The defense holds the Cougars to 166 yards of total offense and zero points.
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Collin Klein has his Kansas State team grinding behind a process-based mindset while the Wildcats strive to build themselves brick by brick. Although it’s just two games, Klein seems to be constructing a like-minded squad bent on an aggressive offense, a physical defense and an opportunistic special teams unit.
K-State, 2-0, showed as much for a second straight week with a 34-7 win over Washington State that featured a 56-minute lighting delay, another offensive performance that totaled nearly 500 total yards, and a defense that hasn’t allowed an opposing offense into the end zone and has held two opponents to less than 200 yards in consecutive games for the first time since the 2011 season.
“The buy-in for this process-based mindset is really, really good,” Klein said. “We’ve gotten better every week since January. Those numbers are in the past. It’s 0-0 again. That’s the mindset, but I’m very, very proud of how they’re attacking that process together and how much they enjoy the process of improving and competing.
“This was an intense, physical game. I’m proud of how we brought that fight.”
One week after K-State thumped Nicholls 71-3 in its debut performance under Klein, the Wildcats led from the start and continued to climb against Washington State, 0-2, which suffered a 24-10 loss at No. 17 Washington one week prior in its first game under new head coach Kirby Moore.
K-State outgained Washington State, 487-166, as senior Avery Johnson completed 22-of-34 passes for 192 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions while also rushing eight times for 78 yards. Senior transfer wide receiver Josh Manning had a career-high 10 catches for 97 yards and one touchdown while sophomore transfer running back Rodney Fields Jr. had 13 carries for 105 yards and one touchdown — a 75-yarder.
Washington State quarterback Caden Pinnick, a dual-threat passer and former FCS All-American from UC Davis who performed admirably against Washington, found trouble against the Wildcats as he went 9-of-20 passing for 65 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions and had 13 carries for 29 yards. The Cougars’ longest offensive play the entire game was a 16-yard carry by running back Maxwell Woods.
“Starting with defense, I don’t know if there’s much more you can say other than, they’re just doing an unbelievable job over there,” Klein said. “It’s starting with their preparation, how those guys are buying into the plan, and what the staff is doing a great job of lining them up to do.”
Johnson, who made his 28th career start and who has now recorded 7,446 career total offensive yards to move past Klein into fourth place all-time in school history, is hardly satisfied despite the Wildcats’ fast start to the fall.
Washington State’s only score arrived when safety Jaylen Thomas returned a 50-yard pick-six against Johnson as time expired in the first half. K-State led 17-7.
“There’s still meat left on the bone,” Johnson said. “We let Washington State off the hook today, and I let Washington State off the hook today multiple times. There are still opportunities where we can put teams away, where we need to finish games, and it starts with me. That’s going to be the mindset going into this next week.
“We have to learn from this one, put it behind us, get ready for Tulane, and my mindset is there’s still meat left on the bone.”
For a majority of the first two quarters, purple reigned as storm clouds hung overhead, as K-State followed a Luis Rodriguez 31-yard field goal in the first quarter with a six-yard pass from Johnson to Manning with 4:17 left in the second quarter. Moments later, Johnson hit Joe Jackson out of the backfield with a short pass that Jackson turned into a 21-yard score to make it 17-0 with 91 seconds left until halftime.
Manning, whose previous career high was five catches when he played at Missouri, had an inkling that he could have a productive game against Washington State.
“I could tell that after the first drive because I had four catches and obviously, I wasn’t expecting that,” Manning said. “Today we played a little faster. Obviously, I feel like that has to do with the team that we were playing, but yeah, it was really the speed.”
After K-State clamped down on Washington State and regained possession at its own 10-yard line with 36 seconds to go, the Wildcats began to march, as Johnson completed a 7-yard pass to Manning, then Fields rushed up the middle for five yards, then Johnson scrambled for a 5-yard gain, and then Kai Rapolla was penalized for pass interference working against wide receiver Jaron Tibbs. That gave K-State the ball at the 50-yard line with less than 10 seconds to go on the game clock — enough time for one or two more offensive plays.
But disaster struck as Thomas took Johnson’s mistake 50 yards down the field and into the end zone. Immediately after halftime, lightning and heavy rain caused the sold-out crowd of 51,759 to seek shelter and the teams retreated to their locker rooms.
“Probably the worst scenario ever, to throw a pick-six right before halftime, and then get a weather delay,” Johnson said.
However, K-State came out of the 56-minute lightning delay and handled its business.
“Our energy level went wire to wire through the ups, the downs, the couple turnovers on offense, and the delay at halftime,” Klein said. “I could feel in the entire locker room the mentality of the entire football team, and they were ready to come out with their hair on fire. That was a really positive thing, and the defense anchored that for the majority of the game.”
K-State came out of the lightning delay and Fields sprinted down the Washington State sideline, outracing safety Jeremiah Bernard inside the 20-yard line before cornerback Jamarey Smith touched Fields with two hands in the back and knocked Fields forward and into the front corner pylon. Fields’ 75-yard touchdown run was upheld upon official review for a 24-7 lead with 13:54 left in the third quarter.
That run gave Fields 100 rushing yards for his second straight game as a Wildcat.
“First half we came out with a little energy, but we knew that we had more in us,” Fields said. “Second half we talked about, ‘Let’s go out and finish them.'”
Junior transfer Wendell Gregory, who led K-State with five tackles – including 3.0 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks – collected his second sack of the day to force a Washington State punt, and K-State went on the move again. Johnson completed a 36-yard pass to Manning that eventually set up a Rodriguez 32-yard field goal for a 27-7 lead with 10:21 left in the third quarter.
“This feels great, I can’t complain at all,” Gregory said. “I just want to get the win, honestly, but the sack’s going to win it, so that’s great for sure.”
K-State led, 347-87, in total offense at that point while holding the Cougars to just five first downs.
Things continued getting fun for K-State, as a 35-yard run by Jackson keyed a 7-play, 70-yard drive that ended when Johnson completed a short pass to fifth-year transfer wide receiver Brandon White, who found the edge and reached the corner of the end zone for a 34-7 lead with 13:52 left in the fourth quarter.
Washington State tried to respond, but K-State senior transfer cornerback Kaleb Patterson took that chance away. Patterson punched the ball from the arms of running back Kirby Vorhees and defensive end Darien Whitaker recovered the fumble to give the Wildcats the ball as time ticked toward a second straight blowout win at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
In its first two games, K-State has scored 105 points and hasn’t allowed an opposing offense to reach the end zone.
Exactly how good could this K-State defense become as the Wildcats now prepare to close out their non-conference season against Tulane next Saturday?
“It’ll be great, 100% it’s going to be great,” Gregory said. “Just keep tuning in for sure. You’re gonna keep seeing it build up week by week.”
It’s a process-based mindset instilled by the head coach, who since January has guided K-State as it builds toward better days.
There’s more to come.
“We’re headed in the right direction in a lot of areas,” Klein said, “but there’s also a lot that we have to do better as coaches to detail to help take this group where they can go.”
