Happy New Year! We wish you all much health, wealth, joy and peace in the new year, and plenty of Wildcat victories too.
This place was hopping yesterday! First up, Jon Morse and Luke Thompson dropped the usual Wednesday FEPO action, but this time with a distinct playoff flavor. Jon teamed up with gbruin from Bruins Nation for the Alamo Bowl Q&A, and also answered questions for their site. Meanwhile, BracketCat caught up with Wildcats in the NFL for Week 17, including playoff-bound Jordy Nelson and Cornelius Lucas. Finally, here's your all-important How to Watch post for the Alamo Bowl, with all the TV and radio listings information you could possibly need.
Ryan Mueller is ready for UCLA. He's also ready to put last year's premature Gatorade incident to bed, even if Bill Snyder has long since forgiven him. (Kellis Robinett, Kansas City Star (via Hays Daily News)) The two teams playing in the Alamo Bowl are not native to Texas, but could still bring millions of dollars to San Antonio, thanks in large part to the sea of purple that has rolled into the city. (Ashlei King, FOX San Antonio) The team is focused, but also having a lot of fun on this trip. (Kelly McHugh, K-State Sports Extra) The Wildcats are focused on finishing the season right, i.e. with a win, as suggested in this preview. (Wendell Barnhouse, Big12Sports.com) The Collegian has full coverage of Day 1 of the pre-game events at the Alamo Bowl. (Tate Steinlage, K-State Collegian) Dana Dimel is perfectly happy to be Kansas State's offensive coordinator. (Kellis Robinett and Tony Adame, Wichita Eagle) Meanwhile, his counterpart on the Bruins sideline, Noel Mazzone, seems impressed with the Kansas State defense. (Timothy Everson, K-State Collegian) For Abilene natives and lifelong teammates Cody Whitehair and Curry Sexton, this game is goodbye, as the senior Sexton moves on to the next phase of his life. (Todd Pittenger, KSAL) It's also goodbye for B.J. Finney, but nobody is quite ready for that. (Kellis Robinett, Kansas City Star) Is Jake Waters a good NFL prospect? Maybe, but with just ten more attempts in the bowl game, Waters will have slung the ball more than any other passer in the Snyder era. (Kevin Haskin, Topeka Capital-Journal) The Waters-Brett Hundley matchup may be one of the best quarterback battles of this bowl season. (Stanley Kay, SI.com) Speaking of Hundley, he's been getting tips from some guy named Donovan McNabb. (Tate Steinlage, K-State Collegian) There are some great matchups on the bowl card today. The mothership counsels fans to stop worrying about conference narratives and just enjoy the games. I don't know about you, but putting the SEC West Is Best meme to bed is actually enhancing my enjoyment of the games.
So that happened. Kansas State lost another non-conference game, this time to Georgia 50-46, despite a late surge, and 17 second half points from Thomas Gipson. While we don't want to remind you of this game, here are the relevant recaps: K-State SID (not attributed); Associated Press (via ESPN); Wichita Eagle (Jeffrey Lutz); Topeka Capital-Journal (Tim Bisel); and last but definitely not least, our own TheBigE relives the game, complete with offensive ineptitude and the improbable comeback.
Now that 2014 is in the books, it's time to look back on another good but not necessarily great season of Wildcats volleyball with this 2014 review.