I am sooo reluctant to write this, but I can’t put it off any longer: the Kansas State Wildcats are the best story in sports right now.
Blech.
Who, even among the most optimistic of K-Staters, saw this coming? With two winnable games left, the Wildcats are almost certainly going to play in the BCS title game. If they luck out, it will be against a good, but not ready for prime time, Notre Dame team. If that happens I might just have to take a trip out of the country the night of the championship game. I don’t think I could deal with that matchup.
Anyways…I know I wasn’t the only one who thought it was more than a little sad when Bill Snyder came out of retirement to try to get K-State back on track after the Ron Prince experiment. Sad that the program was so toxic that Snyder felt he had to come clean it up. Sad that he couldn’t say no just three years after retiring to “be with his family.”
But almost immediately he turned it around. If there was any doubt, the old man is a witch. And now he has them in the driver’s seat for a title game appearance. No pesky conference championship game to get in the way, as it did in 1998. No top 10 team to close out their schedule. Just a couple soft teams from Texas that won’t be able to stop their offense. Nutso.
And then there’s Collin Klein. I hate to say it, but I really like watching the guy play. He’s not lightning fast. He doesn’t have a cannon for an arm. But he makes play after play, bouncing off tackles, hitting the hole at the right time, taking the proper angle to avoid a tackler and get another 10 yards. Nothing he does is fancy or screams can’t miss NFL star. Yet he’s the turbine that makes a 10-0 team go.
Perhaps it would be different if I was still living in Kansas City and had to deal with obnoxious K-State fans, but I’m finding it hard to hate this team. That doesn’t mean I’m pulling for them. On the contrary, I’d love it if Baylor or Texas spoiled their shot at the title. Or if they make it that far, Oregon, Notre Dame, or some random SEC that sneaks in destroys them in the BCS title game.
There. I said it. I don’t know that I feel any better, but I had to get it out.
ↁ