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Please put your hands together and make a little noise for your favorite wildcatters, the handsome Bosco boys boom. The boys are back and it is time for the very first game review episode of 2024. It is so exciting and what a week of college football that it was. I'm recording this still with the Sunday night main event of USC and LSU to still be played. Then there is Monday, Florida State for Spassen College, but who really cares about that one? I mean, I'll watch it, football is football, but I mean, who really cares. But it was so good to be back. It was the perfect Saturday for the most part. You know, the game definitely could have been better. Some other small stuff around the game, but honestly, it was so great to be back. The Herne Fund appreciation event that I attended was a good time. It was, and again, you see so many people that, you know, from your time in college, from friends who live far out of state, some acquaintances, of course, everyone you sit around at the stadium, it was very good to get back in there. One niche thing that I care about, and most people don't, if you don't care about this, skip ahead a couple minutes, whoever is running the in-game production, especially timing everything pre-game, something needs to be done. There was like 45, you know, awkward seconds in between the band leaving and Willie coming back on the field and, you know, like another 45 seconds between Willie and the pre-game hype video that then leads into them opening the doors, you know. In the home game reviews, I kind of always touch on the pomp and circumstance because I like that, that's what makes college football fun. They need to do a better job timing all that, not a great job, it's first game for everyone, but not a great job trying to time everything. So hopefully that improves over the year. All in all, the atmosphere as a whole, great, again, Nick Lucky and Kevin Lockett opening the door to have the team come out. That was a lot of fun. I thought the atmosphere was good, I thought the noise was good. I think there were a few very good crowd pops, very loud on defense early on against an FCS opponent. And then again, I think some of the excitement, I think there was some real anxiety around the stadium in that second quarter, basically threw halftime into the middle of the third quarter for things to turn around, and there really was a little bit of anxiety inside the stadium. So you don't love that, but look, it was the first game. I'm not overly panicking, we're going to get into things here in a second. But all in all, it was great. I understand, like I truly get why some folks, whether it's financial or whether they just like the product, watching at home, you know, having a bathroom three steps away, having a beer stocked fridge, hopefully Manhattan Brewing Company beer, their own snacks, all that type of stuff, you get to see replays, you get to digest the entire college football Saturday, however you'd like, but the pomp and circumstance and the atmosphere and everything surrounding a college football game really is second to none. And I just, I just had a blast going to that game. So yeah, we'll get into the review. Of course, as always, Bosco's was a sponsored by Manhattan Brewing Company folks, I can't tell you how pumped I get when I see you guys tweeting me pictures from Manhattan Brewing Company, whether it's up in Manhattan or at their tap room down in Wichita, the MBC Lounge, tailgating, you know, seeing those, that just makes me pumped. And we, I think we had like five or six folks tweeting pictures of their beer. Make sure you're doing that, whether it's home or away, because it doesn't matter if you're tailgating Bill Snyder family stadium on the road, or if you're just catching the game from home, you know you got to have some beer from Manhattan Brewing Company. They dropped, I think three new beers this past week. They have something for all your taste, whether it's light and crisp, whether it's multi, whether you're a hop head, whether you like sours, it doesn't matter. They have something for you. Make sure you're stocked up before the two lane game, whether you need to make another trip to Manhattan to get a couple of four packs, get a couple of crawlers to go, whether it's stocking to your local liquor store here in the state of Kansas, make sure they're stocking four packs. You got to be ready. You got to be ready. I know it's an 11 am game. Maybe wait till half time to crack your first one if, if you, you know, want to be responsible. But make sure you're stocked up. Shout out to me in Manhattan Brewing Company and heck, I'd imagine they'll have a pretty good setup to watch the game next Saturday 11 am on ESPN or let's get into the game. Having fun. I think it a shows how good Chris climbing has been early on in his tenure at K state, but also again, sadly, some of the futility of like a football in the past, but I'm pretty sure and shout out to my friend, Ryan Moss, Parakat Ryan, pretty sure that this win moves Chris climbing in front of Micah Hearn for the second old time wins in case they football just behind Bill Snyder. I would imagine Chris climbing is not coaching long enough to make any sort of serious run at the Hall of Famer, Bill Snyder, but it is fun to see Chris climbing now just continue to etch his names in the history book. Heading line for this one closed at 36 and a half again, final scores 41-6, so that means K state did not cover. K state typically a very good team at covering the spread did not get this one. The point total also closed at 56 and a half, meaning the under would have hit. I believe they said it was 12 consecutive sellouts. I am not quite sure, but the announce attendance was 51,240. Again, it was a good atmosphere for an opener versus an FCS team. Students packed it out. They had their emo TFO right before a kickoff, linking Keir and AJ to Bunso, the two five stars were in the house having a great time, lots of fun clips from that. So it really was, again, for me personally, I have my qualms with the game, but for the most part is the perfect reintroduction to college football Saturday back in Manhattan. If you look at total yards, K state out gained UT Martin 449 to 134. I believe I heard on the post game radio show that that is the second best yardage defense in the Chris climbing era, so you love to see that. K state picked up 21st downs, UT Martin grabbed