PFF KSU Preview Tidbits

ksu4all · Jun 28, 2021

PFF just dropped their CFB preview "magazine" and I don't want to post everything because it's for subscribers only, but I thought I'd share a few of the more interesting things it contained. Quoted messages will be PFF's words.

The Wildcats offense finished the year with the fourth-worst successful pass play rate in the Power Five. Still, Thompson has his deficiencies; he has yet to show he can properly execute a true dropback passing game, and he needs to be supported by the ecosystem. Over the last couple of years, his grade with play-action sits at an elite 91.5 mark, but his true dropback passing grade in that span doesn’t crack the 50th percentile among Power Five quarterbacks.

Matches what we've seen with the eye test imo. Skylar struggles when the defense knows a pass is coming, but is very good off PA. Improvement at the OL and RB position might be as important for Skylar as improving the WR position.

Vaughn has some of the best receiving chops at his position, but he can only get you so far. Kansas State tied for last in the Power Five in team WR grade in 2020, and it isn’t going to be significantly higher than that in 2021.

The WR's were truly as bad as we all thought.

The Bottom Line: A middle of the pack year should be expected for Kansas State unless more players step up on offense outside of the dynamic Deuce Vaughn.

Totally fair take.

It was a question mark as to whether Thompson could improve his play last season when not carried by the Kansas State scheme. Between all the runs and play actions, the Wildcats don’t ask their quarterbacks to do a lot of heavy lifting. Thompson has been just about average on non-play-action dropbacks over the past two years and didn’t show much improvement in 2020 before suffering a season-ending injury after only three games.

PFF doesn't agree with the people talking about how much Skylar had improved in his 2 games last year.

Boye-Doye went on to allow 15 or fewer yards in five of his eight starts. His 79.4 coverage grade ranked fifth in the Big 12, and he looked as though he'd been starting for years. He allowed five first downs into his coverage, which is fewer than the total plays he made on the ball (six).

that stat about first downs allowed is amazing.

Duke earned just a 53.4 run-defense grade in 2020, so it stands as a clear area of improvement for 2021. You can count on him impacting the passing game, though, as he recorded the fourth-most pressures in the Big 12 (37) en route to a 75.4 pass-rush grade last season.

Be curious to see how that pressure number changes without Hubert on the other side.

They are going to shorten the game and bang away, but they have become more spread and lined up in the shotgun 10% more last year than 2019 to use the inverted veer (aka power read) scheme to their advantage and get nifty running back Deuce Vaughn more touches outside.

Nice adjustment from Mess to better utilize Deuce.

They were 50th in EPA per play against on defense, but we might expect them to shoot up if they can actually finish tackles. They were 126th in missed tackles last year

Pain.

Projected wins: 5.8
conference title odds: 2%

bradyp08 · Jun 28, 2021