We're almost there!  One more day until college football!

Speaking of which, don't miss Baylor vs. Wake Forest tomorrow night on FSN (7:00 p.m. CDT).  Not only does football being tomorrow, but BIG 12 FOOTBALL begins tomorrow.

On Saturday, we won't be so fortunate as to catch our Wildcats on the tube.  More info to come about this game, but I may be looking at my options as my recent move has left me without Internet service at home, ergo listening via Internet radio won't be an option at home.  I'm not sure I want to listen to it anywhere else, for fear that loud yelling at a computer may not be socially acceptable in a public setting.

While we're talking about a quasi-viewer's guide for this weekend, you should also be sure to tune into Missouri vs. Illinois on Saturday evening (7:30 p.m. CDT, ESPN).  This will be a good early test for Mizzou on the way to what could be a historic season.

To end the proceedings today, I'm going to veer slightly off topic to note that the 2008-09 men's basketball schedule has been released.  Reactionary thoughts follow:

1.  Early season matchups with Kentucky, Iowa/West Virginia, and Oregon could make for a harsh early road for a fairly inexperienced team.

2.  We're playing Southern Miss at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.  I hope I'm done with finals by then.

3.  No Big Monday games = bullshit

4.  We play in that town down the river on a Tuesday...

5.  We go for two in a row at home against that school down the river on a Saturday, on ABC.

6.  Road games against Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State out of the South could be a real pain.

7.  Colorado on Senior Day.  Yay.  Do we have any seniors this year?  Just kidding, Darren Kent.

On Sunday, the K-State athletic department released the depth chart for this weekend's opening game with North Texas.  After much hard work and a lot of scouring of junior colleges, this is who we're putting out there...

Offense

QB -- 1) Josh Freeman, 2) Carson Coffman

No discussion necessary here.  Next...

RB -- 1) Keithen Valentine, 2) Logan Dold

Undoubtedly our thinnest position on the field, as we're now starting the former walk-on Valentine.  I told you other Big 12 bloggers would rue the day they snubbed him from the preseason all-conference team.  Backing him up is Logan Dold who, while undoubtedly causing many recruiting boners last year, is still a true freshman whose profile lists his rankings as a safety before his rankings as a running back.

WR -- 1) Deon Murphy, 2) Brandon Banks

Let's hope Murphy is on the field.  He's been listed as questionable for this opening game, which can't be comforting for a team that has him and absolutely nobody else returning at wide receiver.  On the bright side, apparently he's only a junior now, so he actually has two more years to play.

WR -- 1) Ernie Pierce, 2) Aubrey Quarles

Pierce was less than impressive last year, but he is extremely gifted athletically.  Perhaps a year of experience will improve his route-running and pass-catching abilities.  Quarles is one of the junior college guys who is expected to have a significant impact this year.  He should get his chances against UNT, let's hope we like what we see.

WR -- 1) Lamark Brown, 2) Adrian Hilburn

You can substitute everything I just said in the previous wide receiver discussion into this one and just change the names.  It concerns me that neither of the highly touted junior college receivers broke into the starting lineup, but it's also far from time to hit the panic button.  What does concern me is that Attrail Snipes is nowhere to be found on the two-deep.

LT -- 1) Alesana Alesana, 2) Edward Prince

Alesana is, like Murphy, listed as questionable for Saturday.  He was a decent left tackle last year after the disaster against Auburn, but won't be much use if he's hurt.  Prince is a junior college transfer from Mississippi.  If he does need to play this weekend, we can all be thankful he'll be going up against North Texas and not Auburn.

LG -- 1) Brock Unruh, 2) Wade Weibert

Experience versus promise.  Unruh has started nine games in two years at K-State.  Weibert is a top-50 junior college recruit from powerhouse Butler County.  This is one position about which I feel fairly confident.

C -- 1) Jordan Bedore, 2) Zach Kendall

Bedore is a rock at center and will be the leader of the line this season.  We desperately need him to stay healthy.  Kendall has been with the program for two years, one of which he redshirted and one of which he failed to see the field.

