Latest / Cocaine Willie / How GOOD Can K-State’s Offense Be in 2026? | Full Offensive + OL Preview (S5//E7)
Transcript
- 0:00What's up, everybody? You're listening to yet another
- 0:02edition of Cocaine Willie, the official K State representative
- 0:06on the college Huddle. I'm your commissioner, Bob
- 0:08Trollsby and I will shortly be joined by Chef Andre Napier, the
- 0:13good Chef Andre Napier as we cover the offensive line in what
- 0:17is part three of our three-part series covering offensive
- 0:21position groups for the 2026 K State football team.
- 0:24If you haven't already listened to parts one and two-part 1
- 0:27covered on quarterback and running back position groups and
- 0:31then Part 2 is covering the wide receiver and tight end position
- 0:34group. So if you haven't already
- 0:36listened to those, please go back and give those a listen.
- 0:39If you are listening to this and you're excited to hear about the
- 0:42offensive line and only the offensive line, I commend you.
- 0:46But yeah, without further ado, I'm going to hand it over to
- 0:49myself and Chef to talk offensive line.
- 0:51But before we do that, shout out to our sponsors, Auntie Maze and
- 0:55Heartland Beef connection. We're going to do some ad reads
- 0:58in there. So so enjoy that stuff while we
- 0:59have it. And if you haven't already liked
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- 1:08Give us a rating. We love it helps us out
- 1:11tremendously, more than you can ever know.
- 1:13But we appreciate the help. And without further ado, here is
- 1:17Chef and myself talking about the big boys upfront.
- 1:20The beef. The Heartland beef.
- 1:25Before we get into the episode itself, this beer crack.
- 1:29Not at all. It is it is a, it is a Stella.
- 1:32So not quite a beer crack. This beer crack in a in a Stella
- 1:39is is brought to you by Auntie Maze Parlor, located at 616 N
- 1:4312th St. in the heart of Aggieville in Manhattan, KS.
- 1:46Auntie Maze has been in business for 70.
- 1:50Well, no, not 74. I keep always messing that up.
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- 2:01game days and school nights alike.
- 2:03Just taking a quick peek at their events page here.
- 2:06Got trivia smack down tonight, Wednesday, August 12th.
- 2:09Just keep in mind they're doing this on a regular basis, so if
- 2:12you missed it tonight you can always go another time.
- 2:15Nathan Page's underground guitar pole tomorrow, Thursday August
- 2:1913th as we record this on Wednesday the 12th.
- 2:22And then we've got Red Cate with delicious Friction on Thursday,
- 2:27August 20th. And then the the monthly Now Pie
- 2:31and cocktails with their pie. Tuesday, August 25th.
- 2:36That one is sold out. So if you're trying to get in
- 2:38that you are a little too late. But always check out Auntie
- 2:43maze.com if you want to see a full list of their upcoming
- 2:46events. Other cocktail of the week as
- 2:48well this week. What do we have?
- 2:51Give it to me. Give it to me.
- 2:54It is the Nashville Brown Derby. 04 rows of.
- 2:59Urban grapefruit juice and Nashville hot honey.
- 3:03Oh, I. Don't know.
- 3:04Hold up. I don't know.
- 3:08That sounds great. Doesn't.
- 3:10It whiskey sour. Yeah, the grapefruit juice a
- 3:13little too sour for me. That's like on the far end of
- 3:17the sour spectrum. OK.
- 3:19That's the tangiest of the Tang Shout out to Coach Tang.
- 3:22Well, we do not give him shout outs on this podcast anymore.
- 3:26We no longer subscribe to him and his Baylor ways.
- 3:30Anyway, check out Auntie Mays. They're doing all sorts of crazy
- 3:33stuff during the during the school year, during the academic
- 3:37year, during football season and basketball season.
- 3:39They're riding with us through another academic in in sports
- 3:43year here. So we're super stoked to have
- 3:45our friend Jeff and Auntie Maze back on board.
- 3:47But give them a look. Auntie maze.com, 616 N 12th St.
- 3:52in Aggieville. Be sure to tell them cocaine
- 3:55Willy sent you. All right, The final position
- 3:58group of the night offensive line, the Beef presented by
- 4:02Heartland Beef Connection projected too deep.
- 4:05Just taking a quick stab at it here.
- 4:07It's really tough to project it too deep when really all you
- 4:10know for sure is your center, your left guard and your left
- 4:13tackle, which are Delvin Morris at center, more than likely
- 4:17Tanner Morley at left guard and John Pastori left tackle.
- 4:21Right guard and right tackle for all intents and purposes are
- 4:25completely up for grabs at this point and getting the George
- 4:28Fitzpatrick update that we got yesterday is not very
- 4:32encouraging. I mean, I saw, I saw him moving
- 4:35around in practice. There's some highlights of him
- 4:38moving around in practice. He he looks all right.
- 4:41I, this is the, and I hate speculating on like what the
- 4:45injury was. And I mean, there's rumblings of
- 4:47what it was and all this stuff, but if it's lingering around
- 4:54this long, that's where I agree with you that it, it's not
- 4:58looking good. Like, will you ever be the
- 5:01player you were? I don't know.
- 5:03And, and, and that's, that's where you have to hold your
- 5:06breath and be like, can he start?
- 5:08Because I, I think it's actually only one position that's up for
- 5:11grabs right now. I think it's on the right guard.
- 5:16OK. I think I love you got.
- 5:19You got Gus at right tackle. I think I have Gus at right
- 5:22tackle. OK, Gus Hawkins, all right.
