Media hasn't seen Adrian Martinez practice yet. He was active for the last few workouts in the Spring, but he still wasn't 100 percent. That is when he first began to throw to some of his teammates in front of the coaches.

Wednesday is the first football practice before the season and the first time he will be able to turn it loose in that setting for Kansas State. A lot of the expectations being heaped on the program will fall on his ability to be smarter with the football.

From a playmaking standpoint, he probably provides the Wildcats with even more upside than what we saw from Skylar Thompson. However, Thompson played well within the confines of the offense, kept improving and was great with ball security.

Can Martinez mimic that while maintaining his explosive ability through the air and on the ground? Time will tell, but our first glimpses of it will come in August with the first batch of practices.

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I'm not sure that the health of Khalid Duke or Cincere Mason will be indicative of the season's direction. After all, Mason played minimally last year, Duke's season ended three games in and K-State still won eight games.

Furthermore, Duke's role can be owned by players that are more than capable, such as Nate Matlack and Felix Anudike-Uzomah. There's even more depth behind that duo to make everyone feel comfortable at the position.

Safety is more of a question mark, which we will dive into some more later, but there are a bevy of possibilities because of their work in the offseason. Having said all that, the trio being healthy certainly raises the ceiling of the team.

Will Honas is probably a bit more vital. He has the upside to unlock even more wrinkles to the defense that were not available to them last year. There's a wider gap between him and the next guy.

Yes, Collin Klein has been an offensive coordinator before. He held that title at Northern Iowa for one season and was the co-offensive coordinator in Manhattan during the final year under legendary coach Bill Snyder.

However, he wasn't calling the plays in 2018. That was Andre Coleman, even if Klein and Charlie Dickey held similar titles. Klein lacks the experience of doing it.

The first glimpse of it was a promising body of work in Houston. The offensive performance at the Texas Bowl was strong and a culmination of the weeks of practice beforehand.

I have confidence that he can be very good in the role, but it is a box that still needs to be checked off for the Wildcats.

It is the first time that they will enter a season under Chris Klieman with a solid amount of expectations. I think anything less than eight wins would probably be a disappointment. Even the national media has caught on to the potential of Kansas State.

They've become a trendy pick in the Big 12. How will they respond to being the hunted, or at least being more part of the conversation?

Ask Coach Klieman and he'll say his biggest question mark is the safety position. It makes sense after losing all three starters from a year ago in Ross Elder, Jahron McPherson and Russ Yeast.

The latter was an NFL Draft pick.

But the positive angle is that they have a number of options with capability. TJ Smith has played a lot at K-State. Mason is older and has talent. Kobe Savage has had a great offseason. Josh Hayes has played a lot of college football.

Although he hasn't played it at the FBS level yet, Drake Cheatum is a transfer addition that brings a lot of experience.