MANHATTAN — In the not-too-distant future, legendary Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder is going to be faced with a dilemma, although it might not come for a week or two, sometime after next Saturday’s home game against UMass.
As Kansas State buried Louisiana-Lafayette 48-27 on Saturday evening at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, quarterbacks Jake Waters and Daniel Sams continue to make it difficult for Snyder to stick with just one.
For now, he’s content on using both, although Snyder, instinctively using Sams in certain situations in the win, hinted that he would have liked to have used him more against the Ragin’ Cajuns. Moreover, in the coming weeks, Snyder might have no choice to get him on the field in the backfield, the slot or maybe even the wildcat position.
Who knows?
“There’s a plan in place, but it’s like everything else, you have a plan and all of a sudden, once in a while the plan goes awry,” Snyder said. “If you veer off of it ... it was reasonably close to what we wanted to do.
“But we didn’t do it as consistently as we initially thought we would.”
Here’s the deal:
• Waters, the starter, is a pass-happy junior-college transfer from Iowa Western Community College, a guy who is putting up prolific passing numbers not seen since record-setting Josh Freeman.
• Sams, the backup, is a dazzling runner, a guy that can slash, dash, juke and stutter his way past a defender. Sams was at it again against the Cajuns, just like he did against North Dakota State in running for a touchdown from 17 yards out on his very first play from scrimmage of the season.
In his first two games, Waters, a transfer from Iowa Western Community College, where he led his team to the NJCAA national championship last season, became the first K-State quarterback since Freeman in 2007 to open the season with 250-plus passing yards in each of his first two games. Freeman is currently the quarterback for the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Waters finished with 278 yards through the air, finishing 22 for 31, and managed only 28 yards in the second half.
Sams was a blur on his 13-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, which increased the Wildcats’ lead to 17-3 at the 11:20 mark. He took the snap, rolled to his left and slashed, dashed, juked and stuttered past at least a handful of Cajuns en route to the end zone.
“I can’t describe it,” Snyder said of Sams. “You see he’s very athletic and he makes people miss. I think he’s gained confidence from the people up front to stay on their block and finish their block, he’ll find a place to run.”
Earlier in the game, on his first two runs of six and 10 yards, he read the quarterback draw similar to the way Collin Klein did last season in leading Kansas State to the Big 12 championship. He waited for the lanes to open up and then he let his natural ability take over, sort of like Ell Roberson a decade ago.
“We put him in at that time because we needed him in the ballgame,” Snyder said of implementing Sams, who sparked the team to its first touchdown and a 10-3 lead in the final minute of the first quarter. “I can’t tell you that it was planned for a such-and-such drive or such-and-such of time, that wasn’t the case, but he needed to be there.”
In limited action, Sams gained 63 yards in eight carries, only six fewer than the Cats’ leading rusher, John Hubert, who had 69 yards in 18 rushes.
The Wildcats took a step forward against the Cajuns, who dropped to 0-2, but you wonder how long Snyder can keep Sams on the sideline.