SLATE: Friday Potpourri

There’s no real headline story this morning, so we’ll dive right into the usual Friday potpourri of pre-game penmanship.

Your appetizer: quotes from yesterday’s media availability featuring Kansas State offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham and defensive coordinator Scottie “Oh, That Beard” Hazelton. Highlights include Messingham pointing to Blaise Gammon as someone who’s played perfect football so far and Hazelton praising Kyle Ball’s performance against Mississippi State and admitting that the one time the defense was gassed in that game was after AJ Parker ‘s fumble. Hazleton also does not want you to assume that a decent performance against Kylin Hill is necessarily going to translate to a certainty of containing Oklahoma State‘s Chuba Hubbard.

Earlier this morning, TB kicked the tires as is his wont.

At the Star, Vahe Gregorian dives into how Chris Klieman has energized the program. His colleague Kellis Robinett has his weekly Q&A up over at the Eagle, in which he probably enraged the entire Cowboy fanbase by calling Eskimo Joe’s nothing special.

Today’s Sports Extra focuses on defensive end Kyle Ball as Corbin McGuire examines what his leadership has meant to the defense.

Via FOX, the AP’s Dave Skretta talks about K-State’s mo’ huddle offense.

ESPN’s Sam Khan Jr. discusses how K-State may attack the Cowboys, even though the headline is the exact opposite of the story.

Podcasts! Ryan Black and Sean Collins of the Mercury drop the second-ever episode of Wildcat Paws, and promise the technical issues that plagued the first one are taken care of. Our pals over at Cowboys Ride for Free also dropped their weekly show, in which Joel Penfield and Philip Slaven chat with the Eagle’s Hayden Barber, who it turns out is a Cowboy himself. HRM.

Elsewhere in SB Nation-land, Burnt Orange Nation has power rankings from Evan Kirschner, and... they’re homerrific.

Basketball

Back at the Merc, Black checked in with Bruce Weber who hasn’t got much to say about shenanigans down the river, but he is surprised about Georgia Tech receiving a tournament ban for this coming spring.

Soccer

Oh, what could have been. After ninety minutes at Buser Family Park in K-State’s Big 12 opener, the Wildcats hadn’t scored — but neither had their guests, the defending league champs from Baylor. Ten minutes later, the first overtime expired and there was still no score. Alas, Giuliana Cunningham headed an Ally Henderson corner into the net at the 102-minute mark, and the Bears escaped Manhattan with a 1-0 win.

Still, for the fledgling K-State program, there’s a lot to take away from that effort. They’ll try to do something with that on Sunday afternoon against Texas.

Volleyball

Tomorrow, the Cats (5-6) will be in Fort Worth to take on TCU (5-7) at 4:00. No video, but you can listen at kstatesports.com.

A reminder for those of you living under a rock: tomorrow’s game against the Cowboys will only be available on ESPN+, and you can sign up here if you haven’t already.

Bring on the Cats has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Bring on the Cats and SB Nation may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our guiding principles.