Carson Coffman ready to prove himself

For the second straight year, Carson Coffman will start the season as Kansas State's quarterback.

For the second straight year, he won a multi-player competition during training camp to earn his playing time.

For the second straight year, he will need to prove the doubters wrong.

On the surface, it appears nothing has changed about Coffman in the past 365 days. But he is different.

He has used his past failures as motivation. He has earned the respect of his teammates. He has shown off his funny side. He has a new attitude.

Ask if he is bothered by those who say he will once again lose his starting status midway through the season, and he responds: "They don't really know what's going on. To those people out there who are saying that, it gives me motivation to prove them wrong."

Coffman welcomes that motivation. Last season, when he lost his job four games into the season to Grant Gregory, he said he struggled with pressure and confidence.

In big games, he didn't play well. When he threw a bad pass, he got down on himself and threw a few more.

Still, he thought he had played well enough to keep his playing time. It wasn't until the Wednesday before K-State was set to play Iowa State that coach Bill Snyder said he was going with Gregory.

It caught Coffman off guard. Ask him what Snyder's reasons for benching him were, and he still says he doesn't know.

"That is still unanswered," Coffman said. "i'm just trying to get better every day and make sure it doesn't happen again."

"I feel confident that I can get the job done. It was tough (last year), but it was a good learning experience for me. I've got one more shot to get it done."

Snyder said Coffman won this year's quarterback competition by a wide margin as opposed to last season, when it was a toss-up decision between him and Gregory.

"Last year was a good learning experience for Coffman," said offensive lineman Zach Kendall. "He just got into the playbook. He's always the first one in here and the last one to leave. He's always in the film room."

"He's more confident. He gets us into good plays and gets us out of the bad ones ... We're all confident in him."

Coffman's leadership during spring practices helped him earn the respect of his teammates. He gave an emotional speech during a team meeting about going the extra mile to help your teammates. He's always available to offer advice.

"He just kept his head in there and kept grinding it out," said fullback Braden Wilson. "He really came along and is doing a great job for us. He has everything down pat now. I can actually see (what he went through) being a benefit for him. He just realized he has to work that much harder for it. You can tell he doesn't want that to happen to him again. He's going to do everything within his power to help the team win."

His humor helped him fit in in the locker room.

If he sees the chance to impersonate someone else on the team, make and distribute a humorous PhotoShopped picture or tell a joke in the huddle he won't hesitate to do so.

"He's probably the funniest kid on the team and nobody knows it," Kendall said. "It's fun to see the pictures he puts up of people."

Word is he hasn't distributed a photo in a while. He may not for a while. He's got a big game against UCLA to get ready for. Right now, nothing is more important to him than that.

He can't wait to take the field as K-State's starter for the second straight year.

"I am very prepared for this game," Coffman said.