Chris Klieman defends ‘legit’ K-State football injuries after boos from Colorado fans
.jpg "Kansas State Wildcats head coach Chris Klieman celebrates after a touchdown during the first half against the Colorado Buffaloes at Folsom Field.")
Colorado fans weren’t happy when three Kansas State football players went down with injuries in the middle of an important drive for the Buffaloes on Saturday at Folsom Field.
A loud chorus of boos rained down upon the Wildcats as their defense needed several injury timeouts in a short period of time midway through the third quarter, just as Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders was heating up in a back-and-forth game.
From the home crowd’s perspective, it looked like K-State players Jacob Parrish, Marques Sigle and Keenan Garber weren’t really hurt when they crumbled to the field in pain. Perhaps they were faking injuries to prevent Colorado from running its hurry-up offense with a QB who went on to throw for an astounding 388 yards and three touchdowns.
K-State coach Chris Klieman said he understood why Colorado fans jumped to that conclusion, but he defended his team after the Wildcats pulled off a dramatic 31-28 victory.
“It’s our best players,” Klieman said. “We want them to stay healthy, and they’re not. I get it. I mean, that’s human nature to think that guys are faking injuries. It’s our best players. We want them to stay in the game.”
What made all three of the injuries appear suspicious from a Colorado point of view is that they each came after a big play for the Buffaloes.
But those injuries forced K-State to turn to unproven defensive backs as the game went on. And Colorado effortlessly scored a touchdown on that drive, even with the interruptions, when Sanders connected with Will Sheppard in the end zone with 4 minutes, 44 seconds remaining in the quarter.
None of it helped the Wildcats.
Klieman insisted all three injuries were genuine.
“They were legit,” Klieman said. “Jacob’s injury was really legit. Marques Sigle’s was really legit. And then Keenan Garber, he cramped up. So, yeah, that was that. That was a poor drive by us on defense, after we had an eight minute drive by us on offense to score. We kind of let him off the hook a little bit. We didn’t play very well that drive.”
Garber returned to the game and ended up making a pass breakup on Colorado’s final offensive play of the night.
Colorado fans also booed that play because they wanted a defensive pass interference penalty. But no flag came as K-State clinched victory.
Garber should be ready to suit up next week when K-State heads to West Virginia for another road game. Klieman said it was too early to say anything definitive about the health status of Parrish and Sigle.