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 

Videos from the Boston College Game

Photos from the game @Boston College

Report Card and Game Balls for BC Game

Being at the game up here in Boston yesterday, a couple of notes. 

The tailgating here is virtually non-existent. 
The atmosphere in Alumni Stadium was so-so at best. They had their moments especially when they were up 14-0 early. They were into the game. 

However, when we started to clamp down and Stephen got going, you could see the momentum begin to turn our way, and especially more so after the Pick 6 by Denzel to tie the game at 14 at the end of the 1st quarter. I could tell we didn't quit, we kept battling out there and the D stepped up when it had to. We ended up with a +2 in the turnover margin, which is pretty good. I like that we were 11-21 on 3rd downs. 

But, I didn't like the fact that we didn't have a pass rush at all, it was non-existent. I also didn't like the fact that we had 9 penalties for 76 yards. I also didn't like the fact that Morris was telegraphing his throws, however, that's fixable. Something Sileo mentioned last night on the postgame was the fact that we allowed I think 5-6 big plays over 20 yards, that needs to change for next game vs K-State. 

Time for the report card:

Offense: B+ The reason for that is that of the nine penalties yesterday, 3 were on the offense, which included 2 false starts. But, the 208 yards rushing and 415 in total Offense, which included 135 out of Duke, raises this grade here. 

Defense: B- Once again, we had little to no answer for the FB screen wide and the TE. We allowed too many big plays and the biggest concern to me was no pass rush. That has to be fixed for next game. Allowing 441 yards passing and 512 yards total offense, that's a concern, but the Denzel pick 6 made up for that and being +2 in turnover margin raises this grade here. 

Special Teams: A- Botts came up big when we needed him to, from a field position perspective. Two punts inside the 20 and two fair catches were big for us there. 110 yards in KO returns, but only 9 on Punt returns.  Jake with two big FGs, the first to give us the for good middle 3rd, and the other to basically seal the victory in the 4th. 

Time for Game Balls. For this game, I'm giving out three game balls. 

1. Duke - 7 carries, 135 yards, 2 TDs. 214 yards all-purpose. 
2. Perryman - 7 tackles (1 TFL), a pick 6
3. Botts - Two punts inside the 20. Came up big when it was needed in the 4th, pinning BC at the 8. Also a heads-up play to take the safety to run clock out in the end. 

Its time to head back to NJ from here in Boston and hopefully we'll correct the errors for next game on Saturday vs K-State on the road. GO CANES!