RG -- 1) Gerard Spexarth, 2) Zach Hanson

Spexarth is a senior who has made 15 starts in his career.  He was one of the solid contributors last season and we need him to be the same thing this year.  Hanson is a beast of a junior college transfer at 6'8" and 320 lbs.  Sounds like he could be useful in short-yardage situations, but is otherwise not a highly touted recruit.

RT -- 1) Nick Stringer, 2) Clyde Aufner

Stringer has made 13 starts in his two years of action, and is one player I think could be poised for a breakout year.  He's not huge, but he's big enough and mobile enough to be a tackle.  Aufner is entering his first season after redshirting last season.

Defense: Note that the depth chart is set up for a 3-4 defense, although it had been rumored we were switching back to a base 4-3 this year.  Who knows...

NT -- 1) Brandon Balkcom, 2) Gabe Crews

Balkcom saw a fair amount of action last year, especially toward the end (that may  not be a good thing).  He's not small relative to the general population at 6'1", 292 lbs., but among nose tackles he's not huge.  Crews is a little bigger and also got some game experience last season.

RE -- 1) Eric Childs, 2) Daniel Calvin

If you looked at Childs' size (6'3", 238 lbs.) and thought "man, he should be a linebacker," you wouldn't be wrong.  Actually, he played some at that position last season, and probably will do the same this season if/when we use the 3-4.  Calvin is the junior college recruit who I expected to see at nose tackle.  My guess is you will see him a lot out there at tackle when we play a four-man front.

LE -- 1) Ian Campbell, 2) Brandon Harold

Ian Campbell is back where he belongs, and will be terrorizing quarterbacks from the edge again.  Brandon Harold will probably have a lot of time to get acquainted with his fellow sideline mates.

OLB -- 1) Olu Hall, 2) Antonio Felder

Hall is a transfer, but not from a junior college.  He spent two years at Virginia before deciding to transfer to K-State.  Here's hoping he's a solid contributor.  Felder appears to be an able backup, as long as he's healthy.  He was another member of the formidable Butler County program, but spent last season watching with an injured knee.

OLB -- 1) Antwon Moore, 2) Dahrnaz Tigner

Moore ranks as my favorite player on this defense.  If he stays healthy, I could see him pushing for all-conference honors this season.  Let's hope that Tigner is one year late, as last year he would have seen a lot of time after Moore got hurt.

ILB -- 1) Reggie Walker, 2) Hanson Sekona

Walker wasn't bad last season, but I expect more out of him this season.  If he improves to my expectations, which I know are terribly important to him, we could have a hellacious group of linebackers.  Sekona is one of the highest-rated junior college transfers on this year's K-State team, which is saying something.  If Walker isn't an improved player, we could see a lot of Sekona.

ILB -- 1) Ulla Pomele, 2) Kevin Rohleder

Pomele is, you guessed it, a junior college transfer.  He's also a devout man of God.  Most importantly from the perspective of K-State football fans, he was a four-star prospect and a top-50 junior college recruit.  Another guy who could make this linebacking group into one of the team's strengths.  Rohleder is probably going to see most of his action on special teams.

CB -- 1) Joshua Moore, 2) Billy McLellan

My God, but it's good to see Joshua Moore back in the starting lineup.  Even if Josh Freeman is apparently completing some passes on him in practice.  McLellan is significantly undersized at 5'8" and 164 pounds, so we better hope Moore is back to his freshman-year form.

CB -- 1) Blair Irvin, 2) Ray Cheatham

I'm pretty excited to see what Blair Irvin brings to the table.  He comes from another of the powerful junior colleges in Kansas, Coffeyville.  If he's as good as Joshua Moore, we could give opposing quarterbacks fits with our pass coverage.  Cheatham saw a fair amount of playing time last season, but his play was pretty ordinary.