- 5:25So out of the right. So OK, we'll just go left to
- 5:29right again. So John Pastori, Tanner Morley,
- 5:32Delvin Morris, Center, Who do you have at right guard?
- 5:41I, I think it's going to be what's, what's his name, Dylan.
- 5:45Dylan Villa Rule Villa. Rule Villa Raul Villa Rai is it?
- 5:50I've got the media, I've got the media, I've got the media.
- 5:52Is it Hispanic like Villa Villa that Villa Raul?
- 5:56Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on, I've got the
- 6:00pronunciation Villa rule villa. Rule Villa rule.
- 6:03OK Villa rule Dylan Villa rule. I mean, he played last year at
- 6:12he got run as a true freshman. So I, I think I think he has the
- 6:18ability to start at right guard. I would love, honestly, I'd like
- 6:21it for be Keaton. I like I would like for it to be
- 6:24Keaton Jones. If you have a he reminds me of a
- 6:30stronger Poitier prior to the injuries.
- 6:36OK, that's where I that's where I see him like somebody that is
- 6:42not necessarily like a big sloppy right guard, but like a
- 6:46absolute fit, huge lower half tree trunk kind of legs and
- 6:52pushes people out of the way like double teaming with a a
- 6:55center and putting his shoulder pads right in somebody's rib
- 6:59cage. That's kind of where I see
- 7:02Keaton at, but from what I've heard Dylanville Rule is a
- 7:08complete player. Like he does it all and he can
- 7:12he can get it and I heard he can play center.
- 7:16I love that. I love that.
- 7:18So and and currently what was, what is it Delvin Morris
- 7:22currently kind of slated in at center.
- 7:24He's the Akron transfer if I remember.
- 7:26Right. Yes.
- 7:28So he's coming in, he's got I think 20 or 30 games started at
- 7:31this point. So he's a pretty experienced guy
- 7:34coming in granted from the Mack not to slight the Mack but I
- 7:37would take anyone with with 3030 games started or.
- 7:41It's going to be, it's going to be interesting.
- 7:43It's going to be interesting. This is going to be the first
- 7:45season I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, this is the first
- 7:50season in probably 10 plus years that we haven't had a former
- 7:55walk on start at center. Oh, really?
- 8:01Sam hacked. Sam hacked, right?
- 8:03Yeah, good guy. Noah Johnson before that.
- 8:07Noah Johnson. Then there was there was one
- 8:12actually in between Sam Heck and Noah Johnson.
- 8:15I think we're going to sound like a bunch of K State noobs
- 8:20not knowing this off the top of our heads.
- 8:22Yeah. I'm I'm blanking my my memory is
- 8:25is going. But I'll do some Googling.
- 8:29But I I'm almost 100% sure that this is like our first first
- 8:35scholarship, like pure first scholarship center that we
- 8:39haven't like had to put on scholarship after the fact.
- 8:43Wow. Yeah, maybe maybe the position
- 8:44will be cursed now that we don't have a a scholarship athlete or
- 8:47now that we do have a scholarship athlete at at
- 8:49starting Center for. So for for the offensive line,
- 8:53we kind of went through who who you have slotted in as that
- 8:57first unit. Who do you think are some of the
- 8:59most likely candidates to rotate in?
- 9:01We've seen a lot of rotation with these offensive lines over
- 9:04the last couple of years. Obviously a lot of guys that get
- 9:07a lot of good solid playing time as part of that rotation.
- 9:11And you bring in some other guys like I mean Kyle Rockers has
- 9:15been around the program for a while.
- 9:18Like who? Who do you think is going to be
- 9:20rotating in at some of those other positions on the line?
- 9:23I think Kyle Rockers has a the chance to do it.
- 9:26I think he's positioned versatile.
- 9:28I think obviously he's basically been locking down trying to get
- 9:32a starting center position, but I think he can play guard.
- 9:37We have a ton of those positions in it and that's what you're
- 9:41going to ask me about the the concerns later.
- 9:45We have so many it seems like players that can play almost
- 9:50every position and I feel like that could be a negative.
- 9:54Like no one really has their true like this.
- 9:58This is what I do kind of thing because if if let's say George
- 10:04Fitzpatrick is 100% and he's back to the talent that we
- 10:10thought he was going to be after transferring from Ohio State.
- 10:14And what do you do with Gus Hawkins?
- 10:18Can he kick into guard? And, and I think he probably
- 10:21could. And just where does that leave
- 10:25everybody else? It it just, it seems like we
- 10:28have so many guys that could play every position that like
- 10:32it's somewhat of a negative that I don't think like we're getting
- 10:37the full potential out of some of these players.
- 10:40I don't, I don't know if it maybe I'm crazy, but like I
- 10:45think the position versatility thing might be a little
- 10:48overblown every once in a while and I don't, you know, it's just
- 10:54like, are you a Sinner or are you not?
- 10:58Well, OK, Cooper BB played every position on the line except for
- 11:03center and now it's. So did center.
- 11:04So yeah. So did Dalton rise.
- 11:07There's been, and I feel like everybody wants to be that.
- 11:10They've seen these unicorns like Cooper BB could play every
- 11:13position. Dalton Reisner could play every
- 11:15position on the line. Yeah, but you're not them.
- 11:19Like you got to need to. You need to learn how to play
- 11:22right guard. That's what you need to do.
- 11:24We need to be able to have enough.
- 11:26We have so much depth, but like I feel like they're not locking
- 11:30down a position and then maybe I'm completely wrong, maybe I'm
- 11:34an idiot, I don't know. But that's just where my concern
- 11:36goes to like, OK, do we have a true right guard or are they
- 11:41trying to be something else? OK, Charlie Adams.
