The Kansas State football team selected by the media to finish sixth of the big 2018 Big 12 race

Kansas State is selected sixth in the pre-season Big 12 poll season, which was released by the Big 12 office on Thursday, which means the Wildcats are exactly what they like to get into a season.

The Underdog

K-State was chosen from behind Oklahoma, West Virginia, TCU, Texas and Oklahoma State, but surprisingly received two first-place votes as well. Still, the Wildcats had 283 points, 17 fewer than the Cowboys, fifth.

The Wildcats were selected third in the league's pre-selection poll a year ago. respect preseason by finishing sixth. They overcame a 3-3 start of the season and finished 8-5, finishing with five wins in their last six games topped with a 35-17 victory over UCLA in the 2017 Cactus Bowl for the bowl win The most unbalanced program in 24 years

K State Head Coach Bill Snyder said he believed the Wildcats were reading too much in their preseason rankings and thought that They were better than they were in reality and so they took things for granted. Famer warns against every season.

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Dalton Risner has been informed not long ago that Vegas had the upper hand on K-State's wins for the 2018 season at seven. pre-season college football predicted that the Wildcats would win only six games, which would do the least for Bill Snyder since returning to the sidelines ten years ago

"Honestly, last year we have I did not get what we wanted, "said Risner." We had a good season. Many teams watched the season we had and said, "Wow, it's a good season." We defeated UCLA and won a bowl game and played very well. We won in the state of Oklahoma No. 10 and beat the state of Iowa in a nail-bit. A good season, right?

"We are looking to move on to the next step .I would prefer that someone say that we are going to have 6-6 rather than saying that we are going to be the best in the Big 12. J & # 39; love it, why say, "Oh, we have to maintain what people think we're going to do." No. I hope you say we're going to be ninth in the Big 12 and we're going to prove you wrong It's just the history of Kansas State .It's been Kansas State football's history since I introduced myself and I love it. "

" It does not matter where they say we are, we will go out and do our thing. Shoot, last year, we did not achieve our goals. This just gives us a better opportunity to surpass the goals that the nation has set for us this year. "

Historically, K-State is doing better when it is chosen lower in the league.

Since the Big 12 went to a 10- Indeed, the Wildcats have finished on average three places of more than their preseason ranking on five occasions when the K-State was chosen six times or worse in the Big 12 preseason poll.

K-State was chosen fifth or higher in the pre-season poll, the Wildcats finished on average 1.5 points lower in the final standings.

Snyder and Risner with quarterbacks Alex Delton and Skylar Thompson, and cornerback Duke Shelley will have a chance to comment on the preseason rankings and much more when they appear at the Big 12 Media Days event in Frisco, Texas on Tuesday .The ratings suggest that their comments might reflect the feelings of Risner, their team captain three times and the All -American of the first team of 2017, which was no mm Wednesday on the pre-season team of 2018.

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Risner is joined to senior security Kendall Adams, his roommate, within the l & # 39; Team All-Big 12.

Risner ranks first overall in the Football Bowl Division in 2018, according to Pro Football Focus. His overall score is 91.3 over Max Scharping (89.5) from Northern Illinois and Bobby Evans (86.9) over Oklahoma

He ranks first in the FBS ranking with a score of 91.2 in stroke block. the 88.9 blocking category is third among the tackles in 2018. In the meantime, he is fourth among all FBS offensive linemen, regardless of their position, with a pass rate of 98.3.

What is impressive is that Risner did not have 301 pass blocking situations despite playing the entire 2017 season with a left shoulder that required surgery and wasted no time. forced to miss the cup match. He started in 38 career games, including the 12 regular-season contests en route to All-Big 12 honors for the first team for the second consecutive straight-tackle season.

Pro Football Focus teams and the best return team (83.6) in the Big 12. Adams finished fourth in the team with 62 tackles, despite the absence of the last two games and finished fifth in the Big 12 with three interceptions. Against Charlotte, he had a 30-yard six pick and returned a 46-yard fumble for a score, becoming the first Big 12 player in 16 years to complete the feat.

Adams finished at 83.6 by Pro Football Focus – 84.2 in pass cover, 76.2 on defense and 62.5 on pass. A total of 436 of his 716 shots during the season came in pass cover, according to PFF. His passing score of 84.2 was ranked 23rd in the FBS as he was targeted 39 times and allowed two touchdowns while posting three interceptions and three assists.

It will head to the fall with 28 career starts and a career … the production of 2018 has a chance to become the fourth player in the history of K-State and the first since Ty Zimmerman has 250 tackles and 10 steals in a career.

Risner and Adams are two of the leaders of a team that is not too veteran, as no more than five returning runners are senior in attack and defense. The bulk of this team is in the junior class, where eight players in the attack (Scott Frantz, Tyler Mitchell, Adam Holtorf, Alex Barnes, Blaise Gammon, Isaiah Zuber, Dalton Schoen and Alex Delton) and four on the defense (Trey Dish, Reggie Walker, Elijah Sullivan and Denzel Goolsby) have had several career starts. Two sophomores (Skylar Thompson and A.J. Parker) complete the group of players with several starts on this team.

K-State returns 22 attacking and defending players who started in at least part of their career. Thirteen players in attack have accumulated 153 career starts. K-State makes seven players in the attack and five in defense who started in at least half of the matches in 2017.

The most pressing question in the approach of Tuesday's appearance at Big 12 Media Day: Who will be the starting quarterback? Or could they alternate?

Before Michael Bishop attained greatness, he had to fend off Jonathan Beasley. Before El Ell Roberson led the Wildcats to a season of 11 wins in 2002, he had to overtake Marc Dunn. Collin Klein raced at the Heisman Trophy Ceremony in 2012, but had to beat Justin Tuggle in 2011. Jake Waters started every game that he played at K-State, but Daniel Sams kept him interesting . More recently, there was Jesse Ertz and Joe Hubener

Time will tell, but Delton and Thompson could host the fiercest quarterback battle at K-State over the past 20 years.

"They both grew up and I'm close to both," Risner told Kansas City. "As an offensive lineman, I'd really like to have a quarterback, really, I'll tell coach Snyder."

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