SS -- 1) Gary Chandler, 2) Courtney Herndon

Chandler is another of the guys who could make this defensive backfield something special.  He was the Big 12's newcomer of the year on defense last season, and should only be better with age.  Herndon is similar to Cheatham; he has played quite a bit, but his play has been solidly unspectacular.

FS -- 1) Chris Carney, 2) Andrew Erker

Carney is another experienced-if-unspectacular player in the backfield.  However, he appears to be considered a team leader, and his play last season was solid.  If he improves this season, he could be yet another piece in the backfield puzzle.  Erker will probably see the field some, but he's one guy who always concerns me when he's out there.

We'll talk a little bit about the special teams' depth chart later this week.  As you probably noticed, four transfers are expected to start Saturday, three of them junior college players transfers.  So either we aren't relying as heavily on junior college players as most thought, or the players we recruited aren't as good as we'd hoped.  Let's hope it's the former.

More tomorrow as we get ready for North Texas.  Four days and counting.

Yes, indeed, Wildcat fans, we are now less than one week away from the season-opening game against the North Texas Mean Green.  It's been four years since K-State matched up with UNT, so I doubt many of you have followed the Mean Green much lately.

Enter Brett Vito.  Brett is the beat reporter and blogger for UNT at the Denton Record-Chronicle.  Check in at the links above throughout the week for thorough coverage of UNT as they prepare to travel to Manhattan to face our beloved Wildcats.  I want to thank Brett for taking the time to answer my questions, and for providing well-thought-out responses.

BOTC: North Texas went from 117th in total offense in 2006 to 47th in 2007.  How on earth did first-year coach Todd Dodge get a previously run-based offense to actually complete a lot of passes?

Brett Vito: There is little doubt that North Texas head coach Todd Dodge is one of the top minds in the country when it comes to the spread offense. He was successful at UNT as the passing game coordinator in the early 1990s and built one of the top high school programs in the country at Southlake Carroll largely with his spread offense.
 
Dodge also had a couple of breaks go his way his first season.
 
First, he convinced Giovanni Vizza of San Antonio Alamo Heights to back out of his commitment to Nevada and play for UNT. Dodge has said that if he had to pick a quarterback in Texas in the Class of 2007 to run his offense, Vizza would have been it. That might just be coach-speak, but it's hard to argue with after Vizza threw for 2,388 yards, the top total for a freshman nationally, last season.
 
Dodge also discovered Casey Fitzgerald shortly after he arrived at UNT. Fitzgerald was a multi-sport standout in high school who passed on some small-school basketball scholarships to walk on at UNT. No one thought Fitzgerald was big enough to succeed as a college wide receiver, even though he was a solid player both as a wide receiver and defensive back at Red Oak. Fitzgerald was a bit player in UNT's run-based offense, but exploded when Dodge arrived and finished among the top 10 receivers in the country in catches (third, 111), receiving yards (sixth, 1,322) and touchdown catches (tied for 10th, 12) last season. Dodge has described his offense as basketball on grass. Fitzgerald was a perfect fit.
 
Those two players helped make UNT's transition to the spread possible.

BOTC: I hear Giovanni Vizza (great name, by the way) has been named the starting quarterback, but will we see any of Riley Dodge in Manhattan?  For my readers who don't know, the theory of relativity applies between Todd and Riley Dodge.

Brett Vito: I don't think Riley is going to play this year unless something unforeseen happens. UNT already has an all-conference quarterback in Giovanni Vizza, who is a sophomore. My guess is Riley watches for a year as a redshirt. You talk about the theory of relativity. UNT gave up 39 sacks last season, and that doesn't even begin to describe the way Vizza was pounded throughout the year. Troy sacked Vizza nine times in a game. Riley is a small guy at 168 pounds and UNT didn't do a whole lot to immediately improve its line. I don't think the two junior college linemen UNT recruited in its last class will start, leaving the Mean Green with tackles that weight 285 and 260 pounds. My theory of relativity would indicate that there is no way Todd Dodge subjects Riley to the type of punishment UNT's quarterback will take this season. Would you do that to your kid?

