By Collin Mickle
Staff Writer

The scouting report on Kansas State’s offense says the Wildcats play just one quarterback, sophomore star Josh Freeman. That’s not entirely true.
The Wildcats actually have a two-headed monster at quarterback. It’s just that both signal-callers wear Freeman’s No. 1 jersey.
Call them Good Josh and Bad Josh.
K-State went 4-4 in Freeman’s eight starts, but every game was feast or famine. The quarterback threw a whopping nine interceptions and zero touchdown passes in the four losses.
In the four wins, he threw for six touchdowns and just two interceptions.
And it wasn’t just Freeman: K-State’s offense was nearly unstoppable in its wins and ugly in its losses.
The Wildcats averaged 33.3 points in their seven wins but just 10 points in their six losses. That inconsistency isn’t all Freeman’s responsibility, of course. But it starts with the quarterback.
It’s a pretty simple formula: If Freeman has a bad game, KSU has a bad game.
The man charged with making sure that happens is Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp.
Muschamp, an endlessly creative schemer, spent most of the summer crafting tonight’s gameplan. He says he’s extremely impressed by Freeman — “an outstanding player” — and KSU head coach Ron Prince’s offensive scheme.
Speaking earlier this week, Muschamp could barely contain his excitement at the approach of the season opener.
“This is why you coach,” Muschamp said. “This is why you play. This is why you coach at a place like Auburn and go in front of 90,000 people and do your job. That’s why you’re in this profession.”
Muschamp isn’t the only person connected to Auburn’s defense who’s excited about the possibilities. In the second year of Muschamp’s schemes, the defense has added a host of new wrinkles and formations.
Senior defensive end Quentin Groves, who plays linebacker and defensive end in the scheme, says the defense has a plenty of hidden tricks — not that he’d let any of them out of the bag early.
“It gives me chill-bumps, man,” Groves said of the defense. “You’ll have to tune in Saturday to find out.”
The idea of a game-planner like Muschamp directing a pass-rusher like Groves could give even the most unflappable quarterback heartburn.
But Kansas State’s second-year head coach is all but immune to pressure.
“I think the first thing that everybody can see is that in big games he’s very poised and emotionally neutral,” Prince said of Freeman. “I don’t mean that he doesn’t care, because he expects to do well.”
But the rest of the offense has to step up around Freeman.
“What we’ve seen is … (Freeman) has an ability both with his arm and his legs to do real well in the game,” Prince said. “But those people playing around him need to play well.”
Still, it all comes down to those two quarterbacks. Good Josh or Bad Josh: Who shows up?

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