eight of the, or eight themselves. Time of possession, UT Martin did end up with more possession 34 minutes to 26 turnovers. K state turned the ball over twice, and both of them were bad. UT Martin didn't turn it over at all. That's frustrating because, again, in the world of football, an unforced turnover isn't really a thing, but I mean, Avery made a pretty bad play, and Jace Brown made a really bad, you know, had a really bad fumble on the opening kickoff for the second half. Neither was really caused by a big play or an individual moment of greatness for UT Martin, so you hate to see that. On the flip side, again, with all the talk about causing turnovers, I do believe K state forced two fumbles. I don't think there was really a, well, I know, I was there and I rewatched the game. There was no real scramble for it. I don't even think that the announcers when I rewatched it, the announcers were not great, by the way, didn't even acknowledge that the ball was loose, saw it in the stadium, saw the baggy fly out to indicate the fumble, but again, none of that, nothing, no interceptions. They didn't, I mean, they didn't really give the DBs a chance to really make too many plays on the ball, so it's understandable. But again, all that talk in the offseason about causing more turnovers, I would have liked to see multiple in this game, but you come up a goose egg and you have two bad ones yourself. Penalties, so on the plus side, outside of K state's kick out of bounds, no other penalties, four for 25 on UT Martin, I believe they had like an illegal shift, a delay of game and was it two fall starts, so really clean game from the Ohio Valley Conference favorites for this season. So good for them, it was a clean game, and again, Chris Klimann, post game and all week was talking this team up and look, I think UT Martin's good, I think that they have a real shot at winning the OVC and ending up in the playoffs, hopefully they can host a game so our friend Davis Gregory can call a home playoff game. But you know, I thought they were relatively disciplined in a clean team, and I think that they were just outmatched and outclass, especially their offense versus K state's defense. Third and fourth down efficiency, not great from K state, four of 10 on third down. I think a couple of those came late when they're just kind of ready to get the game over with K state did convert on their loan, fourth down attempt, UT Martin, six of 17 on third down. So overall pretty decent on defense on third down, they did not attempt a fourth down play. So we're going to talk and heck, we'll get into it real close here, but all in all macro level looking at the game, I've calmed down a lot. I was, I was not a happy camper at halftime of that game. Even after the game, like driving home, chatting with my dad, watching some of the late college football games, I kind of had a weird taste in my mouth. I feel better after rewatching it and getting away from the initial emotions, but I do think next week in New Orleans, and definitely a week from Friday versus Arizona, things are going to be, things are going to be truly a test. So we're going to talk about the offense here in a second. I'm going to throw in a programmable ad. So I can get a, get a few pesos from this podcast. All right, let's get into the offense and again, it was a disappointing performance from the offense, but it's not melt down worthy. You guys have heard me melt down on here before. I'm sure you're going to hear me melt down here again. I've calmed down a little bit again, rewatching it. You feel a little bit better, I think, but it did leave a lot to be desired. And again, as we, as we just talked about, I think you're going to need to play better. You're going to need more from your offense. If you're going to win down New Orleans and look, I even as good as our defense is, Arizona is going to put up some points a week from Friday. So I think we need to see something better. And here's the thing, I was frustrated with this game. Ultimately, they were, I mean, no flavor. It was base offense, very little substance, and it was a C minus game. And look, you don't need to roll out a bunch of stuff when you can have a C minus game and win by five touchdowns. But it was frustrating at times, and we're going to get into some of those things that frustrate me here in a second. I'm coupling it up with the quarterback review. And again, I think some folks will probably come away from this episode thinking maybe I'm a little tough on Avery Johnson. But I think he can be a superstar, and I don't think we got there. When you look at how the game was called with Connor Riley, look, I think for the most part, I thought they were fine plays, especially given the fact that they decided, hey, we're going base offense. We're not doing anything fancy here at all. The touchdown passed to Lofton and the one to Dylan Edwards. Both were nice little schemes, putting the player right in position, all alone, score a touchdown. I really, really enjoyed that. I would call this offensive performance, it's like a cold cut, roast beef sandwich. Look, I'm never going to complain about that. Well, I might complain about it, but I'm never going to turn it away. Who doesn't like a nice roast beef sandwich? But when you're building yourself up thinking, hey, I'm going to get a thick cut rib eye, medium rare, that makes that cold cut sandwich a little disappointing. And I think that's where it is. Some of it, of course, probably is internal expectations. You guys have heard me talk about things, what? Almost every single day since July, going back to July. But it's not just me. You heard a lot of it from folks who cover K-State and you heard a lot from the coaching staff and the players in the preseason build up. So it did leave a lot to be desired. So ultimately, I came away after the re-watch thinking, all right, once you open things up a little bit, it should allow all the players to thrive a little bit more. But I'll be lying to you if I told you I wasn't going to be on the edge of my seat, especially early on in that two-lane game when the offense is out there. We'll go through all of the position groups. We're starting with quarterback Avery went 14 for 21, 153 yards, passing that 7.3 yards per attempt. Two touchdowns that we talked about, great schemes. One interception, which was a pretty bad interception. Three rushes for 37 yards along of 17, ESPN, QBR, just 39.5, a very