Will Howard will be Kansas State football's starting quarterback at West Virginia

MANHATTAN — Kansas State has a new starting quarterback, at least for the time being.

Coach Chris Klieman said Tuesday that Will Howard will be behind center in place of an injured Adrian Martinez when the Wildcats face West Virginia at 1 p.m. Saturday in Morgantown.

"He is not available this week," Klieman said of Martinez, who went down late in the first quarter of last week's 31-3 win over Baylor. "He will not be playing this week, but he's not out for the season, so Will's going to be the guy.

"It's his football team and I'm excited for Will."

While Martinez likely will be back at some point, junior strong safety Kobe Savage was not so fortunate. Klieman said Savage, who was injured in the second quarter against Baylor, will miss the rest of the season. Before he went out, Savage picked up a key interception near the goal line to squash Baylor's opening drive.

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As for the quarterback position, Howard's play in relief of Martinez in three of the previous four games had many wondering if he was ready to claim the starting spot anyway. In his three appearances, he has completed 63.1% of his passes for 707 yards and nine touchdowns with just one interception.

The nine touchdown passes are the most ever by a Wildcat in three consecutive games.

"We're super excited for Will and we're so proud of Will for what he's done to this point," senior center Hayden Gillum said of Howard. "You don't see that a ton, where he's come in and stepped up.

"It's been awesome to see this year, and we're excited for him to get the opportunity to showcase it again."

The plan going into the season was for Howard to redshirt after stepping in each of the previous two years for an injured Skylar Thompson. But he was forced into action when Martinez suffered a leg injury on the opening drive at TCU on Oct. 22.

Howard led the Wildcats to touchdowns on his first four series of that game, a 38-28 K-State loss. He then started the following week and threw four scoring passes in a 48-0 shutout of Oklahoma State.

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Martinez returned to the lineup and threw for 329 yards and two touchdowns the following week in a 34-27 loss to Texas, and completed 7-of-8 passes for 25 yards before going down during the second possession at Baylor. Howard came on to finish the Wildcats' first scoring drive against the Bears and went on to complete 19-of-27 passes for 196 yards and three scores.

The West Virginia game will be the fourth of the season for Howard, the maximum allowed while still redshirting. But he and Klieman both said given what is at stake for the Wildcats — they're 7-3 overall and second in the Big 12 standings, needing to win their final two games to clinch a spot in the conference championship game — all bets are off now.

"Absolutely," Howard said of discarding the redshirt. "We know we control our own destiny. It's exciting, because obviously (redshirting) was part of the plan coming in, but we knew that no matter what, with what's in front of us, it's exciting.

"I'm ready to take over and to do what I can for this team, because this is what our goal has been, and everything is in front of us and everything that we're playing for right now is what we've been talking about for the three years that I've been here and for all of this year."

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Running back Deuce Vaughn also threw his support behind Howard.

"I'm super excited for him," Vaughn said of Howard, who arrived at K-State with him in 2020. "Because I understand the work that he's put in. I understand everything he's done to be at this point in the season, and he's ready to go.

"It's been three years that he's been the backup and kind of had to (insert) himself into the starting lineup."

Offensive lineman Hadley Panzer said Martinez also was in the players' thoughts while still embracing Howard.

"I feel super bad for him," Panzer, the Wildcats' starting right guard said. "It sucks to see, especially with how much leadership that he brings into this program. But he's still a leader. He's still going to be right there with us.

"I'm excited about Will coming in and doing his thing. It's really cool to see."

Klieman said that junior Jaren Lewis and redshirt freshman Jake Rubley will serve as Howard's backups.

Kobe Savage a key loss for defense

In losing Savage, K-State will be without one of its top defenders.

Savage, a transfer from Tyler (Texas) Junior College, is second on the team in tackles with 58, including three tackles for loss. His three interceptions lead the team.

"It's really tough because Kobe was playing such great football for us, and he was devastated," Klieman said. "But we'll lose him for the year and that's disappointing."

Klieman said that Cincere Mason, who has split time with starter Drake Cheatum at Jack safety, will slide over to strong safety.  Sophomore TJ Smith, Savage's backup, also will see action.

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Cheatum said the team has confidence in Savage's backups.

"Kobe's definitely going to be missed and it hurts us," Cheatum said. "But we've got veteran guys in the room that are ready to step up."

Middle linebacker Daniel Green said the Wildcats will miss Savage's passion.

"He's one of our mob mentality guys," Green said. "He really embraces what we talk about on our defense.

"It really hurts having someone like him go down, and we're going to rally around him and play for him. We told him after what happened in the (first half) that, 'We've got you, bro. We're playing for you,' and we're going to finish the season for him strong."

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State football's Will Howard starting at quarterback vs. WVU