The preseason AP Top 25 football rankings are out, and the Kansas State Wildcats have their highest preseason ranking since Bill Snyder’s first tenure as head coach.
On the heels of a 10-win season with a Big 12 Championship, Chris Klieman’s team is ranked 16th by the AP’s 63 voters, with 501 points. K-State hasn’t been ranked that highly in the preseason since 2004, when the Wildcats started the year ranked 13th following K-State’s first Big 12 Championship. I was just going into my junior year at K-State then.
The difference between the 2023 Wildcats the the 2004 team, which posted a disappointing 4-7 season, is that this team returns starting quarterback Will Howard and top eight offensive linemen from last season, while the 2004 team lost starting quarterback Ell Roberson and two NFL-caliber offensive linemen in Nick Lecky and Ryan Lilja.