poor grade there. Look, it was rough. If not downright bad, a bad game from Avery. He did plenty, that was his fault. It's to be expected. First time starting as a quarterback at home, the interception was really bad. I think he had some downright bad throws for some of those incompletions. I think there were times where he locked on to the wrong receiver. I think there are times he missed some guys. I think that he was just slow processing everything a little bit. I think it's going to take some time to get into the role. I think that there are some things that Connor Riley and Matt Wells can do to help him get into the game a little quicker. His second half was a lot better. Even some of the stuff, I mean, it wasn't necessarily all on him. DJ had a drop that could have been an extra completion. The wide receivers didn't give him a lot of help. Because there was a time or two, he might have missed a guy, and he was late on a couple of his throws. I think of a couple right there in the middle of the field of tight ends. But the wide receivers were not doing a lot of my help. Jason Brown seemed to be like the only wide receiver who could get open on a consistent basis, so they didn't help him out. Look, I think that a lot of it comes back to. They were treating this game like it was Jake Waters back there, a pure pocket passer, only one called Run was mind boggling to me. And look, I don't think it's a mistake that things opened up in the second half after that designed run. We saw him move the chains on two different scrambles. Look, I think Avery Johnson, I think he wants to be seen as a passing quarterback. I don't think he liked the narrative around him that, oh, he's a dual threat, but he can only run the ball. I don't think he liked that narrative. And I think he voiced that to the coaches and said, hey, I want to be a passing quarterback. I think the coaches are obliging it. And again, and this was said by, you know, Derek yelling. This was said by other people far smarter than me. They could have ran Avery, you know, 20 times they could have run the triple option a bunch. They could have won this game 70 to, you know, 14 or whatever. They could have done that. But they didn't. They're saving it. But I'm hoping that's truly what it is. I think on a handful of those and completions, Avery could have scrambled, picked up five, six, seven yards, not gotten touched. I think you need to be doing at least five to seven design quarterback runs a game as well. Because here's the thing, Avery could become an elite passer. I have no doubt he was at the, he was an elite 11 finalists. And that event is only for your arm talent. But he is the most dynamic athlete playing quarterback in all of college football. If you're going to tie your arm behind your back and play all season, we will lose games. And you can almost exclusively put the blame on that for lack of quarterback run. And if that's the way things are going to be, that's fine. That's fine. If that's the way we want to do it, okay, whatever. If the wide receivers sure as hell better step up in the future, and if they're not, it's time to just feed DJ the rock and let the running backs do the work. If we're going to refuse to exploit the biggest weapon that we have this season, you're going to need the passcatchers to step up and be able to just feed, feed, feed the running back. So we'll see what happens. First to lane again, I'm hoping, I'm hoping it is, hey, we just aren't going to do that verse. E.T. Martin. There's zero need to risk it. We played very, you know, very average and we still won by five touchdowns. So I'm hoping that's the case. Well moving in the backups, I had Jacob Knusle good in his series out there, you know, had a nice run for 10 yards, had a nice pass for nine. Again, he got out there first, I think he's quarterback too, and I was happy to see it. I didn't know if we would ever see Jake Knuth play at K-State when we brought Roberson in. But I think at least as we sit here right now, he's better. I didn't think Roberson looks very good out there in his time. The interesting thing is, is who knows when the next time we're going to be in a blowout situation, we can see these quarterbacks and again, as much as I do want to increase Avery's rushing attempts, you do want to tell him, hey, don't take any big hits if you don't need to. So hopefully you're not having to see either one of these guys start a game or play big time snaps. But again, I came away thinking Jacob Knuth looked the better of those two. Hopefully again, we get some blowouts, some unexpected blowouts here in the next month or so. So we can see any progress made by Roberson or see if Knuth can build off of that solid drive that he had, but yeah, that was my takeaway from those two backup quarterbacks. We'll move into the offensive line and here is where my mind changed the most on the rewatch, and when I was able to step away from the moments, I'm just as prisoner of the moment as any one of you guys. When you're in there and you see pressure get to Avery on a play or you see DJ only pick up two because he had to take on his first hit in the backfield, you're walking away from the game or you're going up to the beer garden at halftime and you're saying to yourself, man, that was rough from the offensive line because those plays stick with you. The plays where you execute well, it's not sticking with you, you're thinking, oh, hey, this guy made a great play, that guy made a great play, not thinking, oh, hey, the offensive line did their job. So when I rewatch and I was expecting to really try to dial down, try to see stuff and I came away thinking, hey, you know, the offensive line, at least amongst the offensive players was the second best unit on that side of the ball. Does that mean that they were perfect? No, by no means there were plays where individuals, I think probably I saw a play that every single individual got whipped pretty good and then there were times that, hey, just the entire offensive line may be miscommunication here there. But more plays than not, I thought they executed the play or at least what I assume the play was very well. I saw great individual plays by all six of the main rotation guys and I really did come away from that rewatching and all right, the offensive line did a much better job than I was giving them credit for. With the amount of turnover from last year's unit to this year's unit and you look at like same heck