- 11:46Charlie Adams played tackle. He played tackle for was he a
- 11:51wasn't he a JUCO guy or did he transfer from he transferred
- 11:57from Auburn. No, that was Tyler Johnson that.
- 11:59Charlie Adams was Cal Poly. OK, Auburn was Tyler Johnson.
- 12:04Yeah, he wasn't. He wasn't JUCO but I think
- 12:07Charlie Adams played tackle and at Cal Cal Poly.
- 12:11And then you've got Chase Duarte, who followed followed
- 12:14our guy Mike Schmidt from San Diego State.
- 12:17And what position does he play? That's what I'm saying, like is
- 12:21he a guard? Is he not?
- 12:22I don't know. And and obviously they know
- 12:25they're in the facility with these guys, but I feel like the
- 12:29cross training has gotten a little bit out of control and I
- 12:34could be maybe I'm a total doofus, like I maybe that's what
- 12:37you're supposed to do. But I feel like everybody wants
- 12:39to be that guy that oh, he's built like a guard, but he plays
- 12:44tackle and he could play a little.
- 12:45He takes some snaps at center, like come on, let's, let's,
- 12:48let's lock him down. Let's let's have him locked into
- 12:50this position. And if there's an emergency at
- 12:54right tackle, bring the other right tackle and don't bring our
- 12:57right guard into it. To bolster your point in a
- 13:02couple different ways, the reaction to most people from
- 13:05clients press conference yesterday when he was saying we
- 13:07have multiple guys doing double duty, like slotting in at
- 13:10defensive tackle, that raised a lot more eyebrows and red flags
- 13:14for people than it was. It's taken as a, as a like, hey,
- 13:19that's a great thing that they're doing that.
- 13:21And then secondly, we, you and I are both Chiefs fans.
- 13:26We've seen the Chiefs when they've had to slot in guys at
- 13:29guard or tackle that are not used to playing those positions.
- 13:33And it does not work out well when they do that.
- 13:37No, it's never works out well when they do that.
- 13:40So I, I would, I would, I would agree with you, but I, I, I
- 13:46think it's helpful to be able to have guys who can be versatile,
- 13:49but I think they should have their position that they play
- 13:53through that season be pretty solidified.
- 13:56I don't think you want to be, I don't think you want to be
- 13:58rotating a guy from right guard to right tackle or right guard
- 14:01to left guard like that. Just.
- 14:03Constantly, just like constantly like, like you have a guy.
- 14:07Do you trust? Like this is the thing.
- 14:10This is where I get, this is where, this is where I'm at.
- 14:13You say you have 9 or 10 like that was always the coin of
- 14:17phrase under climbing. Like you always have 9 or 10
- 14:21that we got to get 9 or 10 guys that can play OK, but why do we
- 14:25have 5 or 6 of them all playing multiple positions?
- 14:30If you got if you got 10 guys, there's five offensive line
- 14:33that's a 2 deep at every position, right?
- 14:35Or am I tripping? Like do it like that?
- 14:38Like if our left guard goes down, bring the guy that's left
- 14:41guard 2IN there, not right tackle 2.
- 14:44Bring him him over and now he's the starting right guard.
- 14:47That's how I think, but I could be a total doofus.
- 14:52Hey, we'll find out. I think we know I.
- 14:54Think we'll know pretty quickly if it's working or not.
- 14:57I think, I think we're going to maul on the offensive line.
- 15:01I think we're going to be super physical.
- 15:03I think Pastori, what's his name?
- 15:08Goddamn it, I'm not just Point Morley.
- 15:11Morley, Tanner Morley. That's he's got.
- 15:14I've cleaned him. Huge.
- 15:16I mean, these are humongous human beings like Pastori might
- 15:20be all of 6 foot 8 and Morley's like 6 foot 6 guard and they're
- 15:25like 320 lbs. Now that Morris in that center
- 15:30is probably the frailest center that we've had in a long time,
- 15:36but I think he's agile enough to pull at center, which
- 15:42traditionally at K State, we love doing it.
- 15:45We love pulling our sinners. So he's probably even after we
- 15:54figure out who the right guard is, I think Morris is probably
- 15:57going to be the the biggest question mark and has the
- 16:02biggest target in terms of we're all looking at him.
- 16:06Can he hold up his end? And I think he probably can.
- 16:12So what do you think is the biggest strength of this room,
- 16:16your concern, you've already voiced it.
- 16:18It's kind of this positional versatility if you think might
- 16:21actually work against us here. My biggest concern, I would say
- 16:25is probably just we're only returning 1 starter from last
- 16:29year. So there's not a whole lot of
- 16:31industry there that we know of. How quickly are these guys going
- 16:34to be able to gel throughout the season?
- 16:36Will Mike Schmidt be able to really commandeer that group and
- 16:40and get them to kind of adhere together for lack of a better
- 16:44way to to put it, the the jelling, obviously the O line is
- 16:49it get is what gets talked about a lot.
- 16:51But when you when you think about strengths of this room,
- 16:53what, what do you think are the biggest strengths they have so
- 16:55far? Well, I love the size outside of
- 17:00Morris. I think, like I said, I think
- 17:02we're going to mall. I think this could with Avery
- 17:10Johnson. He didn't take a ton of sacks
- 17:13last year. I think with his with his
- 17:18ability to get outside the pocket, with his ability to get
- 17:22outside the pocket play action is going to be huge.
