Gameday!

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!?

A new season of Kansas State football kicks off at Bill Snyder Family Stadium this evening, when the Wildcats take on Nicholls at 6 PM. The game will be available online via ESPN+, a subscription service, with radio coverage on the KStateSportsNetwork. For all the details about the game, check out this How To Watch post.

This is the first game of the season for both teams, and also the first-ever meeting for Kansas State and Nicholls. As always, TB kicks the tires and leans purple, but just a little.

It is not, of course, just the start of a new season. The program is entering a whole new era, with a new staff and a new attitude. When he was first introduced to the team back in December, head coach Chris Klieman told the players “look, this is your team.” The players responded by taking ownership of the squad and by demonstrating sound leadership. (Corbin McGuire, K-State Sports Extra).

The players have plenty to prove on the field, but the stakes are even higher for Klieman and for Gene Taylor, the athletic director who brought Klieman to Manhattan. For his part though, Taylor has faith in Klieman and his unshakeable confidence in himself and in his team (Ryan Black, Manhattan Mercury).

In the weekly K-State Q&A, there’s plenty of noise about Kansas State hosting marquee non-conference games at neutral sites, about the new/freshmen players who will take the field, and celebrating a decade of beat-writing for the Wildcats (Kellis Robinett, Wichita Eagle).

Nobody is entirely sure what we’ll see on the field in this first game. The offensive coordinators have said they don’t believe in keeping things vanilla for the first game. The defense—particularly on the defensive line—appears to be set for good things. And special teams? Well, Phillip Brooks will be returning kicks and punts for the Wildcats, and he won the job by being faster and more consistent than anyone else (Black, Mercury).

There’s plenty of other college football action on this first weekend of the 2019 season. If you do nothing else today, remember to bookmark the only college football schedule you will ever need:

Let’s go, Cats!