- 7 weeks ago
The Voice of K-State Sports Wyatt Thompson joins the show to talk kickoff time for the Wildcats.
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00:00teams you follow it's another sports daily insider interview on kfh
00:06and we are happy to be joined again this fall by the voice of the k-state wildcats wyatt thompson
00:14finally wyatt we are here finally saturday at six o'clock we can hear wyatt uh and stan
00:23give us everything we need to know about the k-state wildcats a saturday broadcast
00:28a six o'clock kick all the pregame coverage you can handle we are so excited for it wyatt
00:34i'm excited just to stop talking about what we don't know right i'm so thrilled for that we can
00:39start to talk about things that we do know now yeah yeah that's well said because we're so close
00:45and we actually had a big 12 team play this past weekend in dublin you know that tcu lost a
00:52game
00:52where frankly they didn't play all that well and clearly carolina is a little bit better right i
00:57think everybody uh thought including me um i'm really excited you said it well you know we've
01:03got some questions obviously the biggest with the offensive line with with the big injury to john
01:08pastore but i think we are going to see some strengths of this football team that we have
01:13been headlining for a while whether that is an improved pass um catching group including tight ends
01:21three really good running backs you know a defense a defense frankly that hasn't gotten a lot of
01:28real quality publicity during camp or since school has started and i think they've got a chance to be
01:33pretty good we'll see we're not going to know immediately after nichols but i think we're going
01:39to know by the end of september kind of where they're headed um and i'm excited for that
01:45why we always know uh at k-state that bill started family stadium doesn't matter what's going on in
01:53the offseason game one it's gonna be uh it's gonna be a fantastic fantastic atmosphere i was actually
01:58just about to look ahead and see what the weather is looking like for saturday uh still a little warm
02:03there looks like 95 partly cloudy saturday for manhattan kansas should be a nice evening just talk
02:09about the excitement colin klein's back uh what are you expecting as far as the vibes i mean i i
02:15expect
02:15probably a very loud bill steiner family stadium uh like always but maybe just maybe a little extra
02:21this time around yeah i think you can say it's a tick or two up just from what it normally
02:27is and as
02:28you know you called it that it it's always pretty exciting on opening night here it just is regardless of
02:35who uh the opponent is but i think it's up it's a couple of ticks because of the obvious i
02:40think
02:40they've got a potential to have a good football team and then you have you know the colin klein
02:44avery johnson effect so to speak i'm really excited for that you know visiting with colin on his
02:51first cat chat show the other night was really fun uh talking to him about the the coach snyder
02:57days and then through coach climbing a and m and now here you know 36 year old head coach at
03:02a
03:02out of power four is a little bit rare it's not unprecedented certainly but i think we all know
03:07that he's a very special individual and uh i can't wait for him to get started i they're getting ready
03:13here to practice briefly this morning behind my shoulder left shoulder here uh in the stadium and
03:20that gets me even more excited because i've been to a lot of the practices and what have you and
03:25i want
03:25to say this too but um our fans are always excited it's standing room only for this first one there's
03:32just minimal tickets left for the first three games before we go to cincinnati but there was a little
03:37thing here saturday night where they had a walk through and kind of did an led light test including
03:43those purple lights going on and off i wish you guys could have seen the excitement of the players
03:48at that point it tells you man that they're ready you know we've been it's been kind of odd because
03:54of
03:54of the camp being a couple of weeks long and then two more weeks before we play including you know
03:59last
03:59week being the first week of school so they're more than chomping at the bit they're they're ready to go
04:04no doubt about it uh they i would hope so i mean they've got a lot to kind of get
04:11off their chest a
04:12little bit and and more than most teams they returned probably as much or more so it is a group
04:19that wants to to to get out there and redeem themselves a little bit this year as much as any
04:24team i suppose how much do you think colin klein's leaning into that this year have we gotten have you