- 17:25So I think the the threat of the run game leading into the pass
- 17:30protection, I think this unit could have a lot of people on
- 17:34edge and it's going to be interesting to see how people
- 17:37attack it, especially if we're going that 12 personnel.
- 17:40Do they bring up a lot of defensive lineman, more
- 17:43linebackers? And I think if we're be able to
- 17:48Rd. grade and do all those things that I think we can
- 17:52physically, we're going to wear down a lot of teams.
- 17:54So that I think our biggest strength is going to be our
- 17:57physicality. We're huge.
- 18:00We're we're a big offensive line.
- 18:02So I I'm excited to see us just push people back on the
- 18:06especially on that left side, just a a nice zone to the left
- 18:10and we get to the second level and we're just putting people in
- 18:13the dirt. I just can't wait.
- 18:15Yeah. K State was second in the Big 12
- 18:17last year in sacks against with only allowing one point O 8
- 18:22sacks per game, which is pretty good.
- 18:24But that does not tell the whole story like things like run
- 18:27blocking, positional battle. So we we talked about right
- 18:31guard, we talked about right tackle.
- 18:35We don't need to to belabor that any further.
- 18:38Who do you think is the player on this offensive line who could
- 18:41change everything? It's got to be George
- 18:46Fitzpatrick, right? Yeah.
- 18:49I mean, I I mean, that's who I have written down.
- 18:51Yeah, I think it has to be George.
- 18:53I mean, I met him in person. Super nice guy you met him like.
- 18:59Two weeks before the the medical thing happened.
- 19:02Too. Yeah, exactly.
- 19:03He looked fine to me. Crazy.
- 19:06Anyway, it wasn't me that did it, but he he changes everything
- 19:15because I got, I got Gus Hawkins penciled in as a starter.
- 19:19And I think Gus Hawkins has enough talent that you you can't
- 19:23keep him off the field. So where does he play?
- 19:26Does he play right guard? That's that position versatility
- 19:30that you love to see, but you also hate to see at the same
- 19:33time. For me, I guess I shouldn't say
- 19:36I hate to see it. Maybe I'm concerned about it.
- 19:38Maybe we're overdoing it. That's where I guess my concern
- 19:41is. But where does Gus Hawkins fit
- 19:43into that? But if you've got George
- 19:46Fitzpatrick back to his prime self that we were hearing so
- 19:50much about, like, and it's very rare that you hear rave reviews
- 19:54about an offensive lineman like coming in like, oh.
- 19:58Yeah. Especially from Kleiman, like
- 20:01Kleiman just never did that. Other than Cooper Beebe, that
- 20:05was the one guy that he would talk about.
- 20:07And maybe Poitier too, because he loved Poitier.
- 20:11And his injury and his comeback story.
- 20:13But he talked about George Fitzpatch like he's going to be
- 20:16an all conference player. And if he comes back to that and
- 20:19you've got an all conference left tackle, an all conference
- 20:22right tackle, and we and we assume an all conference left
- 20:27guard, like you got 3 all conference offensive lineman,
- 20:32you're going to be pretty fucking rock solid.
- 20:34Yeah. Absolutely.
- 20:36What would you say is your bold prediction for the offensive
- 20:40line? Bold prediction.
- 20:45Actually, this is OK. This is my bold prediction.
- 20:49We have one starting offensive lineman variation the entire
- 20:55season. We stick with it from Week 1 to
- 20:57Week 13. We don't change at all.
- 21:00OK, kind of like that. And it it would match with what
- 21:04coach client said yesterday and he said something along the
- 21:07lines of we're hoping to have our our starting five dial by
- 21:10next Friday. And if I mean, I would love to
- 21:14be able to keep that just and that's what we have.
- 21:19I would love that. I would love that.
- 21:22I would not be mad about that at all.
- 21:24I don't know if that is that bold.
- 21:25I mean it with injuries and all that stuff, it's, it's probably
- 21:29not going to happen, but like I would love to see like just the
- 21:32consistency. And that's how you and, and like
- 21:35you, you brought up that earlier, the cohesion between
- 21:38the offensive line. That was always a Charlie Dickey
- 21:40staple, that was always a Connor Riley staple.
- 21:43You start a little bit slow. You got everything together by
- 21:48around like week 5 or week 6 and then you start kicking in the
- 21:52hyperdrive. But those first few weeks are
- 21:54like, damn, do they know how to block anybody?
- 21:57But I don't know. I think, I think if we if we get
- 22:01this unit together and we do things the way that I think
- 22:06Colin Klein wants things done, we're going to run the piss out
- 22:10of the ball. They're going to lean on people
- 22:13and it it's going to look good. It's going to look good because
- 22:17they're, they're, they're big. When you have big offense
- 22:20alignment and you're moving people, that makes your offense
- 22:23just look like you're, you're insane.
- 22:26Like you'd like, Oh my God, that these guys are physically just
- 22:31wearing people out. That's what Big 12 championships
- 22:36are made of. Yeah, yeah.
- 22:39So remind me, I'm, I'm trying to look at his, at his file here in
- 22:42the media guide. But for for Mike Schmidt, remind
- 22:45me, was he, he was more of a running, he's running guy.
- 22:49He was more of a run. He's a run game coordinator.
- 22:53Yeah. How do you think?
- 22:54How do you think? Because I remember a lot of the
- 22:57discourse when he was hired was, oh, he's had really great
- 23:00running game, offensive lines that that do well in the running
- 23:04game, but they've not been as good at passing in passing
- 23:08offenses. Like how do you think that plays
- 23:11into things here with the offensive line?
