After taking to Twitter to unleash his frustrations on the
KU student newspaper, who knows where coach Charlie Weis will go after his
Jayhawks (1-4) lost 56-16 to in-state rival K-State (5-0) on Saturday.
The undefeated Wildcats, now ranked No. 6 in the country, hold their highest ranking since 2003, which was the last time that they brought home the Big 12 Conference championship.
A dominating rushing
attack led by junior running back John Hubert helped lead K-State to a victory in Bill Snyder Family Stadium. Hubert
finished the game with 101 yards and four touchdowns on only 10 carries. After the game, head coach Bill
Snyder praised his star running back.
“He
is pretty good about not making an awful lot of mistakes fitting the ball where
he does not have a chance,” Snyder said. “He does not run it in the wrong holes; he puts it
were it needs to be. He has got good vision and is able to see more than what
is just right in front of his nose.”
In the course of the game, the Wildcats rushed for 346 yards. Senior quarterback Collin Klein joined Hubert’s over 100 rushing yards with 116 yards of his own. However, as good as the end result looked, in the
beginning it appeared to be anybody’s game.
KU began by forcing a K-State three-and-out, after which the Jayhawks, behind a fast start by senior quarterback Dayne Crist, marched 86 yards to take a 7-0 lead on a 19-yard
touchdown pass from Crist to sophomore halfback Tony Pierson.
After a 20-yard
touchdown by Hubert tied the game up, Weis decided to
dig into his bag of tricks.
The
momentum appeared to be swinging in K-State’s favor after KU was stopped while bringing up a fourth and eight from their own 29-yard line. As the Wildcats
set up a punt return for their explosive returners, junior punter Ron Doherty
caught the Wildcats off guard, scampering for a 13-yard gain to give the
Jayhawks a first down. A fake field goal later in the possession helped set up
a touchdown by junior halfback James Sims to put the Jayhawks back up 14-7.
After
responding to take a 21-14 lead, the Wildcats had all of the momentum, and
after a 55-yard interception return by senior defensive back Nigel Malone gave K-State the ball at the
KU five with 15 seconds in the half, the Wildcats had a golden opportunity to extend
their lead.
However,
Klein, after using the team’s last timeout, was stopped short of the goal line,
and time ran out with the Wildcats holding only a 21-14 lead at the half.
Despite the
close game, senior wide receiver Chris Harper said the team was still confident at
halftime.
“It was fine,” he said. “We were not losing. We knew we would come out
and execute well in the second half, and that is what we did.”
Execute they did, as the only points the Jayhawks could muster in the second half
were from a safety, while the Wildcats put up 35 points to make the final score 56-16. Even
with the Wildcats’ struggles in the first half, Klein was proud of his team’s response against a Jayhawk team with nothing to lose.
“Every game has its own unique identity. It has its own
things that you can take away and put in your pocket moving forward,” Klein said. “We were
just able to learn and take those tools and lessons for the week. We responded
to adversity. We knew that they were going to come out and hit us in the
mouth.”
Klein continued his push for the Heisman, finishing the game with 245 total yards and four touchdowns.
Weis is a fan of Klein, and spoke after the game about what makes him so tough to stop.
“It is every game. It is last week, the week before that and the week before that. The one thing about this kid is that he does not have to throw it too much for them to be good on offense,” Weis said. “He is not like one of those quarterbacks who has to get on the edge and be a read-option guy. He can run with power.”