04:30gotten a sense of how much he's allowing for that kind of chip on the shoulder i i don't i
04:37don't i guess
04:37i don't know his personality enough to to know does he does he like that stuff or does he try
04:42to
04:42to push it to the side and stay focused on the task at hand it's it's a really interesting question
04:47and probably a little bit difficult to answer because he's been pretty consistent with his
04:52messaging and what he wants this program to be uh and and he's also not masked the fact that he
05:00is
05:00asking a lot of these guys i just think that's the way this is going to be you know he
05:05he spent a lot
05:06of time here uh both playing for and coaching with coach snyder and and then chris kleinman and he has
05:13his way of of doing things and wants to be tough and physical and you know he hasn't really said
05:20it
05:20like chris kleinman said it that i want this to be a player driven program because he's in charge right
05:27so there's a little bit of a difference there and yet i think he's really proud to get to your
05:32point
05:32about you know what they've added uh through the portal and in just high school recruiting
05:40um to the group that returns i mean i'm sitting here looking at what i think is going to be
05:46you
05:46know a two-deep roster that may surprise some people when it comes out here in a little while
05:51uh with some young players everybody knows or at least has heard the name window gregory or
05:58you know some somebody like that but there are a lot of other guys on this football team
06:02that are going to have some impact you know whether it's jay harris and rodney fields as running backs or
06:09you know josh manning and isaiah williams and and and brandon white uh in the receiving core they they
06:16clearly need a couple of those guys in the offensive line to step up and tanner morley's back and practicing
06:21again so everywhere you look i think you have a group of guys that not only is ready to play
06:28but
06:28ready to go show kind of who they are and what they are it's a confident group that's really practiced
06:34hard and you just hope that they take that to the field and and and play a clean game in
06:39in game one
06:39because as i referenced tcu a moment ago think about what they did you have a bad snap right that
06:47leads
06:47to a safety you have two plays that you don't make on fourth down with the game on the line
06:52and 100
06:52yards and penalties it's nickels and i get it but you better not do that you better be you know
06:58on the
06:58cutting edge and ready to roll yeah that's right wyatt and i was looking at nickels a little bit the
07:04nickels uh the kernels who are already one and oh i didn't realize they've already played a game they
07:09played uh mississippi valley state won that one 44 to 10 so uh this is a team coming in not
07:16uh not just uh totally cold um what do we know about nickels really well coach tommy rybacki in
07:24his second year uh defensive guy by by nature he was the coordinator there before uh the coaching
07:31change uh they were four and eight last year and four and four in the southland conference which is
07:36kind of below what they've been in recent times at their level you know i think they're a pretty
07:42decent football team uh k-state's going to be bigger stronger faster across the board and that's
07:47kind of you know the way you want to get your feet wet uh in most seasons it's not what
07:52we did a year
07:53ago but what we'll do in most years and i i think they're a decent team uh mississippi valley state's
08:01not
08:01very good and they kicked them it was 44 nothing uh before you know it became 44 10 at the
08:07end
08:07but you can tell that they've got a few pieces uh and at their level they'll compete they were picked
08:13sixth and seventh in their league so they're not supposed to be great but i do think they are well
08:18coached and they'll play hard but they should just be outclassed actually you know um in terms of just
08:25the the physicality and the toughness and the athleticism of k-state uh white i want to ask you
08:31about the big elephant in the room wyatt thompson uh voice of the k-state wildcats joining us it's
08:36the offensive line do is there a dress rehearsal component to this game do you think how many guys
08:43do they need to to get a look at before the real you know challenges we assume start i don't
08:51know
08:51how much of a challenge washington state will be but we know not to overlook too lame so maybe you
08:57know maybe it's just a week maybe it's two weeks but how much does colin klein and this staff need
09:02to
09:02see these offensive linemen actually play and how many of them do you think we will see play as they
09:07try to sort this out live and in front of us i love the question because it's what's on everybody's