- 23:13Are you going to rely on the chops that that Coach Klein has
- 23:15been able to prove as an offensive coordinator to kind of
- 23:18help up level Mike Schmidt as a as a position coach for the
- 23:21offensive line in the passing game?
- 23:24Or maybe even Brian Lepak having some experience doing both tight
- 23:27ends and offensive line over the years.
- 23:30That's what do you think? What do you think about Schmidt?
- 23:33That's an interesting take. I didn't even think about
- 23:38Lepak's insight onto both like having having done it last year
- 23:43and knowing almost like a lot of the guys that are in that room.
- 23:49That's interesting. I don't think for me, I think
- 23:54you have a philosophy on what you want your offensive lineman
- 23:58to look like. That's First things first is the
- 24:01kind of offensive lineman that you recruit.
- 24:04I think that's what his main objective is, trying to find
- 24:07guys that he what he wants them to look like because.
- 24:10He's fighting them too. Right now he's finding humongous
- 24:13human beings, and that's really what he wants, because he wants
- 24:16them to be able to push people forward.
- 24:19A lot of power, lot of a lot of real, not a lot of reaching
- 24:24zone, but just, you know, one step zone, get to that contact
- 24:27and get to this next level. Does that lead?
- 24:31Does that lead you vulnerable in the passing attack because you
- 24:34have such large human beings and they could be, you know,
- 24:38subjected to quicker speed rushers that that that's a give
- 24:42and take that you have to have sometimes.
- 24:47For me, from what I've seen from Colin Klein, especially his his
- 24:51few years at Texas A&M, he loves the RPO.
- 24:55He loves that short. He loves that short step zone
- 25:00block where it looks like it's a run, but they're not really
- 25:03pushing to try to get a ton of extension and get that illegal
- 25:07man downfield. They're pushing it to get that
- 25:10gap for that running back to be able to get it if it is the read
- 25:14part and then but the RP OS coming over the top.
- 25:18So it's going to be a marriage of philosophies between Mike
- 25:22Schmidt and and Colin Klein. But I think it's going to be a a
- 25:27perfect marriage because I think that power run game, they're
- 25:31going to want to run the piss out of the ball, man.
- 25:33I'm telling you I I think it's going to work out perfectly and
- 25:36it and it just takes years to see it actually come with the
- 25:40with the transfer portal might you can probably see it a little
- 25:44bit earlier, but his high school recruiting, what you're getting
- 25:47from that. I think it's it's telltale that
- 25:51he wants big bastards up front that push you out around and I
- 25:55and I like it. I like.
- 25:56It I'm I'm pretty sure he's only landed 4 star high school
- 25:59recruits at this point as far as commits are concerned.
- 26:02So he's back 1000 with blue chips right now.
- 26:06So and I'll take. That so the the center that we
- 26:11were, the center we were thinking about, that was also a
- 26:14walk on Hayden Gillum, Hayden freaking Gilly.
- 26:17Gilly, Gilly. So you had Noah, you had Noah,
- 26:21Johnson, Gillum, Sam, heck those three in a row and before that
- 26:26was freaking. He was actually a scholarship
- 26:30center, but he was only there for like 2 seasons.
- 26:33I'm trying to think of his name too, but yeah, crazy.
- 26:38On Blinking. With that, we're going to move
- 26:41on to a quick ad read for Heartland Beef Connection folks.
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- 27:02Same values, same work ethic, just doing it out on the land
- 27:06instead of the football field which matters a lot.
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- 27:48The best part is because you're listening to Cocaine Willie, you
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- 27:55you mention the podcast or use promo code CW25 at
- 28:01cw25checkoutheartlandbeefconnection@heartlandbeef.net. Real beef, real ranchers, better
- 28:08beef for your All right. So thinking about the big
- 28:11picture here on offense, when you think about the offenses
- 28:16that we've seen both A&M&K State under Coach Klein so far where
- 28:20he's been the play caller, Do you where, where would you rank
- 28:24this as far as the best offensive groups that Colin
- 28:27Klein has assembled as play calling?
- 28:31Just. Just.
- 28:33Just on paper 'cause we haven't seen it ranking as in like
- 28:40compared to years or like a number scale.
- 28:44Compared compared to years? Like best to worst.
- 28:47Oh. Well, you can't put it above 22
- 28:52because they haven't won anything.
- 28:53No, no. And last year at A&M was pretty
- 28:57damn good. Oh, you're talking about all of
- 29:00his career? Yes, I'm saying as a play
- 29:02caller, As a play caller, I'm. I'm going to assume. 222324 and
- 29:1025 at A&M. Because. 23 was solid. 23 was
- 29:21solid, but it wasn't like insane.
- 29:26No, I'd probably say you're going to this might be a take.
- 29:32Well, no, I I'd take this team. No, I wouldn't right now.
- 29:41I'd probably put them last. Really.
- 29:44I probably put all I I have to see it.
- 29:45I have to see it first. On paper it looks good, but we
- 29:50are lacking wide receiver talent, like high end wide
- 29:54receiver talent that I think he's had at Texas A&M and
- 29:57obviously Malik Knowles. And that group was arguably one
- 30:01of the best wide receiver groups that we've had at K State since,
- 30:04you know, Bill Snyder's eras. His first first run, not his
- 30:11second run, his second run, he didn't really have anybody.
- 30:13But his first run. He he had some dogs at wide
- 30:16receiver. But yeah, I can't I the bright,
- 30:21but it lasts. That might be the hottest take
- 30:23of it all, but I I of all his units, of all his his offensive
- 30:29coordinator experience, this is probably the worst unit.
