MANHATTAN — Kansas State is starting its fourth different quarterback in as many weeks when it takes the field to play Oklahoma State at noon CT Saturday, Nov. 7, at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
Junior Blake Barnett will make his first career start after playing the majority of the Wildcats’ Oct. 31 loss at Colorado.
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Two different teams started four different quarterbacks in four weeks last season — West Virginia and Bowling Green — with both finishing the season 4-8. If the Wildcats lose out, they will match that record.
Avery Johnson started the Wildcats’ first five games before missing the last two, and he could miss the remainder of the season. Jacob Knuth started in Oct. 24’s loss at Arizona State, and he’s now in a boot. Dillon Duff started at Colorado but was ineffective in his three drives, leading to Barnett playing the remainder of the afternoon.
Here are some things to know about Barnett:
Blake Barnett was a ‘spark’ in loss at Colorado
Wildcats coach Collin Klein claims Barnett’s insertion into last week’s loss at Colorado was planned before the game. Once Barnett provided a “spark” late in the first quarter, he never left the offense.
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Barnett completed 18 of 28 passes for 224 yards and three touchdowns, to go along with 16 rushing attempts for 40 yards.
K-State trailed by seven with 55 seconds left when it got the ball back with no timeouts at its own 38 before Barnett led a game-tying drive. He completed passes for gains of 23 and 31. With seconds left, Barnett leaped into the air and threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Oakley to tie the game.
K-State settled for a field goal in overtime before Colorado answered with a touchdown to end the game.
Blake Barnett missed a lot of time due to injury
Barnett claims to be 100% healthy after being on crutches throughout most of the season.
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Barnett was the first quarterback off the bench in the Wildcats’ Week 1 blowout against Nicholls, relieving Johnson after he built a comfortable lead. He completed 4 of 5 passes for 41 yards.
After that, Barnett was on crutches. He was a game-time decision at Arizona State and saw his first post-Week 1 action last week at Colorado.
Blake Barnett was used as a power runner last season
Barnett played in four games last season and was used in special packages as a running quarterback. A bigger 6-foot-1, 218-pound frame, Barnett was a change-of-pace power runner K-State could use when it had other healthy quarterbacks.
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Barnett rushed 14 times for 40 yards last year and didn’t throw a pass.
Blake Barnett broke a Christian McCaffrey record in high school
Barnett was Colorado’s top-ranked 2024 player, and Rivals rated him as the seventh-best dual-threat QB in the entire class.
Barnett led Erie High to a 36-7 record during his career, including a state championship as a senior. He broke the Colorado state record for overall touchdowns with 159, which was previously owned by some guy named Christian McCaffrey.
He threw for 7,518 yards and 88 touchdowns and ran for 3,420 yards and 68 scores during his career.
Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_, contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at wwheeler@usatodayco.com
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Meet Blake Barnett: Kansas State football’s fourth starting QB in 4 weeks
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
