K-State Slate: 7.10.15 - Kicking things into gear

We're getting closer to kickoff. BracketCat reminds us we're less than 58 days away with a profile of #58 linebacker Trent Tanking, who is also in the running for best football name on the team.

KSUEMAW! takes an early look at future opponent Oklahoma State.

Finally, we learned yesterday that Kansas State president Kirk Schulz is kind of a big deal in the world of college athletics (Jon Solomon, CBSSports).

Kansas State kicker Matthew McCrane is on the watchlist for the 2015 Lou Groza Award. He is the ninth Wildcat to be named to the list and the third in the last four years. McCrane, who took over kicking duties midway through the 2014 season, led the nation in field goal attempts (18-of-19) and scored 94 total points, shattering the single-season school record of 54 set by some freshman named Martin Gramatica way back in 1994.

Should Kansas State be on upset alert in the first few weeks of the season? Yes, if Louisiana Tech has anything to say about it. But as noted in this article, Skip Holtz is not Bill Snyder, even with a few extra days to prepare (Allan Taylor, WV MetroNews).

Week 5 predictions are up at ESPN's Big 12 blog, where Oklahoma State is expected to blow out Kansas State 31-14 (Max Olson, ESPN). The only interesting note here is that Olson assumes Alex Delton will get the nod at quarterback. We'll see.

Speaking of Oklahoma State, Grant Thome and EMAWdio preview the 2015 version of the Cowboys in a podcast with Kyle Porter of Pistolsfiringblog.com.

Veteran pitching coach Sean McCann has returned to the Kansas State coaching staff. An original member of Brad Hill's staff, McCann took a break from coaching for four years. With the return of both McCann and former Texas A&M assistant Andy Sawyers last year, Kansas State baseball will try to recapture the spark of 2013, their best season to date.