- 30:34It might not be a hot take at all.
- 30:35I mean when I think about those years, 2022's probably the best.
- 30:402025 A&M is probably the second best or or very close 22 if not
- 30:46tie like. I would say I'd probably take
- 30:49that Texas A&M. Yeah, I'd probably take that
- 30:53Texas A&M team over the 22 K State team.
- 30:58OK. It is very close.
- 31:00It is very. I mean, that was a playoff team
- 31:02that probably should have won that game.
- 31:05Their defense was trash, but yeah, so it's close.
- 31:11And then. And then 23.
- 31:16Or 24 A&M. 'Cause I, I, I mean 24.
- 31:20A&M wasn't. No, they weren't, but they were
- 31:23building the the you could see it.
- 31:26You could see it, right? Yeah.
- 31:27Yeah. OK, OK.
- 31:29But I this, this is probably going to be his.
- 31:32It's until I see it on. I mean, if it changes and
- 31:36they're they're crushing people, then I'll, I'll change my
- 31:39ranking real fast. But right now they got to go
- 31:41last. They have to.
- 31:42This is on paper too. On paper, if I would have see
- 31:45this team compared to those teams, I'd be like, yeah, I'd
- 31:47take those teams over this team. And and you've already you
- 31:50already answered this, but best position.
- 31:53Group, I think it's. I think it's running back.
- 31:57I think it is. I thought you.
- 31:59I thought, well, deepest is tight.
- 32:01Deepest, deepest is. You're saying best is running.
- 32:03Back, I think impact and impact and deepest, I think you have
- 32:09three tight ends that you just usually don't have three tight
- 32:13ends that can play. There's some teams that have 3
- 32:17running backs that could play. Do you play all of them all the
- 32:21time? Probably not.
- 32:22But the impact I think is going to be tight end.
- 32:26But I think the best room is the running backs.
- 32:32Yeah. I want to say the best room is
- 32:33the running backs because they're all equally good in my
- 32:36opinion. Yeah, yeah, they're all solid.
- 32:39They're all solid. There's there might be 3, there
- 32:44might be 3. There might not be a single A in
- 32:46that group. It might be AB plus BB or B
- 32:51minus BB plus BB minus. That might be the group right
- 32:57there and you know will ANSI, you might have AC plus and NCOAB
- 33:05plus in Oakley and AB minus B for Lincoln cure or an A such
- 33:15wide variance and there's so much impact that could happen
- 33:18from that unit. So yeah.
- 33:20OK, It's above a three O GPA based on the letter grades
- 33:23you're handing out. So I think that's still that's
- 33:26still above average. Do you think Avery has enough
- 33:30weapons? We published an episode last
- 33:31year where where it was titled Too Many Weapons.
- 33:36We weren't wrong though. No wrong.
- 33:40We went wrong. But one of them decided to kick
- 33:42a bench and miss the rest of the season.
- 33:44Right. If we had such high
- 33:47expectations, because in all reality, Dylan Edwards could
- 33:51have been a absolute monster piece, But this team, does he
- 33:55have enough weapons? Does he have enough explosion?
- 34:01I don't think, but it's a totally different system.
- 34:04I think if we just grind people to death and then we're
- 34:07efficient in the red zone, similar to what Colin Klein is
- 34:10used to, like 1000 paper cuts. You give me a A6 yard run and a
- 34:16four yard run and a four yard run, then a three yard run and
- 34:19then a first down on a wide receiver curl and then you just
- 34:21keep it going to matriculating down the field.
- 34:23They're tired and now it's a quarterback run for 15 yards.
- 34:29Dude, that is death by 1000 cuts plus an explosive weapon at
- 34:33quarterback. Like we're we're discounting
- 34:35like this is this is the crazy part.
- 34:38We're discounting this team saying that like, the weapons
- 34:41might not be as explosive, but we might have the most explosive
- 34:44quarterback we've ever had at Kansas State.
- 34:47Yeah. Maybe Michael Bishop has
- 34:51something to say about that. I don't know.
- 34:52But but Avery Jobs is pretty fucking fast, so I'm going to
- 34:58say I I think he has enough weapons to get it done this
- 35:05season to win a lot of games. That's what I'll say.
- 35:10I say we, we, we, we might win a lot of games by eight points or
- 35:17less. OK.
- 35:21I could see this being similar to.
- 35:24Cats, 2011. Yeah, but like what was who was
- 35:28the team that was really good last year that won a lot of 1
- 35:33score games? Was it Houston?
- 35:35Was Houston A1 score kind of team or?
- 35:38Shoot, I, I, I automatically think when you, when you
- 35:41mentioned that, I think of that 2022 TCU team where they were
- 35:44just my winning games, one score games.
- 35:48And they were really good. Yeah, they were really good.
- 35:52I think I don't, I, I think it's less explosive than that, but I
- 35:56just think that we can ball control the hell out of this
- 35:59very similar to your 2011. You know that, that, that makes
- 36:02a lot of sense that we just, we have explosive at, we have a, a,
- 36:06a difference maker at quarterback and we've got
- 36:09consistency across the board. And we just, we'd move it down
- 36:13the field, we'd get it done in the red zone, play a little bit
- 36:16of defense, have some good special teams and boom, baby, we
- 36:20got enough to get you 26 or 28 points and hold them to 24.
- 36:27Do you think the wide receiver, wide receiver position has
- 36:31improved from last year? No.
