MANHATTAN, Kan. – Avery Johnson threw for 153 yards and two touchdowns with one interception, and sophomore transfer Dylan Edwards scored a rushing touchdown before his receiving touchdown helped No. 18 Kansas State to put away UT Martin, 41-6, before a sellout crowd in the season opener at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
Although K-State showed some newness, or knocked off some early rust, it cranked things up after leading 17-3 after two quarters.
“I’m happy we won,” K-State head coach Chris Klieman said. “I don’t know if relieved is the right word because I’ve been on that other side. I’m happy we won, but I know we’re going to learn and grow from this. We needed a game like this. We didn’t need a 65-3 game or something. We needed to be challenged and we were challenged, and our starters went into the fourth quarter.
“We realized that we have some work to do, and we haven’t arrived or been a complete football team. We got a lot of stuff to get fixed and straighten out.”
The K-State offense isn’t a finished product, but it showed progress as the game wore on to the delight of 51,240, which marked the 15th-straight sellout in Manhattan.
Johnson completed 14-of-21 passes and added three carries for 37 yards while starting as a quarterback for the first time in a game played in Manhattan. His favorite target was roommate Jayce Brown, who had five catches for 71 yards. That included a beautiful diving catch for 44 yards that gave the Wildcats the ball at the 1.
On the next play, Edwards, a sophomore transfer running back from Derby, busted through the line for his first touchdown as the Wildcats took a 27-6 lead late in the third quarter.
“We’re just trying to feel ourselves out and what this offense is really about,” Edwards said. “We definitely feel like in the second half we showed Kansas State what we’re about.”
The Wildcats outgained the Skyhawks, 449-134, including a 283-36 margin in rushing. Junior DJ Giddens had 13 carries for 124 yards — including a 48-yard run — for his fifth straight 100-yard rushing performance.
Johnson played until the first minute of the fourth quarter before Jacob Knuth and then Ta’Quan Roberson saw their first action at quarterback.
Johnson’s first touchdown was a beautiful toss to Brayden Loftin that the 6-foot-5, 237-pound tight end turned into a 23-yard touchdown for the game’s opening score.
But there was a teaching moment as well. Early in the second quarter Johnson threw his first-career interception when linebacker Chris Hunter undercut a pass intended for Giddens across the middle.
“Maybe it’s just the first game or whatever, or maybe it’s just because we came out flat,” Johnson said, “but I definitely feel like we didn’t find our groove until the second half.”
K-State’s special teams and experienced defense came alive early.
After Johnson’s touchdown pass to Loftin, the Wildcats scored their next 10 points of the first half on special teams. First, Colby McCalister scored a touchdown off a Ty Bowman blocked punt. Then Chris Tennant booted a 43-yard field goal for a 17-3 lead at halftime.
It marked the second career blocked punt for Bowman, both of which have been returned for touchdowns. McCalister’s score gave K-State 132 non-offensive touchdowns since 1999, which leads the FBS. K-State has now blocked at least one punt in seven straight seasons.
“Ty did an unbelievable job,” Klieman said. “It was a big-time play. That’s something that was critical for us. We were sputtering a little bit offensively and I was glad we were able to get that one.”
K-State linebacker Desmond Purnell had a game-high seven tackles and defensive end Tobi Osunsanmi had 1.5 sacks for a defense that clamped down on the Skyhawks. Kinkead Dent completed 7-of-14 passes for 87 yards and was sacked three times. UT Martin rushed 38 times for 36 yards.
Meanwhile, Johnson completed passes to seven different pass catchers. The fifth K-State sophomore since 1990 to start a season opener and just the second true sophomore to do so (Josh Freeman, 2007), Johnson tied a career high with two touchdown passes.
“Having an experienced defense like we do and being able to trust those guys to not give up anything — they gave up six points tonight, and that was off my interception and a fumbled kickoff, so that’s on us offensively — we have to be better in that aspect of taking care of the football,” Johnson said. “I have to be better to not put them in any bad situations. But they did their job, and it just allows me to go out there and relax.”
There was little time for K-State to relax in the first two quarters, and Klieman lauded UT Martin for putting up a fight. The FCS opponent came to K-State after winning three straight conference titles.
“They know how to win,” Klieman said. “When you get a team and give them a little bit of life, they’re going to believe it. Those guys believed they had a chance — and they did. We went in at halftime and had to make some adjustments and had to challenge some guys.
“It’s about what I thought. You’re going to make a lot of mistakes in the first game, and we have to clean those things up because we have to put this one behind us quickly for a tough road game next week.”
