flashier and more impressive young players in the United States. Kansas State beat USC in round one, with Michael Beasley outdueling O.J. Mayo. When Kansas State advanced to play Wisconsin in round two, the national buzz flowed not to the third-seeded Badgers, who had won 24 of their last 26 games, but to the 11th-seeded Wildcats, because of Beasley’s electric game.

Wisconsin turned out the lights on the electricity, however, delivering a letter-perfect performance in a 72-55 win over Kansas State. Wisconsin, after two years removed from the party, returned to the Sweet 16, marking Bo Ryan’s third Sweet 16 in a span of six seasons (2003 through 2008).

How complete was Wisconsin’s performance? Start with the job it did on Beasley after halftime. Beasley scored just six points after the break. Wisconsin adjusted after Beasley torched the Badgers with 17 first-half points. Wisconsin wasn’t great on Beasley in all 40 minutes, but it was excellent for 20 of those minutes. UW did, however, demonstrate total control of all 40 minutes in another aspect of play: 3-point defense. Kansa State went 0 for 13 on threes, the first time in 349 games the Wildcats had failed to make a three. Wisconsin’s win was built primarily on the strength of its active perimeter movement, which suffocated Kansas State at every turn.

On offense, Greg Stiemsma had a career-high 14 points… and yet he was far from the main story for the Badgers. Michael Flowers had a quietly productive 15 points, and Trevon Hughes had a star turn with 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting, 4 of 9 on 3-pointers.

“Today, this felt good, the ball in my hand,” Hughes said. “Any given day I feel like anybody on this team could go out there and score 20 points.”

Hughes’ heroics plus dynamic 3-point defense and a strong second-half response to Michael Beasley all did the job for Wisconsin, solidifying the Badgers’ status as a Sweet 16 program in the upper tier of national college basketball.

2020 NFL Draft: Seattle Seahawks attend Kansas State’s Pro Day

The Seattle Seahawks had scouts in attendance at Kansas State’s Pro Day, likely evaluating receiver Dalton Schoen.

The NFL combine is over, giving the Seattle Seahawks and the rest of the league a chance to evaluate the athleticism and size of 337 NFL draft hopefuls.

However, there are more players who could find their way into the draft – or at least training camp as an undrafted free agent – which is why many colleges host a Pro Day every year on campus, to give some of their less heralded guys a chance to shine.

Kansas State has been putting players in the NFL with regularity for the last few years, yet none of their players from last year’s squad were invited to the combine.

That didn’t stop a ton of scouts from coming out to the school’s Pro Day on Wednesday, with the Seahawks reportedly among the team’s in attendance.

The Seahawks are always among the most aggressive teams in the late rounds and on the undrafted market – making it no surprise they’d want to see some of the talent who didn’t make the combine.

Among the standouts for Kansas State were receiver Dalton Schoen, who ran a 4.47 in the 40-yard dash, and offensive lineman Nick Kaltmayer, who repped 18 on the bench press.

The Seahawks will likely be at as many Pro Day events as possible over the next six weeks as they prepare to bring on as much potential talent as they can heading into training camp and the 2020 season.

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Chiefs attend Kansas State pro day

The Kansas City Chiefs have started their tour of NFL pro days.

The pro day circuit has officially kicked off for NFL teams.

Scouts, coaches and even general managers will travel around the country attending various pro days for different universities. If you’re unfamiliar, a pro day is essentially a miniature NFL combine held by schools with draft-eligible players. They’ll go through all the same measured testing and several on-field workouts that they would if they attended the NFL Scouting Combine.

The Kansas City Chiefs got their tour started with a trip down I-70 to Manhattan, Kansas. There they were able to visit the Kansas State pro day and view the 2020 NFL draft prospects. Kansas State was one of the teams that didn’t have any players at the combine.

According to Herbie Teope of the Kansas City Star, there were a total of 18 teams in attendance for the pro day, including the Chiefs.

A total of twelve Wildcats participated in the pro day at Kansas State.

  • P Devin Anctil
  • RB Jordon Brown
  • DT Trey Dishon
  • OT Scott Frantz
  • RB James Gilbert
  • OL Nick Kaltmayer
  • DB Kevion McGee
  • LB Da’Quan Patton
  • DB Darreyl Patterson
  • WR Dalton Schoen
  • DE Reggie Walker
  • DB Eli Walker

One player, in particular, had a standout performance in front of NFL scouts. According to Yahoo Sports’ Terez Paylor, WR Dalton Schoen weighed in just under 6-feet-1 and 206 pounds. He also ran a 40-yard dash between 4.44 and 4.48.

I’m told that Schoen also added 15 repetitions on the bench press and had a vertical jump of 35 inches.

The Chiefs added former Kansas State WR Byron Pringle in undrafted free agency following the 2018 NFL Draft. Like Pringle, Schoen would be a prime target for Kansas City as a priority free agent.

We’ll have a full list of upcoming pro days for you soon on Chiefs Wire. Be sure you’re following on Facebook and Twitter.

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