Kansas State Football: Coaching must overcome recruiting woes

Mississippi State’s dominance of Kansas State Football put on a display of what a lack of recruiting prowess means for a program like the Wildcats.

For anyone that has followed Kansas State Football, they know to avoid paying much attention to recruiting rankings when signing day ends and Letters of Intent are faxed in.

For years, the Wildcats have outplayed their recruiting rankings, winning games with players few have heard of from places few knew existed. However, either their lack of willingness or ability to recruit high ceiling talent limits their potential. That was on full display against Mississippi State.

Mississippi State is not a great program, perhaps being second fiddle in their own state to Ole Miss and next door to powers Alabama to the east and LSU to the west (by best count, seven players from Mississippi are listed on the Alabama and LSU rosters).

The Bulldogs haven’t won much and don’t exactly play with great facilities. Dan Mullen left after the 2017 season to take over Florida, an inter-conference team. The game in Manhattan was the first BCS level opponent in the coaching career of Joe Moorehead.

The point of all this is the Cats didn’t lose to a premiere, elite level SEC opponent. They didn’t fall to a program with an elite head coach out-witting the opponent. Mississippi State’s offense should look really familiar to Cats fans because it’s basically the offense the Cats run.

Heck, Fitzgerald is big, strong, can run and wears number 7. Yes, I’m comparing his appearance and style to Colin Klein, and when you watch him play, you to will see it. The Cats knew the offense, and unable to put up any defense was completely run over.

More from KC Kingdom

No, Kansas State lost because they were too small and too slow.

To be fair, the state of Kansas doesn’t exactly produce handfuls of top-shelf level talent. While some states can produce over 100 Division one recruited players a year, the Sunflower State can struggle to produce ten. However, when the state produces talent, the Cats have shown an inability to land local talent.

Of players recruited in 2014 to 2018 (players that under normal NCAA rules would be eligible to play for the Cats), Snyder and the Cats have not landed either the top player nor the second rated player in the state of Kansas. A * indicates that player is currently listed on the programs 2 deep rosters. (All rankings come via Rivals.com)

2018- Jace Ruder, North Carolina/ Miles Emery, Kansas (JUCO)

2017- Trevor Kent, Northwestern/ Djimon Colbert, Iowa*

2016-Armani Bledsoe, Oklahoma*/ Xavier Kelly, Clemson

2015- AJ Harris, Missouri/ Christian Gaylor, Nebraska *

2014- Braden Smith, Auburn (NFL)/ Treyvon Wrench, Kansas (JUCO)

2016 was a tough recruiting year for the Cats to swallow, as Isaiah Simmons (3rd) is starting at Clemson and Isaiah Loudermilk (4th) is starting at Wisconsin. Both programs are rated in the top 10 currently. Tevin Jenkins from Topeka (7th) is listed as the starting right tackle for the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Loudermilk especially, coming from eight-man football in Howard, Kansas, is a miss that stings. Cats could really use his athletic, 6-7, 306-pound frame on the defensive line. Xavier Kelly was committed to the Cats until the big programs came calling, and Kelly chose to attend Clemson over Georgia.

The 2017 recruiting class sees Jafar Armstrong (3rd) as getting significant carries at Notre Dame. Will give the Cats their due, in that class, offensive lineman Josh Rivas, Ben Adler are listed on the Cats 2 deep roster along with defensive lineman Wyatt Hubert.

Alex Delton, Scott Frantz, and Alex Barnes were all part of the of the 2015 recruiting class that has produced very little outside of those three players. Harris career was cut short due to injury and few other players have produced significantly on the field.

The concern, when you look to the 2019 class, is more of the same. Blue Valley North QB Graham Mertz earned scholarship offers from all corners of the country and is committed to Wisconsin but received no such offer from Kansas State. Wichita Northwest defensive end Marcus Hicks has committed to conference rival Oklahoma. Will either of these players be a major impact, NFL type talents? Who knows.

At some point, the Cats have to figure out how to keep the best talent at home. Seriously, two kids in the past four recruiting classes have found their way to Wisconsin. Wisconsin is not in a sunny locale or warm weather. It’s cold. Really cold.

Fans and alumni will point to, and rightly so, success stories such as Tyler Lockett, Jordy Nelson, and Darren Sproles that Bill Snyder and the Kansas State program don’t need highly recruiting talent to be successful. And to a point, that’s absolutely correct. No one has won more regular season games with less talent than the Wildcat program. Part of the success of Kansas State is that the assistant coaches don’t recruit in-season, and spend all their available time and energy on developing the players on the roster. For those unaware, that’s unheard of in today’s modern college football.

However, and I will point this out (I’m the class of 2005 at Kansas State). Snyder has two conference victories, zero BCS bowl wins (only two appearances, both Fiesta Bowl appearances) and thus far, zero college playoff appearances. The Cats bowl record under Snyder is 9-10.

Have the Cats made a point to feast on bad to mediocre programs such as Kansas and Iowa State and what has historically been an extremely weak non-conference schedule? I bring this up because Snyder is the pioneer of scheduling the ‘directional tech states’ that ensured his programs would run up wins.

Next. Top 5 games under Snyder. dark

With a younger cast of coaches, there is hope in recruiting that the tide will turn. Defensive coordinator Blake Seiler and offensive coordinator Andre Coleman have brought a renewed energy to the program, and have found some success in the state of Georgia of all places, as Duke Shelly is from the Atlanta area. However, the Cats continue to not land the talent in their own backyard. Hopefully, this changes soon.

Home/Kansas State Wildcats