The Wolverine Now

Wildcats Embrace Quarterback Rotation 2013 Kansas State Statistical Leaders J ake Waters considered the comment for a moment, throw the ball better than some people thought and laughed. he could, but of more significance, he was a quality "It's a good rumor going around, but there is no way leader and really provided great inspiration for the I could beat Daniel [Sams] in a foot race," the junior other young people in our program. signal-caller said. "The transition, I think has been good. We have Waters is a better runner than your average pro-style good, young guys at that position. They're still develquarterback, rushing for 270 yards and six touchoping and have a ways to go, but they have made a downs on 106 carries in Kansas State's option offense, good deal of progress." but he's not the running threat The intention was to go with that Sams is. The redshirt sophone quarterback, but coming omore from Slidell, La., rushed out of fall camp, neither Waters for 784 yards and 11 scores on nor Sams had separated from 148 attempts (5.3 yards per rush) the other. The competition conduring the season. tinued through the first five "Daniel is more than a runner, weeks, with Waters receiving and I'm more than just a passer, greater run in three games and but those are certainly our Sams in two contests, but it all strengths," Waters said. felt adversarial, and wasn't doing In his second go-around with the team any good. Kansas State — he coached KSU "It started with our relationfrom 1989-2005 before retiring ship," Waters said. "In the third or and then returning in 2009 — fourth game, when it was a comBill Snyder finds himself employpetition between us, we had a ing a quarterback platoon, much Junior quarterback Jake Waters has thrown talk and said, 'Hey, this isn't workto his chagrin. for 2,198 yards, with 15 touchdowns and nine ing. We have to do whatever it "I have never been a fan of hav- interceptions, this season while splitting time takes for this team to win.' And ing two guys at that position, at signal-caller with Daniel Sams. we came to an agreement that photo courtesy kansas State but both of them have worked we don't need to care who puts diligently at it," Snyder said. "Both of them are very up the stats or the accolades — we just want to win. deserving of the opportunity to play. They get along "The coaches put trust in both of us and deserve extremely well and are very positive with each other. credit because they're smart about their decisions "Even though that is not my preference, that is the on when to use me and when to put Daniel in. And way it has played out. Both of them will play in the then the whole team bought in to help. They knew bowl game, and hopefully, both of them will play we both added something and embraced the role well." we had." Snyder utilized two quarterbacks in 2009 also, but With Waters and Sams collaborating, each utilizing then committed to a single signal-caller from 2010his own strengths, the Wildcats began to win. In going 12. The past two years, that QB had been Collin Klein, 5-1 against West Virginia, Iowa State, Texas Tech, TCU, a Heisman finalist in 2012 who threw for 4,559 yards Oklahoma (the lone loss) and Kansas over the final and 29 touchdowns while rushing for an additional six games, the two combined for 1,734 yards of total 2,061 yards and 50 touchdowns during his two seaoffense (289.0 per game), and their selfless attitude sons as Kansas State's starter. In his absence, it took became an anchor for the rest of the Wildcats. awhile for both Waters and Sams to emerge. "Both developed in terms of leadership and have "Colin is a tremendous young guy, and he meant a become vastly more involved in that," Snyder said. lot to our football program," Snyder stated. "He could — Michael Spath THE WOLVERINE • Page 4 Sophomore quarterback Daniel Sams is Kansas State's secondleading rusher this season, with 148 carries for 784 yards and a team-high 11 touchdowns on the ground. photo courtesy kansas State Passing Comp.Att. Yds. TD INT Jake Waters 138 233 2198 15 9 Daniel Sams 38 52 452 4 4 Rushing Att. Yds.Avg. LG TD John Hubert 182 968 5.3 63 9 Daniel Sams 148 784 5.3 37 11 Jake Waters 106 270 2.5 24 6 Robert Rose 22 102 4.6 26 2 D. Robinson 5 20 4.0 11 0 T, Thompson 2 17 8.5 15 0 Receiving Rec.Yds.Avg. LG TD Tyler Lockett 71 1146 16.1 90 8 Curry Sexton 36 409 11.4 32 0 T. Thompson 28 495 17.7 79 5 John Hubert 12 127 10.6 43 1 Torell Miller 11 106 9.6 37 1 Zach Trujillo 5 111 22.2 35 1 Kyle Klein 5 59 11.8 13 0 G. Gronkowski 4 148 37.0 67 3 Tackles UT AT Tot. TFL/Yds.Sacks/Yds. Blake Slaughter 68 35 103 6.0-23 3.0-16 Jonathan Truman 543185 4.0-50.0-0 Ty Zimmerman 492069 3.0-140.0-0 Dante Barnett 521567 2.0-70.0-0 Ryan Mueller 52961 18.5-82 11.5-66 Randall Evans 51859 3.0-12 1.0-9 Kip Daily 39847 1.0-10.0-0 D. Roberts 35237 2.5-90.0-0 Chaquill Reed 211233 4.5-16 2.0-11 Travis Britz 231033 5.5-133.0-5 Interceptions No. Yds.Avg. TD Dante Barnett 3 58 19.3 0 D. Roberts 3 73 24.3 0 Ty Zimmerman 3 75 25.0 2 Two with 2 Three with 1 Kicking PATFGM-FGA LG Jack Cantele 40-41 11-13 44 Ian Patterson 8-8 2-3 31 Punting No. Yds.Avg. LG Mark Krause 47 1941 41.3 67

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