BOTC: Will K-State quarterback Josh Freeman have his way with the UNT defense, or does the Mean Green have something up its sleeve to stop K-State?  Further, does UNT have any defenders who are as big as Freeman, who is 6'6" 245 lbs.?

Brett Vito: Freeman should have a big game against UNT, but the Mean Green will be better than they were last year when it finished last nationally with an average of 45.1 points allowed per game. UNT ditched defensive coordinator Ron Mendoza, one of the high school coaches Dodge brought with him from Southlake Carroll, and brought back Gary DeLoach, who was on the streets after the staff at UCLA was fired. DeLoach was UNT's defensive coordinator when the Mean Green ranked third nationally in scoring defense in 2002 with an average of 14.8 points allowed per game. DeLoach knows what he is doing, so yes, UNT will have something up its sleeve. The problem UNT will have is it lost its top five tacklers from last season and two junior college recruits it was counting on defensively did not qualify. I don't think DeLoach has the players to put together the type of defense UNT will need to beat midlevel Sun Belt teams, let alone hang with Kansas State.
 
As far as your question about UNT having defensive players as big as Freeman, lets be realistic here. This isn't a high school team in Kansas we are talking about. UNT is a Division I football team, even if it was a bad one last season. The Mean Green's starting defensive tackles -- Joseph Miller and Isaac Thomas -- are 275 and 307 pounds, respectively. Middle linebacker Tobe Nwigwe is 252 pounds.  [Ed's. Note: I intended my comment about Freeman's size as a joke.  No offense intended toward the Mean Green defenders.]

BOTC: Your prediction: Can UNT pull the upset in Manhattan?

Brett Vito: When it comes down to it, even with UNT's improvement offensively, Kansas State should win handily. As of right now, I would pick the Wildcats to win, 45-20.

BOTC: Thanks again to Brett, and good luck to the Mean Green in every game except the one in Manhattan.

Yesterday evening, about the time I was passing through Huntsville, Texas, we crossed the barrier marking one week until our K-State Wildcats take the field against North Texas to open the 2008 season.  I hope many of you will be in attendance; I will be relegated to listening via radio as I have now returned to Houston for the school year.

This week will be dedicated to previewing North Texas and discussing this Saturday's game.  Sorry, no substantive post or links today because I am in the process of moving into my new place, which has reminded me all over again why I wish I could live in one place the rest of my life.  To make it up to you, check out this article discussing Big 12 revenue sharing, which should be required reading for everyone in the Big 12 conference.  I touched on this subject many moons (well, about one year) ago, but it is something that is going to continue to be an issue, for all the reasons discussed in both links.

It's Roundtable time again!  Check in with Crimson and Cream Machine for the Roundtable Roundup later this week.

1.  There has been lots of talk this pre-season about scheduling. Colorado has arguably the strongest schedule but who do you think has the weakest and which cream puff on your team’s schedule do you wish wasn’t there?

Colorado will always have the toughest schedule, because going to football games is apparently more boring than other Boulderian pursuits (skiing, snowboarding, hash) unless a powerhouse team or Nebraska is involved.

With apologies to Seth, Texas Tech has the weakest schedule this year.  Two FCS teams in four non-con games cements it.  In fairness, that's not Tech's fault, because Tulsa backed out and basically left TT with no viable options for replacement, but that doesn't change the fact that I think it's the weakest schedule in the conference.

The most obvious answer on our schedule would be Montana State, and part of me does wish we'd stop scheduling FCS teams.  However, my vote goes to Louisiana-Lafayette.  I'm tired of telling people our home schedule consists of North Texas, Montana State, and U-La-La-Land.

2.  As a whole the Big 12 has the best quarterbacks in the country. Make a case for your quarterback being one of the conference’s top signal callers and tell us which other conference quarterback you would pick to replace him if you had to.

I don't need to make the case...Josh Freeman did it himself!  OK, he didn't "make a case," he just said he thinks he's the best.  Conclusory statements do not a case make.  But, I digress.

