From The Couch – K-State Shuts Out South Dakota To Go 1-0 On The Year
K-State opened the 2022 football season with a 34-0 victory over South Dakota at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan last night. Although South Dakota was clearly over-matched, I liked what I saw from the Wildcats. A 75-yard touchdown run by wide receiver Malik Knowles on the first play of the game set the tone and the K-State defense got its first shutout since 2019 against Bowling Green.
Here are a few of the highlights from the game and some quotes of note from the post-game press conferences.
JM: The first thing I noticed on this play was the block by Deuce Vaughn. If Vaughn doesn’t make that spectacular block, Knowles doesn’t go for a touchdown. It was a great play all-around.
“I was pretty excited about it. That’s something I’ve been working on for quite a bit of time, wanting to be able to improve my blocking and to get out there on the first play and spring Leek (Malik Knowles) like that. That’s big time, I was super excited for it.”…Deuce Vaughn, post-game
JM: Vaughn can do it all for this team. He ran the ball 18 times for 126 yards and a touchdown, an average of seven yards per carry. After a nasty face mask in the second quarter, Vaughn left the game and backup running back DJ Giddens came in the game and performed admirably. Giddens finished the game with six carries for 57 yards, a 9.5 yard per carry average. I thought he ran the ball really well.
JM: Felix Anudike-Uzomah bull-rushed and over-powered the South Dakota left tackle on this sack. The play led South Dakota to punt, resulting in the blocked punt for touchdown that put the Wildcats ahead 14-0.
JM: An interception by Cincere Mason led to K-State’s third touchdown, a 39-yard run by Deuce Vaughn. You can view his run in the video below at the 58-second mark…
JM: When Vaughn saw the hole open up, he made one cut and a little juke and took it to the house. It was a thing of beauty. Kicker Chris Tennant missed the extra point attempt after the touchdown. K-State’s fourth touchdown was a six yard run by Adrian Martinez…
JM: K-State took a 27-0 lead into halftime and scored their final touchdown of the game on a 12 yard touchdown run by DJ Giddens in the third quarter when he went untouched for the score….
JM: That touchdown wrapped up the scoring for the Wildcats on the day. Chris Klieman talked about the rarity of getting the shutout of South Dakota….
“It’s really rare anymore in college football and so exciting for the younger guys that got an opportunity in that last drive. Yeah, they moved the ball, their ones moved it against a lot of our young guys, but in the same respect we found a way to get a stop and so pleased for those guys because it was the older guys during the timeouts are saying ‘Man preserve the shutout, preserve the shutout and they did.”…Head coach Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: Congratulations to the Wildcat defense on the shutout. In the second quarter, South Dakota had a 4th and 1 near the K-State 20 yard line and decided to go for it but the run was stuffed. South Dakota had some opportunities to score, but the K-State defense stepped up and stopped them every time.
“It was a great experience. A new home for me. That first third down kind of took me by surprise by how loud they were. So I was excited about that. My first touchdown, the ref had to warn me not to high five the crowd, which I should’ve known better. Good experience.”…Quarterback Adrian Martinez, post-game
JM: Martinez didn’t put up any gaudy numbers in this one. He was 11/15 passing for 53 yards and his longest pass completion was for 10 yards. He also ran the ball 13 times for 39 yards. I thought he was mostly efficient in running the offense. He had one fumble on a sack in which he was blindsided by an unblocked defender. Most quarterbacks would have fumbled getting hit like that, so I don’t fault him for it. Backup quarterback Jake Rubley came into the game in the fourth quarter to get some snaps and he looked pretty decent in the limited time he was out there. Does this mean that Rubley is the number two quarterback? I think so, but stay tuned.
“I’m excited to play some SEC football. I’m going to treat Mizzou like they’re Alabama and so was South Dakota. I’m going to treat them as if they’re the best team in the conference. There’s not going to be a drop off from this game, probably more juice, but it’s not going to be anything less.”…Safety Kobe Savage, post-game
JM: I can’t wait until next week’s game against Missouri. It is going to be fun to watch. Missouri has a lot of talent, starting with stud five-star freshman wide receiver Luther Burden. They not only line him up at receiver, but they’ll hand the ball off to him and run the Wildcat formation with him taking snaps. He’s the real deal. We’ll see if the Wildcat defense can contain him.
See you all next week!
If you are on social media, please follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/joemathieu and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/kstatejoe. Thanks!
