From The Couch – Avery Johnson’s Five Touchdowns Propel K-State To An Easy Victory Over Texas Tech
The legend of freshman phenom quarterback Avery Johnson begins. Johnson rushed for 91 yards on 12 carries with five touchdown runs on the night and was also eight of nine passing for 77 yards in a 38-21 victory over Texas Tech. And he didn’t even play the entire game, coming into the game late in the first quarter. K-State head coach Chris Klieman alternated quarterbacks Johnson and starter Will Howard in the first half, but decided to stick with Johnson after he saw how productive he was. Johnson’s five touchdown runs tied a K-State record held by his offensive coordinator Collin Klein and Jonathan Beasley.
“He was really good.”…K-State head coach Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: K-State fans can once again dream of a Big 12 championship repeat, as this victory made K-State a valid contender again. After last week’s loss to Oklahoma State, it looked like a pipe dream.
“We had a plan to play (Johnson) in the first half. He had a nice drive. Then we put Will back in and then Avery back in. We just bounced back and forth. Then in the third quarter, they were giving us the quarterback run, and that’s why we stayed with Avery, because if they’re going to play a deep safety and give you quarterback run, then we’re going to make people pay for it.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: This quote suggests that the Texas Tech defensive scheme provided an opportunity for Johnson to succeed, so Klieman went with it. It also makes me question if Johnson will be the starting quarterback going forward or if they will stay with Will Howard depending on the opponent.
JM: Johnson was the fastest player on the field. It’s easy to see why he was successful running the ball, but he was also really good and accurate passing it. He was eight of nine and had a 160.8 passer rating.
“[He’s] (Avery Johnson) very impressive, but he’s not really a true freshman. I know he is – he was here in the spring. He’s got a calmness. He’s got a demeanor to him. He’s got competitiveness. When we recruited him, that was the number one thing that jumped out to me. When we recruited Avery, we noticed how competitive he was in every sport and every game that he played. When you have that kind of competitor, the moments are probably never going to be too big.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: One of the things I have noticed about Avery Johnson is how calm, cool, and collected he is. He runs the offense like he’s a senior, not a true freshman. I can’t remember seeing a true freshman quarterback play this well.
JM: Look at how he sees the field, follows his blockers, and bursts through the hole. This run was a thing of beauty!
JM: I like on this run how he started to go outside but cut and ran upfield for the touchdown. He sees the field very well and has natural instinct for the game.
“They (turnovers) were huge and came at crucial times.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: There was another story line to this game, and that was the fact that Texas Tech had to insert a true freshman quarterback in the second half because of an injury to starter Behren Morton. Jake Strong played the second half and was simply awful. He was 16 of 28 passing with three interceptions. And he could have and probably should have had a couple more. He was throwing balls right to K-State defenders.
“Probably the first question I’ll get is about Behren (Morton), y’all know he’s been playing with a
banged-up shoulder. Couldn’t feel good about putting him back in for the second half with his shoulder, so we made the move to go with Jake (Strong). I thought we did some good things and not-so-good things”….Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire, post-game
JM: Avery Johnson played great, but K-State was only up by three points at halftime. It might have been a different game had Morton been healthy.
“You’re not going to win a lot of games giving up 272 yards rushing, so we didn’t play good enough run defense.”…Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire, post-game
JM: How much of that had to do with K-State’s offensive line? It was probably a little bit of the scheme Tech was running on defense and great play by K-State’s offensive line. K-State running back Treshaun Ward had a great game running the ball, with 118 yards on 15 carries, a 7.9 yard per carry average.
“I have a great group of people around me. Everybody in this program believes in me and is confident in me. It just makes my job easy. I just go out there and just do my job. I know the guy to my left and the guy to my right is going to do their job as well.”…Quarterback Avery Johnson, post-game
JM: Johnson is still very humble and appears to be a “team first” guy. I like that.
K-State returns home next Saturday for a game against TCU at 6:00. It’s Harley day, so get there early!
