K-State enters uncertain offseason with unprecedented collapse at Iowa State
Kansas State has won and lost football games in just about every way possible since Bill Snyder took over as coach in 1989, but the Wildcats’ 42-38 loss to Iowa State on Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium may stand on its own.
For decades now, K-State has protected second-half leads like gold in Fort Knox. But that was not the case here. The Wildcats led 38-21 at the 12:27 mark of the fourth quarter and coughed up the 17-point advantage in less than eight minutes.
One moment, it looked like they were going to beat their Farmageddon rivals for the 11th straight year and extend their bowl streak to nine. The next, their season was over with a disappointing 5-7 record.
It was a stunning collapse that left Snyder searching for answers. He had a difficult time expressing his emotions following this one, because he had nothing to compare it to.
“I am going to have to think about how I respond from this loss in terms of what my feelings are,” Snyder said. “I have just never experienced a loss like that, not even back in whenever that was ... ancient history. It just wasn’t to be, I guess. I don’t know how I feel about it.”
The only game that comes close to Saturday’s give-away (in terms of numbers, not significance) during the Snyder era is K-State’s 36-33 loss to Texas A&M in the 1998 Big 12 championship game. The Wildcats took a 27-12 lead into the fourth quarter and ended up losing in overtime.
Twenty years have passed since then, and K-State fans still get squeamish talking about it. This loss will be easier to move on from, because much less was at stake. But it was even uglier on paper.
“It really hurts,” K-State defensive end Reggie Walker said. “I don’t know how to explain it. We came out and felt like we had the edge. Then to watch our seniors go out like that is just something that you can’t explain. It’s blurry. It all happened so fast. It’s kind of like, did that really just happen?”
Oh, it happened. Here’s how it went down:
The Wildcats were playing, by far, their best football of the season when they took a 17-point lead early in the fourth quarter. Skylar Thompson looked excellent at quarterback, completing 18 of 27 passes for 183 yards and three touchdowns. Alex Barnes finished off his season with 184 yards and a touchdown on the ground. And K-State’s defense was doing its part, with Kevion McGee grabbing a pair of interceptions.
It looked like they were going to cruise to a blowout win and a bowl.
But it was all Iowa State from then on. The Cyclones began their comeback with a quick touchdown drive. After moving into the red zone, quarterback Brock Purdy tossed a short pass to Sam Seonbuchner to make the score 38-28 with 10:18 to go.
That kept them in the game. Then things really flipped their way on a defensive touchdown from Mike Rose. On the following series, Rose came around the left end and hit Thompson from behind. That created a fumble, which Rose scooped up and ran into the end zone. That pulled Iowa State within three at 38-35.
Unlike previous years, when it fumbled away late leads in this series, Iowa State stormed back to win in dramatic fashion. After a K-State punt, the Cyclones erased their deficit and scored a go-ahead touchdown on a nifty run from David Montgomery with 4:34 remaining.
A deficit that seemed insurmountable was gone in eight minutes.
“We didn’t execute when we needed to and fell apart in the fourth quarter,” K-State senior Dalton Risner said. “We didn’t finish.”
The Wildcats had time to mount a go-ahead touchdown themselves when they took over at their own 21 with 4:29 remaining. But they stalled out after crossing midfield and reaching the Iowa State 47. Their comeback hopes died on an unsuccessful pass attempt to Dalton Schoen. Some will argue he was the victim of pass interference, but no flag was thrown.
“We didn’t give up,” Thompson said. “Nobody dropped their heads. Nobody gave up this year, and this season was probably one of the toughest seasons I have ever been a part of as a player, ever, in my life in terms of ups and downs and adversity. We just kept fighting and kept on getting through it and trying our best to keep plugging. I feel like we did at certain times, but there were other times we couldn’t get over the hump. It’s just frustrating.”
And now the Wildcats enter an offseason of uncertainty.
Will Snyder, at the age of 79, return as coach? For now, no one knows. On Saturday, he said retirement was “the last thing on my mind right now.”
Also: How will K-State handle not playing in a bowl game or participating in the weeks of extra practice that lead up to it?
“That doesn’t happen very often around here,” Snyder said. “It is dramatically disappointing. Maybe not as disappointing as, well, it is disappointing, but just as disappointing as how we lost this ball game. That is what really has captured my emotions right now.”
If this turns out to be Snyder’s final game, it ended in unusual fashion. This is uncharted territory for everyone involved.
This story was originally published November 24, 2018 at 11:46 PM.