former walk on first game starting as a center, Easton kilty went from being an FCS player. Now he's had a power five roster still trying to get his feet under him. Again, panzer, I thought was pretty solid. I thought Willis was fine, I thought line gain, porti, you know, rotating. They both were fine. But when you look at all that turnover, you do look at them still trying to mesh as a unit, all in all I came away relatively encouraged. Every year since Connor Riley has been here with Chris Klimann, they have gotten substantially better from week one to week 12. They're a team that really does get their momentum rolling and I would imagine we see something similar. And if that's the case, if this is the starting point and they get a little bit better every single week, I think by October, you're going to be back to saying, hey, K state has one of the best offensive lines in the, in the conference. I really do believe that. So I would say take a deep breath and also watch, watch as much college football as you can, because again, I do think it's similar to when you're watching college basketball and you're looking at free throws. I think both the offensive line and kickers fall under that same thing. Everyone thinks that, hey, free throws, you need, you should be perfect. College kickers, you need to be perfect. Offensive line. Come on. Now, if you even get pushed a half yard back into the backfield, oh, that's the end of the world. I think that everyone does this with their own team and I think that some of the reactions surrounding the offensive line probably in the moment happened. And I think it was like this last year's well and look, I understand it. You want a great product. You want a great unit from week one and they weren't perfect. They could have been better. And even in this world that I'm trying to present, like, hey, guys, like, you know, no offensive line is going to be perfect. Even in my world, they could have been better. I would not give them an A. I'd give them probably a B, B minus. And so I'm not saying like, oh, you know, A plus by any means, but I do think with what I was thinking inside the stadium and some of the stuff I saw on social media, message boards and all that type of stuff, I do think that folks are being a little hard and I include myself on that. So I think they're going to be solid. I think they're going to be fine. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they progress. Maybe the biggest surprise in the entire game was the tight ends because I've been saying for a while, super high on Oakley, I thought he was going to be the guy, but Lofton's the only tight end who kind of pass. I believe Oakley was targeted a couple of times. He might have been a victim of a couple of late reads as he was the check down at about like a six yard curl a couple of times and I got broken up with her, you know, just he wasn't able to get his hands on the ball. So I was a little surprised by that. You saw plenty of Swanson out there in blocking situations and Oakley was out there as well, but it was Brayden Lofton who made the big place. He had the first touchdown of the game. He had another catch again. He was two for 29. The touchdown was a 23 yard play. Great, you know, catch by him. He didn't have to go make a play, but hey, he caught it confidently, got up field, got into the end zone. It was a well drawn up play. And look, I don't care who the tight end, like I don't have a dog in this fight, you know, I was a Will Ancio guy and he got in there late, but I don't have a dog in this fight amongst the three Nebraska tight ends. I don't care if it's Oakley, I don't care if it's Swanson, I don't care if it's Lofton. I don't care if it's a different one every single week. I just, I just think that this team needs a tight end that you can depend on. Is it going to be the dynamic playmaker that Ben Senate was? Probably not, but probably because, you know, that's not going to be the comfort blanket receiver like it was for Will Howard. I think that, you know, Oakley and Lofton, both of them can be better tight ends than Ben Senate, which is, it feels crazy to say seeing, you know, the records he broke and the fact that he was a second round draft pick. So I understand kind of the lunacy of saying that, I do, I do. Do I regret saying it? Maybe, I don't know, but it's out there and you guys know we don't edit the show. But I just think you need one of those guys every single game and it probably works best for Avery if it's the same guy weekend week out, but I'm just surprised. Happy for Lofton, great game, just surprised it wasn't Oakley. I do think Oakley still can have a big season, but hey, maybe Lofton's the guy who's gunning for some post-season honors when it's all said and done. We'll move to the running backs and again, I think the running backs have an argument with the defensive line for the best unit in this game. I can't say enough good things about DJ the Blue Jay Get It's. I believe I saw on Twitter, he moved into 15th all time in rushing and he's like four yards away from moving to 14th. So barring something crazy, he should get to 14th next week and I think he might be able to get to the top 10 before the midway mark in this season as he could be on a collision course to get to the top three in all time rushing at K-State. 124 yards, which was good for 9.5 yards per carry, featured the biggest play of the game, a 48 yard carry. The guy really is one of the best backs in all of college football and he had a great lead block for Dylan Edwards on one of his plays as well and he was asked I believe it was by Cole Carmody of Go Powercat about that play and DJ Fashions like hey, yeah, I'm going to have to do that a little bit more this season and Dylan's real fast so I got to make sure I'm really moving out there and it's good to see because I do think he is a complete back. He did have that one drop, I'm not going to hammer him for that because I do think he probably was the overall player of the game and I would have liked because I think what he had three catches for like nine yards or something like six yards on three receptions. I think he caught all three of those behind the line of scrimmage and kind of dumped down situations and he has the ability. We know what he can do in the passing game given the possibility. He might have been able to have a big play in the passing game on the interception but I thought he was just absolutely brilliant