Here's the case for Freeman: he showed tremendous improvement last year over his true freshman season.  In contrast, for example, Colt McCoy regressed last year after his stellar redshirt freshman campaign.  Even with less experience, Freeman showed improvement while McCoy went backward, with the end result being that Freeman's and McCoy's numbers were pretty comparable in 2007.  If Freeman continues to improve at anything approaching the same rate, he will be among the best signal callers in the Big 12.

If I had to choose a replacement for Freeman, it would probably be Chance McDanielson Chase Daniel.  He's smart, accurate, and tougher than nails.  And he really, really wants to win.

3.  Going into the season which unit for your team are you most confident in, offense or defense?

Probably the offense, simply based on Freeman's ability.  Our offense scored 30+ points per game last year, which in most years would be astronomical in the Big 12.  Last year, it was just pretty good.  We need to find some pieces at wide receiver and running back, but another year for Josh Freeman and a should-be improved offensive line should help.

All that said, I'm starting to feel much better about our defense.  Returning players like Gary Chandler and Chris Carney and getting Joshua Moore back should make the defensive backfield fairly strong.  Antwon Moore could be a beast at linebacker if he stays healthy.  Ian Campbell moves back to defensive end, and should be wrecking opposing QBs again.  Now, we need some JuCo guys to step up along the defensive line and at linebacker, and we could be pretty solid.  Or at least a lot better than last year.

4.  Who is the new guy on your squad that will be a household name among your fan base before the season ends.

According to my poll earlier this summer, it'll probably be wide receiver Aubrey Quarles.  As with most of our new players, he's a JuCo transfer.  With Jordy Nelson gone, he is expected to be, along with Deon Murphy, one of the go-to guys for Freeman.  Considering how many of Jordy's catches there are to go around, he should get plenty of chances.

5.  Prediction time! Tell us how the north and south divisions will wind up.

I already predicted the North this summer.  To recap, it goes Missouri, KU, Colorado, K-State, Nebraska, Iowa State.  I'll be picking the South sometime next week, and all I can tell you is you'll probably think I'm insane when you read it.

Without turning this into an all-out inter-blog lovefest, I want to admit my secret admiration of Rock M Nation's Roundtable posts.  Usually, they are alternately informative, entertaining, and downright ridiculous.  With that in mind, I wanted to do something similar here at BOTC. 

A big thanks to readers mystman995 and ksubailey for participating in this first Focus Group.  To all BOTC readers, if you have any interest in participating in these Focus Groups in the future, please email me at bringonthecats @ gmail.com and I will be happy to include you.  We will probably do this about once a week to assess the season's progress.  Also, feel free to answer the questions in the comments section.

Without further adieu, the questions!

1.  Other than the game itself, name your single favorite thing about K-State home games.
 
2.  This year we have North Texas, Montana State, UL-Lafayette, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa State at home.  Which home game are you looking forward to most?
 
3.  On the flip side, we play Louisville, Texas A&M, Colorado, KU and Missouri on the road.  Which road game(s) are you going to see?  Which one do you want to see most, if you can't make it?
 
4.  Of the K-State games you have attended in person, what is your single greatest memory?
 
5.  Predict K-State's regular season record, and describe how we get to that total.

Continue reading this post »

My hat is off to the voracious rptgwb of Rock M Nation for bringing this story to my attention.  Tim Griffin, ESPN's Big 12 blogger, got bored while driving through Texas yesterday (that's a shock) and decided to try and figure out which Big 12 schools are the best coaching destinations.

Here is No. 10:

10. Baylor -- Receives a small boost over the other schools because of its proximity to the rich Texas recruiting base. The school faces some unique challenges as the smallest school in the conference, along with its private-school status. Some might believe it's an impossible job, although Wake Forest's Jim Grobe has been successful in similar situation in the ACC. They always will have the daunting challenge of sticking with the South Division superpowers. But the Bears will have a new state-of-the-art football facility that will open soon. And if you really like Dr. Pepper, this would be your the place.

