K-State Slate: 7.8.15 - Of watch lists and preseason teams

We had plenty of real content here yesterday. First up, BracketCat's roster countdown entered its third month with a familiar face: #60 defensive tackle Will Geary. Last year, Geary led the team in tackles with 30 while also making it to the Academic All-Big 12 first team.

Ian Boyd takes a closer look at Kansas State's defensive schemes. Of note, he thinks the Wildcats are poised to have one of the best defenses in the Big 12 this season.

Finally, Bill Snyder sat down for a chat with Taylor Zarzour and Greg McElroy of Sirius XM and offered his wisdom on how to build a program along with a few choice Snyder-isms about "young people."

Football season is practically around the corner, which means there is plenty of prognostication out there right now. First, the watchlist for the Bednarik Award for college football's Defensive Player of the Year was announced yesterday, along with the watch list for the Maxwell Award for college football's Player of the Year. Senior safety Dante Barnett is one of 80 players on the Bednarik watchlist, and this marks the sixth time--and the fifth time in the last four seasons--that a Wildcat has featured on the watch list. Past honorees include Chris Canty (finalist in 1996), Arthur Brown (semifinalist in 2012), Nigel Malone (watchlist in 2012), Ty Zimmerman (watchlist in 2013) and Ryan Mueller (watchlist in 2014). No Kansas State players are featured on the Maxwell Award watchlist.

Speaking of defensive players, here's an early compilation of the Big 12's best defensive players (Timothy Everson, K-State Collegian).

Meanwhile, our friends at Crimson & Cream Machine run down the best running backs in the conference, and Kansas State is pretty far down the list, a predictable consequence of the running game being almost non-existent last season.

In the sort of way-too-early handwringing that marks the preseason, we prognosticate on who would win a three-way Big 12 tie. (Berry Tramel, The Oklahoman).

Here's a prediction that Kansas State's non-conference game against Louisiana Tech could be almost too close for comfort (Max Olson, ESPN).

Finally, Bill Connelly asks the important question in his 2015 preview of Kansas State: does Bill Snyder have one more big year left (and it's probably not 2015)?