Fitzgerald tackles vocal leadership, earns respect

Tenacious transfer

GAMEDAYGuidewww.kstatecollegian.com | Friday, Oct. 23, 2009

Scouting RepoRt page 2 | column page 3 | matchup page 3

By Ashley DunkakKAnsAs stAtE CollEGiAn

Senior defensive lineman Jeffrey Fitzgerald said he traditionally makes an effort to lead by example. With 2.5 sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery during K-State’s dismantling of Texas A&M on Saturday, he set the bar high.

Like quarterback Grant Gregory, Fitzgerald has come into a position of leadership despite being in his first year on the field for the K-State football pro-gram. Fitzgerald said he worked hard in the off-season to prove himself to his teammates.

He said having the respect in the lock-er room is a very big factor of leadership.

“If players don’t really respect you, they’re not going to follow your leader-ship, so I just did my best to earn that,” Fitzgerald said.

He has tried recently to be more of a vocal leader than he had been previous-ly. However, he said if a quiet, “Come on, pick it up,” into a player’s ear motivates him to work harder, that is all that needs

to be done.“It’s hard to just flip the switch on be-

cause I don’t believe in false hype, just go-ing out there and yell-ing for no reason,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s more what you say than how you say it.”

A transfer from the University of Virgin-ia, where he was a unanimous choice for freshman All-Ameri-can and a season-long starter as a sopho-more, Fitzgerald leads K-State with seven tackles-for-loss. Those equate to over half a football field of nega-tive yardage for oppo-nents this season.

A connection be-tween his coach at Virginia and former K-State head coach Ron Prince brought Fitzgerald to K-State. He said he enjoyed his time at Virginia

and is also enjoying his time here.“I learned a lot from those coaches

out there, which has allowed me to ele-vate my game and un-derstand the game a lot more,” he said.

Upon arriving at K-State, he did not know much about Coach Bill Snyder, he said.

“I’d heard a little buzz about him,” Fitzgerald said. “He has a very big reputation out here, and playing under him for just this short time, I re-ally understand why.”

Fitzgerald said Sny-der is a great coach and that he is excited to be playing for him right now. Known as the ar-chitect of the greatest turnaround in Division

I football history, the change that Sny-der achieved in the program during his first stint as coach was reflected by the

recent back-to-back games against teams from Texas.

Despite the excitement of the 62-14 beat-down of Texas A&M, the team could not get complacent and quickly turned its attention to Colorado, safety Tysyn Hart-man said.

Fitzgerald said Tyler Hansen, quarter-back of Colorado, is a mobile quarter-back. Because of this, the defense’s fo-cus will be keeping him in the pocket and forcing him to throw, he said. Since Han-sen has the ability to make people miss, it will be necessary for multiple players to run to the ball, Fitzgerald said.

“[We need to] mainly just do a good job staying in our rush lanes, not allow-ing him to see those creases and pockets where he could step up and cause more stress on our secondary,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said that Hansen is very simi-lar to Jerrod Johnson of Texas A&M, whom the Wildcats intercepted three times on Saturday. However, he said he expected Hansen to try to get out and run more.

Senior defensive lineman Jeffrey Fitzgerald tackles Texas A&M quarterback Jerrod Johnson in a 62-14 win against the Aggies last Saturday. The senior transfer from Virginia finished the game with 2.5 sacks. Fitzgerald, who has started every game this year for the Wildcats has 4.5 sacks on the season.

Sara Manco | CollEGiAn

An inside look at Jeffrey Fitzgerald

date of biRth: OCT. 30, 1987height/Weight: 6’4”, 280 lbs.hometoWn: RiChmOnd, Va.high School: meRmiTage high sChOOl YeaR: seniORpoSition: defensiVe endmajoR: sOCiOlOgycaReeR StaRtS: seVentackleS foR loSS: seVen SackS: 4.5

See fitZgeRald, page 4

By Grant GuggisbergKAnsAs stAtE CollEGiAn

After dismantling the Texas A&M Ag-gies last Saturday, the K-State football team looks to improve to 4-0 at Sny-der Family Stadium with a homecoming matchup against the Colorado Buffaloes Saturday at 11:30 a.m.

