For notes that are not included in this edition, Five Poyntz from Tuesday is a great spot to catch up, as well.

With that being said, let's look at four items that are significant to the discussion relative to Saturday's season opener between Kansas State and Nicholls.

While there is some uncertainty in some parts, there’s little left to be determined in the secondary. Some of that is due to it possibly being a little more easy to call at this stage, and some of that is due to the transparency we hear often from some of the minds responsible for the group, such as Joe Klanderman, Van Malone and even head coach Chris Klieman.

At cornerback, the two starters will be Walter Neil and A.J. Parker. The back-ups, in some order, will be Lance Robinson, Kevion McGee and Darreyl Patterson. McGee is probably the primary reserve.

The starting nickel will be Jahron McPherson, and the only other player expected to play that role on Saturday is Johnathan Durham.

Number one safeties for Saturday will be Denzel Goolsby and Wayne Jones. The only other player suited for significant snaps at the spot this early in the season is Jonathan Alexander, according to Klanderman.

With only the coordinators left to speak to before the media availabilities come to an end, there seems to be uncertainty at just a few spots. Those would be back-up quarterback, the running back rotation, the pecking order at receiver and the starting defensive end spot opposite of Wyatt Hubert.

The back-up quarterback role is still a toss-up between sophomore Nick Ast and redshirt freshman John Holcombe. If pressed to make a prediction, I’d lean towards Ast. However, if it was something for a number of games, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them throw Holcombe into the fire.

Running back rotation has been a hot topic, but very little clarity has been provided other than knowing that they anticipate playing a ton of guys that may or may not include James Gilbert, Jordon Brown, Harry Trotter, Tyler Burns and Joe Ervin. The leader in the clubhouse seems to be Gilbert, if you absorb the information shared on the depth chart in a literal sense.

Jason Ray’s group probably has just as much mystery, if not more. It’s not even clear which receivers are in the first rotation outside of Dalton Schoen and Malik Knowles. It’ll likely be Wykeen Gill if he’s 100 percent. The roles for Chabastin Taylor, Phillip Brooks, Landry Weber and Joshua Youngblood are less apparent.

According to Buddy Wyatt, the battle between Reggie Walker and Kyle Ball for a starting spot at defensive end is still ongoing. Both of the players are strongly interested in who will get the first snap on Saturday, as well, according to the K-State assistant.

In a release sent out to the media earlier in the week, Kansas State announced where each coach would be during the game.

That was extremely helpful, by the way.

The coaches on the field will be running back coach Brian Anderson, Ray, offensive line coach Conor Riley, Wyatt, Malone and defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton.

In the booth will be quarterback coach Collin Klein, defensive tackle coach Mike Tuiasosopo, Klanderman and offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham.

We’ve heard this storyline a ton this year, because of who Kansas State hired as its new head coach. Chris Klieman came from FCS powerhouse North Dakota State. Can that transition work in Manhattan? Now, that storyline has crept back up in a way because the Wildcats host Nicholls in their season-opener - and Klieman’s K-State debut - on Saturday.

Coincidentally, some FCS questions have been asked throughout this week, and a good one was asked by our own Matt Hall. How do the FCS programs Kansas State has faced compare to some of the lower-level teams or sub-par programs they’ve faced from the FBS?

According to Dalton Schoen, the FCS programs have been better in a lot of cases. At least, the good ones have. Typically it has been top programs from that level that get a shot from the Wildcats. South Dakota posed quite the challenge a year ago, while UTSA did not, for example.

That experience, along with Nicholls’ win over KU a year ago, have been some convenient ammunition to have at K-State's disposal to ward off the possibility of looking past the season opener. According to some of the players on the team, they felt that was something they were guilty of doing last season.

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