and I think K-State fans need to appreciate every game we get with DJ because I think there's a real chance he could be going to the NFL after this season. Moving into Dylan Edwards again, I think he was everything that was advertised. He's electric, you can see it every time he touches the ball. Not only is speed but his agility, his ability to have that quick chop change of direction. I think we truly saw it. 19 receiving yards on two catches, 43 yards on five attempts rushing. Look, he can be a dynamic runner and receiver. I think the sweet spot for him is going to be 10 to 15 touches on offense most games and then being the primary returner. I think that's hopefully where we get there so again what he ended up with seven touches. I would have liked to see in a game where things are in doubt when he's available to play the entire game I would have liked to see between three to eight more touches and then him being the guy for all punts and all kickoffs. I think that's going to be the sweet spot for him but I think Dylan Edwards and like I said, got to pay dirt twice. I think it was a very good debut for the Derby dream runner Dylan Edwards so I really like that. Joe Jackson, seven rushes including a 32 yard run, 48 total so again six yards for 16 but he had that big 32 yard run and he looked good when he was out there. I like the way he moved, he got in there early because again I think there are specific packages where hey if DJ has a big run and he needs a quick blow, needs a quick water, if he needs to just take a quick rest. I think depending on the package formation and play call I think Joe Jackson is going to be the guy who gets in there. I think that's why they structured the depth chart the way they did and how they have Joe Jackson and DJ getting off to one's side and Le James White AKA Jimmy White and Dylan Edwards off to the other. I think that that's what we saw and look I thought he looked really good out there. I mentioned Le James White they're calling him Jimmy had a 12 yard touchdown his one run final touchdown of the game. Good for him. Another Kansas kid getting in there, absolutely love it. At the end of the day running backs the runaway best unit on offense it wasn't close. This group did live up to the hype and look if they are going to limit the QB run all season you need to feed the running backs because I truly believe that this team no matter how much we want to be able to pass it and chuck the ball around the yard. This team is at its best when it's running the ball and I think we really need to make sure we don't lose sight of it. We'll go to the wide receivers, Jay Sproun really is the only one to show up holes here. Five receptions for 71 yards had the nice play with Avery 44 yards. He is where Avery's eyes gravitate towards their roommates. They have the kind of Will Howard Ben Senate connection. I think that it's going, I think more games than not he's going to get the most targets. He's going to get the most catches. He's going to get the most yards. I think that's also because he is the most talented pass catcher on the team. This isn't to take anything away from Jay Sproun. He was getting open. He was making plays when he got his hands on the ball. He beat his guy deep. A couple of times they almost connected on another long one as well. I think you need to take him off kick off. Again, I know it's just one mistake and he actually had a decent return, a 32 yard return. But I just say, hey, focus on offense because if it's not him, the passing game is really going to struggle to get off the ground. So great game from Jay Sproun. Again, we talked about it. I thought that he could make that jump from freshman to sophomore year. And I think he could be a borderline 800 yard receiver, maybe even more if he grows into this season. Trey Spivey was the number two wide receiver and yards, two catches for 26. His big chunk was a 22 yard play, caught the ball in the middle, cut up, good run after catch. So it was good to see Trey Spivey out there. I think that when it's all said and done at the end of the season, maybe it's overreaction Monday. But I think that he may be the number two receiver when it's all said and done. Andre Davis had a nine yard reception, I believe that was from Jacob Knuth. Keegan Johnson, only one catch for six yards. Jayden Jackson did have a good rush for nine yards on the jet sweep. But all in all, this is the same story for wide receivers that we've been doing basically. For the most part outside of Byron Pringle and Malik Knowles, we've been doing this every year. We're hyping up other guys. They're not living up to the hype. Again, it's good to at least see the game that Jay Brown had. But again, Keegan Johnson, all the hype, all the hype for him. And look, I presented you guys with what I was hearing. I presented you guys with stuff that was being explicitly told to me. But I think I always followed it up with, got to see it to believe it. And I think we need to see at least two games before we start believing it with Keegan. Because he was not getting open. I mean, it's just the one catch. Dante Sifas, I had a little bit more hope for linking back up with Matthew Middleton, who turned him into a massive big time receiver for Kent State. Didn't get a single catch. They rotated guys a lot more. Sterling Lockett was getting in there early. Didn't, you know, make a catch or anything. Look, I, I, I want this group to be good. And I think we need this group to be good if, if we're going to try to pass the way they're making it seem like we do. I do think once Avery starts to scramble a little bit more, once he kind of gets out of the pocket and even if we start doing more design runs, that's going to force defensive backs, especially the safeties, to keep an eye to the backfield and that's going to open up so much. I'm hoping next week, verse Tulane, I'm hoping we see Jace Brown go off. I'm hoping we see, you know, five for 65 from Keegan Johnson. Hopefully we see Dante Sifas make a big play. Hopefully we see what we're expecting now out of Jace Brown. He delivers. I'm hoping we see them break out of their shell as they hopefully spread their wings a little bit with the play calling and offensive game planning because Tulane, look Tulane's not 2022 Tulane. They're not going to, I wouldn't pick them to win the American. They'll be a contender, but they're not going to be a team that goes to the playoffs. They're not a team that would