Manhattan ? When Kansas State’s schedule was first announced, Bill Snyder wasn’t exactly pleased to see that the Wildcats would have a week off after just one game.
Turns out it couldn’t have come at a better time.
The Wildcats needed an 86-yard drive capped by a 33-yard touchdown pass from Collin Klein to Chris Harper in the closing minutes Saturday night just to slip by Eastern Kentucky. There was nothing sexy about the 10-7 final score, which was lowlighted by five fumbles, seven penalties and enough other mistakes to keep the Kansas State coaching staff busy during the early bye.
“We have two weeks if we invest ourselves to try to correct our problems,” said Snyder, who got his 150th win as the Wildcats’ head coach Saturday night. “I hate to have an open date at this point in the season, but maybe it will work on our behalf.”
It sure couldn’t hurt, especially for the offense.
Klein threw an interception and could have had three more errant passes picked off, and that was just when he had time to throw. The rest of the night he was running for dear life — about a third of the quarterback’s game-high 25 carries came during broken plays.
The Wildcats averaged just shy of 200 yards rushing per game last season, when Daniel Thomas carried the load, but they struggled mightily against an undersized defense from the Football Championship Subdivision. John Hubert got the start and ran for 91 yards. Angelo Pease carried five times for just 11 yards, and highly touted transfer Bryce Brown ran just three times for 16 yards.
Brown, a former top-ranked recruit who spent a season at Tennessee, also was responsible for a fumble that gave Eastern Kentucky the ball at the Kansas State goal line in the third quarter.
The Colonels punched it in moments later and found themselves with a 7-0 lead.
“Way too many penalties, turnovers, busted assignments across the board,” said Klein, who went the entire way after spending time as a change-of-pace quarterback last season.
“It’s not obviously where we hoped we were, but give credit to Eastern Kentucky for having their game plan,” Klein said, “and also hats off to our defense for being solid when we needed it.”
Yes, there was one bright spot on an otherwise bleak night for Kansas State.
A defense that was among the worst in college football against the run last season — allowing more than 230 yards per game — kept turning Eastern Kentucky away every time the Wildcats’ offense floundered. That included Nigel Malone’s interception in the end zone to foil a good scoring chance by Eastern Kentucky, and another by Malone to seal the game after Kansas State finally pulled ahead.
The Colonels managed just 10 yards net rushing, the lowest total by a Kansas State opponent since Texas A&M had minus-13 in 2009. The Wildcats’ four sacks, including two by senior defensive end Jordan Voelker, were their most since the same game against the Aggies two years ago.
“We wanted the game to come down to be on our shoulders,” said Voelker.