Kansas State football: 3 reasons why Skylar Thompson is a darkhorse Maxwell Award candidate

Kansas State football’s Skylar Thompson is one of the most experienced players in all of college football this season

Look, it’s worth keeping in mind that Thompson is essentially one of the most experienced players in all of college football this season. He got his first taste at playing all the way back in 2017, which happened to be his redshirt freshman season. Thompson’s first year at Kansas State was actually in 2016, a year he sat out to redshirt.

He’s gotten significant playing experience in 2017 and 2018 before flourishing in 2019 as a starter for new Kansas State football head coach Chris Klieman. In 2020, the Wildcats looked to be a dangerous team with Thompson leading the offense before he got injured and was sidelined.

In total, Thompson has played in quite a few contests and has started in 30 games so far in his career. That sort of experience is hard to find.

In all of that time playing for Kansas State, he’s gotten some meaningful experience playing against really good competition. And Thompson has also led the Wildcats to some incredible wins, most notably against the Oklahoma Sooners twice in the past two seasons.

In 2020, Thompson helped lead the Wildcats on an incredible comeback against Oklahoma, coming back from being down 35-14 to score 24 unanswered points and win by a score of 38-35. Back in 2019, Kansas State jumped out to a 41-23 lead against the Sooners and held on to win 48-41.

In those two games, Thompson shined. He completed 36 of his 53 pass attempts (67.9 percent) for 547 yards and a touchdown. Thompson only ran for 49 yards in the two games, but he scored SEVEN rushing touchdowns.

That sort of experience in big games against great teams is good to have.

Kansas State will need that this year and that could help the Wildcats’ quarterback as he contends for postseason awards.