Rapid Recap: Kansas State injury report

Kansas State health updates

The Kansas State linebackers are a bit dinged up at the moment. Austin Moore did not play a snap in the second half and Asa Newsom was not dressed.

For Moore, holding him out in the second half was a precautionary measure. He has been dealing with a bit of an injury, but it is not considered long term. Newsom was also bothered by something that kept him from being available at all. Again, not a long-term situation.

K-State head coach Chris Klieman is more optimistic on both for Saturday versus Tulane.

Quarterback run game

Avery Johnson ran the ball just three times in the season opener versus UT-Martin. Is that by design?

Not necessarily. How much Kansas State decides to run with Johnson will be determined by opponent and how they defend the Wildcats. There may be less quarterback runs than in the past because it will be dependent on the read.

For example, the first play of the season for K-State could have been a run with DJ Giddens, run with Johnson or a dump-off to Dylan Edwards. With how the Skyhawks played it, it was to toss it down to Edwards. Every week may be different in how teams play those kinds of plays.

Communication

Week one was the first time Kansas State was able to use in-helmet communication. It was also the first time tablets were able to be utilized on the sideline. Operationally, Klieman believed everything went well on those fronts.

In the first half, K-State didn’t have enough of a rhythm to be able to get into some of their turbo and uptempo stuff. However, Klieman liked what he heard between Matt Wells and the Wildcats’ quarterbacks.

Defensively, they were able to use more of the in-helmet communication just because UT-Martin was a bit more deliberate with the ball. Kansas State didn’t have to use signals as much and could rely on Austin Romaine to get the calls through the helmet.

The tablets remain a work in progress. However, Klieman enjoyed using them during television timeouts. He was able to look at certain plays and document some of his own notes. He used that to talk with defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman and offensive coordinator Conor Riley.