be capable of beating a top 10 USC or anything like that, but it, but we're going to have to get things rolling. So we're going to need to see more from the wide receivers and I hope things open up and they're able to get there. We'll move into the defense and the defensive side of the ball is sponsored by our friends over at Charlie Hustle. I'm currently wearing the greater than 12 mascot crew next sweatshirt. So comfortable, so fun. It's like probably the most fun design that they've done, but again, they had great big eight gear. They have great big 12 gear. Of course, officially licensed case day gear and so many other schools. They had their Kansas City baseball collection, the Kansas City football collection, officially licensed with sporting Kansas City and the Kansas City current free soccer fans. And of course, the iconic Kansas City heart tees as well as Kansas City icon tees as well. Get over to Charlie Hustle dot com today, get a little refresh in your wardrobe and also stay tuned because we will have a giveaway later on in September. As we talked about the top of the show, again, this was the second best yardage game in the Chris Kaiman era, three straight openers where K state does not give up a touchdown plus those six points. Look, one of them was inches away from being another sack from Toby Osensami. The other one, fumble on the opening kickoff, UT Martin recovers in field goal position. So I'm not putting any blame on the defense for that second one again, broken play gave up a big play, you know, there's like one other 20 plus yard play. But all in all, no complaints about the defense, we've said all preseason that the defense is going to be the side of the ball that could be elite this year not to say that Avery won't get there, not to say that the offense won't eventually get there. But the defense is there and again, they're going to be tested the next couple of weeks before we get to big 12th play, but I'm very bullish on them. So bullish on the defensive line as well. Brendan Mott had two halves equaling a full tackle for a loss that's inclusive of his half sack. He had four total tackles, Toby Oh, what a debut as a true offensive lineman. This guy could have had five sacks ends up with two total tackles, including one and a half sacks plus that one extra half tackle. He's a man on the mission. I think trotting him out there and passing situations is going to be great for him. I also think and I don't know if I don't know if this is a stat you can find anywhere, but I feel like he might have like one of the greatest sacks to plays played ratios in college football. If Saturday was a glimpse into what we're going to see from him in the future, absolutely amazing athlete. Good get off the ball, just needs to finish a couple of plays. And again, we'd be talking about four or five sacks instead of just one and a half, but I thought he played a great game. And he's someone if you've been a long time listener, he's someone who I was pumped about when they got his commitment and I've been waiting for him to break out. And I think this is going to be the year. Damien O'Lolio, two tackles when I did a re-watch, he did a great job getting penetration, even against double teams. Very solid starting debut for the Manhattan high product. Uso also did well getting a push when he was anchoring the interior, the defensive line. And I think he was the guy who was out there most of the time when they went a four down and passing situations with three ends out there with him. He had one tackle for a loss, two total tackles. And I think between those two, I really feel good about where the interior of the defensive line is. I believe Asher got in there late playing in mop up duty. It will be nice to see how he progresses again. I don't know how many games we're going to be able to empty the benches. But every game we can get him out there will be good for the future because Uso does move on after the season. Travis Bates had a sack in his debut for the Wildcats. Cheeti had a tackle for a loss on a great play on a reverse. Cody Stelfill being credited with one tackle but had a massive hit on the quarterback to start the game. Jordan Allen got a tackle, Ryan Davis was out there quite a bit at a tackle as well. The main nine guys down in the trenches all played well for K-State. So much fun to watch. Like I said, that four linemen, packages and passing situations where you have three of those ends out there, pending their ears back with Uso to go after the quarterback. I think that is going to be so much fun this season. It's going to be fun to monitor the next two weeks. Do they still rotate as much as they do? I think it would be wild if they're consistently playing nine guys in a primarily more plays than not a three down line in front. But look, I think they all contributed. So if they keep it going, you know, all the power to them. Line backers, Desmond Purnell out of Spica, one and a half tackles for a loss, seven total tackles leading the team and he was hyping things up and he's living up to the hype that I build up in my head and what I was telling you guys in the off season. I think Desmond Purnell, he's flashing the mob sign. I think he's the real deal. I really think he might have been the best player. It was him or DJ being the best two players of the game last night and that makes me so happy because those are my two favorite guys on this team. But Desmond Purnell, he is the real deal. He the surprise of the night and credit to my guy, Mark, who called this out, Rexman, why played a lot since Austin Moore was on a snap count restriction. He had four tackles and he had a tackle for a loss as well. So it was good to see him out there making plays. Again, I fell into this trap and I think with the exception to the rules, I think you need to plan on giving most junior college guys one year to ramp up before you expect stuff. So the fact that he wasn't really able to do much on the field, get on the field much last year, I'm not, shouldn't hold it against him. I'm thinking if what he showed us on Saturday can play to fruition, he can be a rotational piece amongst the linebackers and you can depend on him to play assignment sound football and make the plays when the plays come to him. Austin Romaine had a solid game, three tackles at the end of the game, Cam Salas, who came back from injuries at the end of last season. He's now playing linebacker, another safety turn