The Wildcats were not perfect, but a win is still a great start to the season.
If your life is anything like mine, this has been a tough year. Most of us are at an age where our days revolve around the twin stresses of work and family. Meanwhile, there are things happening in the world that are difficult to think about much less talk about, and there’s no shortage of people willing to take umbrage at even the tiny joy you might feel for another thing or another person.
College football became an unwitting victim of this exhausting malaise, especially as the fanbase spends most of the offseason stewing in social media toxicity. All the talk around the sport—of equity and realignment and unfairness and playoff eligibility and everything—just turned me off. College football had become a distant force, a thing I watched on TV with all the polite indifference I usually reserve for the news. But standing on the edge of a new season, I knew I had to find my affection for the sport once again, so I committed to spending the entire weekend—Thursday to Saturday—watching nothing but college football.
And in this marathon, somewhere between the agony of a college kicker missing a game-winning field goal and the frenetic energy of the two seconds it takes to block a punt and return it for a score, I found the thing that I thought was lost forever: a spark of interest, a frisson of joy, a tiny ripple of contentment. It came not from the game between the hashmarks, but from some of you: people who root for the same team, know all the same college football references, laugh at all the same memes, my fellowship of the Cats, if you will.
Thank you. I owe you one.
Football
#18 Kansas State (1-0, 0-0 Big 12) opened its 2024 football campaign with a 41-6 win over UT-Martin. Although the outcome was never in doubt, the game was closer than the score would suggest, as Jon Morse notes in his post-game recap.
The team was a bit rusty, Avery Johnson a bit more tentative in the passing game than maybe advertised, and Matt Wells’ playcalling a bit more vanilla than any of us wanted to see. But maybe a first game where the team is not quite a well-oiled machine is better because it gives everyone—fans, coaches, and players—something to think about, to work on? It also helps reset expectations for the season, and that’s probably a good thing.
The Wildcats showed off some good stuff too. There was that blocked punt, and there was DJ Giddens just powering through the line, and there was the flashy speed combo of Johnson and Dylan Edwards, and even the emergence of Brayden Loftin. Oh, and there was this memorable sack celebration from Tobi Osunsanmi too.
It was, all things considered, good enough. A perfectly adequate outing that gives Kansas State something to build on and avoids the Wildcats riding too high on a wave of overconfidence going into a trap game against a dangerous Tulane squad that beat the Wildcats back in 2022.
Cross Country
The Kansas State men’s and women’s teams participated in the Bob Timmons Classic in Lawrence this weekend, the first meet of the season. Host Kansas won both events, but the Wildcat women put together a 41-point performance to finish second, including a runner up spot for junior Grace Meyer in the 5K race. The men competed in the 6K event and finished 3rd with 62 points overall. Senior Tommy Hazen was the top performer for the team with a 4th place finish.
The next race finds the teams in Columbia, Missouri for the Cans Creek Invitational on September 27.
Soccer
At Buser Family Park on Sunday, the Wildcats (3-2-0) had a proverbial scoring avalanche in the second half that keyed a 3-0 win over South Dakota. The first half was scoreless, but in the 64th minute, freshman Allison Marshall found the net on a cross from teammate Morgan Struttman. It was her second goal of the week. Another goal from midfielder Andra Mohler off a pass from Kiran Singh in the 78th minute put the match out of reach, and the Wildcats added some insurance in the 84th minute, thanks to a collegiate career first goal from freshman Langley Mayers.
The SoccerCats wrap up the non-conference schedule with a visit to Arkansas State on Thursday followed by a trip to Memphis on Sunday.
Volleyball
At the Stacey Clark Classic in West Lafayette, Indiana, the VolleyCats began their campaign by erasing a 2-1 deficit against UC-Davis but ultimately lost the match in five sets, 25-20, 20-25, 23-25, 25-14, 13-15. The team recovered on Sunday to sweep UMBC, however, finishing off the Retrievers in straight sets, the team’s first win of the season. Izzy Szulczewski had 32 assists and ended the weekend with all-tournament honors.
Up next, the Wildcats travel to Omaha on Friday to play in the Creighton Classic against #21 USC and hosts #12 Creighton.