Posted on 12/27/2002 2:51:35 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
SAN DIEGO - The sky was clear blue Thursday, with temperatures in the 60s, and Kansas Staters filled the downtown streets for a pep rally.
This was purple pride at its best. And before today is over, as the Wildcats move toward an accomplishment never before achieved in school history, that violet hue could radiate just a little bit more.
"We have a chance to finish in the top five," K-State senior wide receiver Taco Wallace said. "That never has happened here, and we wouldn't mind being the first ones to do it."
For everything he's done at K-State, for all the success he's had in putting the Wildcats on the national scene, Bill Snyder has never had a team finish the season with a top-five ranking. That could change this year if the sixth-ranked Wildcats beat Arizona State tonight in the Holiday Bowl and eventually climb a notch or two in the final polls.
Two teams currently ranked above K-State in both major polls, No. 3 Iowa and No. 5 USC, play each other on Jan. 2 in the Orange Bowl. So K-State -- which had a final ranking of No. 6 in the 1995 CNN/USA Today poll and both major polls in 1999 -- could use this game as a springboard to Wildcat immortality.
That goal, combined with their desire to finish No. 1 nationally in total defense, just might give the Wildcats all the motivation they need to secure yet another 11-win season. K-State, 10-2, enters as a hefty 18-point favorite against unranked Arizona State, 8-5, at 7 tonight at Qualcomm Stadium.
And yet, on the eve of his team's 10th consecutive bowl game, Snyder said he hoped his team plays better than it practices.
"Practices have gone OK," he said. "We've had some good moments, and we've had some practices where I know that our focus is somewhere else, perhaps caught up in the events of the day."
Arizona State coach Dirk Koetter felt the exact opposite about his own team.
"I think we had our best practice of bowl preparation yesterday," Koetter said. "We feel like we have a good plan. It's time to go after it."
Both teams have encountered welcomed reversals of fortune in 2002.
The Wildcats, farily or unfairly overlooked as a BCS at-large team, are much better off compared with where they were one year ago.
That's when K-State finished 6-6, embarrassed in a 26-3 Insight.com Bowl loss to Syracuse, and was left wondering what was happening to Snyder's empire. K-State had four straight 11-win seasons in a row until 2001.
"There's not a player in this program who prior to last year had ever played in a season in which they had won less than 11 games, and there was that temptation to feel as thought it will happen, it will just happen, and putting on a purple jersey means 11 wins," Snyder said.
"We learned that lesson about taking things for granted."
K-State junior quarterback Ell Roberson said: "We felt we let everybody down. We just went out and laid a big, fat egg.
It's been Roberson and sophomore running back Darren Sproles, with his school single-season record 1,347 yards, who've combined to pose the biggest threat to defenses. Arizona State, though, is stingy against the run, allowing 111.3 yards, 19th nationally.
Defense is K-State's forte. The Wildcats lead the nation in total defense (243.9 yards a game) and scoring defense (10.6).
"We just want to go out and everybody can say, `Wow, that was a great football team,' " K-State junior linebacker Josh Buhl said.
Finding anyone who says Arizona State is a great team might be a chore.
The Sun Devils lost three of their final four games, including a 55-38 loss at home Nov. 9 to a California team that didn't even make it to a bowl. Arizona State, third in the Pac-10, committed 12 turnovers its last three games.
Arizona State, a nice comeback story itself after going 4-7 last year, starts only five seniors compared with 10 for K-State. The Sun Devils' two best players are juniors: All-America defensive end Terrell Suggs, the nation's leader with 22 sacks; and wide receiver Shaun McDonald, who set the school single-season record for receiving yards with 1,291.
Sophomore quarterback Andrew Walter, who like Roberson finished as the starter in 2001 but lost that role and regained it this season, has thrown for 3,191 yards in the nine games he started in 2002. Walter, 6 feet 5, 219 pounds, completed 221 of 381 with 19 touchdowns in that stretch. He had 536 yards in a 45-42 win over then-No. 6 Oregon.
"They (K-State) look awesome on film," Walter said. "But a win in this game could set the stage for the future of Arizona State football."
K-State junior linebacker Terry Pierce, who could play his last game in a Wildcat uniform because he may leave early for the pros, won't underestimate Arizona State.
"Offenses like that are always scary," Pierce said. "They're always one play away from scoring a touchdown on you."
Touchdowns against K-State don't come easy. The Wildcats haven't given up a touchdown in the fourth quarter in -- get this -- the last eight games. K-State leads the country in scoring margin at 35.1, and has outscored its final five opponents 253-30, simply dominating football.
The Wildcats plan to keep that reputation intact. And at least one of them disagreed with Snyder's assessment on how the team is approaching this one.
"The task at hand is being an 11-win football team," Buhl said. "I think this team will pick up where it left off. We're practicing so we can pick up where we left off, and take it up to even another level."
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