Grades from Kansas State’s blowout loss against Texas and a look ahead to bowl season
The Kansas State Wildcats lost their fifth consecutive football game and closed out the regular season with a 69-31 defeat against Texas on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
Here are grades from the game and a look ahead to a potential bowl invite.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Texas running back Bijan Robinson left cleat marks on Kansas State’s defense after running for 172 yards and three touchdowns on just nine carries.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Robinson and fellow running back Roschon Johnson combined to run for six touchdowns against the Wildcats. Take your pick. They were all highlights.
STAT OF THE GAME
The Longhorns averaged a preposterous 10.1 yards per play and 4.9 points per drive. No wonder they scored more points against the Wildcats than any team had since Nebraska dropped 73 on K-State in 2007.
QUOTE TO NOTE
“There are some things that we have to get a lot better at ... because we were mismatched today.” — Chris Klieman.
GRADES
Offense: B. Believe it or not, the Wildcats actually closed out the regular season with back-to-back encouraging games on offense. K-State averaged 6.1 yards per play against Texas and had 31 points early in the third quarter before they fell impossibly behind. Will Howard made some nice throws on his way to 174 yards and two touchdowns, though he did toss a pair of interceptions. Deuce Vaughn had 125 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. And Malik Knowles piled up six catches for 95 yards and two touchdowns. You can’t blame the offense after this one.
Defense: F. If there was a letter grade lower than F, the Wildcats deserve it after this one on defense. Texas scored on 11 of 14 drives and the Longhorns bounced off tacklers like pin balls. While some of that can be explained by devastating personnel losses on the defensive side of the ball for K-State, there’s no excuse for allowing 69 points against a team that hadn’t scored more than 20 in a game since October.
Special Teams: F. Klieman said this was the first time he could recall an opposing team whipping K-State on special teams.
Coaching: F. Tom Herman might not be at Texas for much longer, but the much maligned coach put a clown suit on Klieman in this game. The Longhorns brilliantly took K-State’s defensive line out of the game by throwing screen passes and running the ball on the perimeter. Klieman also curiously chose to sit on the ball in the final minute of the first half and then decided to punt from the Texas 43 in the third quarter. The Wildcats badly needed points in both situations. You could argue Klieman wasn’t coaching to win.
NEXT UP
The Wildcats (4-6) finished the regular season with a losing record, but they are still likely headed to a bowl game later this month because there is temporarily no win requirement for postseason eligibility.
Strange as that sounds, K-State players said Saturday that they would welcome the opportunity to play another game together. Klieman also said last week that he wants the Wildcats to play in the postseason in order to get extra practice time. If they receive an invite, they plan to accept it.
Projecting K-State’s potential bowl destination should be simple.
Fans can expect the Wildcats to play in the First Responder Bowl at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 26 in Dallas or the Guaranteed Rate Bowl at 9:15 p.m. Dec. 26 in Phoenix.
The selection process will depend on how many Big 12 teams earn invitations to playoff affiliated bowls. If only the conference champion plays in a New Year’s Six bowl, then K-State will likely be locked into the First Responder Bowl as the Big 12’s seventh-place team. But the Wildcats could get a bump to the Guaranteed Rate Bowl if both Oklahoma and Iowa State receive NY6 invites.