Kansas State teammates have nothing but praise for Curry Sexton

Curry Sexton has always been dependable. Ask Kansas State football coaches about the senior receiver and they say he runs precision routes and never drops a pass. Quarterback Jake Waters says he is the smartest player on the team.

They are nice compliments for an Abilene product that worked his way up the Wildcats’ depth chart and is now the No. 2 passing option. But they fall short of the praise usually given to a star. Few have described Sexton as a playmaker or go-to receiver.

That may change after the way he played during a 20-14 loss to No. 5 Auburn.

Sexton was a terror out of the slot, slipping through the cracks of Auburn’s defense and hauling in a career-best 11 passes for 121 yards. He showed off his hands and a nifty spin move. On this night, he was the best receiver on the field.

“He was awesome,” Waters said. “I was trying to get the ball to him more. He showed everyone what he can do in a big-time game.”

Then he showed his teammates what he is capable of in the leadership department.

When asked to sum up his top individual performance, Sexton said little about himself. He couldn’t focus on anything but the loss.

“I don’t care. I really don’t care,” Sexton said. “Like I told the guys in the locker room, I would take zero catches and miss 20 blocks and play the worst game ever if we come out on top. I could care less about statistics. I hurt. This team hurts right now. There is nothing fun in losing, especially a game that was hyped up like this we were given no chance in. To go out and play like we did and dominate the game at times like we did and come up short, it sucks. There is no other way to put it.”

He didn’t even feel like analyzing his catches, saying he was too tired to remember anything other than the final score.

“We put in too much work to lose that one,” Sexton said. “... We played with and should have beat a top five team. I guess it can give us added confidence, but at the same time we have got to go back and work and play K-State football. Over the years we haven’t beaten ourselves. Tonight we did.”

Teammates noticed Sexton’s passion, first in the locker room and then in the postgame news conference. It helped them realize how close they were to pulling off an upset, and the importance of bouncing back mentally in time for their final nine games.

“Curry is one of the leaders on this offense,” running back DeMarcus Robinson said. “What he did isn’t a surprise. We expect him to make plays like that every game.”

Perhaps Sexton’s most important message was this: K-State can throw the ball when Tyler Lockett is double-teamed.

After some early success, Auburn draped defensive backs over Lockett in the second half, holding K-State’s star receiver to six catches and 45 yards. That left open space elsewhere, and Sexton found it.

“It is always good for us to have that diversity and have balance in our offense, whether it is throwing or running the ball,” K-State coach Bill Snyder said. “We cannot be a one-player team. We cannot have one player running or throwing the ball. It is significant. Curry did play well.”

That was a positive on a disappointing night.

“Curry did a great job and he showed a lot of leadership out there,” Lockett said. “He made a lot of great plays, especially when we needed them on third down. This was a great game for Curry, and I think his confidence will be boosted going into the rest of the season.”

This story was originally published September 19, 2014 at 11:53 AM with the headline "Kansas State teammates have nothing but praise for Curry Sexton."