The Wildcats (4-3, 2-1 Big 12 Confer-ence) face the Buffaloes (2-4, 1-1 Big 12 Conference), who, after a disappoint-ing non-conference showing, stunned the Kansas Jayhawks last Saturday to move to 1-1 in the conference and mud-dle the Big 12 North race. Colorado lost its other Big 12 game, a 38-14 loss at Texas. Despite moving to the top of the conference standings this week and or-chestrating a dramatic turnaround af-ter a lopsided loss to Texas Tech, head coach Bill Snyder is telling his team to stay level-headed.

“You have to put the past behind you in order to focus on the next game,” Sny-der said. “There’s not really a lot of time to think about what happened the previ-ous game because you have one day to process the emotions that come with ei-ther a win or a loss. So it is very impor-tant for myself and the rest of the coach-ing staff to keep our players focused on

the task at hand.”Senior quarterback Grant Grego-

ry, the presumed starter for this week’s matchup, echoed Snyder’s thoughts on not getting too high or too low.

“It starts with Coach Snyder because he has been in every situation imagin-able as a coach,” Gregory said. “So he is a very even-keeled person, and we try to feed off him in that aspect.”

While the Wildcats will be favored in the game against the Buffaloes, the team is not taking the challenge lightly. While the Buffaloes’ 2-4 record reflects some underachievement this season, Snyder and the Wildcats will focus on them as they do every week. Snyder is especial-ly concerned with the recent quarter-back switch from Cody Hawkins to Ty-ler Hansen.

“He has the ability to make big plays at any point in the game,” Snyder said. “He is very elusive. You might think that you have him trapped, and before you know it he has slipped away and has made a big play. The Colorado coaching staff doesn’t want him to stay in the pocket. He has the ability to hurt you with both the run and the pass, so that presents numerous problems to a defense.”

K-State staying level headed, preparing for Buffaloes

See coloRado, page 3 Junior running back Daniel Thomas falls forward toward the end zone in last week’s 62-14 rout of Texas A&M. He finished the game with 91 yards rushing and four touchdowns.

Johnathan Knight | CollEGiAn

Karaoke at 9

$3.00 7 and 7’s$2.75 Pounders

$2.00 Bud Light Cans$4.00 Powercat Punch

Rob Watson Plays @ 9

1⁄2Price Large Pizza Saturday

900 Hayes Dr. 785-537-9090

GAMEDAY SPECIAL

216 S. Fourth ï VFW Plaza ï 785-776-1193216 S. Fourth ï VFW Plaza ï 785-776-1193

(access off Pierre)(access off Pierre)

Not all treasure is silver

and gold, mate.

Find yours here.

1304 Pillsbury Dr. 785-537-2273

ANYBlizzard!

EXPIRES 10-30-09

$1 OFF

2 Locations!1015 N. 3rd St. 3116 Anderson Ave.

with this coupon

-Nutritional Products

-Speedo Swimwear

-Moving Comfort Bras

-Triathlon Gear

-Running Shoes

-Apparel & Accessories

www.manhattanrunningco.com ~ (785) 320-63633015 Anderson Avenue, Manhattan, KS ~ Next to Ray’s Apple Market

Gait Analysis

See a photoopportunity?

Call785-532-6556

Kansas state collegian FRIDaY, OCtOBeR 23, 2009PaGe 2

CB DE DEDT DT

TE

RB

LB

SS FS

LTLGCRGRTWR

LBLB

WR

WR

Scouting ReportTyler Hansen

Quarterback #9

Jeff SmartLinebacker #45

Riar GreerTight end #87

smart, a senior, has been as consistent as any defender in the conference this season. He currently leads the team and is second in the Big 12 Conference with 58 total tackles. He’s also recorded a sack, forced and recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass during the 2009 campaign.

Greer, a senior, has become one of Colorado’s primary receiving threats during his collegiate career. He has hauled in 25 catches for 284 yards and three touchdowns through the season’s first six games. He currently ranks second on the team in all three statistical categories.

Hansen, a sophomore, made his first start of the season last week-end against Kansas and he did not disappoint. the dual-threat signal-caller accumulated 209 yards of total offense while throwing for one score and running for another en route to a 34-30 upset of the nationally-ranked Jayhawks.

StRengthS WeakneSSeS

Quarterback: Former start-er Cody Hawkins was re-placed by sophomore Tyler Hansen, a dual-threat ath-lete who led the Buffaloes to a 34-30 upset of Kansas last weekend in Boulder, Colo. The Wildcats will need to be ready for Hansen’s ath-leticism, as he possesses the capability to change a game on a single play.

