Winners and Losers: Kansas State CB Julius Brents' draft stock soars even more

On3 imageby:Drew Galloway•03/05/23•

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WINNERS

1) JULIUS BRENTS: Nobody has helped their draft stock more since the football season ended than Kansas State cornerback Julius Brents. After a fantastic Senior Bowl that saw him draw rave reviews from onlookers, Brents lit up the NFL Combine as well. Soon after stating that K-State had the best fans in the country, he set the NFL Combine record for cornerbacks with his 6-foot-10 wingspan. He also finished first among corners at the combine in the 20 yard shuttle, 3-Cone drill and broad jump and finished second in the vertical jump. There is a legitimate possibility he is the first Kansas State player chosen in the NFL Draft next month.

2) SENIORS: What a send off it was for the K-State seniors on Wednesday night in the win over Oklahoma. All of them scored, including Manhattan native Nate Awbrey. Every Kansas State senior also had an opportunity to address the crowd following the victory. It was a special night in the Little Apple.

3.) KANSAS STATE FANS: It has been a fantastic academic year in both football and basketball. K-State finished 20-3 in Manhattan combined between the two teams. A lot of the credit goes to the fan base and making Bill Snyder Family Stadium and Bramlage Coliseum tough places to play again.

4) KANSAS CITY: Kansas City is about to be the place to be and have a lot of publicity. Not only did the city just open a brand new airport, but it will also host the Big 12 Tournament and NFL Draft in the next six weeks. Kansas State will play TCU at the T-Mobile Center on Thursday night.

5) JEROME TANG: K-State head coach Jerome Tang has already one won National Coach of the Year honor, and it was from College Hoops Today. I don’t think he’s finished racking up those honors.

LOSERS

1) NCAA: Merrimack advanced to the NEC Conference Championship Game on Saturday night, which sounds great. However, there’s just one problem. They aren’t eligible to make the NCAA Tournament due to post season eligibility rules for teams in the transition of going from Division II to Division I. That means Fairleigh Dickinson will advance to the NCAA Tournament regardless of what happens in the conference tournament championship game.

2) HUBERT DAVIS: After losing to Duke over the weekend, North Carolina is likely forced to win the ACC Tournament if they want to make the NCAA Tournament. The Tar Heels have no excuse for their struggles after returning almost every player from their National Championship runner-up squad from a year ago. Hubert Davis and company have managed just one Quad One win this season.

3) RANKED TEAMS: Top 25 teams had a rough go of it this week. 13 different ranked teams lost at least one time. Unfortunately, that does include Kansas State being tripped up by West Virginia. Nine of those losses came to unranked teams. Unfortunately, K-State was one of those, too. With all the parity obviously existing, it could be a wild NCAA Tournament.

4) VOLS: Tennessee has lost their third leading scorer in Zakai Zeigler for the season with a knee injury. His injury comes at a tough time with the Volunteers already struggling by losing five of their last nine pre-injury and they lost in his first game post-injury versus Auburn on Saturday.

5.) FOOTBALL RULES: I’m fine with trying to speed up college football games, but some of the rules that were proposed by the NCAA Committee were funny in retrospect. They considered having an untimed down in the first and third quarter instead of less television timeouts.

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