MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State hoped its lengthy preparation for Army paid dividends. All that quarterback Avery Johnson and the Wildcats offense could do, though, was watch almost the entire second half from the sideline as the Black Knights ran, ran, and ran some more — and scored. It all ended with a forgettable 24-21 loss in front of a sellout crowd at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
K-State, 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the Big 12 Conference, took a 13-7 lead into halftime following a balanced first two quarters between the teams. K-State led in total offense, 198 to 140, and in time of possession — 16:15 to 13:45.
Then Army, 1-1, started its march. And it simply wouldn’t be stopped.
“Everybody is really disappointed in the outcome of the game,” K-State head coach Chris Klieman said. “That locker room is pretty crushed because we had a really good week of preparation, and the guys were dialed in.”
Incredibly, K-State possessed the football for fewer than four minutes in the second half. The Wildcats ran four offensive plays from scrimmage before their final fourth-quarter drive. In actual time, the K-State offense didn’t see the field for almost an hour.
Army quarterback Cale Hellums and slotback Noah Short guided drive after drive. They put together drives of 14, 13 and 14 plays that consumed more than seven minutes apiece and produced two touchdowns and a field goal in the second half.
K-State saw its halftime lead dissolve as Army efficiently ran the ball down the field with three- and four-yard gains. And the clock continued to dwindle.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been in a game where they ran it so much,” K-State senior defensive tackle Damian Ilalio said. “At the end of the day, they just ran it better than we could defend it, obviously.”
K-State surrendered its lead for good the final time that the noticeably worn-down defense was on the field.
Facing second-and-4 at the K-State 14-yard line, Hellums got good blocking from the right side of the line, skated through a hole up the middle with only an arm touching along the way, and celebrated with his teammates in the end zone to take the 24-21 lead, capping a monster 14-play, 56-yard drive and giving the Wildcats just 2:52 left to pull off a comeback.
“Our biggest issue was we wore down in the second half,” Klieman said.
Johnson completed 15-of-25 passes for 172 yards and one touchdown and one interception. His first pick of the season arrived when a ball deflected off running back Joe Jackson and into the hands of Collin Matteson near midfield with 1:35 left.
The Black Knights ran three plays to run out the final 95 seconds and secure their third win all-time against the Wildcats.
“It’s unfortunate, man. The second half, only getting two possessions, and one of them being a two-minute drive,” Johnson said. “We knew we had to be efficient, and we just weren’t as efficient as we needed to be on offense tonight and it cost us.”
Army outgained K-State, 332 to 247, as the Black Knights put up 237 rushing yards, went 10-for-22 on third downs, and 6-for-7 on fourth downs. Army held the ball twice as long as K-State — 40:44 to 19:16. K-State recorded its lowest time of possession in a game since holding the ball for 18:34 at Louisville in 2008.
Total plays? Army ran 82, K-State ran 43. It marked the fewest plays by K-State in a game since it ran 41 plays against Navy in the 2019 Liberty Bowl.
It marked the third-straight close game to start the season for K-State, which suffered a 24-21 loss to Iowa State in Ireland and needed a game-winning touchdown to escape North Dakota, 38-35, last Saturday.
“We have to continue to make sure we’re mentally tough when adversity strikes,” Klieman said. “The physicality we have but the mentality when — we’ve played three games and we’ve had three down-to-the-wire basically last-possession games, and maybe that’s kind of what college football is right now for us with the new people we have.”
K-State led 13-7 heading into the second half but was unable to move the ball. Army put together a scoring drive that sucked the energy out of the stadium.
It began when Hellums pitched the football to slotback Noah Smart, who took a step back and completed a deep pass to wide receiver Brady Anderson for a 52-yard gain. Moments later, Hellums on fourth-and-five rushed to the right side and dove toward the front pylon. But official review determined linebacker Austin Romaine and defensive end Cody Stufflebean kept him inches from breaking the plane. Still, Army gained the first down and Hellums pushed up the middle for a score on the very next play. It capped a 14-play, 89-yard drive that consumed 7:58 and gave Army a 14-13 lead with 3:20 left in the third quarter.
Then K-State seemingly got new life.
Anderson Britton booted a 64-yard kickoff, redshirt freshman Bryce Noernberg fielded the ball at the 1, glided by the right hash and spun to the left hash and across the field and down the left side of the field for a 99-yard kickoff return and score. The perfectly blocked play and two-point completion on a pass from Johnson to Jaron Tibbs made it 21-14.
It marked the Wildcats’ first kickoff-return touchdown since Malik Knowles went 93 yards for a score against Oklahoma in 2021.
The K-State defense, which absorbed punch after punch from the Army offense, scored a victory when it forced the Black Knights to settle for a 35-yard field goal from Dawson Jones, lessening the damage from a 13-play, 57-yard possession that consumed 7:22.
K-State still led, 21-17.
But it turned out the Wildcats scored too fast.
And Army began its march to its final touchdown, and ultimately, the win.
Army, the defending American Champion, entered 16-3 in its last 19 games dating to November 23 — a stretch that ranked second nationally in winning percentage (.889), trailing only Oregon. Army hadn’t played a Power 4 opponent since it faced Missouri in the 2021 Armed Forces Bowl. It hadn’t beaten a Big 12 opponent since a 27-24 overtime win against Baylor on September 23, 2006.
K-State now turns its attention to a trip to face Arizona on Friday night.
“In 2022 people didn’t think we were going to win a Big 12 Championship after the first couple games,” Ilalio said. “The season isn’t over yet. It’s definitely a long way to go and we have a lot of things to fix, but it’s not over at all.”
