Finally, a game to love

Football

Kansas State beat TCU 41-3 on Saturday night. With the win, the Wildcats moved to 5-2 on the season and 3-1 against the Big 12 conference schedule.

Pretty much everything went Kansas State’s way in this game. The quarterback duo of Will Howard and Avery Johnson traded snaps and were both effective in keeping the sticks moving, with Howard getting the start and three touchdowns, while Johnson added his first collegiate passing score to the mix. This game also saw the emergence of true freshman Jayce Brown as possibly the team’s best receiver, and it would not surprise me if he ends uo being as important to the program as some guy named Tyler Lockett, although it’s premature to say this with any certainty.

But it was Kansas State’s rushing offense that was the real story. As a Kansas State fan, there’s nothing I love as much as a good ol’ fashioned road grading, and this game checked all the boxes. Not only did the two quarterbacks and the running back tandem of DJ Giddens and Treshaun Ward combine for 309 yards on the ground, but also, the Wildcats held the ball for an astounding 38 minutes, giving the Horned Frogs’ defense no rest on a day when TCU’s offense could not do a thing right.

The BEEF finally showed up in this game, and how. Just watch Cooper Beebe do his thing. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this is an entire novella.

It’s hard to find fault with this game, but I’m not good at resisting the urge to play Monday morning quarterback. The most glaring and lingering problem is still at wide receiver. The Wildcat wideouts have trouble getting separation, which means that they can’t always be relied on to help move the sticks. Indeed, so far this season, Kansas State has had more success with running backs catching passes and then using their legs to make things happen. I don’t know if this is sustainable.

Kansas State won this game by physically dominating both lines of scrimmage, a useful skill against a TCU team that inexplicably brought a nerf gun to a rock fight. But what happens when the other team is also willing to get dirty and fight hard in the trenches? Conversely, what happens when Kansas State can’t bludgeon its opponents with the running game? Questions abound.

Hopefully, this Saturday’s game against Houston will be revelatory rather than regret-worthy.

Soccer

Kansas State’s 2023 campaign will come to an end tonight at Rock Chalk Park against the Kansas Jayhawks in this season’s soccer version of the Sunflower Showdown. The Wildcats are currently 3-11-3 on the season and have lost their last six matches on the road, but a win over KU would help even the all-time series at three match wins a piece.

Volleyball

The VolleyCats split their most recent Big 12 road series with Oklahoma. Kansas State lost a nail-biting five setter on Thursday (15-25, 19-25, 25-15, 25-20, 16-14). It was the Sooners’ first conference win this season. In yesterday’s rematch though, the Wildcats dominated the contest, winning easily in three sets (25-23, 25-18, 25-15).

The team is back in action at Morgan Family Arena on Thursday for the first match of two against BYU. First serve is set for 6:30 PM.