K-State football begins Chris Klieman era with convincing victory over Nicholls

The first game of the Chris Klieman era couldn’t have gone much better for the Kansas State football team.

Klieman did more than make a good first impression. He made a great one. Maybe even a tremendous one.

On a day other teams across the Big 12 needed fourth-quarter comebacks and multiple overtimes to survive against FCS opponents at home, the Wildcats dominated and won 49-14 in front of a sellout crowd on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Klieman wasted no time putting his stamp on K-State football. He made it clear before kickoff that things were going to be different this season by playing rap music during warm-ups and exiting the locker room with his team as pyrotechnics launched high into the air.

The Wildcats also played with new swagger.

Players celebrated with huge smiles after every touchdown. Jonathan Alexander had the biggest of all when he brandished a sledgehammer following a strip-six.

K-State did a little bit of everything against Nicholls. That was to be expected given all the different formations and personnel it threw on the field.

Fullback Jax Dineen and receiver Joshua Youngblood saw the field as true freshmen, which rarely happened during the Snyder era. Offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham also showed a wide variety of looks, caring little about hiding his scheme from future opponents. Quarterback Skylar Thompson threw the ball out of four-receiver sets and found running backs on check downs. He also handed the ball to James Gilbert, Harry Trotter and Jordon Brown behind blocking tight ends.

And why not? It all seemed to work.

Thompson completed 16 of 22 passes for 212 yards and a touchdown, while K-State churned out rushing yards behind a committee of ball carriers.

The Wildcats were certainly at their best on the ground, and that showed in all four of their touchdowns before halftime. K-State found the end zone four times on the ground, with four different players spiking the ball.

Trotter went first with a 9-yard dash to the right, Thompson followed with a 17-yard scamper up the middle, then Brown scored from 14 yards away and Gilbert finished things off with a nifty 24-yard score.

Gilbert led the backfield with 115 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries, but Trotter (50 yards and a touchdown) and Brown (49 yards and a score) were also effective.

Combined with a strong defensive effort that featured an interception by A.J. Parker, the Wildcats led 28-0 with 6 minutes, 21 seconds remaining in the second quarter. They are a team built to play from ahead. K-State mimicked the power offense Klieman won with at North Dakota State and sucked the life out of the Colonels’ sideline before they found any kind of rhythm.

And the score could have easily been more lopsided. The Wildcats were oh so close to leading 35-0 late in the second quarter, but a touchdown pass from Thompson to Dalton Schoen was overturned by officials after a lengthy review. Blake Lynch missed a field goal on the next play.

But it was still a nearly ideal start for the home team.

K-State finished the first half with 318 yards on 44 plays while limiting Nicholls to 65 yards on 16 plays.

The Wildcats held the ball for 21 minutes, 42 seconds and committed just two penalties. Snyder, K-State’s legendary former coach, watched the game from a suite and had to smile at that production.

Nicholls answered back on its opening drive of the third quarter with a 75-yard touchdown drive, punctuated by a 26-yard run from Kendall Bussey.

But that’s all the noise the Colonels made on this night. The Wildcats responded with a 38-yard touchdown pass from Thompson to Schoen, and then Alexander scored on a fumble return.

Tyler Burns finished off the night with a touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

Just when it looked like Nicholls could make things interesting, K-State pulled away.

Bigger challenges await Klieman this season. It’s unlikely every game will go this smoothly. But he passed his first test as K-State coach on opening night. And he did it with ease.

This story was originally published August 31, 2019 at 9:20 PM.