WHAT I CAME HERE TO DO

I was brought here to chew bubble gum, and write some B.A. articles on all things K-State, Sporting KC, and counteract some of the rock chalk propaganda promoted here…and I’m all out of bubble gum.

First things first, I must give a tip of the cap to the fighting Weises on their victory Saturday.  Congrats on keeping the longest conference losing streak out of the state of Kansas.  We’ll save the debate on whether or not the win justified a field storming and tearing down of the goal posts for another time.  Now, on to the real reason for today’s article, the other team from the Sunshine State.

Kansas State picked up a 33-31 victory as well on Saturday in a nerve rattling contest with Gary Patterson’s TCU Horned Frogs.  The game was a back and forth affair with the Cats’ Jack Cantele putting KSU ahead for good with just 3 seconds remaining, knocking in a  41 yard field goal.  The win gave K-State its sixth win of the season making the Cats bowl eligible once again.

It’s hard to get too excited in the midst of a 6-4 season after the magic carpet ride that Optimus Klein and company took us Aggievillians on last year, but Wildcat Nation has found something to be proud of these last few weeks.  This year’s crew dropped a game to an FCS opponent and pooped away three potential victories against the class of the conference when Big 12 play opened up.  Many teams, including Wildcat teams that took the field during the “dark ages” of the reign of Ron Prince, would have packed it in.  The ageless wonder, Bill Snyder, has a little fire (not the Friday kind) left though, and the Cats have responded (to Snyder, not our Friday posts).  Four straight victories have brought respectability back to Manhattan.  The defense is starting to come around, despite desperately needing Ty Zimmerman to stop getting injured.  I’m still not a huge fan of the dual quarterback system, but Bill has made it work yet again, and both signal callers have had some major bright spots over the last few weeks.

If K-State can continue to build on their recent success, they could finish 8-4 and find themselves in a decent bowl game.  With what likely looms ahead for the hardwood incarnation of the Cats, K-State fans should soak in all of the joy that they can out of these next few weeks.  We’ll continue to hope that Bruce Webber figures things out, but I think pulling for an upset over the Sooners and another monkey stomping of our cross-state rivals is a much more realistic aspiration.

-Old Guy Briz