Tight end: During his ca-reer, senior Riar Greer has been as reliable as anyone on Colorado’s roster. He has accumulated 76 catches for 856 yards and 10 touch-downs as a Buffalo. K-State will need to keep an eye on Greer all afternoon to keep him from having a big day.

Wide receiver: Junior Scot-ty McKnight and sopho-more Jason Espinoza have

served as ample targets for the Buffalo quarterbacks in 2009. They have combined for 48 catches, 506 yards and four touchdowns. The duo should provide a good challenge for the Wildcats’ secondary.

Defensive line: Colora-do’s front four has had lit-tle trouble getting into op-ponents’ backfields this sea-son. The Buffaloes have al-ready accumulated 17 sacks and 39 total tackles behind the line of scrimmage. K-State’s offensive line was solid a week ago and will need a similar performance to protect Grant Gregory.

Linebacker: Experience isn’t an issue for the Buffa-lo linebacking corps, which includes two seniors and a junior. Senior Jeff Smart leads the unit, which has

combined for 104 tackles, six sacks and three forced fumbles this season.

BuFFalo WeaknessesRunning back: Sophomore Rodney Stewart has been productive in 2009 – he is averaging 83.6 yards per game – but as a whole, Col-orado’s ground attack has been dismal throughout the season. The Buffaloes aver-

age just 94 yards per game, which ranks dead last in the conference 108th out of all Divison I teams. Expect K-State to exploit this unit af-ter holding Texas A&M to minus 13 rushing yards last weekend.

Offensive line: Injuries hurt Colorado’s front five early and the Buffaloes are still trying to recover. The start-

ers, which include three sophomores and a pair of juniors, have allowed 16 sacks and 36 tackles for negative yardage this sea-son. This is good news for a K-State defensive front sev-en that sacked Aggie quar-terback Jerrod Johnson a season-high six times last weekend.

Secondary: The Buffalo

defensive backs have had problems creating turnovers in 2009. Colorado has only recorded four interceptions while allowing a 61.9 com-pletion percentage, which ranks 11th in the Big 12. This could give K-State’s passing attack, which ranks dead last in the conference, a good opportunity to in-crease its season averages.

BuFFalo sTrengThs

-compiled by justin nutter

Great FUN!

317 Poyntz Ave. • Manhattan, KS 66502 • 776-2119Mon-Fri: 2-2 • Sat & Sun: 12-2

WiFi Available

SundaySaturday

TuesdayMonday

Friday $200 Rum & Pepsi

$375 32 oz. Draws

$275 Bloody Mary’s

$175 Domestic Draws$275 Guinness &

Best in Town

Tall Grass Ale$175 Domestic Bottles$100 Miller High Life

Wednesday

Thur sday$200 Wells$525 60 oz. Pitchers

1150 WESTLOOP CENTERMANHATTAN

Brittí s Garden Acres

1400 S. Scenic Drive off Ft. Riley Blvd. West of Seth Child

Make us part of your gameday tradition!

GO STATE

PumpkinPatch

Hay Rides

CornMaze

Scary Maze Now Open 7-9 Friday & Saturday!

Kansas state collegianFRIDaY, OCtOBeR 23, 2009 PaGe 3

The loss to Texas Tech must have lit a match un-der the Wildcats, because the team was on fire against Texas A&M.

K-State went on to rout the Aggies 62-14 in a stunning upset. Daniel Thom-as may not have reached the 100-yard rushing mark, but he did have four rush-ing touchdowns to lead the team.

The Wild-cats used all of their options last week, taking out senior quar-terback Grant Gregory in the third quarter and putting ju-nior quarterback Car-son Coffman under cen-ter. However, Coffman struggled to keep the train moving as Snyder called off the dogs late in the game with Coffman throwing for only 45 yards. Gregory finished with 147 yards passing and one touchdown.

The 500-yard averag-ing Texas A&M offense accumulated just 301, while the Wildcats fin-ished with 424. Uzoma Nwachukwu led the Ag-gies with 136 yards and two touchdowns.

Brandon Banks only had 60 yards receiving, but his 96 yard kickoff return for a touchdown ignited the crowd. His return for a touchdown should put him in good company as one of the most dangerous players in the NCAA.

I think this was a sur-prising victory for the Wildcats and I don’t think many people ex-pected them to win. I es-pecially didn’t think they would score as many points as they did or play a shutout through the first half.

Next up for K-State is Colorado who is com-ing off an outstanding victory against Kansas. The Buffaloes made the

Jayhawks look like the worst team in the confer-ence last Saturday, rack-ing up 34 points and over 300 yards.

