Fact or Fiction: Khalid Duke sees double-digit snaps versus South Dakota
A hot topic in the offseason and especially throughout fall camp was the status of Kansas State defensive end Khalid Duke. Heck, we’re not even sure how to designate him in regards to position anymore. He is listed as a ‘Sam’ linebacker on the depth chart.
Duke was injured during the Nevada game a year ago and it cost him the rest of the season.
The recovery process has lasted the entire offseason. And the discussion about his availability had been pretty mixed until head coach Chris Klieman took the podium during preseason camp and was adamant about him being available for game one.
ARGUMENT FOR FICTION
It’s the easiest argument. It’s because he hasn’t been 100 percent in a long time, and even if Duke has physically recovered, he is in the process of regaining enough confidence in his knee to be able to play at a high level.
In addition to that, he missed all of the practices before the beginning of the first day of classes. That means he has only been active for a couple weeks. That’s not a lot of time to ramp up and be in enough playing shape to be thrown into the fire a large amount.
Furthermore, there have still been sources that have been dragging their feet about his ability to jump onto the field in immediate fashion. They at least do not anticipate him reaching the caliber of play that we remember.
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ARGUMENT FOR FACT
The argument for fact is to believe in the head coach and what he has shared the last few weeks. He appears to be pretty confident that one of the best pass-rushers on the team has returned well enough to see a solid amount of action versus South Dakota.
There is clear reasons to be hesitant, but everything has unfolded as he said it would about a month ago. It was then where he insisted that the target date would be the first game of the year when the Coyotes come to Manhattan to kick off the season.
That part appears to be true. In his last remarks, Klieman noted that he wasn’t sure if he would see 15 snaps or 50 snaps.
PICK: FICTION
Not being sure that someone will play 15 or 50 snaps is a wide range and calls into question whether or not he has the kind of conditioning to be able to hand more than a couple series. Even Joe Klanderman seemed to identify as the part that wasn’t certain.
It wouldn’t even be a shock to see him in only obvious passing situations.
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