From The Couch – Too Many Unanswered Questions After K-State Football’s Embarrassing Loss To Arizona State

From The Couch – Too Many Unanswered Questions After K-State Football’s Embarrassing Loss To Arizona State

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K-State’s playoff and Big 12 championship hopes are dead after a dreadful 24-14 loss to Arizona State on Saturday night in front of a sold-out crowd at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The offense was miserable, the defense was pitiful, special teams were wretched, coaching decisions, especially offensive play-calls, were dismal, and even the public address announcer misidentified players on the field. Other than that, it was a great evening at The Bill!

I haven’t been that angry walking out of K-State’s football stadium in quite some time. It was an embarrassing performance and an embarrassing effort. K-State quarterback Avery Johnson threw an interception on the second play of the game that Arizona State took advantage of by scoring a touchdown and they never looked back. K-State’s offense was feckless the entire first half. Check out the result of their first-half possessions:

Interception.
Turnover on downs.
Punt.
Fumble.
Turnover on downs.

In the first half, Arizona State out-gained K-State 227 yards to 108. Arizona State cruised to a 21-0 lead at halftime and increased that lead to 24-0 in the third quarter before K-State’s offense was finally able to get on the board with a touchdown. K-State’s offensive coordinators had two weeks to prepare for this game and the offense was horrendous in the first half. Avery Johnson is basically non-existent in the running game and Dylan Edwards suffered an injury early in the game and never returned. Why K-State is not utilizing Avery’s talents in the run game is baffling to me. He did run for a touchdown in the second half, but the game was already out of reach. This game was over in the first half.

“I’ve got to do a better job getting those kids ready to play.”…K-State head coach Chris Klieman, post-game

JM: No sh*t, Sherlock.

“I’ll take ownership of this one. And you know, Austin Moore is not gonna let me do that, but I’m going to take it because the whole program is on me. And I didn’t do a good enough job with the game plans. I didn’t do a good enough job with the players.”…Chris Klieman, post-game

JM: At least Klieman took responsibility for the loss, but that doesn’t make me feel any better about it.

“And I don’t know what the legacy of all those guys is going to be, but I know in my mind, in my heart, I love those kids because they’ve started with me here, took us through COVID, won a Big 12 Championship, and I’m frustrated and I’m hurting for those guys, because I need to do better, because I know why a lot of those guys came out, came back to have an opportunity to compete for a championship, and I let them down.”…Chris Klieman, post-game

JM: Klieman reminded us that he won a Big 12 Championship just two years ago. It sure feels that it has been longer than that.

“I really couldn’t, and that’s once again, that’s on me. I didn’t see it. I thought we had a good walk-through. That we had some good things happen, and what has gone on a little bit when we don’t have things happen? Well, quickly, early, we struggled to overcome adversity.”…Chris Klieman, post-game

JM: This might be the most concerning of Chris Klieman’s post-game comments. He seemed flabbergasted and dumbfounded and didn’t see this coming at all.

“They were conservative, I would say,”…Chris Klieman, post-game

JM: This was Klieman’s immediate answer when asked how K-State came back in the second half by slowing down Arizona State’s offense. Then he seemed to catch himself and said the defense played better after halftime. I believe his immediate answer to the question is the right answer.

“It’s been a really, really hard two weeks for me.”…Chris Klieman, post-game

JM: There is something going on behind the scenes with Chris Klieman. He had a slight medical incident during the KU game where he felt dizzy and had to go to the locker room during the game to be evaluated. Then he spoke earlier this week about how he’s had some personal issues he has been dealing with and he mentioned those issues again after the game last night. As of this writing, nobody has any details about what is going on. Whatever it is, is it affecting the play of his team on the field? Here is the video of his comments….

JM: After watching and listening to these comments, I debated how hard I should be on Klieman in this column. The fact of the matter is that we all have issues in our lives that we have to deal with and we all have to keep moving forward and perform in our jobs and personal lives. College sports is a big business and keeps getting bigger. This University is increasing ticket and parking costs, constantly solicits me to donate to the Ahearn Fund, Wildcat NIL, and tries to sell me packages to travel to the game in Ireland next fall. Because of all of this, the people in this program are not immune to criticism, especially after a pathetic performance like this one.

JM: K-State had two botched field goal attempts in the game. Special teams continue to be an issue.

Behind 24-14, K-State was driving for another score with a few minutes left in the game. The clock was running as K-State had the ball in the red zone. If they scored, they might still have a shot. On 2nd and 10 from the Arizona State 19-yard line, K-State’s offensive coordinator Conor Riley inexplicably called a running play to DJ Giddens, which gained only one yard. Boos rained down from the stands, as they had for much of the game.

JM: It might have been the worst call in the history of bad calls. On third down, Avery Johnson threw an incomplete pass and K-State was forced to settle for a field goal.

JM: Game over.

JM: There are inaccurate and misleading headlines, and then there’s this. K-State still lost by 10 points after being behind 24-0. Unfortunately, the “rally” didn’t start nearly soon enough and they never really had a chance to win the game due to ineptitude on offense and special teams.

JM: “A lot of room for improvement” is the understatement of the season.

Despite the overall nightmarish performance from top to bottom, there were a couple of positives in the game. Here are the offensive and defensive players of the game:

Offensive player of the game: DJ Giddens. Giddens had 133 rushing yards on 14 carries, a 9.5 yard per carry average. Giddens became the fourth K-State running back in K-State history to rush for 1,000 yards in a season twice. The other three are Darren Sproles, Daniel Thomas, and Deuce Vaughn. Giddens has taken his place on the Mount Rushmore of K-State running backs.

Defensive player of the game: VJ Payne. 11 total tackles. Seven unassisted. Two pass breakups.

K-State has two games left this season. The Wildcats are at home at 7:00 PM next Saturday against Cincinnati and end the year the following Saturday at Iowa State. It appears that a minor bowl game is in the cards for K-State in 2024, which is very disappointing considering the high preseason expectations.

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