Kansas State Preview

Tomorrow afternoon at High Noon in Manhattan, KS at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, we will play the Kansas State Wildcats. The game can be seen on FX. In Spanish, it'll be a first for FOX Sports Deportes, as it'll be the first time since 1996 that a major college football game has aired on that channel. 

As for the game, Let's look at the matchups

CANES O-Line vs K-State D-Line

LT Bunche (RS Soph 6'7" 325) vs RDE Adam Davis (Sr. 6' 247)

LG Felicano (RS Soph 6'5" 314) vs RDT Vai Latui (Sr. 6'2" 299)

C McDermott (RS Soph 6'4" 295) vs """"""""""""""""

RG Linder (Jr. 6'6" 308) vs LDT John Sua (Sr. 6' 294)

RT Flowers (Fr. 6'6" 314) vs. LDE Meshak Williams (Sr. 6'3" 245)

K-State has a lot of experience on the D-Line and our O-Line is going have to step up and run block better, especially against Sua and Latui on the inside. Felicano and McDermott are going to need big games tomorrow. We had 139 yards rushing last year at Sun Life against these guys on 27 carries. If we have another big game from Duke tomorrow, we win. 

K-State O-Line vs CANES D-Line

LT Corneilus Lucas (Jr. 6'9" 324) vs RDE Green (RS Jr. 6'3" 260)

LG Nick Puetz (Sr. 6'4" 304) vs. RDT Pierre (Soph. 6'4" 300)

C B.J. Finney (Soph. 6'4" 303) vs """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

RG Keenan Taylor (Soph. 6'1" 290) vs. LDT Smith (Sr. 6'2" 315)

RT Cody Whitehair (RS Frosh 6'3" 300) vs LDE Chick (Soph. 6'4" 262)

We allowed 265 yards rushing last year (166 from John Hubert and another 93 out of Colin Klein). That cannot happen tomorrow or we will not win. We need to pressure Klein and make him have to beat us throwing the ball. 

A couple of matchups I'm going to be watching tomorrow.

I really want to see Duke vs K-State's LB's (Arthur Brown, Tre Walker, and Justin Tuggle). Its time Mike James and Eduardo Clements step up because you know they will key on Duke after the big game vs BC last week. 

I want to see more of the TEs in this game for us make more plays. Its time Dye, Cleveland, and Walford all step up and make plays vs the K-State LBs. 

CANES WRs vs K-State Secondary

WR Allen Hurns (Jr. 6'3" 192) vs. RCB Nigel Malone (Sr. 5'10" 180)

WR Phillp Dorsett (Soph. 5'10" 185) vs. LCB Allen Chapman (Sr. 5'11" 176)

WR Malcolm Lewis (Frosh 6' 192) vs. CB Randall Evans (Fr. 6' 190)

K-State WRs vs CANES Secondary

WR Tremaine Thompson (Jr. 5'8" 167) vs. LCB Finnie (Soph. 5'10" 183)

WR Chris Harper (Sr. 6'1" 234) vs. RCB McGee (Sr. 6' 194)

WR Tyler Lockett (Soph. 5'11 175) vs CB Howard (Fr. 5'11" 175) or Gunter (Jr. 6'2" 198)

The secondary needs to step up in this game while K-State's WRs are nothing to write home about, they will make plays if we fall asleep, so the Safeties have to have a big game tomorrow in the help coverage, namely VT and Kacy Rodgers II need big games tomorrow. 

We have to do a better job stopping the TEs and a matchup I'm going to be looking for is Travis Tannehill vs our LBs (Johnson, Perryman, and Cookie). Time to Cookie to step up and produce tomorrow. 

Here's a stat that stood out to me on last year's game at Sun Life: 3rd down conversions. K-State in those spots were 9-15 (60%), while we were just 4-10 (40%). We have got to a better job stopping K-State on 3rd Downs, we have to make them convert on long yardage situations and get our D off the field. Klein kept a lot of their drives in those situations. These guys don't turn the ball over, so protecting the football is going to be more critical and we cannot give them short fields to work with because that'll be asking for trouble. Here's another stat that stood out, when K-State leads at half, they are 150-5 (97%, 6-0 in 2011). So fur us, a fast start is critical, because if we fall behind early, that crowd will be involved and we need to keep the crowd out of the game. 

I think we will step up and make some key plays. This game will be close throughout. I think it'll come down to a couple of key plays, I think we'll make enough key plays to get out of Manhattan with a big time victory on the road. 

CANES 27 K-State 17