And here is No. 11:

11. Kansas State -- Bill Snyder turned this program into a national power, transforming it in the most remarkable turnaround in modern college football history. But Snyder started to change the culture when KSU was in the Big Eight and not the Big 12. Its remote location in the North Division makes it difficult to recruit. But it can be done -- it's just not very easy. You just better know your way around the junior colleges in Kansas.

I'm not entirely sure where to begin with this, but I'll start with Tim's points before bringing in my own.

Apparently Baylor is a better destination, in part, because of its proximity to the rich Texas recruiting base.  That may be true, but it didn't make a bit of difference with LaDainian Tomlinson, and he was only over at Waco's University High School, which is less than a mile from Floyd Casey Stadium.  My current school, the University of Houston, has had far more football success in recent years than Baylor, and that's living off the scraps of Houston-area talent left over after Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma have their pick.

After several sentences extolling Baylor's disadvantages, Griffin gets to his next point, which is Baylor's new state-of-the-art practice facility.  I'm sure it's nice, but K-State has one of the largest indoor practice facilities in the country, and will be spending a bunch of money on facility upgrades.  That's a bunch of money being spent on facilities that are already nicer than Baylor's.  I know.  I've been there.  But I do love me some Dr. Pepper!

So Griffin thinks Baylor is more desirable than K-State because a) it's in Texas, and b) it has nice facilities (or will soon).  Here's why it's not a better destination than K-State.

Culture of Winning/Tradition

It has been 13 years since Baylor had a winning season in football.  In case that didn't sink in on you, I'll say it again.  It has been thirteen years since Baylor had a winning season in football.  I was in fifth grade.  The high school players Baylor is recruiting right now were probably about three.  As in, three years old, not three-star players.

Think about that.  For thirteen seasons, Baylor has not managed to win more football games than it has lost.  That's not a slump.  That's an era.  And if you doubt that a long history of losing makes things difficult, I suggest you read this article.  When you suck for as long as Baylor has sucked, everybody in and around the program is affected by it.

In the amount of time since Baylor last managed to field a team that finished better than .500, K-State has won a Big 12 title, won its division three times, played in two BCS bowls (OK, it was the Bowl Alliance in 1997, whatever), and finished with 11-win seasons six times.  Nobody is arguing that our tradition and culture of winning only goes back about 15 years, but the depth of our tradition and culture of winning compared to Baylor's is like comparing a puddle to Lake Baikal.

Location/Town

Griffin notes that Waco is in the middle of Texas, which produces more good high school football players than it does assholes, no small feat in the One Star State.  I already addressed this above, but it bears repeating: despite location, good football players do not go to Baylor.  Tomlinson turned down Baylor to go to...TCU.  In fact, in the 13-year period I mentioned at length previously, I would be more than willing to bet K-State has taken more "impact" players out of Texas than Baylor has.  We've backed off the Texas pipeline under Ron Prince, for some reason, but during Bill Snyder's heyday, he was all over Texas (Ell Roberson and Josh Buhl, to name but two).  Actually one impact player would be more than Baylor has had.

As for Manhattan versus Waco, I really shouldn't get into that argument, but I will.  Manhattan is a pretty little college town tucked in the scenic, if rather empty, Flint Hills.  Waco is a shithole on I-35.  If the beautiful buildings of Baylor were not located in Waco, I'm not sure why anyone would live there.  I might visit to go to George's once or twice, but that is it.  I have seen nothing redeeming about Waco in my three trips there.

Also, Griffin downgrades K-State for its "remote location" but didn't downgrade Texas Tech for being in Lubbock?  He writes, and I quote:

Lubbock's isolated location might be a negative to some, but the locals seem to love the place.

