Kansas State Football: Wildcats will ride Deuce Vaughn back to bowl game

Defense

A negative turnover ratio hindered Kansas State football in 2021. The offense needs to do a better job of hanging onto the ball, while the defense has to get more takeaways, averaging just 1.2 per game last season.

Another issue is that the Wildcats just weren’t very good on defense last season. K-State was 84th in the country in points allowed at 32.2 points per game and in the six games that the Wildcats allowed 30 points or more, they posted a record of 1-5.

So the offense needs to score more, but the defense needs to get back to respectability. Some big names are gone such as Wyatt Hubert who had 8.5 sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss last season.

The run defense allowed 4.7 yards per carry and the pass defense surrendered 267 yards per game, so there are no easy solutions. But some added depth in the secondary should help, especially with the addition of Julius Brents to a cornerback room that features Kow Boye-Doe and Justin Gardner as they combined for 14 pass breakups and two interceptions a year ago.

Cody Fletcher, Bronson Massie, and Eli Huggins also bring some experience to the defensive front and as long as Kansas State football can be average on defense, bowl eligibility should be within reach.