KSU's Clary says Wildcats won't quit
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BY CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
It’s a little-known fact that Mansfield, Texas, product and Kansas State senior offensive tackle Jeromey Clary was born in Lincoln. The real reason, however, why Clary is so anxious for Saturday’s game at Nebraska has to do with disproving another well-kept secret — the one that whispers the Wildcats are ready to pack it it.
A 45-17 loss at Iowa State last Saturday was K-State’s fourth straight and fifth in six games. Now 4-5, the Cats are in danger of not only duplicating last season’s surprising 4-7 showing but missing the postseason in back-to-back years for the first time since 1991-92.
“We’re frustrated, but we’re not going to back down like 2004, and I don’t want anyone to compare us to 2004,” Clary said. “We’re not the same team. We don’t give up. We fight and do the best we can to try to get back in the games. We’re still going to work and we’re ready for Saturday.”
Last week, Kansas State fell behind 17-0 before scoring 10 unanswered points to make it a game at halftime. What followed was arguably the Wildcats’ worst 15-minute period of the season. In the third quarter, they ran one offensive play — which resulted in an interception — and also fumbled away a kickoff. Iowa State capitalized on those blunders to score 21 straight points.
At that point, the game had been decided, and the question on everyone’s mind became: Has K-State’s season been determined as well?
It was an issue Wildcats coach Bill Snyder, in his 17th year, brought up during a heart-to-heart with his club on Monday.
“By and large, it was just a matter of stick to our knitting and keep trying to find ways to make ourselves better,” Snyder said of his talk. Let’s be “consistent with our approach and not get caught in the dimension of improvement that says maybe you can’t get any better, maybe you’re not getting any better.”
And, yes, while appealing to his players’ sense of pride, Snyder also brought up the fact K-State still can become bowl-eligible. If the Wildcats beat Nebraska a fourth straight year, they’d need only top Missouri at home next week to qualify.
“I alluded to that, with the idea of what our approach needs to be is let’s do as well as we can and win this ballgame, and then bowl possibility looms a little bit brighter,” Snyder said.
Not that the players weren’t already aware of that fact.
“He has all the confidence in the world in us, that we’re not going to cash it in,” Clary said. “But he said, ‘You know how bad it hurt in 2004 to give up, and that’s not the way to go.’ And we’re not going to do it. I have 100 percent confidence we’re going to go to Lincoln — (then) hopefully get two in a row (the next week).
“It’s do-or-die, but I have a lot of confidence we’re going to win. Everyone’s willing to put it on the line.”
Optimists will point to the fact Kansas State has beaten the Huskers four of the past five years and during its three-game winning streak has outscored NU by a whopping 132-43.
Pessimists will note the Wildcats haven’t won back-to-back games in Lincoln since 1956 and ’58.
Realists like Clary aren’t exactly sure what to think, especially considering K-State’s crazy season.
“We’ve had two games that we lost by (a total of) five points (to Texas A&M and Colorado), and (then) came back (to) our broken record of penalties, slow starts and stuff like that (against Iowa State). It’s hard to believe right now,” Clary said.
Even his friends ask him what’s gone wrong.
“I answer them the same way,” Clary said. “To be honest, if I could finger-point something, it’d be fixed right now.
Senior defensive tackle Derek Marso believes most of the Wildcats’ struggles come back to a lack of discipline.
“People aren’t complacent about anything. Everyone is trying to do stuff, but just not really using their heads at all times,” he said. “You know, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.”
On Saturday, Kansas State will either be limping off with its first five-game losing streak since 1989 or revived by its 2005 senior class becoming the first to never lose to the Huskers.
“It’s now or never, or our season is over,” Marso said, “so I think a lot of guys have a sense of urgency (to) want to do that.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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