Kansas State Football Faces a Quarterback Quandry

Michael Bishop is not walking through that door. Chad May is not walking through that door. Hell, Jonathan Beasley is not walking through that door.

Nope, at least for this season, Bill Snyder won’t have anything close to the talent at quarterback that he had in his first go-round unless someone makes a Denis Clemente-like improvement. In fact, the guy I thought would have the best change, Chris Harper, has already been converted to wide receiver.

That leaves us with Carson Coffman, Sammuel Lamur and Collin Klein. Also known as Chase Coffman’s younger, less talented brother, the top contributor on the scout squad last year, and a sophomore who played wide receiver last season.

Not exactly an inspiring group.

Actually, Kansas State’s most talented quarterback might be Daniel Thomas, the former high school quarterback who was 3 for 4 with a 41-yard TD pass last season. But since he’s maybe the best running back in the conference, that would be like making an immensely talented pitcher like Joakim Soria a closer for a team that hardly ever gets save opportunities. Who would be dumb enough to do that?

Of course, Bill Snyder says there is no frontrunner right now and everyone is perfectly even, but he’s probably saying that for the same reason that Barack Obama hasn’t called Rush Limbaugh a lying, racist asshole in public. Still, let’s go ahead and work off that premise and take an even look at all three candidates.

The conversation should start with Coffman, if only because he was the only one to take significant snaps last season (incidentally, that’s also why his picture is above this article).

Coffman never looked spectacular, can’t hurdle defenders like his brother, and lost his starting spot to Grant Gregory, but he did show the ability to throw a decent ball. As for running, Coffman is average at best, and shouldn’t be at the helm if the Wildcats are going to go back to the glory days of the option whenever then need 3-5 yards.

The guy best suited for that kind of offense is probably Lamur, the redshirt junior from Joliet JC in Florida. Lamur hardly did enough in junior college to give any kind of impression, with just 102 passes and 23 rush attempts in two years. But Snyder and his staff obviously liked his effort with the scout team last season, and it wouldn’t be the first time the coach turned an unheralded recruit into a star.

Finally, there’s Collin Klein. I don’t know a whole lot about the 6-5, 233 pound sophomore. But from what I’ve heard, he’s easily the most intelligent of the three, which could be extremely useful with Snyder’s famously large playbook (except when Michael Bishop is quarterbacking). Certainly, he’s got the size and arm strength, but only time will tell if he really has the talent to play quarterback in the Big 12.

Either way, it seems like the most important job of K-State’s quarterback this year will be placing the ball in the hands of Thomas and not giving it away to the other team. Anyone that can do that and throw short-to-medium range balls with decent accuracy should be good enough.

Thie article originally appeared on: Ahearn Alley

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