Kansas State expects UCLA’s Brett Hundley to be a handful in Alamo Bowl

Kansas State’s football team has a main concern as the Wildcats prepare to play UCLA in the Valero Alamo Bowl on Jan. 2.

It’s the same concern 12 other teams have experienced while preparing for the Bruins this season: His name is Brett Hundley.

Coach Bill Snyder noted that his team faced some talented quarterbacks in the Big 12 Conference. He expects Hundley to be a similar handful.

“We’ve faced players like that,” Snyder said. “Not that we have always done well against them.”

They haven’t.

Hundley ranks 10th nationally with a 155.4 quarterback rating, just ahead of Baylor’s Bryce Petty, who completed 34 of 40 passes for 412 yards in the Bears’ 38-27 victory over Kansas State.

Hundley is also a dual threat passing and running, similar to Texas Christian’s Trevone Boykin. Hundley has 3,019 yards passing and 548 yards rushing. Boykin threw for 219 yards and ran for 123 in the Horned Frogs’ 41-20 victory over Kansas State.

“In the passing game, he can bring the ball out,” Snyder said of Hundley. “He has gained 700-plus [rushing] yards. He lost some yardage; those came on sacks. He is somebody who can really run the ball and an awful lot of that comes on scrambles.”

Again, Snyder said, that’s nothing new to the Wildcats.

“We have seen an awful lot of zone-read-type plays and quick attachments, where people raise up throw ball outside,” Snyder said. “Hundley does that a lot and quite well.”

Remember when

UCLA has played Kansas State twice, in 2009 and 2010. The Bruins have three players remaining on the roster from the 2010 game; safety Anthony Jefferson, defensive end Owamagbe Odighizuwa and linebacker Eric Kendricks were all in Manhattan, Kan., for the Wildcats’ 31-22 victory.

Jefferson was the only one who played.

“We did not win that game, but we should have won in my opinion,” Odighizuwa said.

Odighizuwa’s memories are vague on the details.

“I remember the town was really small and they had that good running back who ran for a lot of yards,” Odighizuwa said. “That’s pretty much it.”

Kansas State’s Daniel Thomas had 234 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns.

In 2009, UCLA handled the Wildcats, 23-9, at the Rose Bowl.

Leather heads?

Kansas State has issues at safety. The Wildcats lost Travis Green in October because of a knee injury and his replacement, Dylan Schellenberg, suffered a leg injury against Baylor in the regular-season finale.

Snyder wasn’t sure who would fill in, and he joked about it.

“It’ll either be me or [Tom] Hayes,” Snyder said. “Tom is younger.”

Hayes, the Wildcats’ defensive coordinator, is a spry 65, 10 years younger than Snyder.

Johnathan Franklin is hired

Former UCLA running back Johnathan Franklin will have a gold helmet in his life. It just won’t say UCLA on it.

Franklin, whose NFL career with the Green Bay Packers was cut short by an injury, has been hired by Notre Dame as an administrator for student welfare and development. He will coordinate outreach programs and workshops for the school’s athletes.

“I’m really excited, and blessed how it came out,” Franklin said.

Franklin created a Linkedin account and was contacted by Mike Harrity, a senior associate athletic director for Notre Dame.

“They had me come out to Notre Dame for a weekend,” Franklin said. “I met a few people and by the time I left, they had offered me a job. I didn’t ask for an interview or even ask about a job. God always has a plan.”

Franklin ran for 4,403 yards at UCLA from 2009 to 2012, 85 more than Notre Dame’s all-time rushing leader, Autry Denson.

Follow Chris Foster on Twitter @cfosterlatimes