A Closer Look at Kansas State’s Defense

We looked at KSU’s offense earlier, but now it’s time to take a look at its efficient, solid defense.

Defensive Line

Justice Hill and the offensive line will have their greatest challenge yet this week, the 4-3/4-2-5 Wildcat defense has a really solid front seven that shuts down the run (allowing 102.25 yards per game) and gets after the quarterback well.

The pass defense is susceptible and ranked ninth in the conference, opposing passers are averaging 64. percent for a quarterback rating of 142.61 (Rudolph is really solid at 154.6 for reference). Iowa State quarterback Jacob Park had a field day throwing for 300 yards and a couple of scores. Mason and company should be excited about this matchup.

The defensive line, and perhaps the team, are led by senior defensive end Jordan Willis who is eighth in the country in sacks. Willis was joined by Will Geary on the preseason All-Big 12 team, who plugs the holes up front for this run-stuffing machine.

Freshman defensive end Kyle Ball has fresh legs after having his redshirt pulled midseason and had a sack against Iowa State.

Defensive backs and linebackers

At the second level are a really solid pair of linebackers in another All Big 12 talent in junior Elijah Lee and senior Charmeachealle Moore.

Moore tends to line up over the middle while Lee roams sideline to sideline, leading the team in tackles with 69, good for second in the conference. Moore is quite the playmaker himself as he’s 9th nationally in fumble recoveries.

There’s a few solid defensive backs, sophomore corner D.J. Reed is second in the league with nine passes defended (although he doesn’t know who James Washington is!) and senior safety Dante Barnett (a Booker T. Washington product) is terrific in run support and second on the team in tackles.

Sophomore Duke Shelley is super talented, he had offers from Clemson, Tennessee and Wisconsin out of high school. The missing link here could be the youth and diminutive stature of both corners (Reed and Shelley are both listed at 5’9”).

Conclusion

Overall, playing in the Big 12 is a unique brand of football and when you watch K-State, you see that they like to zig where everyone else likes to zag so to speak. When it comes down to it, points per drive (scoring and defending based off of drives is helpful in evaluating fairly) the K-State defense is a tier 2 team in the conference while the offense is tier 3 according to the most recent breakdown of points per drive.

While the Cowboys will have a great chance to pull off the rare feat winning in Manhattan, it’s hard to bet against the 25th winningest head football coach of all time (fantastic read here on Snyder if you’re interested).

If the Cowboys come out fast throwing some gut punches, it could be tough for the slogging K-State offense to play catch up.