No doubt, Manhattan is out there.  It's a two-hour drive from Kansas City and a two-hour drive from Wichita.  But in my life experience, Lubbock is only a rumor.  I believe it exists, because Seth over at Double T Nation tells me it does and because I Mapquested it a little bit ago.  Apparently, it's a mere five hour drive from Dallas.  As far as the locals loving the place, ask your typical K-State alum what they think about Manhattan.  If they're remotely like me, they love the place.

I am not arguing that K-State should be considered the top job in the Big 12.  Frankly, this ranking is so subject to bias and individual tastes that I'm not sure it's even worth making.  I think that's evident when Griffin has to start two of his rankings with "[f]or the right person," this might be a great job.  But I simply cannot sit by and permit such a flawed argument placing Baylor ahead of K-State to stand unopposed.

Curious to hear what y'all think about our esteemed athletic directors moving the 2009 and 2010 football games to Arrowhead Stadium.  My community has reacted pretty negatively, so I was curious to hear what you think.  I'm not a big fan of schools moving games off campus, but for two athletic departments that really need more money, this may not be a terrible idea.  Plus, I'll be living in KC by this time, so it will be a 10 mile drive to see my Cats.

While perusing the news this morning, I found this quick missive from Austin Meek's blog at the TCJ.  Apparently, there's a possibility that K-State and Iowa State may move their football games to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

My initial reaction was something along the lines of "[t]hat would be fucking stupid."  But I sat around and thought about it a little bit, and while I'm still not sold that this is a good idea, there may be some reasons to support it.

First, I thought it was stupid because I don't see any reason to have a special setup for the K-State/ISU game.  The Clones are not a rival program.  There's no 'history' between the two schools.  Not since 2002, when Seneca Wallace got depantsed by the K-State defense, have I looked at the game with ISU with anything resembling great anticipation.  I could look at a special setup with Colorado (K-State games at Arrowhead, CU games at Invesco High field or whatever they call it these days), as something worth looking at, but Iowa State?  Uhh, OK.

On top of that, I'm assuming this means K-State will be giving up a home conference game in the near future.  I know that Arrowhead has (a lot) more seats than Bill's House, but there's no guarantee we'll sell as many tickets in Arrowhead as we would at a home game.  In fact, there's at least a decent chance won't make as much money on this, unless the Kansas City Chiefs are guaranteeing us some minimum payout.  And all that says nothing of the Manhattan businesses who are certain to be monumentally pissed off about losing a weekend of Wildcat football.

So those are the negatives, in my eyes.  But when I thought about it, this may not be such a bad move after all.  With the caveat mentioned above, this could be a good financial move.  Arrowhead provides a lot more seats, and I'm guessing we're looking at a payout for the year the game is a "home game" for Iowa State, which would be a bonus.

Also, though maybe not especially vocally on here, I've been a bit critical of K-State's presence in the Kansas City metro area.  Put simply, I don't believe we've been sufficiently marketing ourselves in the City of Fountains, and the KC Star certainly isn't picking up the slack.  On top of that, the two schools that dominate KC in terms of total alums have significantly improved in football while we've taken a significant step back.  We need to make sure we don't completely lose our presence in KC to those two schools.  Playing a game at Arrowhead could be a very good method of increasing our visibility in KC.

Finally, when I thought about the "nothing special" nature of our series with Iowa State, I realized that was in some ways a flawed argument.  While KU and MU have a long, bloody rivalry, their football rivalry didn't register a blip on the national radar until this year.  Last season excepted, it's been 13 years since KU had any national relevance, and it's been 29 years since MU had any national relevance.  (On a side note, it sure is fun to watch the two schools fight about who has more, or more accurately, less football tradition)  So while the K-State/ISU series has never had anything resembling national implications, neither did the Border War prior to last season.  And though KC may not be a natural second home for Iowa State or, to a lesser extent, K-State, we damn sure aren't going to move our series to Des Moines just for the sake of having a special neutral-site game.  Does Drake even play football?

Anyway, those are my initial and semi-revised thoughts on the issue.  Yours?

