Rapid Recap: Kansas State going with Will Howard

KANSAS STATE QUARTERBACK DECISION

Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman announced on Tuesday that the Wildcats would be without Adrian Martinez for the contest against West Virginia in Morgantown. Without specifying the injury, he shared that his senior signal-caller would not be available.

However, he also stressed that Martinez isn’t out for the season and a chance exists where he could bounce back and recover enough to be available before the bowl game.

In his absence, it will be Will Howard at quarterback. For the first time this season, he will enter a game knowing that he will play and start, well ahead of time. In this case, that also means the defense knows as well.

I received the distinct impression that Howard has been anointed the guy the rest of the year by how everyone was discussing the situation, including Klieman and his players. At one point, the K-State head coach even called it Will Howard’s team.

Howard showed a lot of excitement for this weekend, as did his teammates for him, because it is as close to a homecoming for him as he gets playing in the Big 12. The Pennsylvania native will have a lot of family in Morgantown for the game.

OUT FOR THE SEASON

Unfortunately, the other injury suffered by Kansas State is a season-ender. After his setback on Saturday evening, safety Kobe Savage is done for the year. That is quite the bummer, as he has brought a lot of energy and spirit to the defense all season for K-State.

That part of it will be very hard to replace. They’ll move some pieces around to account for his loss. Klieman mentioned all of VJ Payne, TJ Smith and Cincere Mason as potential solutions to stem what they won’t have in Savage.

REPORT ON OTHER INJURIES

Aside from Savage and Martinez, Kansas State also lost defensive backs Ekow Boye-Doe and Josh Hayes at various times. An argument can be made that K-State has the best secondary in the Big 12, and those two and Savage are a large reason why. Being without a few of them would make a big difference.

However, the news on Boye-Doe and Hayes is good. Both are expected to play and have already returned to practice this week.

ONE GAME AT A TIME

The mantra at Kansas State has been to ‘win the day’ and ‘stack good days on top of good days’ for as long as Klieman has been in Manhattan. He led off with that at his introductory press conference when he was hired in December of 2018.

It has now come full circle for him. Because that catchphrase is what they continue to practice at K-State and should be what they lean on the most as they attempt to reach Arlington and clinch a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game.

Doing so requires not looking ahead and consuming themselves with trying to do too many things at most and falling under the pressure of that. Instead, they are attempting to take one day at a time, one practice at a time, one drive at a time, one quarter at a time and one game at a time.

That was echoed by Klieman and his players when meeting with the media on Tuesday. But they are all well aware of the stakes and how everything that they want to accomplish is right in front of them and there for the taking.