Colorado has had some problems this year,

losing two ear-ly non confer-ence games at the beginning of the season. The original starter at quarterback, Cody Hawkins, has been incon-sistent throw-ing for more than 1,000 yards and nine touch-downs, but also throwing nine in-

terceptions.After their victory

against Kansas, they may look to go with Tyler Hansen again at quarter-back. Hansen didn’t have a tremendous game, but threw for 175 yards and a touchdown.

The Buffaloes have also used a mix of run-ning backs including Rodney Stewart, who has 418 yards and five touch-downs.

With Colorado’s victory against the Jayhawks, they moved up to second in the Big 12 North behind K-State and tied with Kan-sas and Nebraska.

If the Wildcats plays how they did against the Aggies, they are sure to win against Colora-do and boost their con-fidence for the Kan-sas game next month. They need to get Dan-iel Thomas back in the game plan because Colo-rado has allowed an av-erage of 140 yards on the ground. Still undefeat-ed at home, I think the Wildcats can continue their success. Look for K-State’s offense to prog-ress and pull out a 38-14 victory.

tyler Scott is a junior in mass communications. please send comments to sports@spub.ksu.edu

TylerscoTT

Wildcats set to pursue 4-0 home record vs. Colorado

vs.

Matching Up

lson’sOShoe Repairin Aggieville since 1913

Men’s & Women’s

• Shoes• Purses• Backpacks• Birkenstock

Repairs

Replace Soles & Heels

“Tested and True, Olson’s is the shoe store for you!”

www.olsonshoes.com

785-539-85711214 Moro

k-sTaTe 31, ColoraDo 17

This is another game that could go ei-ther way, with K-State having the edge play-ing at home. Colora-do showed last week against Kansas that it can come up with big plays to win games, but on the road, the Buf-faloes have not fared well. The 54-point loss at Toledo was an em-

barrassment, and the Buffaloes have not had the season they were hoping for. I would guess head coach Bill Snyder will have the Wildcats prepared for a physical game that will be won or lost at the line of scrimmage. In the end, Colorado makes too many mis-takes and will fall to the Wildcats.

-compiled by grant guggisberg

Prediction

offense

sPecial teams

The Wildcat offense showed it has the poten-tial to score points in large numbers last week against Texas A&M. However, they have also shown all season that inconsistency is a big problem. The Wild-cats were efficient on of-fense, especially at the line of scrimmage, with running back Daniel Thomas scor-ing four touchdowns. The Wildcats also benefited from a short field on most drives. Time of possession will be an important statis-tic for the Wildcats against Colorado. Neither offense is particularly efficient, which could make for an ugly game, similar to last year’s 14-13 loss.

The Colorado Buffaloes were efficient last week in their defeat of Kansas at home. Their quarter-back, Tyler Hansen, has played well after replacing Cody Hawkins in the start-ing lineup. Hansen brings to the table more mobil-ity, with the opportuni-ty to use his feet to stifle the Wildcat defense. Last season, Hansen split time with Hawkins at quarter-back, similar to the way Grant Gregory and Carson Coffman are splitting time for the Wildcats now. The Buffaloes also have a qual-ity running back in Rod-ney Stewart, who is aver-aging more than 80 yards per game.

The K-State defense shined last week in a sur-prising turnaround, giving up no meaningful points in the game, with the sec-ond unit giving up just two touchdowns to the high-scoring Aggie offense. The defensive line stepped up and put pressure on the opposing quarterback all game long, forcing him into errant throws and three in-terceptions. The Wildcats will need to do their best to contain Buffalo quarter-back Tyler Hansen, who is known for his abilities as a mobile quarterback. Limit-ing big plays and control-ling the line of scrimmage will be key to a Wildcat victory Saturday.

The Buffalo defense has given up large amounts of points in every game so far this season. Colorado op-ponents have averaged 30 points per game, including a 54-point loss to Toledo. In addition, the defense is giv-ing up nearly 400 yards of offense to opposing teams. Colorado does boast a sol-id defensive line, with 17 sacks so far this season, with five of those 17 com-ing against the Kansas Jay-hawks last week. The Buffa-lo secondary has been large-ly unproductive, coming up with only four interceptions through the first six games. The secondary will need to protect against big plays by the Wildcats.

The Wildcat special teams have performed ad-mirably in the past few weeks, with each game bringing improvement to the table. Kick return-er Brandon Banks has done especially well, tak-ing a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown, his third of the year. In addition, Josh Cherry has shown im-provement and has had fewer pressure-filled situa-tions in recent weeks.

