K-State Q&A: Ben Sinnott, Big 12 tiebreakers, hoops recruiting, volleyball and more

Last weekend could have been the ultimate party for Kansas State fans.

First up on Saturday morning, the Wildcats played Texas in an extremely important football game with Big 12 championship implications.

As we crossed into Saturday afternoon, five-star basketball recruit Patrick Ngongba announced his college decision between Duke, Kentucky and K-State.

Then on Monday, Jerome Tang’s basketball team opened the season with a high-profile game against No. 21 USC in Las Vegas.

K-State fans day dreamed about how happy they might feel if all three events went in their favor. Who could blame them? Beating Texas in football, landing a five-star recruit in basketball and then downing a top 25 team on the first night of college hoops (in the span of three days) would have been utopia for EMAW nation.

Instead, the only thing K-State fans got out of all those events was nightmare fuel.

Texas beat K-State with a defensive stand in overtime. Ngongba announced he was heading to Duke. USC dominated from start to finish.

Not great, Bob!

Hopefully some of you made the trek to Las Vegas and salvaged the weekend by winning some money.

Let’s go ahead and stop rehashing now, because I would like to point out that good news should be on the way. The Wildcats will almost certainly bounce back with some much more positive results this weekend.

Tang and Company host Bellarmine on Friday, which should give the Wildcats an opportunity to win big and show off in front of their fans inside Bramlage Coliseum.

After that, Chris Klieman’s football team is favored by 20.5 at home against Baylor. The way the Wildcats have played at Bill Snyder Family Stadium this season, they should roll to a blowout win.

Who knows? Maybe a football recruit will commit to the Wildcats before Monday arrives.

One thing is for sure: Better days are on the horizon.

Now, let’s dive into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.

Yes, any college football player who accepts an invitation to the Senior Bowl is clearly planning to turn pro and make a run at the NFL.

K-State tight end Ben Sinnott did exactly that earlier this week, which means this is almost certainly his final season with the Wildcats, even though he does have one year of eligibility remaining.

Nothing is set in stone. Sinnott can always change his mind and decide to remain in college after this season is over. But I think we can all admit that he is ready for the NFL, much like Felix Anudike-Uzomah and Deuce Vaughn were last year. It should come as no surprise that he already has an eye on the future.

Still, that is bittersweet news for anyone associated with the K-State football team.

The good news is that Garrett Oakley and Will Swanson are also making plays at tight end right now. The Wildcats have more than enough talent to replace him.

It’s probably too early to dive into all of the potential tiebreakers that could be needed in the race for a Big 12 football championship.

Texas and Oklahoma State are tied in first place of the Big 12 standings at 5-1. Kansas, K-State, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Iowa State are all one game back at 4-2. Even Texas Tech has some hope of reaching the championship game at 3-3.

Running down every possible tiebreaker for eight different teams is a task I will leave to someone else.

But here’s what it boils down to for K-State: The Wildcats need to win their remaining three games and hope that Texas and Oklahoma State both lose.

Texas and Oklahoma State both own head-to-head victories over K-State, so one of those teams will probably need to lose twice for the Wildcats to usurp them in the standings.

But there are also some scenarios in which K-State could end up in a multi-team tie with Texas, Oklahoma, West Virginia or Texas Tech and hold a tiebreaker edge. It’s worth noting that is less likely if Oklahoma State is involved.

Texas finishes the season at TCU, at Iowa State and then plays Texas Tech at home.

Oklahoma State goes to UCF and Houston before hosting BYU.

K-State finishes against Baylor, Kansas and Iowa State.

The most likely championship game at this point is Oklahoma State vs. Texas. But none of the other teams, including K-State, are out of it yet.

Over the next three weeks, K-State fans will want to cheer for anyone that plays Oklahoma State and Texas.

Texas Tech is suddenly a big ally, as it has games remaining against KU and Texas. The Wildcats also own a victory over the Red Raiders, and that could be important for tiebreakers if they keep winning.

Oklahoma is also a friend, because it could help the Wildcats in a mutli-team tiebreaker that involves Texas.

At the end of the day, though, K-State is the team you need to cheer for the most. The Wildcats need to run the table, otherwise it might not matter how much help they get from other teams.

