Slate: K-State’s Openness Leads to More Energy.

Football

We’re in the thick of Spring Football and with the new open door policy from K-State Football we have a bunch of football stories for your Thursday reading.

We’ll start with some bad news. Linebacker Justin Hughes suffered an injury which will likely sideline him for the entire 2019 season. It’s a difficult set back for the fifth year player as coaches raved about his performance during spring ball. (Kellis Robinett, Wichita Eagle)

Center is usually the captain of the offensive line, as they are responsible for calling out assignments, and protections to the rest of the line, and it’s no different under Chris Klieman. Thankfully, the Wildcats have Adam Holtorf, a two-year starter at center, who is helping the Wildcats learn the new terminology under O-line coach Conner Riley. (Arne Creen, Salina Journal)

The openness and social media awareness from Kansas State football is a breath of fresh air. And with that fresh air comes new energy, particularly from cornerbacks coach Van Malone. Malone is one of the best follows on twitter and his recent mic’d up segment was one of the best so far this spring. (Kellis Robinett, KC Star)

We’ll finish football with some media news. Each Big 12 team has individual control over third-tier media rights which is why one non-conference game each season has been on kstatesportswatch app thing for a number of years. That’s changing this season as the Big 12 conference announced Wednesday that ESPN will take over those rights. That means that rather than streaming the game via K-state’s network, that ESPN+ will take over those streams. By 2020 all teams except Texas and Oklahoma will be subject to the new agreement. (Blair Kerkhoff, KC Star)

Baseball

Junior Caleb Littlejim hit a two-run homer, and pitched six-inning of one-run baseball to lead the Wildcats past Omaha in last nights non-conference game at Tointon Family Stadium. (Greg Woods, Manhattan Mercury)