Even the players are mad about the clock

Yesterday, or last night, rather, Derek checked in with a review of what was wild, wacky, and weird in week five. Aren’t you glad he’s back? Of course you are.

As for news from places other than here:

Football

It’s not often you see players publicly commenting on a problem which isn’t strictly one in which the players themselves need to do better. So you may be forgiven for raising your eyebrow at the comments of Jesse Ertz and Charles Jones regarding the clock management issues which have plagued the Wildcats against both of their major opponents this season, as reported by Kellis Robinett of the Star.

For his part, Ertz tries to put it on himself, but we have one question: shouldn’t it be obvious to the coaching staff that getting play calls changed is a bit more difficult on the road, for the very reasons Ertz mentions? And shouldn’t it then be incumbent on the staff to get those plays in a few seconds earlier on the road?

The rest of today’s post-game content all comes from the enemy camp. Garrett Kroeger, writing for Today’s U, cheerleads the West Virginia bandwagon while accurately describing how the Mountaineers turned Snyderball against Snyder. (We would, however, like to point out to Garrett that McCrane’s miss had less to do with pressure and more to do with distance.)

At the Daily Athæneum, Chris Jackson ascribes the Mountaineer win to grit, which is just funny; we’d argue that grit isn’t necessary to beat the conference’s eighth-best team, which is where Jackson ranked the Wildcats in his power rankings.

Finally, at least on the football front, the Chiefs got absolutely obliterated last night by the Steelers. But over there on the evil side of the offensive line was an old friend, as B.J. Finney earned his first career start (Blair Kerkhoff, Star).

Soccer

The ladies won on Friday, dispatching UMKC, which meant they started yesterday on a three-game unbeaten streak and having won back-to-back games for the first time. Unfortunately, in a city which doesn’t exist, the streaks both came to an end with a one-nil defeat at Drake.

Next up? The Wildcats’ only game this season against a Big 12 opponent, although it’s technically a non-conference game for both teams. Friday, K-State (4-6-3) travels to Austin, where the Longhorns await. Never fear; Texas is winless in conference play, and is only 6-6-1 overall after a 1-0 loss to Kansas yesterday. It’s not like this is leaping into a tree-chipper.