Key takeaways from Kansas State offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham, and full video, from his Thursday press conference.

One of the two main discussion points by Kansas State offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham was the Wildcats ability to find the end zone. He noted the fast starts they’ve had against Texas and West Virginia, though both culminated in losses. Specifically, he shared that they scored on four of their first six drives versus the Mountaineers.

The problem was that two of the four scores ended in field goals. And, as Messingham stated on Thursday, they’re preaching touchdowns.

Everyone, of course, would prefer touchdowns over field goals. However, when considering their style - which is to limit possessions and shrink the game - field goals are more detrimental, and it’s more important to record touchdowns because there are not going to be as many opportunities as usual.

The other critical item Messingham wanted to emphasize at his weekly press conference was how crucial their running game is, and that despite teams knowing that they want to run the ball, they’re still going to have to be able to run the ball. They need to find success within the running game regardless if the defense knows that it is coming.

I understand the sentiment. That is their formula, and typically more problems arise when a coach or a program tries to be something that they are not. An example of the importance of that run game came the last two weeks, two games in which K-State threw the ball as well as it has in some time. Skylar Thompson almost threw for over 300 yards against West Virginia, and the Wildcats still came out on the losing end.

Additionally, they’ve not won a game this year when the running game was halted to the extent that it was against the Longhorns and Mountaineers.

Messingham updated the status of three of his regular contributors on offense. It was the first time this week we have been told receiver Wykeen Gill will be available. He suffered a dirty and gruesome hit against Texas that kept him off the field last week in Manhattan against West Virginia. He is set to resume play this weekend in Lubbock.

Another positive note was that K-State’s offensive coordinator believes that this is the furthest along running backs James Gilbert and Jordon Brown have been during a game week in quite a while.

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