The questions come with every bye week. Does it come at a good time, and, what do you hope to accomplish?
And, Bill Snyder’s answer is equally predictable: “The motivation has to be to get better ... to become a better football team and to become a better player.”
With that said, K-State met as a team, but did not practice on Monday, went on the field Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and will only meet as a team on Friday. The team will have a Saturday morning practice.
But then Snyder repeated that the overwhelming theme was “… to look for ways that we can assist our players in becoming better players, better units, and consequently, a better team.”
The week off comes before playing the University of Kansas on Oct. 6 at Bill Snyder Stadium, which will start a run of seven consecutive Saturdays of football. Following the Jayhawks will be trips to Iowa State and West Virginia, home dates with Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, and trips to TCU and Baylor.
K-State will also have a bye week on Nov. 24 prior to playing host to Texas on Dec. 1 to conclude the 2012 regular season.
As to whether the timing this week is good or not, Snyder gave a Snyder-like response: “I think we will have to wait two weeks to see. As I’ve said, I would hope that the week will be spent trying to improve our capabilities and there will be some inspiration to do that.”
He did add, “Sometimes when you come off of something very good, you like the momentum that you have. We’ve honestly responded in a variety of different ways to open weeks. I would like to think we would improve our practice habits, and we improve our capabilities during the week of practice. If so, we will have accomplished what we wanted to.”
Hearing Snyder’s words loud and clear is quarterback Collin Klein, who said of the importance of the bye week, “I think it’s going to be what we make of it. Some teams would rather keep playing and keep the momentum going, while some teams prefer a break. This bye week is something we have and it’s what we make of it.
“We will try to get a little rest and try to rejuvenate, but at the same time we want to get better,” said Klein.