Wichita-area athletes spent the weekend making noise all over Division I sports, and the list of standout performances was headlined by a quarterback who just moved into Kansas State history.
Avery Johnson delivered the biggest stat line of the bunch. The Maize graduate and Kansas State senior quarterback went 15 of 21 for 199 yards and three touchdown passes, then added a 10-yard rushing score in the Wildcats’ 71-3 win over Nicholls.
His three passing touchdowns pushed him to 59 for his career, breaking Collin Klein’s previous Kansas State record of 56. Johnson’s four-touchdown night helped K-State race to a 22-0 first-quarter lead and added another milestone to an already loaded career.
One of the weekend’s most memorable wins came in volleyball, where Cheney product Campbell Hague helped Tulsa pull off a major upset. Hague, a senior middle blocker, finished with 10 kills and two blocks as the Golden Hurricane knocked off No.
10 Creighton in five sets for the program’s first top-10 victory. Hague had two kills during Tulsa’s fifth-set surge, a burst that helped the Golden Hurricane build a 10-2 lead on the way to the upset.
She transferred to Tulsa after three seasons at San Diego State.
On the defensive side, Wichita-area players were all over the stat sheets. Ethan Stuhlsatz, the former Kapaun Mt.
Carmel standout now in his graduate year at Wyoming, piled up a game-high 15 tackles in the Cowboys’ season-opening loss to Colorado State. He added 0.5 tackle for loss and a quarterback hurry, finishing five tackles above his previous career high at Wyoming.
Stuhlsatz has been through Butler Community College and Lindenwood before settling in with the Cowboys.
Georgia Tech also got a strong debut from Wichita native Taje McCoy. The senior defensive end, who attended high school in Oklahoma, transferred from Oklahoma State and immediately made his presence felt in a 14-13 loss to Colorado. McCoy finished with 11 tackles, one tackle for loss and one quarterback hurry, tying for second on the Yellow Jackets in tackles.
Another transfer made an immediate impression at Indiana. Wichita East graduate Tobi Osunsanmi, now a fifth-year defensive lineman, recorded four tackles, including two behind the line of scrimmage, in the Hoosiers’ season-opening win over North Texas. Osunsanmi came over from Kansas State after an injury cut short his 2025 season, and his first game in Indiana colors showed the same disruptive edge he flashed at K-State.
Kansas also got a useful run from one of its local backs. Goddard graduate Micah Johnson carried 11 times for 52 yards and a touchdown in the Jayhawks’ 51-6 win over LIU. He averaged 4.7 yards per carry and scored one of Kansas’ five rushing touchdowns while tying for the second-most carries on the team and finishing with the second-most rushing yards.
The Wichita State volleyball trip to Boulder produced a pair of strong efforts from Andover Central graduate Allie Paulsen. The senior middle blocker was one of the Shockers’ bright spots in a four-set loss to No.
23 Colorado, going for seven kills on 10 swings without an error for a .700 hitting percentage. She followed that with five more kills while hitting .444 against Northern Colorado.
Efficiency was the theme for Circle graduate Mia Fox at New Mexico State. The junior middle blocker helped the Aggies go unbeaten over the weekend, starting with five kills on six swings and four blocks in a four-set win over Fresno State. She then added six kills on eight attacks against Southern Utah, and across the two matches she finished with 11 kills on 14 swings and no attack errors.
South Dakota’s Bryce Cohoon made his lone catch count. The Maize graduate and redshirt junior receiver caught a 22-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter against Northern Colorado, stretching the Coyotes’ lead to 35-17. Cohoon transferred to South Dakota after two seasons at Kansas.
Rounding out the list was Southeast Missouri punter Teagan Cobb. The Rose Hill graduate and senior handled five punts against Iowa State, averaging 45.4 yards on 227 total yards with a long of 51. He also downed two kicks inside the 20 and avoided touchbacks, giving the Redhawks a steady performance against a Power Four opponent.
In Other News...
Kansas State Just Sent An Early Big 12 Warning
The first glimpse of the Big 12s new Monster Energy Drink branding on fields and jerseys drew plenty of eye rolls from fans, and Kansas State supporters were hardly alone in wondering how the conference would look with a sponsor splashed across the action. But once the 2026 season got underway, the complaints mostly gave way to something more familiar: a conference race quickly taking shape, with Week 1 offering an early read on who looked ready to contend and who still had work to do.
For Kansas State, the opening weekend mattered as much for perception as for the standings. The Wildcats were part of a Big 12 slate that produced immediate reactions and a fresh set of power rankings, and their place in that early pecking order sent a message about how the conference is being viewed right now. It is still September, but the Big 12 already has enough results on the board to start separating the teams that look built for the grind from the ones still trying to find their footing. [Read more 🡒]
Brandon White Is Giving Kansas State A New Spark Fans Needed
Brandon White wasted little time giving Kansas State something it had been missing. In his first game with the Wildcats against Nicholls, the transfer turned a punt into a 65-yard touchdown, an instant jolt for a team looking for more life on special teams and more ways to create momentum.
Collin Klein said Whites quickness and natural feel for returning punts stood out enough to win him the job during training camp, and the Wildcats are expecting more than just return work from him. After stops at Kentucky and Hawaii, White has arrived in Manhattan with a chance to help as a wide receiver too, giving Kansas State another versatile piece to work into the offense. [Read more 🡒]
Avery Johnson Just Gave K State Fans Reason To Believe Again
A familiar partnership was back on the sideline and under center Saturday, as Collin Klein and Avery Johnson shared a game for the first time since 2023 and Kansas State rolled to a 71-point win over Nicholls. The first impressions were encouraging enough for a fan base looking for a fresh start, with Johnson throwing for 199 yards and three touchdowns while adding a rushing score in a performance that looked far smoother than anything the Wildcats had in their season opener a year ago.
Johnsons night also checked some of the biggest boxes Kansas State has been asking him to fill: command, confidence and control of the offense. Klein, now in charge of the program, came away impressed with the quarterbacks decision-making and feel in the pocket, and the Wildcats will take that kind of growth as a sign that the offense might finally be settling in. The real test, of course, is coming later, when the competition gets a lot less forgiving and the questions around Johnson and this offense become a whole lot harder to answer. [Read more 🡒]