Slate: Kansas State Enters Final Week of Preparation for Football Opener

August 26, and Kansas State remains undefeated in athletic competition for the 2018-2019 school year. How long can we keep this going?

Meanwhile, the football team enters its final week of practice before the opening game next Saturday against South Dakota. Soccer has started 3-0, and the volleyball team started its season off on the right foot late last night.

Volleyball

The volleyball squad finally got its season started in hurricane-ravaged Hawaii, sweeping the Rainbow Warriors 25-21, 29-27, 25-20 in a match that was closed to the public. Kylee Zumach led the ‘Cats with 19 kills and two blocks. Alyssa Schultejans and Peyton Williams chipped in 11 and 9 kills, respectively. Sarah Dixon posted 37 assists, and Devan Fairfield led the team with 16 digs.

Playing in a closed arena may have been a big deal. Hawaii ranked second in attendance last year, drawing an average of 6,300 fans per home match. The Wildcats were 10-19 last year, but with six seniors on the roster, they are planning to reverse their fortunes this year. (Greg Woods, the Mercury)

Football

Arne Green at the Capital-Journal (subscription now positively required) looked at two questions, two players and two pivotal match-ups for the football team this year. The questions focused on who would start at quarterback and what impact the new coordinators would have on the season. Running back Alex Barnes and defensive end Reggie Walker get the attention as key players, and the games of greatest impact, in Green’s view, are the Mississippi State and West Virginia contests.

In honor of seven days until kickoff, BracketCat featured Willie Isaiah “Speedy” Zuber. Early this morning, he presented junior defensive back Johnathan Durham.

You can never trust bloggers. They write whatever nonsense they want, the only goal sometimes being to stoke outrage far and wide. (Says the blogger.) Case Keefer, who blogs for the Vegas Sun, predicted the win totals of Big 12 teams, tabbing Baylor at over-6, Texas over-8.5 and K-State under-6. At least he had the sense to predict KU under-3. He provided his contact in the article, so you can register your outrage, if that’s your thing.

Chuck Carlton, in the Dallas Morning News’ SportsDay section, asked five questions about the Big 12. None of those questions or the answers to them involved K-State. Which means, of course, that we have everyone exactly where we want them.

Question for the day: Is our optimism foolish? Or will the rest of the world live to regret prematurely dismissing this K-State team?