Rapid Recap: Kansas State makes leaps in team speed
Depth on Kansas State defense
It wasn’t long ago that Kansas State defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman said on the 3MAW Podcast with Cole Manbeck that he thought this year was his deepest group on that side of the ball in Manhattan. He didn’t back down from that notion when speaking to the media on Tuesday.
Depth comes in various forms. Some of it is the improvement of Austin Romaine at middle linebacker and the emergence of Terry Kirksey. Some of it is the number of defensive ends that K-State can play this season. There’s a number of safeties. Justice James is solidifying the third cornerback spot.
However, and even Klanderman pointed it out, some of the guys haven’t been counted on before. That does leave room for a bit of mystery in some other areas. For example, are players like Wesley Fair, Jordan Allen, Ryan Davis, Asa Newsom and Rex Van Wyhe ready for the bright lights?
Team speed
When watching the two practices that opened up to the Kansas State media thus far, the team speed of the offense jumped out to me and the size and length stood out to me about the defense. But don’t sleep on the speed on that side of the ball, either.
Klanderman obviously thinks the Wildcats are deeper on defense but faster as well. There’s some truth to that for sure. Romaine is running better. VJ Payne is running better. Keenan Garber and Jacob Parrish are even faster.
Details about the safeties
It isn’t a hot take to consider the safeties the best position group for K-State this year. It’s going to be hard to find a better trio of starters in the Big 12. I think that highly of Payne, Marques Sigle and Jordan Riley. So does Klanderman.
But the depth stands out as well. It is difficult to find a weak link. The best illustration came from the defensive coordinator when he shared that those that are third and fourth string would have been comfortably in the rotation in prior seasons.
