Report Card for game @K-State

What could you say about yesterday? We were terrible in all three phases. 

Once again we fell behind 14-0, but this time, there would be no comeback. A couple of plays really turned the mo against us. 

At 7-0 in the 1st and on 3rd and 1, Eduardo gets the 1st down, but loses the ball and Brown recovers the fumble for them. and five plays later, its 14-0 K-State. 14 point swing on that fumble. Later at 17-3, first play of our next drive, Duke drops a sure TD pass that would have cut the K-State to 7 at 17-10. Instead, its a 3 and out series, that's another 14 point swing of momentum in their favor, because instead of 17-10, its 24-3 K-State. The one that really told how timid we were yesterday was the last drive at the end of the 1st half. At 24-3 down, we have a chance to get momentum our way with 7, instead we settle for 3 and instead of 24-10 down, we're down 24-6. Coming out of the locker room, we couldn't seize the mo and we had to punt, and K-State scores on that drive, 31-6, game over. They would add 21 more after that in the 4th. 

Once again yesterday, 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 4 penalties for 30 yards, while K-State had 2 penalties for 12 yards. 

Time for the report card:

Offense: D- The reason for that is that of the four penalties yesterday, 3 were on the offense. We could not get the running game going. The sobering numbers: 29 carries, 40 yards (1.4 ypc). We had just 262 total offense yesterday, after having 415 last week up in BC. They handcuffed Duke by holding him to just 19 yards in just 6 carries. Credit K-State's D for doing a great job keying on Duke. Mike James wasn't much better either. Just 27 yards on 9 carries. The O-Line allowed Morris to be sacked 5 times, and fumbles twice, losing the ball both times. The one bright spot here was Clive Walford having 61 yards on 3 receptions, and 1 TD (near the end when K-State had the game well in hand). Very poor game all-around yesterday.

Defense: F  Once again, we allowed too many big plays and the biggest concern to me was no pass rush. We allow Colin Klein to have a big game. 71 yards rushing and 3 TDs. The pass defense was a little better, allowing just 210 yards passing, however, we allowed 498 yards total offense, and of those yards, 288 of those were on the ground, which included 106 yards by John Hubert alone. This unit could not get off the field on 3rd downs. When we needed a stop, it wasn't there. They were 72% on 3rd down conversions (8-11), and all of those were with less than 5 yards to go, the 3rd downs were short yardage situations. -2 in turnover margin will not win you games, and especially against a very good team like Kansas State is. 

Special Teams: D  Jake had two field goals. However, the return game was non-existent. The fact that K-State didn't punt until the near the end of the game was very disheartening. The bright spot is that Duke had 141 yards in Kick returns on 5 touches. When you give a team like K-State short fields to work with, they take advantage, especially when you have a running game like they do. They started drives from an average of their own 41, while we started our drives from an average of our own 28. That's not going to get it done. 

Its time to forget this game, but learn from it and fix the mistakes we made for next game on Saturday vs Bethune-Cookman in the home opener. GO CANES!

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 

Part 2 of 12 part CANE 2012 opponent series

In Part 2 of the 12 part 2012 CANE opponent series, we're going to preview a team that's a darkhorse to maybe win the whole thing and that's the Kansas State Wildcats. 

In 2011, the Wildcats went 10-3, and finished #16 in the Coaches Poll, #15 in the AP, and #8 in the final BCS standings. 

When we look at the 2012 version, we'll first start on Offense. Collin Klein (6'5" 226) returns at QB for his senior season. He led them in both rushing and passing yards last year. He threw for 1,900 yards last season while completing 57% of his passes, and throwing for 13 TDs, which is pretty impressive when you consider that he's also one of the top rushing QBs in the country rushing for 1,141 yards and 27 TDs.


Kansas State isn't just Klein in the running game, they also have very good backs returning from 2011 in Junior John Hubert (5'7" 191) and Senior Angelo Pease (5'11" 215). Hubert was 2nd on their team only to Klein in yards gained on the ground last season with 970 yards, although the majority of the scores went to Klein as Hubert eclipsed the goal line just three times.


We know that they are going to run the ball first and foremost. However, they will go to the air from time to time and when they do, they'll have two returning starters at WR. They're top target in the air this season might be Senior TE Travis Tannahill (6'3" 253), who is one of the better TE's in the Big 12 this season, and can block with the best of them, as well as be a very good pass catcher.


If there's a weakness in their offense, it's going to be on their O-Line. They only return two starters from their '11 team and they don't have much experience. You might want to watch RS Freshmen Cody Whitehair (6'3" 300) and Boston Stiverson (6'4" 306). They are both young and talented and you'll see them on the field a lot for them in '12. 


Now, we'll talk about the Defense.  Their D-Line returns both starters at DE from 2011 in Seniors Adam Davis (6' 259) and Hendricks Award candidate Meshak Williams (6'3" 245). They are very good, especially Williams, but will need to step up their game if they're going to get pressure on the QB in 2012 and have the rest of the back seven's job much simpler. 
 
They do have their top tackler from a season ago back in Senior LB Arthur Brown (6'1" 228), a former CANE, who is one of the top LB prospects in the country this season. He's on the watch lists for the Camp, Nagurski, Butkus, and Bednarik . In 2011, he had 101 tackles,  (7.5 tackles for loss) and two sacks. However, Brown is not a one man show at LB. they are going to have to count their other LBs Junior Tre Walker (6'3" 225) and Senior Justin Tuggle (6'3" 223) to step up in 2012 and make plays when teams are doubling and tripling Brown. 


Their pass defense was pitiful in '11 as they were ranked 107^th in pass defense. A big reason why is there were little to no pass rush was because of the fact that the pass rush they did have was very inconsistent, however, you can make the case that their secondary takes some of the blame also. They do have Senior Nigel Malone (5'10" 185) back at CB, and he's going to be asked to shut down the opposition best receiver a lot in '12. He's going to need help doing so. they don't have the depth or the talent to get it done by themselves without a consistent pass rush.


Time for my prediction for Kansas State in 2012. They will be very good and I think a darkhorse to reach the BCS championship game. They will be very good again this season, but they are not going to surprise anyone like they did in 2011. They will be very good again rushing and they will be a little better in the passing game. However, their Achilles heel will be their defense, and I believe we're going to see a lot of high scoring games with K-State from time to time and when you have a run dominant offense and not much of a passing game, its going to be tough to be a BCS title team.
 
They host Miami early, then start Big 12 play on the road in Norman vs Oklahoma, and their other Big 12 road test is in Morgantown vs newcomer West Virginia. They do get Oklahoma State and Texas at home, with the latter being in the season finale on December 1st. Looking at their schedule, I can see 8-9 wins for them this season. I am predicting a 8-4 season for the Wildcats in 2012.


In part 3, I'll talk about a very good team in the FCS in the state of Florida, and that's the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats.