The K-State football team lost to the Texas Longhorns 22-17 today in their regular-season finale. The Wildcats finished the season 7-5 overall and 4-5 in the Big 12. This is the most frustrated I’ve been watching a K-State football game since….probably the Texas game to end last season. Chris Klieman didn’t have Covid to blame this year, but K-State fans have targeted offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham as enemy number one. Let’s review what happened on a very disappointing day in Wildcat land….

“Skipping into the end zone! Roschon Johnson calls his own name and the Wildcat has paid great dividends on this opening drive for the Longhorns.”…Aaron Goldsmith, Fox

JM: Texas took the ball on the opening kickoff and drove down the field in a little over four minutes on a 10 play, 75-yard drive. The Longhorns carved through the K-State defense easier than my electric knife did carving my turkey yesterday. There were a lot of issues in this game but Texas set the tone early, easily scoring on the opening drive. K-State received the ensuing kickoff and proceeded to go three and out, their first of three “three and out” possessions in the game. After punting the ball back to Texas, an interception by TJ Smith gave the Wildcats the ball back.

“Vaughn races inside the five, inside the pylon, touchdown, K-State!”…Aaron Goldsmith, Fox

JM: The Wildcats went on a seven-play, 68-yard touchdown drive, capped off by a nine-yard run by Deuce Vaughn. The game was tied at seven.

“Thompson to pass. Looking end zone! For Brewer! Brewer in traffic! And Cade Brewer, what a catch! What a ball! Texas touchdown!”…Aaron Goldsmith, Fox

JM: The game was not tied for long. When Texas got the ball back after Deuce Vaughn’s touchdown, they drove down the field on a 13 play, 73-yard touchdown drive and scored on a beautiful pass by Casey Thompson to Cade Brewer. Cameron Dicker (the kicker) missed the extra point off the upright and Texas led 13-7 with 13:03 left in the 2nd quarter.

“Howard’s got a first down and more. He’s streaking down the sideline! Will Howard is on his way and he dives in and Will Howard is in for a touchdown! 71 yards! Will Howard for six!”…Aaron Goldsmith, Fox

JM: On K-State’s first play from scrimmage after the Texas touchdown, Will Howard ran for a 71-yard touchdown to put K-State ahead 14-13. This was the last touchdown of the game for either team.

“This would be by far the career-long for Chris Tennant.”…Aaron Goldsmith, Fox

JM: Tennant had plenty of leg on his 51-yard field goal in the second quarter. It would have been good from a much longer distance. Texas would answer with a field goal as time expired in the half and K-State went into halftime with a 17-16 lead over the Longhorns. But then things got ugly for the Wildcats in the second half.

Malik Knowles returned the second-half kickoff to the 46-yard line. How did the K-State offense respond to this great field position?

Play 1 – Offsides, Texas. First and five.
Play 2 – Run by Deuce Vaughn for 16 yards. First down.
Play 3 – Run by Deuce Vaughn for six yards. 2nd and 4.
Play 4 – Handoff to Phillip Brooks. Loss of 10. 3rd and 14.
Play 5 – QB draw by Will Howard. Loss of one. 4th and 15. That’s right, they ran a draw with Will Howard on 3rd and 14. Whether it was a planned draw or not, it doesn’t matter. Throw the ball downfield. Instead, they were forced to punt.

K-State’s defense, which had clearly adjusted to what Texas was doing, held the Longhorns to a three and out and forced them to punt. The Wildcats got the ball back on their own 42-yard line. What did they do next?

Play 1 – Will Howard dropped back to pass and threw deep to Phillip Brooks, who was open enough to catch the pass had it been a well-thrown ball. The ball was underthrown by about five yards to the right of Brooks. 2nd and 10.
Play 2 – Handoff to Malik Knowles for no gain. 3rd and 10.
Play 3 – Howard dropped back to pass. The pass was not near any receiver, so it was hard to tell who it was intended for. 4th and 10. Punt.

“39-yarder for Cameron Dicker….and the senior is able to split the uprights and put the Longhorns in front.”…Aaron Goldsmith, Fox

JM: After K-State’s three and out, Texas had a 12 play, 61-yard drive and kicked a field goal to go ahead 19-17. After Texas went ahead, it was very important for K-State to get something going offensively. So what did they do?

Play 1 – Deuce Vaughn ran for five yards. 2nd and 5.
Play 2 – Deuce Vaughn ran for three yards. 3rd and 2. Vaughn lost his shoe on the play and had to go to the sideline to put his shoe back on.
Play 3 – Screen pass to Phillip Brooks for a loss of two. 4th and 4. Punt.

Another of Courtney Messingham’s signature three-and-outs. This marked the end of the 3rd quarter. The Wildcats ran 10 plays in the quarter and gained 17 yards. 19 rushing yards and negative two passing yards. Yes, negative two passing yards in the third quarter.

The K-State defense forced Texas to punt and they got the ball back on their own nine-yard line. What happened next?

