2008 Kansas State Wildcats
Written July 2, 2008 by Jason Lowry
The NCAA football season is right around the corner and professional handicapper Jason Lowry is ready to make his 2008 Kansas State Wildcats football predictions. The Wildcats are coming off a disappointing season where they finished 5-7 overall and just 3-5 in the Big 12 North. They looked pretty good at the beginning of the season including an upset win at Texas 41-21, but they then went on to lose 6 of their next 8 including a 73-31 loss to a bad Nebraska team. This season the Wildcats return 12 starters and it will be up to head coach Ron Prince to get this team back to a bowl game in 2008. Lets take a look at what this team will be bringing to both sides of the ball this upcoming season.
Offense:
The team does return starting junior quarterback Josh Freeman, who is coming off a school record 3,353 yard passing season where he completed 63% of his passes while throwing for 18 touchdowns. The team will its work cut out at the receiver spot as they lose one of the best receivers to go through this school in Jordy Nelson. The team does have some talent remaining and it starts with returning senior Deon Murphy. The team also has a good duo at tight end in sophomore Lamark Brown and a great talent in junior Jarod Mastrud. The offensive line should be just about as good as it was last year as they return 4 starters and are likely to plug in junior Wade Welbert at the open left guard spot.
Defense:
The defense only returns 5 starters so if the team is going to win it’s going to rely heavily on a lot of new faces in the starting lineup on this side of the ball. The defensive line is pretty much all gone with only senior Ian Campbell returning at one of the defensive end spots. It looks like junior Jack Hayes will play opposite of Campbell, while sophomore Xzavier Stewart and junior Daniel Calvin take over at the tackle spots. Campbell is one of the best the Big 12 has to offer and will have to carry this new squad in 2008. The team does return two starters at linebacker in senior Reggie Walker and junior Olu Hall, as it looks now junior Grant Valentine will take over at the middle linebacker spot. The secondary will return both starters at the safety spots, but will have two new starters at the corner spots in senior Ray Cheatham and junior Blair Irvin.
Prediction: 5th in the Big 12 North
We just don’t like the way this team finished off the end of last season, and really don’t expect much different from this years squad. The offense will likely struggle with Nelson gone and teams being able to focus more on the other players, and the defense might not be able to stop anyone. The way their schedule is set up this team might be looking for its first conference wins when they host Nebraska and Iowa State to end the season.
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