09:13mind other than the obvious colin klein opening night first game all of those types of things
09:19it's going to be the focus for a while jake would be honest just because of the loss of past
09:25story
09:25but to answer your question on you know what what i hope i see in game one is is i
09:32hope we get to see
09:33all of the ones and the twos and i think we will see that um there's going to be a
09:39lot of people
09:39watching the left tackle position where john pastori was are we going to see ryan howard start there
09:46maybe probably but i think you could also see tyler johnson you could maybe see hawkins move over
09:54from right to left there you may see delvin morris in a couple of different spots you're going to see
10:01some other guys that maybe k-staters don't know a lot about yet whether it's morley charlie adams
10:07tyler johnson those kind of guys so that's rambling a lot to say i hope in this game in particular
10:14because
10:15as we get into the bigger boy games down the road more than likely it's going to be a rotation
10:22of about
10:22you know seven guys they hope maybe eight but i would like to see of the what 21 offensive linemen
10:31that we have i would i would hope that you could get you know 12 13 or so of those
10:38guys in there
10:39i just i just hope that's the case because they need that they do well you mentioned ones and twos
10:46which uh odds are we're probably going to see see a lot of the depth of k-state against nickels
10:51especially maybe in the second half um of those guys that uh maybe we haven't heard a whole lot
10:57about that will be given a chance to to shine here maybe in the second half who's somebody and i
11:03guess
11:03for offense or defensive as far as playmakers who's somebody that uh you expect to maybe put up some
11:09some big numbers late in this game as far as that group of guys that maybe we're not as aware
11:14of
11:14i love these this question too because you know i could throw out the names of like the defensive
11:20back transfer guys we talked about them before maybe we haven't talked enough about some younger
11:27guys that are going to see the field and not just in this game but they're going to see the
11:32field
11:33in subsequent games down the line i would throw out a name like damian miller who joined us
11:39somewhat late in the process in midsummer southwest mississippi junior college uh uh corner really
11:46good body lengthy tough really competes you're probably going to see a lot of nick mcclellan and
11:52gary dixon a couple of st louis freshmen uh at the corner position but maybe the best guy is jojo
12:00scott
12:01who really has had a terrific camp he's a florida kid from lakeland florida and just has really shined
12:08through the entirety of the camp that would give you a pretty good idea you know like in in the
12:14secondary i i think in the linebacking core the one name that hasn't been talked about at all
12:21that's probably going to see some time is weston polk uh weston is a sophomore um really active he can
12:28run played a lot of special teams a year ago we'll see how that plays he's from copel texas um
12:36i i think
12:37a lot of guys on the defensive front but the one guy that i i think people will watch uh
12:43away from
12:44kamari burns and the guys that we talk a lot about is eli jackson from hutchinson community college is
12:50a guy who has come in and made a pretty good push here uh as camp has ended and school
12:55has started he's
12:57gonna i don't think he'll start obviously but i think he's going to get some repetitions in this game and
13:01others so that just gives you a little bit of an idea across the defense
13:07offensively uh i who who knows where to start won't necessarily work with the offensive line because
13:12we've kind of talked about that but what about the quarterbacks you know i mean how is that going to
13:18go
13:19do we really know and i think the answer is no we don't who the number two guy is going
13:23to be and i hope
13:25they can play a couple of two or three guys in this game uh it would help if they can
13:29do that
13:29uh before we ask you about the big 12 and its decisions real quick you mentioned quarterbacks
13:35yeah talk is cheap is avery johnson gonna run the ball more this year i think he will and just
13:43because
13:44of what we talked about before we kind of know what colin klein is he's he's not really mask what
13:50he wants to do play with physicality toughness mental toughness all of those things but he has said
13:55all along we're gonna cut the guy loose and let him go you know i i don't know that we'll
14:00see him
14:00run it 20 times in the opening game but i think he's going to run more than he did a
14:05year ago i don't
14:06think there's any question about that um and i think maybe play a little bit of a quicker pace uh
14:13some of
