100 Questions: Why should you watch Kansas State?

In an attempt to pass the time this off-season we're fortunate to have secured the help of scottwildcat from Boscoe's Boys. Scott is going to provide 100 questions about the past, present, future (and who-knows-what) involving Kansas State sports, and I'll do my very best to answer them.

Let's dive in to the 100 Questions.

Question No. 90: If you were at a Rivals conference and had to give a persuasive presentation as to why a generic college football fan should make an effort to follow K-State football this season, what would your main talking points be?

I think the story line of arguably the most successful FCS head coach of the modern era – Chris Klieman was part of seven national championships at North Dakota State, including four as the head coach – replacing the most successful coach in Kansas State history is an interesting one to follow.

It also helps that the coach (Klieman) and program (North Dakota State) had a perfect record against Power Five teams while he was in Fargo, including a win over a defending Big 12 Champion K-State team in the 2013 season opener with Klieman coordinating the defense against Bill Snyder’s bunch.

Oh, and as a player at Northern Iowa Klimean played against Snyder in his first season in 1989, knocking off the Wildcats in Manhattan.

K-State should be interesting to follow, for the general college football fan, because what the Wildcats do this year – and really over the next four or five – will go a long way towards answering two questions college football fans have asked more than once:

1. Can anybody other than Bill Snyder win consistently in Manhattan?

2. Can an elite FCS coach transition his success to the FBS level?

Jim Tressel, of course, was extremely successful leaving FCS program Youngstown State to head to Ohio State, where he led the Buckeyes to a load of success. So, there’s some prior history of a coaching having success in this jump, but anybody getting a shot at Ohio State probably is going to have an excellent shot of winning.

Ron Prince replaced Snyder for three years, and if I’m being honest it wasn’t quite the disaster – at least from a record perspective – fans and media portray it to be.

Prince took over a program that had went 9-13 the prior two seasons, and K-State went 12-13 in Prince’s first two years before getting fired after a second straight losing season in year three. I, for the record, believe Prince needed to go and things were headed down, fast. But, to be fair, the results on the field under Prince weren’t disaster level.

So, both of the questions above (FCS to FBS, winning without Snyder) have already seen hints of potentially positive answers.

How will this set of circumstances go, however?

Beyond those stories, I think it will be interesting to see a team play Klieman’s style in the Big 12 Conference. The league known (right or wrong) for not playing defense and using the fastest offensive pace in the country will now have to deal with one school utilizing a traditional running game with a defensive head coach leading the program.

K-State will still feel different in relation to their conference peers, and I think different is interesting.

With both interesting on-field stories to watch and the big-picture questions about FCS to FBS and K-State without Snyder, I sincerely believe the Wildcats will be one of the more interesting teams to follow in the Big 12 this season.