The Kansas State football returned all five starting offensive lineman from a year ago, bringing high expectations for the position.
Through the first two games, the offense has struggled to finish out drives. As the Wildcats head into their final non-conference game against UTSA, there is a sense of importance to put everything together before opening Big 12 play on Sept. 22.
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K-State offense resets as UTSA comes to town
In Kansas State’s weekly press conference on Tuesday, senior offensive lineman Dalton Risner talked about looking past the game against Mississippi State and to the game ahead as an offensive line.
“That’s the cool thing about football, you’ve got 12 football games in a season,” Risner said. “We’re going on game three and we’ve got an opportunity to be 2-1.”
The K-State offense has struggled to get the ball in the end zone, only scoring two offensive touchdowns.
“The passing game hasn’t been anywhere it needs to be, and the running game hasn’t been where it needs to be,” Risner said. “It starts up front and being more physical, moving guys off the line of scrimmage and giving our quarterbacks time to do so.”
Junior offensive lineman Adam Holtorf explained how the offensive line has shown inconsistency in the first two games of the season.
“We show flashes of being able to do things,” Holtorf said. “We’ll pop a big run for 15-20 yards, then we’ll turn around and have a negative gain play. It’s frustrating but we are doing everything we can to try and remedy that and improve that.”
When asked if the offensive line has taken last year’s success and the returning experience for granted, Snyder said, “I don’t think they have taken themselves for granted. If indeed any of them did, they got the message by now.”
The Wildcats offensive line will have an opportunity to improve as K-State finishes out non-conference play on Saturday against UTSA at 3 p.m. inside Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