linebacker. He got a sack, Bo Palmer, Tyson Struber had tackles as well as reserves. Bo Palmer got out there way earlier in the game than Tyson Struber, but both got a tackle as well. linebackers were making plays when they needed to. I think a lot of that, a lot of, if you, if you get linebackers who are making a lot of tackles and they're able to control the middle of the field, a lot of the credit has to go to the defensive line for allowing them to see ball, get ball, you know, see ballhand lure, ball carrier, make the tackle because they're not having to worry about a pulling guard getting up to them. They're not having to worry about a chip and go from the center. So I think a lot of that credit does have to go to the defensive line, but the linebackers were making plays when their numbers were called. The secondary, there were two plays, the UT Martin had a shot at having big plays down the field. It would have taken a really good effort by the wide receivers to haul in the ball because the coverage was good. All in all, I thought that the secondary played a very good game. Vijay Payne led the secondary four tackles. Jordan Riley was getting his nose in there. He had three tackles. But I think that short sides, how much he was involved in the game, Seagull's lone tackle was a tackle for a loss. King Garber had two tackles, Parrish had three tackles, one of which was up on the line of scrimmage. I thought the starting five looked really good. Justice James and Jordan Dunbar had a lot of time out there at cornerback. We saw a lot of Jack Thabbers who got three tackles, Wesley Fair got in there late, Colby McAllister played some. Kendra Steiger, Kendra, I think they'd just call him Kendra, Kendra Steiger made a great play on his pass breakup. You heard his name called a couple times, getting involved in plays. He wasn't credited with any other tackles, but I do think it's just showing off the level of depth we have in the secondary, especially at safety because Steiger, Colby McAllister, Wesley Fair got in there, Jack Thabbers, again, you have a lot of guys who could play in the Big 12 that are backing up your guys, all of which could be all Big 12 contenders. So it was good to see great things from the secondary. This is the easiest sets that they'll see this year. Sadly, as bad as Houston looked, versus UNLV, they're going to improve. I think Houston is going to be the Big 12 team that improves the most week over week in the first year of the Shawnee Mission native, Willie Fritz, sorry. I think they're going to improve a lot. So they're not going to be that trash team when we get to play them. So I don't know how, look, they're going to have the test of their lifetime versus Arizona here in a couple of weeks, and two lanes going to be a step up, but I'm feeling really good about the secondary and the defense as a whole. I don't think anyone can come away from that game and not just feel like the defense is living up to the hype that we built them up for. So I was pumped to see what we saw of the defense. Special teams was an interesting one. Kick off, place kicking and kicking off. Like place kicking, Tenet was perfect, had a 45 yarder, was perfect from his two and his five extra points. Kick off, he was decent, but you know, he still had that one kick out of bounds. Again, I think part of the strategy is to boot it deep, go for the touch back, but also angle it to the sideline, so that does take away a lot of, you know, room for error. And I do think that might be the correct call to limit any return chances. If you're just booting it deep and going to try to go out the back of the end zone, it does bring the entire field in to play for return. So I understand why they're angling that kicks. People don't like to see him kick that out of bounds. But ultimately, look, I think by the end of the season, this idea that he is some bad kicker can be put to rest. I understand first impression is a lasting impression. And his first year kicking was not great, but he was solid last year, and I think he's going to have a very good season this year. So I'm not worried about Chris Tenet again, I think we'll see a handful more kicks out of bounds just because of the concept that they're trying to do. You're trying to put it halfway out of the end zone close to the the sideline to take away returns. I just think that sadly that that's going to happen on occasion. Don't love it, but there's worse things when you're talking about the return game. I think maybe the biggest frustration, maybe in the entire game, at least when you're talking individual plays, was that fumble by J. Brown, look, he had a decent return, he had a 32 yard return early in the game. Maybe I'm being fickle. Maybe I'm not, but I think I've seen enough of him returning the ball. So I think I'd like to see him just focus on being a receiver and have Dylan Edwards move to being the full time returner. Dylan was not without his mistakes. I believe it was either the second or third punt back there, he let it bounce twice and then just stepped away and gave up like 30 yards of field position. Can't do that, but again, there's worse mistakes to make, but he could have gotten on the ball. And heck, it was at chest length, I think that was a mistake, even Chris Klimann called it out as a mistake, so I don't think I'm wrong in that one. But again, in the world of mistakes, especially on special teams, it's pretty low. And then look, we'll just skip to punting before we go up to the big play by special teams. Simon McLean, and he had three punts, two of them are very good, including along with 46. But he did have one that netted out to like 29 yards, not perfect overall solid debut, but there were a stinker from just about every level, whether it's kicking, punting, or returning, a stinker on those. But the big play, Ty Bowman, he seems to be taking up the mantle of special teams Ace, which is team needs because the Porter brothers are gone, Shane is down at North Texas, Seth has moved on, he didn't have any more eligibility. So I think if Ty Bowman can become that special teams Ace, that'd be massive. It was his second pump block that resulted in a touchdown. This one by Colby McAllister picked it up. So special teams all in all, I mean, B, B minus, I don't know, I might be a little too tough on them, and that kind of leads into the keys to be, I'll go out of order because one of them was show excellence on special teams, and I gave that a