The Kansas State University Wildcats square off against the University of California Los Angeles Bruins in the 2015 Valero Alamo Bowl this evening in San Antonio’s Alamodome and head coach Bill Snyder said his team is ready.
Kickoff between the 11th-ranked 9-3 Wildcats and 14th-ranked 9-3 Bruins is set for 5:45 p.m. The game will be aired on ESPN.
“I like to think it has been time well used and if it isn’t then that falls back on me. I think it has gone about as well as it can,” he said in news conference upon the Cats’ arrival in San Antonio Monday. “I think our youngsters are invested in it right now and I think we have had good practices. There can be a lot of distractions, obviously, but I think they’re prepared to deal with that.”
Bowl game practices have been up and down, he said. “I don’t think we’ve been… I don’t think I could say the negative things about the preparation early like the things of past years bowl game but we still have room to improve. We are not where we need to be yet.”
Snyder looked back to the 1998 Alamo Bowl trip. “Well the things that come to mind real quickly is that it was a championship ball game that we played, had a substantial lead but end up losing that ball game and the disappointment that went along with it and then kind of dropping off the bowl picture and then we come to the Alamo Bowl and it is almost an exact replica of championship game.”
One of the players Snyder will lean on today is offensive lineman BJ Finney who said playing in a bowl game is a big deal. “Its huge for development, for the next years teams and for the seniors because you want to send them out the right way, send them out with a championship. You want to win that last game and then building off the preparation for next years team as well getting them reps and getting them in so you can coach them up.”
But, the players are still accountable for their actions on the field.
“The coaches are going to get on you when you mess up because that’s their job, but as a player when you want another player accountable, other players are going to hold you accountable so you want to get your job as well help the other player get his job done so its not holding anyone back,” Finney said. “There’s right ways and there’s wrong ways to go about it, but holding each other from a peer-player standpoint is a huge and effective way to lead.”
As for the game, “the key is that everyone wants to get off to get a good start ,that’s the way to get momentum in your favor early in a game and it helps you keep it throughout the game. The key in bowl prep is keeping everyone focused, keeping them into practice, getting that game like speed because we are not going to get the looks that were going to get on game day on practice. They’re fast and physical, they’re better athletes than the scout team, that’s just the way it is, but we have to give great effort.”
 “BJ is a young guy who walked onto our program, earned a letter, became a starter right away, became a captain immediately,” Snyder said. “He is so invested in what we do and how we do it, has a value system set in place that allows him to do exactly that. He is a hard worker, disciplined, cares, great teammate, quality person, great leader. You could go on, and on, and on.”
Kansas State defensive end Ryan Mueller said they have spent weeks preparing and getting into the bowl game mind set. “It was just instilled in our minds early on that we want to win, we want to know what it’s like to be champions at the end of the season, whether winning the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl or whatever. That’s what we got in our minds that we wanted to end as champions. We have the same mind set this year, we want to end as champions.”
 There’s a huge difference between 9-4 and 10-3, and holding a trophy up at the end of the game and not holding a trophy up at the end of the game, Mueller said. “Nobody likes to end their season on a loss in the losing locker room. You want to go out on top and as champions.”
Does this year remind him of what they did last year?
“Yeah, you know, I think having guys on our team, the senior leadership that we have on our team, guys who have been in championship locker rooms, they know how to carry the torch and to lead the guys who are younger. Football is a total team effort, you need seniors, juniors, sophomores, freshman, everyone banding together if you want to win.”
Mueller said he wants to go out a champion. “I’ve been to five different bowl games and I’ve only won one. I’ve been in big bowl games where we’ve lost and it’s a total different feeling than being in a locker room, being proud as a champion. I think that’s something this team would take a lot of pride in, with the senior class I came in with, a lot of walk-ons, a lot of guys who play with a chip on their shoulders. If we can finish, if we win this bowl game and have a chance to finish top 10 in the country, that would be pretty cool considering our class is probably rated 60-70 in the country. We’re interested in the top 10. Just shows how great of a coach that Coach Snyder is, and we have to take advantage of the opportunity at the end of the week.”
His team, he said, plays with a chip on its shoulder.
“Kansas State gets overlooked, that’s just the way it is. I’d say from a media standpoint, and analysts and all those guys get overlooked. But as far as teams that are lining up and playing against us, I certainly don’t think they look past us by any means. We’ve had very successful teams the last four or five years, I certainly think we’re a team that is scheduled on other team’s schedules and they look at it and are like ‘It’s going to be a dogfight. We’re going to need to play exceptionally well to beat Kansas State University.’”
So far, he been impressed with the season. “A lot of credit goes to coach Snyder, of course, but you know the coaches are facilitating everything but at the end of the day, players are the ones who have to make it happen on Saturdays. And that begins with leadership across the board. I think that’s really where we’ve excelled.”