After Review: Shouldn't be surprised by Thompson

Welcome to After Review, a new weekly feature at K-StateOnline where I'll lead off with a column of on what I believe to be the biggest news out of the most recent Kansas State game before moving on to further points on the Wildcats' latest outing.

Let's get our first one started, with a look at K-State QB Skylar Thompson.

THOMPSON'S BIG GAME SHOULDN'T BE SURPRISING

I'll be the first to admit it, I was surprised by how well Skylar Thompson played in Saturday night's 49-14 season opening win over Nicholls.

The junior completed 16-of-22 passes (72.7 percent) with at least four drops. The completions went for 212 yards (one yard short of his career high set as a freshman at Oklahoma State) and a score with no interceptions. Thompson rushed three times for 30 yards, including a 17-yard touchdown run to put the Wildcats up 14-0.

Thompson, himself, called it his best game as a Wildcat:

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The Wildcat QB knows far more about how well he played than I do, but I'd probably still call his effort two years ago at then No. 10 Oklahoma State in a stunning upset the best performance of his career.

He was also very good at Texas Tech that season in leading a late K-State rally to win on the road, and - of course - he had a memorable finish at home against Iowa State after an uneven performance.

The point is, Thompson has played at this level before. He was even better last year than people give him credit for, as he completed 59 percent of his throws for 1,391 yards, nine scores and just four picks. He ran for another 373 yards and five touchdowns.

Somewhat pedestrian numbers? Maybe, but to me they're the numbers of a good quarterback playing a low volume and being used as a role player more than a play maker, which is exactly how Thompson was seen last year by K-State's coaching staff.

This staff has made clear Thompson is the man, and he played like it Saturday night.

Full transparency: It DID surprise me, and that's too bad. I had long been enamored with Thompson's potential and believed he could be a future All-Big 12 caliber quarterback, but even I fell in the trap of starting to question that - and my own eyes - when he continued to be rotated with Alex Delton a season ago.

Yes, Saturday night is just one game, and I'm well aware Thompson - and the Wildcats - can't possibly be that good week after week.

He was against Nicholls, however, and him playing at that level on a weekly basis would absolutely change the perceived ceiling for this K-State team.

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PRO FOOTBALL FOCUS RECAP

TOP FIVE OFFENSIVE GRADES (minimum 40 snaps)

1. Skylar Thompson (95.9 on 66 snaps) This is a higher score than any Wildcat posted in a single game last season.

2. Nick Kaltmayer (86.3 on 66 snaps) Dalton Risner's replacement posts a Risner-like score, and it was well deserved.

3. Scott Frantz (82.3 on 60 snaps) Frantz played well, and - more importantly - returned in the second half after a first half injury.

4. Josh Rivas (81.7 on 42 snaps) I thought both Rivas and Evan Curl played well; PFF liked Rivas better.

5. Adam Holtorf (74.8 on 66 snaps) I guess when you run for 360 yards four of your top five scores may well be OL, and Holtorf certainly did his part.

TOP FIVE DEFENSIVE GRADES (minimum 20 snaps)

1. Jonathan Alexander (91.0 on 24 snaps) Yes, the defensive touchdown helps, but Alexander's sterling grade required more than that.

2. A.J. Parker (81.3 on 30 snaps) Parker's interception on the second defensive snap was a back-breaker for Nicholls.

3. Jahron McPherson (78.1 on 31 snaps) PFF loved McPherson last season, and they do this year, too, so far. Maybe because he's good.

4. Wyatt Hubert (77.6 on 20 snaps) Isn't it wild Wyatt Hubert only played 20 snaps? One was SO CLOSE to a strip sack on Chase Fourcade.

5. Da'Quan Patton (75.7 on 21 snaps) I wasn't shy to tell you about Patton's poor PFF grade last season, so let's not ignore his strong start. I remember multiple instances of him knifing into the backfield, and finishing, in limited reps Saturday night.

ONE GOOD THING

I was stunned at how smooth K-State's operation was Saturday night.

What Chris Klieman has said about rotating players was not an exaggeration (check out The Analysis for the details), but despite the constant changing of personnel the Wildcats had virtually no alignment or clock management issues related to personnel.

After years of seeing K-State struggle to snap the ball in time, needing to call timeouts after dead balls or change of possession (and watching defenses bait the Wildcats into changing plays), it was stunning to see how easy everything looked from an operation perspective.

And this was in game one, under a brand new coaching staff. It gives you reason to hope those kinds of issues won't be popping up much in the future.

ONE BAD THING

As good as Thompson was, drops hurt the K-State offense.

Redshirt freshman Malik Knowles had two drops on perfectly thrown balls that would have gone for touchdowns, and Dalton Schoen wasn't able to maintain control on another (difficult catch, to be fair) would-be touchdown.

Don't get down on those two. Knowles ran great routes, flashes a huge catch radius and made a number of nice catches. He will be fine. And Schoen atoned for his mistake with a later 38-yard touchdown catch.

It certainly wasn't all bad, by any stretch. However, there are going to be games (soon) where missed opportunities to score on open big plays can be the difference between wins and losses.

ONE BIG QUESTION

Can they do it again?

Bowling Green rolled Morgan State (yes, they're as bad as you'd guess) in the season opener, but this probably isn't a team as good as Nicholls.

K-State managed everything perfectly in the season opener. Can the Wildcats duplicate the performance against a bad FBS team (as opposed to the No. 11 FCS team) at 11 a.m. in Game Two like they did in a buzzing environment at night in the season opener?

We'll find out soon.

THEY SAID IT

Great performance. He’s a stud. He’s a winner. I was so pleased with how he commanded the offense, how poised he was. He’d get flushed out of the pocket and throw strikes, didn’t get frustrated when we had a couple balls that I think maybe could have been caught. I’m telling you, that kid’s got that ‘it’ factor and I’m so excited for him to be able to have that kind of performance and leading our team.

Chris Klieman on Skylar Thompson

(They) played tremendous. Our O-Line did a great job today. Our running backs ran the ball well, but without the guys up front opening up holes for them, it’s gonna be a tough time running the ball. Our front guys did a great job today. Like I’ve said before, we’ve got a great group of running backs that have experience. They’re not selfish. Whenever they get the chance to run the ball, their numbers called, they run it. It’s a lot of fun to go play with those guys, and it was a lot of fun to watch James (Gilbert), Jordon (Brown), and Harry (Trotter), all three of them. They had their first time getting in a K-State uniform and showing what they’re made of. It was a blast.

Skylar Thompson on the offensive line

I feel like we set a pretty good tone as a defense. They didn’t score until the second half as a defense that’s pretty remarkable, just knowing that the whole first quarter especially with the yards that they had. I feel like we did good.

Linebacker Elijah Sullivan

The atmosphere was unbelievable, I remember coming out of the tunnel and seeing all the fans and I was like ‘dang, this is really what the players last year told me it would be’, so I feel like that energy fed us all well.

Running Back James Gilbert

Hats off to them, they came out ready to play. They got that running game going and once they did, it was hard to stop. It opens up so many other things for them. I thought the quarterback threw a bunch of good balls and it didn’t matter what running back. I thought they handled us upfront and then offensively we couldn’t get anything going because we didn’t really have the ball, I mean time of possession and number of plays in the first half was really ridiculous. Thought we had a little momentum in the third quarter, got our offense on track a little bit, and then the turnover to start the fourth quarter just kind of put another little knife in us. Good football team, he [Chris Klieman] is going to do a good job, I know what he is trying to build here and he is going to do a tremendous job.

Nicholls Coach Tim Rebowe

THE KSO SUNDAY SHOW

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