B minus, because again, you get that touchdown, maybe that touchdown should be weighing a little higher versus those mistakes. But you kind of net out plus four total points, because I think you can give negative three points to that special team's fumble. So maybe I'm being a little harsh in my grading, but I landed with that one being a B minus. The next key to be we'll talk about was getting up big and early, so you can start playing that depth. I mean, it's an F, only up 17 to three at halftime. You're feeling good about things like when you're up 14-0 in the first quarter, but that's like second quarter was not great. And even, you know, only being up 27 to six at the end of third quarter, so I'm going to have to give that one an F. The other F is we did not capitalize on the opportunity to turn turnovers, did not get any. You did force two fumbles, but I don't even think, like I said, I don't even think that the broadcast crew realized that there were forced fumbles that the ball is on the ground. I didn't have many shots at interceptions or a couple of times where I thought Toby O was going to get a strip sack, just didn't come to fruition sadly. We will need turnovers with as much as they talked about it. Oh, I thought we were going to get at least two makes me sad. The final one is we're going to talk about was the first one in the previous shows. Just stay healthy. We didn't have any injuries in the game, but Austin Morrigan was on a snap count restriction. Asa Newsom, something happened earlier in the week, which sucks because he was being talked up in media during the week. So I don't know when it happened, but he was not available to go. So I am going to give an A because none of the injuries happened in the game. So stay healthy in the game, we're giving it a get up early and get up big and get up big early, giving that an F. Special team's excellence, B minus and capitalize on the opportune turnovers and F. All right, we're going to get through here with the game awards and game balls. The first game ball is going to it's from the boneheads. So the boneheads get two to give away. I have two to give away. We both have a swagger sticker to give away. My dad has the boomer award to give away, and then Chauncey has the Chauncey Bosco. He's got that dog in him award to give away. First off, the boneheads game ball number one is DJ Giddens. I think this was an obvious pick. He was the offensive MVP in this game. I wanted that and I'll just go to their second one because I also wanted this Despernel, the Topeka Cat. Look, those were my two favorite players. I wanted to pick them, but hey, I'm fair. Those were the lead getters amongst the bonehead submissions. So those two Kansas kids, they get the game balls. My first one's going to Dylan Edwards, the Derby dream runner. I don't know if that's going to catch on like DJ the Blue Jay Giddens, but whatever. I thought he was great. He got in a pater twice. Again, you'd like to see a few more touches, but I think he got to keep him fresh. I don't think he's going to be a 20 touch game guy, but I think you'd like to see him up to 10 to 12 next week down New Orleans, but I thought he did great when he got his hands on the ball and got in a pater twice. So he's getting my game ball and my number two game ball. I'm going with Toby O again, one and a half sacks only played, you know, a handful of snaps. He's a pass rush specialist, but man, he could have had five, but he looks good out there. This is what he would, this was his role and I think he's going to excel in it. And here's the thing, we got double winners because the bonehead swagger sticker is going to Toby O with his bourbon street, frozen man, live statue celebration, whatever you want to call it. He said it was inspired by seeing those live statues on bourbon street, how they would just stand there and you knew they're a person, but they looked like a statue. So that is his celebration. And again, you've had some defensive ends with some good celebrations. You know, Matt has the Conor McGregor walk, he had Kelly Duke reeling in the fish, King Felix's little dance with the crown. So I think that is a good addition and it was the talk of social media. So that's a worthy swagger sticker winner. There's a couple other guys, especially defensive backs that could have gone with. But look, Desmond Purnell was hyping up the crowd. He was throwing the mob sign, he was talking a little trash, he's getting my swagger sticker. So the new one's listening, throwing up the mob sign, talking a little trash, making place, hyping up the crowd. That's an easy way to get my vote for the swagger sticker. Kevin McFarland's boomer award is going to Kendra Stiger. He has nose into a couple plays again. He has name announced a few times, but he wasn't credited with any tackles. But that pass deflection, that pass breakup that he had, was one of the best plays on defense and my dad had a lot of great words for Kendra Stiger on the drive home. So he is getting the boomer award and the Chauncee Bosco, he's got that dog in him award is going to tie Bowman, great blocked punt. Like I said, I think he's going to be the special team's ace. He loved his performance, so he's getting the, he's got that dog in him award. So again, the game balls are going to Dylan Edwards, DJ the Bluejay Giddens, Desmond Purnell and Toby Oh, Desmond Purnell and Toby Oh, also getting the swagger stickers and the Kevin McFarland boomer award going to Kendra Stiger and Chauncee Bosco, he's got that dog in him award going to tie Bowman. That's all we have folks. We'll be back tomorrow with the Q&A episode and Wednesday. We turn our attention to New Orleans with the matchup with the dream wave. So for Chauncee Bosco, the best dog in the world, my name is Scott McFarland. We love you guys, go cats. It's time to get set for the cat attack. You can feel the excitement, you can feel it coming off for Kansas State. The feelings growing strong, you can join in the action. This is where you want to be with Kansas State. Come on, set your spirit free. Kansas State, our pride is with the cats. Kansas State, come on join the cat attack. Kansas State, excitement in the air. Kansas State, the fun is being rare. Having a good time there, purple and white we share. Showing at colors everywhere. Kansas State, our pride is with the cats. Kansas State, come on join the cat attack. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. [BLANK_AUDIO]