Those of you who have been around here a while may remember "Special Steve," who provided us with the preview of Nebraska basketball last season.  Ol' steve is a good guy, and he tipped me off to this priceless Nebraska "news article" that is making the rounds among Husker fans.  As you will see, the fact that "Bo season opens August 30" (as a gas station marquee in Columbus, Neb., informed me last weekend) doesn't mean Husker fans have gotten over Bill Callahan just yet.  Enjoy!

Jets OL Coach Eager To Break Favre's Streak Of Consecutive Starts                        

By BILL LYDON
New York Timer

Nothing -- not age, injuries, ferocious linebackers, weather, or freak accidents -- has been able to slow Brett Favre since he became a starting NFL quarterback in 1992. For an NFL-record 275 consecutive regular season and playoff games, Favre has been firmly planted as a starting quarterback, rewriting the league record book along the way.

However, Brett Favre has never met Bill Callahan.

Callahan, the first-year offensive line coach for Favre's new team, the New York Jets, looks forward to being the man who finally breaks Favre's streak of consecutive starts.

"Anytime you can take a streak of historical significance and personally be responsible for its conclusion, that's a tremendous credit to the individual responsible for bringing the streak to its end," explained Callahan. "By and large, I've done a tremendous job ending streaks, and I know in my heart of hearts that I am more than capable of bringing this one to an end as well."

In just four historic years as head coach at the University of Nebraska, Callahan's propensity for ending streaks garnered him multiple entries in the Cornhusker vaunted record books. For instance, Nebraska had not suffered through a losing season in more than 40 consecutive years, which was an ongoing NCAA record. That hallowed streak succumbed immediately to Callahan's touch, as he led Nebraska to a losing record in just his first year on the job.

"I made no secret about my ambition to flip that culture in Lincoln," Callahan recalls proudly. "And it took me very little time to do just that. To take a 10-win program and flip it to a 5-win program within one year's time, I think it takes a certain level of competence to achieve such a turnaround. Unfortunately, there were those involved in that particular program who did not have the intellectual capacity to grasp the difficulty of such a milestone."

Nebraska had appeared in an NCAA-record 35 consecutive bowl streaks prior to Callahan's introduction to the program. He quickly erased that streak as well.

"There is only one bowl in the NFL," Callahan said, "and I'm not sure if you've heard of it. It's called the Super Bowl. And I've coached in it. To be particularly candid and blunt, I have little interest in coaching a football team in any bowl other than the Super Bowl, and I think my performance has been consistent with that philosophy."

Other streaks, such as Nebraska's 36-game win streak over Kansas, fell quickly by the wayside under Callahan's watch.

"My biggest personal disappointment is that I was not able to end the streak of sellouts at Memorial Stadium," lamented Callahan. "The streak is clearly the byproduct of living in an isolated state where intellectual stimulation is difficult to obtain. Ending that streak would have been a tremendous accomplishment, a feather in my cap if you will, in terms of changing the atmosphere of that state away from childish football adulation and into a more sophisticated intellectual scenario."

Callahan envisions ending Favre's streak by the end of September. Specifically, he has his eye on the Jets' game at San Diego on September 22, set for a Monday Night Football telecast, where Callahan hopes his influence can be seen by a nationwide audience.

To that end, he is introducing his own unique version of a zone blocking scheme that has, historically, had little to no effect on defensive linemen or linebackers. In Callahan's opinion, pairing such schemes with the aging legs of a 38-year-old quarterback make it a matter of when, not if, Favre's streak of consecutive starts comes to an end.

"Your typical fan or reporter, lay people, tend to focus more on how certain techniques and alignments appear on the football field to their own naked, untrained eye," Callahan explained, "but they have little appreciation or regard for how certain zone blocking philosophies appear when diagrammed to perfection on paper.

"My blocking schemes, and my offensive schemes in general, are certainly a thing of esoteric beauty. There are those of us who understand them, and to us, they are a source of pleasure. There are those who focus on overrated minutia such as sacks, yardage, touchdowns, and victories, and I am frankly not concerned with their opinions."