MANHATTAN, Kan. – Chris Tennant hit a pair of fourth-quarter field goals, including his game-winning 51-yarder with 1:42 to play, and No. 16 Kansas State made it 16 wins in a row over rival Kansas in a 29-27 victory in the Dillons Sunflower Showdown at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
K-State trailed 27-23 entering the fourth quarter when the Wildcats defense sprang to life and stymied dangerous Jalon Daniels and a Jayhawks offense that keep the home crowd on its toes all night.
Avery Johnson drove the Wildcats 66 yards on seven plays to set up Tennant for a 28-yard field goal with 13:23 left in the fourth quarter before the defense most emphatically clamped down. Linebacker Austin Romaine stripped the ball from Daniels, and defensive end Brendan Mott recovered the ball, setting up Tennant for his career high-tying field goal.
“I had this gut feeling, and I can’t even describe it,” Tennant said. “First quarter, I knew there was going to be a big kick. It’s unexplainable to someone who’s never felt it, but going into it, it was helpful.
“Right when I made contact, I knew it was good.
K-State head coach Chris Klieman, who improved to 6-0 against Kansas, was thrilled with his kicker.
“If you’ve watched Chris Tennant the last month, I knew that kick was going in,” Klieman said. “That kid is money right now.”
Turns out, K-State, 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the Big 12 Conference, remains money as well after coming from behind for victory for a third time this season.
“The defense got stops, stepped up to the plate,” Johnson said. “We didn’t need to get many yards for Chris to kick it through the uprights. The defense stepped up big tonight. Chris definitely left his legacy on the game tonight. People will remember that for a long time.”
K-State and Kansas, 2-6 and 1-4, will remember the 122nd edition of the Dillons Sunflower Showdown for a while as well.
“Honestly, I hated to have somebody lose that football game. I know how much it would’ve meant to KU and how much it would’ve meant to Lance (Leipold),” Klieman said. “It’s no secret that Lance and I are friends. Hats off to our players on finding a way in the fourth quarter of making a play — Romaine stripping it and Mott falling on it, us finding a way to get a couple first downs. I had no doubt the field goal was going in.”
Johnson completed 19-of-34 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns and added 14 carries for 67 yards and one score while DJ Giddens had 18 carries for 102 yards for K-State, which led 16-14 at halftime thanks to recording a safety, which proved to be margin of victory.
Kansas dropped to 0-5 in games decided by single digits, leading many of those games in the fourth quarter.
Daniels went 18-of-31 for 209 yards with one touchdown and one interception and rushed 15 times for 66 yards and one touchdown. He was a constant headache for the Wildcats before Romaine forced him to fumble and Mott recovered the ball with 3 minutes, 44 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
“Austin Romaine made a heck of a play, and we practice that a bunch, just getting on the ball and tucking it, and I was able to get the ball into our offense’s hands,” Mott said. “We could’ve gotten after (Daniels) more for sure. He’s a heck of a player and athlete.”
K-State took over at the Kansas 48-yard line and moved 15 yards in five plays to make it fourth-and-8 at the Kansas 33. Tennant’s kick with 1:47 elicited thunderous cheers from the sellout crowd of 52,074.
“Phenomenal. I knew it was going to be one of the best environments in my six years here, and I told the kids that on Monday, and I told them to be where their feet are, and I told them to enjoy this, because this is what these kids built,” Klieman said. “These kids built over the last six years, those five and six-year guys, that’s what they built, is an environment like this — how many sellouts? Eighteen, I think — and it’s a credit to our football team and our players that the fans show up and cheer for those guys.”
In the final seconds, after Kansas was unable to manufacture a meaningful drive in the final minute for a chance at a game-winning field goal, TV cameras panned to a K-State fan holding a sign that read, “SWEET 16.”
Sixteen straight wins over Kansas. That’s 5,838 total days since the Wildcats’ last loss in 2008.
How sweet it is.
“This is what I expected,” said sophomore running back Dylan Edwards, who had three rushes for 60 yards and added two catches for 20 yards. “The crowd definitely came with all the energy in the world, but we showed everybody that we own the state.”
From the outset, however, this was anybody’s game.
Kansas made its presence felt from the game’s first drive, converting three third downs and taking the ball 75 yards on 11 plays for a touchdown. Running back Sevion Morrison ran a sweep around the right side for the score. Morrison had 52 rushing yards all season and raced 38 yards for a touchdown to make it 7-0 with 8:51 left in the first quarter.
K-State answered on a monster 95-yard drive capped when Johnson sidestepped pressure to the outside, tossed a seven-yard pass to tight end Will Anciaux at the Kansas 17 and allowed the tight end to turn upfield and run the rest of the way into the end zone. That 24-yard touchdown play tied the score at 7-7 with 11:09 left in the second quarter.
Kansas made a grave fielding mistake on the ensuing kickoff when Jameel Croft caught the kickoff at the 1-yard line with his left foot in bounds before stepping out of bounds. That meant the Jayhawks began the drive at its own 1. K-State nose tackle Damian Ilalio stuffed Devin Neal inside the end zone on the next play for a safety.
-State took the free kick and travelled 59 yards on eight plays, ending when Johnson hit Garrett Oakley with a soft jump pass from two yards out for a 16-7 advantage with 7:13 to go until halftime.
K A quick out by wide receiver Luke Grimm for a 7-yard touchdown brought the Jayhawks right back into it. A 36-yard pass got Kansas started on the 75-yard drive that saw Grimm stretch out over the front corner pylon and the Jayhawks cut the Wildcats’ lead to 16-14.
K-State had a chance to widen its lead late in the second quarter as Daniels overthrew wide receiver Trevor Wilson in the end zone and Marques Sigle picked off the pass seven yards deep and weaved in and out to the 49-yard line. That gave K-State possession with 19 seconds to go. But the Wildcats were unable to move the ball and Johnson’s Hail Mary pass to Brown wasn’t enough as time expired on the game clock.
Giddens’ 54-yard run set up K-State’s first score of the third quarter. Giddens took a handoff to the left, reversed field and headed toward the right sideline, busting would-be tacklers along the way for his best run of the game, and setting up his team at the Kansas 16-yard line. Johnson scored two plays later on a 10-yard keeper for a 23-14 lead less than 2 minutes into the second half.
Neal gashed K-State for a long touchdown to slice into the Wildcats’ lead. The Jayhawks were effective on third down all game and none hurt the Wildcats as much as Neal’s run. Facing third-and-7, Neal took the handoff and darted 24 yards into the end zone. However, Tabor Allen missed the extra-point attempt and the score was 23-20.
K-State made a mistake after Edwards gave the Wildcats excellent field position on a 44-yard run. On the following play, Johnson suffered a sack-fumble that Kansas recovered at its own 26.
Kansas answered and Daniels gave the Jayhawks their first lead of the second half when he capped a three-play, 54-yard drive by rushing 8 yards up the middle for a touchdown and a 27-23 lead with 36 seconds to go in the third quarter.
The Wildcats drove 66 yards in seven plays and came excruciatingly close to taking the lead, but Johnson saw his 11-yard pass to slip off the hands of Anciaux in the back of the end zone. Tennant’s 28-yard field goal made it 27-26 with 13:23 left in the fourth quarter.
That set up the final fireworks for the Wildcats, who now prepare to visit Houston next Saturday. K-State trails only BYU (5-0) and Iowa State (4-0) in the Big 12 standings.
“We still have a lot of room for improvement,” Johnson said. “This team is really good and can make a run for the Big 12 Championship and play for that College Football Playoff. The sky’s the limit for this group. We just have to continue to take it one week at a time, one day at a time, and find those little things to get better at.”
