From The Couch – K-State vs. UT Martin: Reflections on K-State’s First Game of the Season
K-State dominated UT Martin on the scoreboard and in the box score on Saturday, winning 41 to 6. It was a competitive game into the third quarter when K-State finally pulled away. If not for a blocked punt returned for a touchdown in the first quarter, K-State would have only led by a touchdown at half. Instead, they went into halftime up 17 to 3. K-State head coach Chris Klieman challenged the players at halftime, and whatever he told them worked…
“Good win. I told the guys, ‘It’s our last time we get to prepare 30 days for a team, and maybe over prepare’, now we get into the flow of the season. I was not particularly pleased with the first half offensively. [We] just didn’t get into a rhythm. Didn’t think we had a lot of energy and juice and challenged the guys at halftime, because I thought we were better than that.”…K-State head coach Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: By halftime, I’m sure the entire stadium was thinking “we are better than that.” It was obvious to me that there was a concerted effort not to open up the offense and show too much to next week’s opponent. Avery Johnson dropped back in the pocket and went through all of his reads before (most of the time) dumping the ball off to a running back. He only scrambled and ran a few times. The receivers did not run deep routes until they opened things up more in the second half. Johnson also had a bad interception that I’m sure he wishes he had back.
“I feel like I didn’t use my legs enough at times. I feel like that’s one of the best parts of my game, being able to hurt the defense with my legs. I feel like I got complacent at times and spit the ball out, or maybe forced some plays in at times when I didn’t need to.”…K-State quarterback Avery Johnson, post-game
JM: Well there you go. Guess my analysis was right!
“It was just really slow. I feel like offensively, we came out flat, and definitely could have done stuff a lot better. I’m pretty hard on myself, so I don’t think I had the best game, but it wasn’t the worst either. I still have a lot of improvement to make, but we’re 1-0 at the end of the day. The defense played really well. We are going to have to look at the tape and find where we are gonna get better and just get back after it next week.”…Avery Johnson, post-game
JM: The K-State defense was really good and, honestly, this team will go as far as the defense takes them. They held UT Martin to 134 total yards and didn’t give up a touchdown. Linebacker Desmond Purnell was fantastic in the game from the get go. He led the team with seven tackles and one and a half of those was a tackle for loss. He showed speed and strength getting through blocks.
“Desmond’s a stud. I mean, that kid is a great football player. [He] Probably gets not [enough] recognition that he deserves from outside, but inside our walls. When you guys have seen that kid–the kid is a great football player. Man, does he play hard. He plays physical, he runs through contact and doesn’t miss tackles. You know, we’re so excited that we have Desmond and the way he’s playing. Last year, he got nicked up late and got healthy in the off-season, and now he’s gonna have a huge season.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: If Desmond Purnell is going to play like that all season, he will be first-team all Big 12 at linebacker.
“I’ve been telling you guys that he’s (tight end Braden Loftin) continuing to get better and better– he’s gaining more confidence. And maybe it was an easy throw and catch, and it was an easy touchdown, but you still have to execute. He did some other things and caught a couple of balls. I’m excited because Braden gives us another element there, and he’s not just a receiving tight end, he’s a good point-of-attack tight end. As he continues to get better, that’s going to open up some more things when we’re in that twelve personnel.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: Loftin had two catches for 39 yards and this beautiful touchdown reception from Avery Johnson in the first quarter….
JM: The only other touchdown in the first half was this blocked punt by Ty Bowman and touchdown by Colby McCalister….
JM: K-State got things rolling in the second half. Look at DJ Giddens lead blocking for Dylan Edwards on this run…
“We push each other and compete. And you see it out there, he’s (DJ Giddens) a great player. So we will keep on putting on for Kansas State this year.”…Running back Dylan Edwards, post-game
JM: DJ Giddens rushed for 128 yards on 13 carries, an average of 9.5 yards per carry. Edwards had 43 yards on five carries and a touchdown run, an average of 8.6 yards per carry. Edwards also had a touchdown reception.
JM: This pass from Avery Johnson to Jayce Brown set up Dylan Edwards’ first touchdown as a Wildcat…
JM: After this touchdown, K-State’s defense held UT Martin to a three and out and scored a touchdown on their next drive to put the game away…
JM: There are a LOT of weapons on this K-State offense. Pretty exciting.
JM: Glad he got the nerves out of his system. The schedule only gets tougher from here.
“I’m very appreciative of Coach (Jason) Simpson and other coaches at practice. I wish he would have done more to prepare us but holding them at that half-time score shows that we weren’t prepared to an extent.”…UT Martin nose tackle Christian Dowell, post-game
JM: Uh, what? This is why I read to the very end of the transcript of the press conference. Jason Simpson is the head coach of UT Martin. Dowell gave him a compliment and a harsh criticism in the same sentence. Asserting the head coach didn’t prepare you for the game is as bad as it gets. I didn’t listen to the UT Martin press conference, so I don’t know if there was a follow-up question to this, but there should have been.
“Well, I’m happy we won. I don’t know if ‘relieved’ is the right word, because I’ve been on that other side. I’m happy we won, but I know we’re going to learn and grow from this. We needed a game like this. We didn’t need a 65-3 game or something. We needed to be challenged, and we were challenged– our starters went into the fourth quarter, and all those things were important for us so that we realized that we’ve got some work to do, and that we have not been a complete football team. We got a lot of stuff to get fixed and straightened out.”…Chris Klieman, post-game
JM: Next Saturday, the Wildcats travel to Tulane for an 11:00 AM game. Tulane is a good team and they won their first game of the season on Thursday, 52-0 against Southeastern Louisiana. The weather is likely to be hot and humid, which may affect the players. I am nervous about this one, but if K-State plays error-free football, there is no reason they should not win the game. Isn’t it great that football is back?