You could ask this question about any team at every level of football that isn’t the Philadelphia Eagles.

My suggestion is that any team with a good offensive line should have a backup quarterback who specializes in running the QB sneak. That way, you’re not risking an injury to the starter and you can perfect the play through practice.

Could K-State run that play more often? Sure.

But the Wildcats have tried it a few times this season. Problem is, sometimes they go against superior defensive lines like last week against Texas. Running the ball out of any information on third-and-short wasn’t going to work. Last week, you could argue that K-State should have been throwing in those situations.

That works as a great transition into our next question ...

E-MAIL QUESTION: Why in the world did Collin Klein stubbornly keep trying to run the ball when it wasn’t working against Texas? - Emily V.

It is a valid question.

K-State attempted to run the ball 29 games against Texas and only gained 69 yards on them. The numbers get even uglier if you factor in 39 yards of lost yardage on sacks and tackles for loss.

Treshaun Ward averaged 3.3 yards per run. DJ Giddens averaged 2.4.

Texas is SEC ready on both sides of the line of scrimmage and it showed in that game.

And yet, K-State found success through the air. Will Howard completed 26 of 41 passes for 327 yards and four touchdowns.

Looking back, the Wildcats should have tried a more pass-heavy approach. They absolutely should have given up on the run game earlier than they did. Remember, K-State punted on its first six drives.

In Klein’s defense, the Wildcats did throw it more than they ran it. My biggest criticism would be that he chose the wrong times to run. Maybe it would have helped to mix in a few more passes on first down to keep the Texas defense guessing.

Here is what Klein said about the run/pass split.

“It was easy to point and say we couldn’t run the football,” Klein said. “We actually threw it more in the second quarter than we ran it and were were just a shade over 50/50 in the first quarter. We really couldn’t get anything going. It’s easy to point at the run game, but there were some things, obviously we had some chances and we have got to connect on a few things in the pass to help get those wheels turning a little bit.”

Uh, softball is already a Big 12 sport.

K-State just doesn’t have a team.

Oklahoma has been the ultimate softball powerhouse lately. I’m surprised you haven’t noticed. The Women’s College World Series gets all kinds of TV time in June.

In any case, I am also in favor of the Big 12 sponsoring new and fun sports. It’s just too bad Brett Yormark isn’t mandating every school in the conference create a hockey team so Arizona State will have someone to play.

Big 12 hockey ... Now that would be cool.

It isn’t grammatically correct, but he really should double up on his punctuation marks.

What’s next?!

That’s the best of both worlds.

E-MAIL QUESTION: Jerome Tang put months of effort into recruiting Patrick Ngongba and he still picked Duke over us. How big of a gut punch was that for the basketball team and where does Tang go from here? - Andrew B.

When you put that much effort into recruiting a basketball player and he goes somewhere else it hurts. There is no doubt about that.

But Tang actually seemed upbeat when talking about recruiting earlier this week.

He said the Wildcats had two major targets during the fall and they landed one of them in David Castillo. That means K-State went 50% on the recruiting trail, which is actually a really good number.

I still think missing out on Ngongba was a major blow, just because Manhattan really rolled out the red carpet for him on his visit. But this sort of thing happens when you try to recruit against Duke and Kentucky. I mean, Kansas and UConn wanted him and they weren’t even among his finalists.

It’s not like K-State lost him to Tulsa.

Tang said the plan is to hold on to that open scholarship and use it on an impact transfer after the season comes to an end.

Sadly, I haven’t been to a K-State volleyball match this year.

I probably need to change that based on some of their recent wins. The atmosphere inside their new arena looks fantastic.

Jason Mansfield looks like a great hire in his first year as coach.

K-State is definitely in the mix for a spot in the NCAA Tournament after its wins over ranked teams like BYU and Texas, but a RPI of 62 is usually not good enough to deserve an invitation.

The Wildcats were one of the last teams in the field two years ago with a record of 15-12 and a RPI of 47.

So K-State probably needs to keep winning.

The Wildcats close out the year against Texas Tech (x2) and Houston. Two or three wins could push K-State into the postseason.