An inside look at Felix Anudike-Uzomah’s record-matching game for Kansas State
At the end of every Kansas State football victory, the Wildcats celebrate by handing out six different sledge hammers to the top individual performers from that particular game.
Felix Anudike-Uzomah ended up with all six following a 31-12 triumph over TCU on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
Such an honor is unprecedented during the Chris Klieman era. But it was appropriate because, well, Anudike-Uzomah did something extraordinary against the the Horned Frogs. The sophomore defensive end was dominant at the line of scrimmage on his way to matching a school record with four sacks.
“That was very impressive,” K-State linebacker Daniel Green said. “You can go back to high school, Pop Warner or anywhere else and you don’t see a guy doing that, just dominating that much. He is a special player.”
K-State originally declared that Anudike-Uzomah had six sacks, which would have tied the FBS single-game record, but the NCAA later ruled that two of them didn’t count. Why? They weren’t technically even tackles because he forced fumbles on both of those plays and each fumble resulted in positive rushing yardage for TCU when the Wildcats jumped on the loose balls after crossing the line of scrimmage.
Therefore he didn’t record a sack or tackle on either play.
Had the fumbles been recovered behind the line of scrimmage for lost yardage, they would have counted as sacks. K-State officials disputed the NCAA’s determination, arguing that both fumbles were initiated behind the line of scrimmage. But the Wildcats (5-3, 2-3 Big 12) reluctantly changed his stats late Saturday night.
Still, it was a memorable day for Anudike-Uzomah, who will no doubt receive even bigger accolades when conference and national weekly awards are announced on Monday. He currently leads the nation in sacks with 12 and has entered the All-American conversation.
Nothing will beat the celebration he had with his teammates when K-State announced his accomplishment late in the fourth quarter and showed him on the video boards for the entire stadium to see. The Wildcats danced around him, and Anudike-Uzomah smiled ear to ear.
“I knew the record was big,” Anudike-Uzomah said. “I wish I beat it, but I got six. I am blessed that I got six sacks.”
It was hard for the Lee’s Summit native to put his historic day into words. He said he received more than 600 notifications on his phone and there was no way he could respond to them all. The only person he intended to call was his mother. He deflected much of the praise that came his way back to his teammates, saying he couldn’t have done it without their help.
As good as this game was, he also wants to stay “humble and hungry” so he can do it again.
That’s the mindset that has allowed him to play at such a high level with the Wildcats. Not long ago, he was an overlooked recruit who never recorded more than one sack in a high school game. Hindsight is always 20/20 when it comes to college football recruiting, but it’s hard to believe K-State was the only team from a power conference willing to take a chance on Anudike-Uzomah.
“It’s hard to get a six-sack game,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “That’s why it never happens. You got to give the young man a lot of credit.”
“He’s just relentless,” K-State coach Chris Klieman said. “He’s a terrific pass rusher. He lets the game come to him. He doesn’t just rush the passer. He lets the game come to him. If it’s a run play, he’s playing it like a run. He counters and gets up field. Some of those sacks were off a three-man rush so you can credit some of it to some coverages that we’re playing that the quarterbacks had to hold it, and then other times he’s just got speed. He’s got explosiveness, he’s strong. He works his craft, and it was fun to see it come through to fruition.”
K-State was able to hold TCU and its normally explosive offense to 12 points and 340 yards during Saturday’s action.
It can thank Anudike-Uzomah for much of that performance. He was an unstoppable force against TCU quarterbacks Max Duggan and Chandler Morris. He continually won at the line of scrimmage and blew up plays in the backfield. He also forced a fumble on a fourth-down conversion attempt with TCU in the red zone and another in the fourth quarter. Both came against quarterback scrambles.
“That made things so easy,” K-State defensive back Reggie Stubblefield said. “We’re only rushing three the majority of time, so we drop eight defensive backs into coverage. It makes it real easy to rattle a quarterback when they can’t look down field and they’re trying to scramble because they’re worried about Felix.”
Afterward Anudike-Uzomah told a story about TCU offensive linemen informing him that he was going to face double teams throughout the fourth quarter and that he wasn’t going to get any more sacks.
It didn’t matter how many blockers TCU lined up in front of him. He beat double teams and even found a way to impact plays when the Horned Frogs ran in the opposite direction of where he was lined up.
Expectations were low for Anudike-Uzomah when he first arrived in Manhattan, but that is no longer the case. It’s clear he is playing at an all-conference level ... if not more. Right now, he is making an argument for Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and possibly All-American.
Few, if any, pass rushers are playing better than him at the moment.
“I’m just so proud of him,” Stubblefield said. “What Felix did today, that was the first time I had ever witnessed something like that. That was remarkable. It just goes to show all the work he puts in. He works hard, he’s a humble kid, he’s not a bad dude. He deserves it.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2021 at 8:56 PM.