- 36:33As a room, OK. As a room, I mean, losing Jace
- 36:40is so huge. Dude, we did, we didn't bring
- 36:43anybody in that replaced him. So I mean just him alone, he
- 36:50was, he was a guy like he was the guy we didn't.
- 36:54And he was so explosive, so consistent.
- 36:57He got hurt a little bit. But All in all, he met.
- 37:00He was such a difference maker for us.
- 37:02Did we bring somebody in on paper?
- 37:04We didn't. Did the unit get better?
- 37:11Who was our number three last year?
- 37:13I think the well #3 was Garrett Oakley, but #3 in the wide
- 37:20receiver room was Jared Bradley with 184 yards.
- 37:27God damn. I think, I think this has gotten
- 37:31has got has a higher ceiling for more guys, but you obviously
- 37:36lose the go to guy. That's kind of what I explained
- 37:39on on Bosco's boys was you lost the go to guy, you lost the guy
- 37:43who has the most. Chemistry.
- 37:44I think it might be that the floor the floor got raised for
- 37:47the whole room. Yeah.
- 37:49Sure. I think the floor got raised for
- 37:51the room, but the ceiling got a little bit lower.
- 37:53I think it's the opposite because I don't think we have a
- 37:56guy that is head and shoulders that can really do what Jace
- 38:00Brown did, but we got a lot of guys that can do a lot better
- 38:04than fucking change we might have. 4400 plus yard receivers
- 38:08in this room, which we did not have last year.
- 38:11We could 400 yards in a season that that's almost 40 yards per
- 38:19game as a receiver. That's a lot.
- 38:23I don't think there's going to be a lot of receivers on the
- 38:25team that get 40 yards. And take that.
- 38:28That's why I'm telling you people are probably going to
- 38:31look at listen to this and hopefully we break this up
- 38:35because it's an hour and 40 minutes no longer picking it up.
- 38:38But like they listen to my receiver take.
- 38:41I'm telling you consistency is just your role.
- 38:44I, I need somebody that can get 2 chain moves, a 15 yard catch
- 38:49and maybe a touchdown every four games.
- 38:51And why I need a 40 yard pop from you, preferably every game,
- 38:58but we need explosive from you. I consistency.
- 39:03I'm, I'm gonna leave that to Tibbs.
- 39:05I'm leave that to Oakley. I'm leave that to cure those
- 39:08guys. You get all the carries that I
- 39:10mean, all the shots you want, you're getting the ball thrown
- 39:16your direction. But those other guys, you've got
- 39:18to be able to make the plays when we need them.
- 39:21That's your consistency, yeah. So this this goes into my next
- 39:26question. What what do you see as the run,
- 39:28pass split for this team? It's.
- 39:33A good question. Because you're saying it's a run
- 39:36heavy run for. I think I think it.
- 39:38Is even thinking it could be 6040 run pass.
- 39:42I don't know if it'll be that much because I think a lot of it
- 39:44is going to be RPO based and that's going to be Avery's
- 39:51discretion. And I think at the beginning of
- 39:54the season, I think we're physically better than Nichols.
- 39:58I think we're physically better than Washington State.
- 40:01I think we're definitely this version of Tulane.
- 40:04We're physically better than Tulane.
- 40:06And then we get to Cincinnati. So I don't know if we'll be
- 40:09physically better than Cincinnati, which I will be at
- 40:11the game. If you want to come hang out
- 40:13with me, find me. I'll be there anyway.
- 40:18Those first three games, we're going to lay the foundation and
- 40:21we're going to show a lot of teams that we're ready to run
- 40:24this fucking rock. We're ready to run the pill and
- 40:27do all those things with Avery, with the running backs, jet
- 40:31sweeps, all that stuff. We're going to show that we're
- 40:33going to run the rock and it might be 6040 at the beginning
- 40:37of the season, like you said, it might be that.
- 40:40It might be even heavier, especially if we're in control
- 40:42of these games. We might just run the the clock
- 40:45out. We might not win by we might not
- 40:48cover a lot of spreads this season.
- 40:50I'll be honest, we're 40. 2 1/2 right now.
- 40:52We might not cover that. I'll be honest.
- 40:55We're not going to be a better favorites at the beginning of
- 40:57the season. We're not going to be a better
- 40:59friend, I should say. We might not cover a lot of
- 41:03spreads. We're going to run the hell out
- 41:05of this ball and towards the middle of the season when people
- 41:10start adjusting to this run game, I could see Avery Johnson
- 41:13pulling this thing. It's just letting it RIP on a
- 41:15slant a lot more than just running the rock.
- 41:18So I think towards the end of the season we'll probably be at
- 41:21like 53% run, 47% pass. I think the the true goal is
- 41:295050 for an offense that Colin Klein runs.
- 41:32OK, OK. Offensive MVP not named Avery.
- 41:43Offensive MVP. I'm going to say pastore.
- 41:51OK, I'm going to say pastore. Left tackle, No sacks given up,
- 41:56tons of pancakes, sealing the edge.
- 42:01I think he's going to be incredibly valuable and from the
- 42:07guy that you know, was, he wasn't the guy that got Mono,
- 42:14was he? I don't remember that.
- 42:19That might have been that might have been Carver, Willis, I'm
- 42:21not entirely sure, but one of these guys got mono and missed a
- 42:25little chunk of time. Either way, from where from?
- 42:29John Pastore growing into an all Big 12 caliber left tackle is
- 42:34huge. I love that story.
- 42:36I absolutely love that story and I think he could be offensive.
- 42:40MVPI think a left tackle that is rock solid, that moves people
- 42:46and doesn't give up pressures is incredibly valuable.
