Watch full video of Kansas State offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham meeting with the media on Thursday, as well as a recap of his key points.

As we reported first at KSO, tight end Samuel Wheeler is done for the year. It was pretty fascinating to hear offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham share how much of a loss that was for the Kansas State offense moving forward. It’s clear that they think a lot about Wheeler, as has KSO.

Messingham, to no surprise, is also not expecting Wykeen Gill to play this week. That is something head coach Chris Klieman also shared at his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

Jordon Brown will likely be available once again, but Messingham did make sure to stipulate that he’d like to have him much closer to full strength, of course. James Gilbert is probably headed in the right direction this week. He’s already practiced more this week than he has in about a month.

I know they thought Gilbert would return last week, but it’d be a surprise if Gilbert didn’t return against West Virginia at home.

Did Malik Knowles’ touchdown on the first drive of the game against Texas look familiar? It should, according to Messingham. They’ve already run that play before this season in some form. They are always looking to scheme ways to get Knowles out in the open field and in one-on-one situations.

Messingham brought it up how they had that opportunity earlier in the year, but Knowles just couldn’t make the defender miss. I believe it was against Baylor in Manhattan earlier this season, but perhaps out of a different alignment for Knowles. I think he just slipped when making a cut.

It was fascinating to hear K-State’s offensive coordinator tackle the question about the quarterback run game, or lack thereof, against Texas in Austin. It was clear and apparent that it wasn’t a mode of attack they wanted to explore versus the Longhorns.

Messingham did share that some of it was about protecting their starting quarterback and not wanting to subject Skylar Thompson to some of the contact that would be waiting on him on the other end.

Reading between the lines, they felt that Tom Herman’s defense was sitting on the Thompson run quite a bit, and if they forced it there would be some hits and contact he’d face and against a defense that is a bit bigger and faster than most that they will face this season.

That’s how Messingham would describe his young receiver, Joshua Youngblood. He wants to do everything 100 miles per hour. That’s how quickly he operates with the things he does on the football field.

Not to brag, but that’s something that I had observed and shared about the Florida freshman throughout the year. He looks different on the football field than everybody else. He makes everyone else look a tick or two slower than they actually are, and he does it against the most athletic and quickest teams and opponents

If I had to quibble about anything in the past month when it came to Kansas State’s attack, I think the Cats probably could do more schematically and within the game plan to feature Youngblood and the skillset he brings to the table. That isn’t just because he is a different kind of talent, but he also offers traits that none of the other wide receivers can necessarily supply.

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