From The Couch – What The Duff?
K-State football lost in overtime 27-24 to the Colorado Buffaloes on Saturday afternoon in Boulder. Collin Klein started quarterback Dillon Duff in place of injured Avery Johnson and Jacob Knuth and it did not go well. Duff was pulled after three series and zero first downs. Blake Barnett came in and got the K-State offense going enough to keep the game competitive.
In no way am I blaming Dillon Duff for the loss. K-State did enough good things with Barnett in the game and had a chance to win it at the end of regulation. A touchdown on a jump pass from Barnett to Garrett Oakley as time expired pulled the Wildcats within one point and Klein had a decision to make. Kick the extra point to send the game into overtime or go for the two-point conversion and try to win the game. K-State lined up to go for two, but Colorado called timeout and changed their look on defense. During the timeout, Klein changed his mind and decided to kick the extra point.
“We had a play that we really liked and felt good about. They called timeout and readjusted their alignment. We had the ball in the left middle there and just didn’t feel good about the two other ones from that position in that moment. Talking as a staff, we said, ‘We have to keep playing this thing.'”…K-State head coach Collin Klein, post-game
JM: Hindsight is 20/20, but K-State should have gone for two to win the game. The K-State defense is terrible, which I will discuss, and I had no confidence that they would stop Colorado in overtime, which they didn’t. I also had zero confidence that they would convert on a two-point conversion, but I felt the odds were better to try to win the game right there.
Coming into the game, Colorado’s defense was ranked 104 in the country, giving up 392 yards per game. K-State gained 347 yards against them. Colorado’s offense was ranked 65th in the country, averaging 395 yards per game. Their rushing offense ranked 110th, averaging 128 yards per game. The K-State defense gave up 407 yards to the Buffaloes, 222 on the ground, almost double their rushing yard average.
Here are the highlights (lowlights for the K-State defense) of Colorado’s three rushing touchdowns on the day…
JM: Did you notice anything in common with all three runs? In all three cases, the running back for Colorado was UNTOUCHED by the K-State defense. I chose the screen capture of the long Jaquail Smith touchdown to use as the article header for a reason. Smith didn’t find a hole up the middle of the defense and break away. Her sprinted to the outside on a sweep and outran the entire K-State defense on his way to the endzone. You don’t really see a run like that anymore past the high school level of football.
Watch the second Richard Young touchdown again. Young ran through the hole and number four on the K-State defense, Mekhi Mason, ran away from the running back and totally whiffed on the play. I can’t remember a worse defensive play. What is going on here? I’ve said since game one that the K-State defense was going to have trouble stopping the run because they are very undersized on the defensive line. That said, there have been zero adjustments on defense and schematically the defense is pathetic. I have never seen a football team give up so many touchdowns where the runner was untouched on his way to the endzone. It happens week after week. There is more talent on this defense than the results show.
Defensive coordinator Jordan Peterson can’t be back next year if you want to be considered a serious football program. I know he is supposedly a great recruiter, but he is a terrible defensive coordinator. I talked to an ex-K-State football player who agreed with me that he has to go. In his words, “he’s not ready for prime time.” You can’t coach that poorly in the Big 12 conference and expect to keep your job. A change has to be made.
It wasn’t all negative for K-State. They were able to find the endzone on three occasions and every one of them was a spectacular play…
JM: In overtime, K-State got the ball first and they were held to a field goal. The K-State defense took the field and gave up the game-winning Colorado touchdown to Charlie Williams.
JM: Colorado fans stormed the field. It was the first Big 12 win for Colorado in 2026 and, to be honest, it might be the last win of the Deion Sanders era at Colorado. They are the worst team in the Big 12. Well, until yesterday. Now that title probably goes to K-State.
“It’s a tough one, obviously. I’m proud of their guts. They competed and believed we were going to find a way to win. We like learning lessons the hard way right now and it’s unfortunate because there are opportunities all over there that we have to take advantage of and play better, and that starts with us as a staff.”…Collin Klein, post-game
JM: Maybe it’s just me, but I would like more specifics rather than this. How are you going to fix the defense?
“It’s those simple things that we aren’t doing right now. There’s rhythm on those first three third downs, there’s some missed blocking schemes and missed assignments there, but I’m proud of how they competed. We have to do the little things a lot better.”…Collin Klein, post-game
JM: I think he has said some variation of “we have to do the little things a lot better” after every game this season. They have played eight games.
I wasn’t expecting K-State to win this game. Heck, we didn’t even know who the starting quarterback was going to be until the morning of the game. If Avery Johnson was healthy, K-State probably wins. The fact that they made it a game and had a chance to win it in the end makes it frustrating that they were unable to pull off the victory. Colorado is terrible, but their offense made the K-State defense look like a high school team. Can that issue be fixed? I hold out hope, but I doubt it.
The schedule gets more difficult now for K-State. Oklahoma State is next, followed by a trip to TCU, then Arizona at home before finishing out at Iowa State.
What looked like an easy schedule prior to the season now looks really difficult, huh?