The Buffalo special teams have been average this season. Against Tex-as, they gave up two spe-cial teams touchdowns on punt plays, while netting only 31 yards on punts all season. They have fared well blocking kicks, with three blocked kicks on the season. Their return game has been decent, and they have held opposing teams’ returners to just 16 yards on kickoffs.

defense

Of course, Colora-do is not the only team to make a quarterback change midseason. Sny-der has stuck with Greg-ory as the starter since he made the change against Iowa State and continues to say he is making progress.

“I think that [Grego-ry] has made some sig-nificant improvements, but I also think that he has some issues that have to get cleaned up,” Snyder said. “Those is-sues may be associated with his inexperience in our system but that will come with time. But I thought that he played well against Texas A&M and hopefully he can

continue to improve over the course of the season.”

Also improving for the Wildcats was the play of the defense. Time of possession and control-ling the line of scrim-mage will be important points for both teams. Jeffrey Fitzgerald and the rest of the defen-sive line will need to put pressure on Hansen and force him into poor de-cisions, something they did last week against Texas A&M particular-ly well.

“All the hard work fi-nally came through for us on Saturday,” Fitzger-ald said. “We continu-ally worked on being a better team, especially on the defensive side.”

ColoraDo | snyder: Gregory making progress each week, will improve more in time

continued from page 1

••

••

••

1128 Moro St. 785.776.2252

Hours:M-F: 11-6:30

S: 11-6Go State!

DO IT ALL WITH A CANNONBALL!

620-532-36751005 E. Hwy. 54

Kingman, KS 67068

CASH?COLD HARD

WE GOT IT!501a Ft. Riley

FirearmsAmmunition

Scopes

TVí s Jewelry

gamesdvdí s

537-1803

59¢ per square ft

Financing available

MANHATTAN501 Ft. Riley Blvd 785-776-6742

Mon-Fri 8:30-5:30 Sat 9:00-2:00

GoKSU!

A Public Service Announcement from Pizza Shuttle

d nur k&do’s

don’tsDON’Tphone the following...

• Your Ex (They’re your EX for a reason)

• Your friend’s Ex

DO CALL

776-5577Open Late!

• Wake up well fed!

(Friends don’t let friends drunk dial)• Sub-par delivery food

dialing

Mon - Sat 11am-9pm ï Sun 11am-9pm ï Sun Brunch 11am-2pm785.539.64443003 Anderson Ave.

Some restrictions apply. Limited time only. Dine-in only. One offer per person, per visit.

Not good with any other offer.

only

Sundays 4-8:30 pm

Crazy College Night

99 Drinks 99 Bottlescl cl

Please don’t turn my hair

Seeing is Believing.We get you

the color you want!

1130 Westloop • 785.539.1837Mon. - Fri. 9 - 4:30, T/Th 9-7:30

Highlights start at

$34/ Color start at $27

$25 Mani- Pedi combo

All services by supervised students

Menʼs Haircut $5

Peekaboo color starting at $7

advertise with theCOLLEGIAN

he did.

785-532-6560

Kansas state collegian FRIDaY, OCtOBeR 23, 2009PaGe 4

While the Texas Tech game did not go as planned, the Wildcats nev-er gave up, Fitzgerald said.

“It just showed that we never give up,” he said. “Even when things don’t go right, we could take that game and teach a lesson.”

Fitzgerald said while the defense made a good effort against Tex-as Tech, they had a hard time get-ting to the quarterback because they would get stuck on blocks. He said

they know they have to do a good job of staying after the quarterback once the first effort doesn’t get there; they have to keep going because he likes to scramble.

“We have to stick together if we want to make this thing work,” Fitzgerald said. “That team bond is a very big part of what we do on the field. Just coming together as team, as a unit, being a really tight-knit group, is very important to what we do on Saturdays.”

Hartman said Fitzgerald is a good

leader, great guy and great teammate and he is happy to know him and play with him.

“[He’s] probably the best lead-er we have on our D-line,” Hartman said. “[He] really gets after the guys, gets them motivated, gets their spir-its up when they’re down and just gets them to work real hard.”

Snyder said Fitzgerald is taking some ownership of the defense and the defensive front four.

“I’m awfully pleased with Jeff. [He’s a] good young guy,” Snyder said.

FITZgeralD | team unity important to on-field successcontinued from page 1