You may have noticed that I’ve neglected the blog once again – not because I forgot about it, but because I didn’t want to write about the fact that the K-State football empire has begun to show signs of crumbling.

After the disappointing loss to North Dakota State, we came back and handily beat UMass. However, then we went down to Austin and was beat by Texas (a team that had all but fallen down). The following week, we marched in to Stillwater to take on an Oklahoma State team that had been beaten the previous week (despite being the front-running favorite of the Big XII). We stayed with them throughout the game, but literally gave it away with 4 turnovers and about 100 yards in penalties. We were actually winning with 6 minutes left in the game.

So – here it is in mid-October and I’ve not been to a KSU football game in almost a month and I’ve not had a victory to celebrate for a while. Therefore, not much I want to write about without getting this off my chest. It hurts to see KSU lose so much because we’ve been there before and I don’t want to ever be there again. It is so much more fun to celebrate wins. It makes it a lot easier to wear purple to work!

This afternoon we will host Baylor – the new frontrunner favorite for winning out the Big XII. They gathered more than 800 yards against West Virginia last week (the team that beat Oklahoma State the week before). The latest line is 17 points for Baylor – something I find interesting. Here’s hoping that it’s not any more embarrassing than that; and here’s really hoping that we can upset the order of things and actually win the game. I can promise that I’ll be rooting as hard as any K-State fan can! Go Cats.

The Cats played host to University of Massachusetts Minutemen last night for their last non-conference game (and last home game for a few weeks). UMass was supposed to lose this game; they fought hard at first, and despite a couple of nice drives, they only got 7 points for the whole game.

K-State, after 2 previous weeks of virtually no rushing offense, seemed to use the game as practice for all of their running plays. There was almost no passing in this game. Hubert finally got some big yards running – and even had a 43-yd reception for a touchdown. There was also a pick-6 by Daly (one of is 2 interceptions). Sams got to play a lot more snaps and we got to see even more of his amazing athleticism.

The weather was gorgeous – 80 degrees, instead of the 100+ that we’d had for the past two weeks.

The Cats head off next weekend to start Big XII play at Texas and then the following week at Oklahoma State. Texas is struggling, but OSU isn’t. It would sure be nice to be 4-1 when they return one to play Baylor. Go Cats.

So, K-State notched the first win of the season with a win over University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Louisiana was billed as a good team (maybe not as good as North Dakota State) that should give the Cats another run for the money. However, the Wildcats played a much better game and ended up winning 48-27.

Jake Waters passed with the accuracy and efficiency of a star quarterback, but still lacked the ability to establish a run game. Daniel Sams electrified the stadium with his runs. They are developing into a great duo-quarterback team. I wonder how it’ll continue to play out over the season.

There was much better improvement all around – especially compared to the pitiful play of last weeks game. However, there were still some costly mistakes – including a couple interceptions. Most fun was the kickoff return by Thompson for a touchdown to start the second half. He then followed it up with a punt return to the 1 yard line (thanks to a facemask tackle).

This was a fun game and I’m glad all 4 of us were able to be there. It was 2 weeks in a row with game temperatures over 100 degrees. Looking forward to cooler days.

Next week – University of Massachusetts. This one is supposed to be an easy win. Go Cats!