Play 1 – Deuce Vaughn ran for six yards. 2nd and 4.
Play 2 – Deuce Vaughn ran for six yards. First down.
Play 3 – Will Howard fake handoff and ran for four yards. 2nd and 6.
Play 4 – Deuce Vaughn ran for five yards. 3rd and 1.
Play 5 – Deuce Vaughn ran for no gain. 4th and 1.
Play 6 – Deuce Vaughn ran out of the Wildcat for no gain. Turnover on downs.

Six plays and zero pass attempts? Texas’ defensive line was dominating the K-State offensive line in the trenches at this point in the game. Texas got the ball back and drove and kicked a field goal to go ahead 22-17. K-State needed a touchdown with about seven and a half minutes left in the game. What happened next?

Play 1 – Pass to Tyrone Howell for 14 yards. First down.
Play 2 – Deuce Vaughn ran for 20 yards. First down. Hey, we’ve got something going here!
Play 3 – Quarterback draw for Will Howard for a gain of 3. 2nd and 7.
Play 4 – Deuce Vaughn ran for six yards. 3rd and 1.
Play 5 – Deuce Vaughn ran out of the Wildcat again for no gain. 4th and 1.
Play 6 – Will Howard kept the ball on the option for no gain. Turnover on downs.

The last two play calls were very suspect. Texas had already proven the ability to stop the Wildcat running game on 3rd and 4th and short, but they went back to a “Wildcat” run up the middle with Deuce Vaughn and then tried to run the option. Crazy. Texas got the ball back with about four minutes left in the game and ran the clock down to 30 seconds before punting. K-State was out of timeouts and the clock ran out on them.

“Defensively we didn’t tackle and get off blocks great at times and they had some long drives. Offensively, we just didn’t make enough plays and we were really poor on third down. But all that being said, as poorly as we played, we’ve got a first and 10 on their like 26, down 22 to 17 and have a chance to pull out the win and don’t get it done.”…Chris Klieman, post-game

JM: I found it interesting that Klieman mentioned the play of the defense before the offense as if the defense was the primary problem in the game. I think the defense adjusted after a poor start and played pretty well in the second half. The offense was inept and on the verge of embarrassing.

“We should be able to get a yard. That’s the bottom line or half a yard, whatever the heck it would be.”…Chris Klieman, post-game

JM: Yes. You should.

“You know, (Will Howard) had a big-time run to give us a big touchdown when we needed it. Have to look at the film and see where our errors were, if they were in routes, protection, if it was throws, whatever it may be, but offensively in general, not just one player, offensively we got to be better.”…Chris Klieman, post-game

JM: At the risk of sounding too negative, I’ll just say this. If Courtney Messingham is K-State’s offensive coordinator in 2022 and Will Howard is the starting quarterback, this team is in trouble. Howard simply can’t throw the ball downfield accurately. This isn’t the 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers running the option offense. You have to be able to pass the ball in this league.

“He did a great job. Deuce is a special player and a really talented kid and he makes some great plays, but obviously it wasn’t enough.”…Chris Klieman, post-game

JM: Deuce Vaughn had another fantastic game. He rushed for 143 yards and a touchdown and averaged six yards a carry. I shudder to think how inept this offense would have been without him on the field.

“Probably yeah, he (Skylar Thompson) was close. He progressed throughout the week and he wanted to go through warm ups and and see what he could do and he couldn’t push off like he wanted to. So we had to make the decision not to play him.”…Chris Klieman, post-game

JM: I hope Skylar is able to play in the bowl game. It could be ugly otherwise.

“On if Texas wanted it more…
“That’s a good question. I can’t answer that. Our kids wanted to win. I can’t tell you about the Texas kids, but our kids wanted to win. We just didn’t execute well enough today.”…Chris Klieman, post-game

JM: “That’s a good question?” I think Klieman quickly realized what he said was a mistake and tried to cover up for it by saying his players wanted to win.

“Howard completed 9 of 13 passes for 65 yards…”…K-Statesports.com

JM: You can’t win games in the Big 12 if your quarterback is throwing for 65 yards in a game.

“The Cyclones’ offense was stuck in neutral for the majority of the season. It finished in the bottom three of the Big 12 in points per game (24.8), yards per game (363), yards per play (4.82), rushing yards (143.83) and passing yards (219.17).”…ESPN, December 1, 2013

JM: This quote is from an article announcing the firing of Iowa State offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham in 2013. Do you want to see something eerie? Iowa State averaged 24.8 points per game in 2013. Guess how many points per game K-State has scored in Big 12 games this season?

24.8 points per game. You can’t make this stuff up.

It may be time for Coach Klieman to move on from Courtney Messingham. I know they’re best friends, but Klieman is going to lose a lot of the fan base if he keeps Messingham going into next season.

Next Sunday we will find out which bowl game K-State will be invited to. I am hearing rumors of the Cheez-It Bowl or maybe the Liberty Bowl again. Stay tuned.

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