14:14the times not all the time but but some of the times so there's a lot of intrigue in in
14:19this one for me
14:19just to get out there get going get the season underway and and and see what they are you know
14:27that that's they've been working for a long time for this and they are excited about it and should
14:33be and i think they're ready to put it out there and see what happens well white you kind of
14:38mentioned
14:38it and uh what jacob mentioned looking at the rest of the big 12 we talked about k-state uh
14:44mentioned a
14:44little bit tcu north carolina north carolina from uh this past week or from this weekend when we're
14:50looking at other big 12 games coming up uh what's what's another matchup that's kind of has it's on
14:56your radar that you're kind of looking at to see how this this insert big 12 team here does for
15:03week
15:03one i don't know that in week one that we have just a boatload of great matchups but because of
15:10the proximity of uh what i'll say are the boys down on the river aren't you kind of anxious to
15:16see what they are too with with so many new faces i am i think that'll be kind of fun
15:21to watch that to
15:22be real honest with you uh looking forward to to seeing the the quarterbacks you know obviously
15:28they're both guys are going to play uh so i i would certainly throw that one out there i don't
15:34know
15:34that there's a there's another one necessarily that just you know piques my interest terribly bad
15:40but you know i'm the ku games friday night i'll get a chance to watch that one a little bit
15:44so
15:45i'll throw that one out there to start with um after that i'd have to look here a little bit
15:51let
15:51me let me call that up but i i just think at the end of the day um the ku
15:56game is is the one i would
15:58start with let me look here real quick i would say just looking at this baylor auburn that that's
16:05kind of a no-brainer because let's be honest this is a really big season for dave aranda right i
16:12mean
16:12big and then osu tulsa that's are they gonna blow tulsa out on the road are they gonna be what
16:18everybody thinks they are you know offensively we'll see but we're gonna find out i saw like
16:25the new york times or somebody put out a story about how they're trying to model after indiana and
16:31i'm like what has oklahoma state been up to here like what yes what you know all the talk has
16:37been
16:37tech and their collection of talent did oklahoma state sneak around and do something we need to be
16:42paying attention to i i guess yeah i i think they hired a really good football coach and for for
16:48those
16:48who are listening and don't know uh their coach has spent some time in the league at tech believe it
16:54or not so it's not like this is a brand new thing for him he's gonna know the league better
17:00than most
17:00coming in for the first time that is a little bit significant or maybe quite a bit significant
17:05for for my money we'll see how it goes but i i just think when you look at oklahoma state
17:12everybody kind of wonders because the media has blown them up because of the quarterback the kids
17:18you look at his numbers and it's crazy good jayden craig's numbers were good too coming in
17:24from harvard for tcu didn't quite play like they had hoped he would but i don't know that that
17:30necessarily means it's going to be like that all year long we will see right what about the
17:36playing his high school football in the texas panhandle back in my day
17:42no easy place to play what's that oh playing in texas panhandle that's not an easy place in those
17:49days of the air raid offense it 100 yeah and think about think about all of the kids that have
17:56come
17:56out of that area uh just texas high school quarterbacks in general it just blows your mind
18:02when you start to put it all together and piece it together lots and lots and lots of players there
18:07uh so but i i have not heard anybody say one time that that that kid messemaker is is overrated
18:18or
18:18can't play he's smart he's tough he can make all the throws if they're good enough around him you
18:24would think that they'll be good offensively for me it's more about okay what are they going to be
18:30defensively right and baylor with langway at quarterback they could be good enough to to beat
18:35auburn and you know who their coordinator is defensively joe clanderman who was here so
18:40yeah here we go all right wyatt we're ready nickels what time does broadcast start on saturday
18:48we start at four o'clock we'll kick just after six and uh can't wait for it bud you'll hear
18:53right
18:53here on kfh we'll be back monday of next week to talk about it wyatt thompson voice of the wildcats
18:58looking forward to another exciting season we'll come right back on
19:01you