SLATE: Forget basketball, Skylar Thompson’s sticking around

A horrible weekend for Kansas State Wildcats sports was basically erased on Sunday afternoon when senior quarterback Skylar Thompson hit the “tweet” button.

In case that embed doesn’t display properly, the short version is this: Thompson will be taking advantage of the COVID waiver and returning for a fifth season, which will give Will Howard and Jake Rubley a year to ripen in the system and have a solid competition in 2022.

Thompson will enter 2021 with 5.021 career passing yards, seventh all-time in Wildcat history. However, it is not even remotely out of the realm of possibility that on September 4 against Stanford Cardinal Thompson will vault all the way to fourth all-time; he’s only 232 yards short of Chad May. He needs 1,187 yards to catch Lynn Dickey for second place, although becoming the school’s all-time leader might be out of reach as he trails Josh Freeman by 3,057.

Thompson is similarly situation on the career passing touchdown list, in seventh place with 30. It’s almost impossible to imagine him not moving into the top four by the time conference play starts, and a solid season could well result in his topping the list; he’s only 14 shy of Freeman. Thompson will almost certainly move into the top ten in rushing touchdowns next season as well, having 22 for his career, one behind a guy named Michael Bishop. A repeat of 2019 would move Thompson to fourth, behind only Collin Klein, Darren Sproles, and Ell Roberson.

Finally, Thompson ranks fifth in total offense at 6,104 yards; a repeat of 2019 would make him the school’s all-time leader, easily passing Freeman and his 8.421 career yards.

So forget all about basketball for awhile and blissfully think of next fall. At least there’s some hope there.

Okay, awhile is over. Two other Wildcats announced this weekend that they’d be forgoing their extra year of eligibility to try and go pro: Harry Trotter and Justin Hughes.

Basketball

Saturday night, K-State got annihilated 100-69 by Baylor at Bramlage. Luke Thompson, hero to us all, endured the pain to provide your recap. They’ll host Jacksonville this afternoon at 1:00 on ESPN+.

Friday, the women blew a three-point halftime lead and got run out of Hilton in a 91-69 loss to Iowa State. They’ll host #22 Texas tonight at 7:00, also on ESPN+.

That’ll do it for today. Only four more sleeps until Santa, folks. Be good, or he’ll take that 2021 Lexus back to the North Pole.

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