Tilting at Windmills

If you’ve been around for awhile, you remember the good old days when the words “Kansas State” were synonymous with “suckitude.”

Barry Switzer lighting up heaters on the Manhattan sidelines. Brian Bosworth with his pads off, chewing on a hot dog. Scores routinely in the 70s. About 10,000 people showing up in purple, and about 20,000 showing up in Crimson.

We're hangin' half a hundred today, fellas.

Memo to Bill Snyder: If you don’t do something about the worst college football defense in history, you’re going to live those days – although I doubt you’ll see Bob Stoops firing up a heater as he tries to keep from dropping a hundred on you in Norman this fall.

Ron Prince’s last Wildcat defense couldn’t stop anyone: A non-conference opponent. A conference opponent. The TaW writing staff.

And when you have to rely on an all-star coaching staff for your main hope of improvement, any look into the future is frightening.

Word is, the Mildcats are going to switch to a 4-2-5 alignment this fall, which makes perfect sense – if you’re the opposition. The Cat secondary got lit up last fall more often than a Switzer cancer stick, and all of the burn victims are out of the hospital and ready for another campaign. Senior safety Courtney Herndon is the only player remotely resembling a Big 12 player in the unit.
The Cats also have a solid defensive end in Brandon Harold, and they return senior Eric Childs, who reportedly was a member of Snyder’s first team in 1989 as well.

At the linebacker position, there are several returnees, but when your best player is a freshman walkon in Alex Hrebec, it’s like it’s 1989 again, Billy.

The Cat defense will be better fundamentally, because Snyder hires competent coaches, not his D-2 buddies looking for a quick payday.

But Prince destroyed this program by filling it full of junior college transfers, and the majority of the damage is on the defensive side of the football. Don’t be surprised if the Cats give up a half-hundred on the average in Big 12 play.