K-State’s final tune-up before Big 12 Conference play almost turned into a disaster as the Wildcats needed a fake punt to keep a fourth quarter drive alive, enabling them to escape Snyder Family Stadium with a victory over Louisiana-Lafayette, 45-37.
    Ron Prince’s squad was facing fourth down with two yards to go on their own 42 yard line, and he was staring a daunting decision in the face. Punting the ball would have given the Ragin’ Cajuns yet another chance to continue to shred the Wildcat defense on the way to a possible victory, or keep the ball and hope the clock hits triple zeros.
    The decision was made for Tysyn Hartman to execute his second trick play in as many games, and it worked. Prince said his reasoning for not giving the ball back to Louisiana was because he was worried that if the Ragin’ Cajuns had gotten the ball back, they could have easily walked out of Manhattan with a victory.
    “Very concerned, very concerned,” Prince said. “So much so there was even some conversation about when we got down on the goal line would we kick the field goal.
    If it would’ve been close enough we would have probably gone for it, and I know that sounds crazy, but I wasn’t interested in giving it [the ball] back to them.”
    Louisiana (1-3) has now lost two road games to major-conference opponents, Illinois and K-State, by a combined 11 points. The Ragin’ Cajuns’ powerful running game put them in great position to pull the upset with 335 yards on the ground and 178 in the first half, but Cajuns running back Tyrell Fenroy, who racked up 183 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries, said it was the little things that caused another close loss.
    “It is frustrating, we just keep playing these big schools and coming so close,” Fenroy said. “We expect to come out with a victory and everybody expects us to lose by 30 or 40 points. I think penalties killed us the most tonight.”
    K-State (3-1) continued to field a potent offense, as quarterback Josh Freeman threw for 272 yards and three touchdowns, and in the process, passed Lynn Dickey to become the all-time Wildcat passer with 6,238 yards. Lamark Brown lined up at running back for the first time in his young career and ran through the Louisiana defense for 137 yards and a touchdown.
    “[Lamark] did an exceptional job,” Freeman said. “He really stepped up and gave us a spark, and the critics coach challenged [the offensive line] to be able to run the ball this week and they stepped up and did it.
    “The running game gave us more versatility and allowed us to do some things, and it feels good to be 3-1 and back in the winner’s column,” he said.

Comments

3 comments

Long

Tue Sep 30 2008 12:52

2 people got heatstrokes which could of caused a scare among the others.

Joe

Mon Sep 29 2008 13:16

I agree with Jayne. It was embarassing to see the EMPTY student section in the second half. Granted it was hot and they were facing the sun but the next section over and the fans in the upper deck sure gutted it out. These kids should be made to go through 2 a days with the team in August and see what their team has gone through for them, or get out there with all those pads on and see what that feels like. Then perhaps they would put out just a little for their team as they expect the team to put out for them.
Congrats o the few students who stayed till the end but it had to be a little embarasing when the team came over to sing the Alma Mater with a couple hundred students.

Ya gotta luv the Cats

Jayne

Sun Sep 28 2008 16:10

I was at the game yesterday. Where did the students go after half time? I was a student from 96-00. We always stayed until the end to support our cats. The game got pretty scary at the end and to have student support would have helped the atmosphere. I just couldn't believe how empty your part of the section was. Thank goodness we weren't on TV!

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