- 42:50OK. And who is who's the biggest
- 42:54breakout player on offense? And break out by like he's never
- 43:01done anything or just never done anything for.
- 43:03KC Minimal production previously.
- 43:10Oh, so they could have done something at other schools?
- 43:13Sure, why not? I would say break out from the
- 43:25visual standpoint. I'm going to say Brandon White
- 43:28because he's definitely going to do things on special teams.
- 43:31He's going to get the ball in a lot of different ways.
- 43:34In my head, that's what the what's going to happen.
- 43:38But in reality, what I think might be the breakout player,
- 43:42because he's never done anything anywhere else, is Harris.
- 43:47OK. Yeah, I, I'm putting all my
- 43:49chips on him. I he look, look at him.
- 43:51Pull him back up on the screen right now.
- 43:54Pull him back up. This guy, why couldn't he be
- 43:56break out? I mean he's a freak he's huge,
- 44:01his arms are massive, his ABS insane.
- 44:05He. He's more time, one more time,
- 44:08just for you. God, look at that thing
- 44:10filtering. Look at him, dude, what are we
- 44:16talking about? When have we ever?
- 44:20When have we ever had a running back look like that?
- 44:24Never. I'm dead serious.
- 44:27I when I saw that today on Twitter, right before we went
- 44:31online, I said, what the what are we talking about?
- 44:35I showed my wife. She's like, why are you looking
- 44:37at him like that? I said, do you see him?
- 44:40What do we then look at this guy?
- 44:43His arms are sickly large. They're huge.
- 44:49They're huge. He's he's built.
- 44:52So yeah, give me Harris. Give me Harris for Give me
- 44:55Harris for 8 rushing touchdowns this season.
- 44:58OK, Harris for 8 rushing touchdowns.
- 45:01OK, OK. He's going to have.
- 45:04He's going to have a game with three.
- 45:09OK. Don't know which one.
- 45:13I'm marking it down so we can track it later on.
- 45:17Biggest concern? We'll end on a on a negative
- 45:19note. Biggest concern for the season
- 45:22from the offense. From the offense.
- 45:26I, I, I, I painted it as a a positive.
- 45:30I also can painted as an A. We don't have a lot of
- 45:33explosion. We don't.
- 45:35We might be very consistent, but if a team, God forbid, knock on
- 45:42wood, A-Team gets up 1417, what do we do?
- 45:49We're fried. Or do we have enough?
- 45:51Do we have enough to get back into it?
- 45:54Because this is kind of the thing when you when you build a
- 45:56team and you you have a philosophy.
- 45:59It was it was the thing that Bill it bit Bill Snyder 2 point
- 46:04O you're such you're so reliant on ball control and special
- 46:11teams and controlling the clock and being in a huddle like
- 46:16people making a big gaffe about it on ESPN.
- 46:20Look at this team. They're still huddling.
- 46:22Yeah, we huddled and we would have three delay of games per
- 46:26game because we were so dead set on trying to run the clock out
- 46:31to zeros. Not saying that Colin Klein will
- 46:35do that, but our consistency, our our philosophy on trying to
- 46:40be so consistent withholding the ball, milking this limiting
- 46:45possessions. Do we have enough if it comes
- 46:48down to we need to have 14 points in the fourth quarter to
- 46:53win? Yeah, I don't know that that
- 46:57that's I'm I'm I'm do we have a 2 minute drill kind of offense.
- 47:01I don't know. We saw it last year.
- 47:05We saw it last year. We had Jace browned them all
- 47:08last year and we had to have one versus Army.
- 47:13We had to have one. We got one versus North Dakota.
- 47:17We couldn't get it done. We we a lot of the times we
- 47:21couldn't get it done. Well here's the deal.
- 47:25Collin Klein. His plan to wins 4 things.
- 47:28Turnover, margin, special teams. Fuck situations, as Klein would
- 47:33say. Situations.
- 47:35The fourth quarter, so the fourth quarter is going to be a
- 47:38point of emphasis and K State last year was what were we, we
- 47:43were outscored by 30 points in the fourth quarter across the
- 47:50entire season by all opponents. So not something.
- 47:55We were very good at Yeah, yeah. No, it wasn't.
- 47:58And. If we have the.
- 48:00It is, but that that's false. Yeah, that's also pointing to
- 48:04saying, hey, we're going to be in no offense to Chris Kleiman,
- 48:08but he would, he would say that in and out of every week and it
- 48:12would come true. And he he knows what he's
- 48:14talking about. This is going to be a four
- 48:17quarter game. And I think you have you as an
- 48:20offense have a lot to say about that.
- 48:24You, you control the tempo when you have the ball.
- 48:27Do you want to get this thing going in high speed and try to
- 48:31score quick? Because if you score quick and
- 48:33then they get a three and out and you score quick again, games
- 48:35kind of wrapped. But like if we get the ball, we
- 48:393 and out, they score, we get the ball, we drive a little bit
- 48:433 and out the next time they score, kick a field goal, you're
- 48:46down 10. And after the first quarter,
- 48:49brother, people are starting to sweat.
- 48:51I that's why this, that's what's my biggest concern, the lack of
- 48:57pace and that we haven't seen him play.
- 49:00We haven't seen him play but that's just my pre season early
- 49:03August concern. Yeah, yeah.
- 49:06Well, we've got 24 days until we find out that is going to do it
- 49:11for us today. Thank you for listening to all
- 49:14the position group previews. If you're listening to this,
- 49:17you're either listening to one of them or the wrap up episode.
- 49:19But we're breaking all these things up.
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