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Posted on Thu, Aug. 30, 2007 10:28 Auburn presents rare challenge for K-State as season-opening opponent
By HOWARD RICHMAN
The Kansas City Star
Instead of hanging up on or ripping into popular Southern-based radio sports talk-show host Paul Finebaum, Kansas State football coach Ron Prince took full responsibility.
"I was on an Alabama radio station the other day, and the host of the radio show said, 'Whoever put together this schedule needs to have their head examined.' I said, 'Well, I guess I'd be in the front of that line,' " Prince said earlier this week.
Nonconference scheduling at K-State sure seems to invite plenty of opinions. For years, former coach Bill Snyder was widely roasted for lining up pushovers such as Indiana State, Montana, Western Kentucky and Temple. Yet even now, after K-State signed up to open its season at a highly regarded program such as Auburn on Saturday night, Prince finds himself answering questions about his sanity.
Auburn, after all, is 33-5 since 2004. Only Southern California, 36-3, and Texas, 34-4, have fared better.
"If you are going to take a step up, and be accountable, you have to play a team like that," former Miami coach Larry Coker said.
This will be just the second time since K-State started playing football in 1896 that it has opened against a ranked opponent. The first occurred in 1973 when the Wildcats lost at No. 14 Florida 21-10.
"Our players are excited about this," Prince said. "Most of them, who when they signed up to come play here, never anticipated they'd get a chance to play against an SEC (Southeastern Conference) opponent unless it was in a bowl game, maybe in January."
Auburn returns seven starters on offense and five on defense from a team that finished 11-2 and defeated Nebraska 17-14 in the Cotton Bowl. Throw in 87,000 rowdy SEC fans, and it's the exact match Prince sought.
"To play against and prepare for a national championship-caliber team was one of our goals in our nonconference scheduling," Prince said, "and to play a team where there's absolutely no doubt about their reputation and their ability, and that both things would be intact and present in the matchup."
An argument could be made about when to play a team like Auburn. Is it better to catch the Tigers early or perhaps as late as the third or fourth game? ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit is more impressed that K-State simply pursued the game at all — even if the Wildcats are risking a streak of 17 season-opening victories, which ties Florida State for second most in the nation to Nebraska's 21.
"We've seen Kansas State play Eastern Illinois, Louisiana-Lafayette, and now all of a sudden they're playing Auburn. That's a great thing," said Herbstreit, adding that his vote in the Associated Press top 25 is swayed by teams that don't dodge tasks of this proportion.
"If Kansas State battles like crazy, even if they come up a little short, I'm going to give them more credit there than for what they do against Missouri State."
K-State wide receiver Daniel Gonzalez loves the challenge.
"You think about Auburn, you think big team," he said. "Great players. Good defense. Just like anybody else thinks. When people hear Auburn, they think they're not human, or they are like machines or something. We're going to go out there and test them, and see what they've got."
Although K-State hasn't played Auburn since 1979, Tigers quarterback Brandon Cox thinks the Wildcats look vaguely familiar.
"Teams from the Big 12 definitely are respected," Cox said. "We're treating it like an SEC game because they are an SEC-caliber team."
And this won't be the last time K-State opens against a marquee opponent. Prince hopes games such as Saturday start getting treated as part of the deal at K-State.
"We need to play these kinds of games," Prince said. "We need to win these kinds of games. We need to be callous toward these types of games in that we know they're going to be a good challenge, that they've got good players, but so do we."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FUTURE K-STATE SEASON OPENERS
2008 Louisiana-Lafayette
2009 Massachusetts
2010 UCLA
2011 Oregon
2012 at Oregon
2013 TBA
2014 at Virginia Tech
Source: Kansas State
To reach Howard Richman, K-State reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4701 or send e-mail to [email protected]
By HOWARD RICHMAN
The Kansas City Star
Instead of hanging up on or ripping into popular Southern-based radio sports talk-show host Paul Finebaum, Kansas State football coach Ron Prince took full responsibility.
"I was on an Alabama radio station the other day, and the host of the radio show said, 'Whoever put together this schedule needs to have their head examined.' I said, 'Well, I guess I'd be in the front of that line,' " Prince said earlier this week.
Nonconference scheduling at K-State sure seems to invite plenty of opinions. For years, former coach Bill Snyder was widely roasted for lining up pushovers such as Indiana State, Montana, Western Kentucky and Temple. Yet even now, after K-State signed up to open its season at a highly regarded program such as Auburn on Saturday night, Prince finds himself answering questions about his sanity.
Auburn, after all, is 33-5 since 2004. Only Southern California, 36-3, and Texas, 34-4, have fared better.
"If you are going to take a step up, and be accountable, you have to play a team like that," former Miami coach Larry Coker said.
This will be just the second time since K-State started playing football in 1896 that it has opened against a ranked opponent. The first occurred in 1973 when the Wildcats lost at No. 14 Florida 21-10.
"Our players are excited about this," Prince said. "Most of them, who when they signed up to come play here, never anticipated they'd get a chance to play against an SEC (Southeastern Conference) opponent unless it was in a bowl game, maybe in January."
Auburn returns seven starters on offense and five on defense from a team that finished 11-2 and defeated Nebraska 17-14 in the Cotton Bowl. Throw in 87,000 rowdy SEC fans, and it's the exact match Prince sought.
"To play against and prepare for a national championship-caliber team was one of our goals in our nonconference scheduling," Prince said, "and to play a team where there's absolutely no doubt about their reputation and their ability, and that both things would be intact and present in the matchup."
An argument could be made about when to play a team like Auburn. Is it better to catch the Tigers early or perhaps as late as the third or fourth game? ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit is more impressed that K-State simply pursued the game at all — even if the Wildcats are risking a streak of 17 season-opening victories, which ties Florida State for second most in the nation to Nebraska's 21.
"We've seen Kansas State play Eastern Illinois, Louisiana-Lafayette, and now all of a sudden they're playing Auburn. That's a great thing," said Herbstreit, adding that his vote in the Associated Press top 25 is swayed by teams that don't dodge tasks of this proportion.
"If Kansas State battles like crazy, even if they come up a little short, I'm going to give them more credit there than for what they do against Missouri State."
K-State wide receiver Daniel Gonzalez loves the challenge.
"You think about Auburn, you think big team," he said. "Great players. Good defense. Just like anybody else thinks. When people hear Auburn, they think they're not human, or they are like machines or something. We're going to go out there and test them, and see what they've got."
Although K-State hasn't played Auburn since 1979, Tigers quarterback Brandon Cox thinks the Wildcats look vaguely familiar.
"Teams from the Big 12 definitely are respected," Cox said. "We're treating it like an SEC game because they are an SEC-caliber team."
And this won't be the last time K-State opens against a marquee opponent. Prince hopes games such as Saturday start getting treated as part of the deal at K-State.
"We need to play these kinds of games," Prince said. "We need to win these kinds of games. We need to be callous toward these types of games in that we know they're going to be a good challenge, that they've got good players, but so do we."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FUTURE K-STATE SEASON OPENERS
2008 Louisiana-Lafayette
2009 Massachusetts
2010 UCLA
2011 Oregon
2012 at Oregon
2013 TBA
2014 at Virginia Tech
Source: Kansas State
To reach Howard Richman, K-State reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4701 or send e-mail to [email protected]
