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Baylor Football

Jesse Ertz returns to Kansas State as rebirth of Collin Klein

June 27, 2017
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There was a time that a Kansas State quarterback was a true threat on paper alone.

Five years ago, Collin Klein was one of the most exciting players in the nation because of his dual-threat ability. He finished third in 2012 Heisman voting after 39 total touchdowns. A couple years later, Jake Waters rolled around to keep the Wildcats in contention for a Big 12 title in 2014 thanks in part to his on-call wheels.

Since Waters’ departure, KSU has been less than productive under center despite hope for the contrary.

In 2015, Bill Snyder had a corral of QBs packed to the brim with potential including a top dual-threat option in Alex Delton. There was also star recruit Jesse Ertz rolling into Manhattan but potential is meaningless while injured.

KSU suffered the improbable event of the top two QBs suffering season-ending injuries out of the gate. To make matters, eventual starter Joe Hubener also suffered an injury and threw leading wide receiver Kody Cook (a former high school QB) into the pocket- sounds familiar to Baylor fans.

Because of that improbable string of events, the Wildcats’ track record of late throwing the ball has been less than ideal but it's yet another iteration of Snyder’s magic to make something out of nothing. Now he has something: A healthy Ertz.

Ertz played 13 games last season despite a shoulder injury midway through the season. While he didn’t put up Waters or Klein’s number through the air, his legs told a similar story through Snyder’s makeshift offense packages. He led the team with 1,012 yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground while he added nine airmail scores to four interceptions.

Half of that production was done on a bum shoulder.

Baylor held its ground against Ertz as the first team to hold him scoreless but that opened up the watergates elsewhere in a 42-21 rout led by the running backs.

Ertz tossed for 177 yards, one of his highest marks of the season and now with a healthy shoulder rested over spring practice, he should be even more dangerous in his drop-back. His yardage against Baylor isn’t all that speaks to his potential, either. In the bowl win over Texas A&M, he had 195 passing yards completing 70 percent of his throws while scoring thrice total.

While it’s not a trend, it does have his stock looking up at the moment. He went through half a year with an injury that helped him develop his game fully, giving him a new mental edge over the competition.

“I think it was very valuable for him,” Snyder said via the Topeka Capital-Journal. “It motivated him and he became perhaps more understanding of what he needed to do and how he could go about doing it and how it fit into the system.”

And though the adage “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is cliché, it is true in Ertz’s experience.

“[He] has gotten stronger in his rehab,” Snyder said. ”Mechanically, he understands how to create velocity on the ball so now it’s not as much technique as it is his strength and the fact he’s gotten himself bigger and stronger.”

Ertz has yet to go through practice with the rest of the team that met during the spring but rehab was said to be a smooth process that will have him participating fully in the summer. Baylor has controlled Snyder’s QBs well in recent years but Ertz provides a challenge that has not been seen since Klein took down RG3 in 2011.
 
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