Kansas State heads into Saturday’s Sunflower Showdown with a clear offensive mandate: find the big plays.
The Wildcats have hit a rough patch over their last two games, and the issue has been obvious enough to diagnose. The offense hasn’t generated enough explosiveness, and that was especially apparent in last week’s 35-16 loss to Houston at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. First-year coach Collin Klein pointed directly at that problem during his weekly press conference.
"So, we have to create more explosive plays collectively on offense," Klein said. "We only had six total. We need double that to be where we want."
Now Kansas State gets a shot to reset in a rivalry game against Kansas, and the timing could hardly be better. The Wildcats have owned this series for a long stretch, winning 17 straight against their in-state rival. Saturday offers a chance to push aside the frustration from the last three weeks and turn the page in a hurry.
That slide began with a road loss to Cincinnati after Kansas State opened the season 3-0 with non-conference wins over Nicholls, Washington State and Tulane. Even with the skid, the Wildcats are still 3-2 overall and 0-2 in the Big 12, which leaves plenty of season left to recover. But the offense has to look a lot more dangerous than it has lately.
The run game is part of the problem. Joe Jackson, Rodney Fields and Jay Harris have all been quiet over the last two games, and Fields has dropped off sharply after opening with back-to-back 100-yard performances.
When the ground game stalls, too much falls on Avery Johnson. The three-year starter is a talented quarterback, but Kansas State is at its best when the ball is moving on the ground and Johnson is part of a more balanced attack.
If that doesn’t change, the Wildcats could be staring at something they haven’t had to think about in a long time: a loss to Kansas. The source of that memory goes back to 2008, when Klein was a redshirt freshman and Kansas beat Kansas State 52-21 in Lawrence.
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Collin Klein Sends Kansas State A Clear Rivalry Warning
Kansas State has spent more than a decade owning the Sunflower Showdown, with 17 straight wins over Kansas dating back to 2008. But as the next meeting approaches, Collin Klein is making sure the Wildcats do not treat that run like a built-in advantage, pointing back to the painful loss he remembers from 2008 as a reminder that rivalry games have a way of punishing any team that gets comfortable.
Both programs enter this matchup searching for a reset, which only adds to the edge around a series that already carries plenty of history. For Kansas State, the streak is a point of pride, but Kleins message is that none of it matters if the Wildcats do not show up ready to fight for it again. [Read more 🡒]
Collin Klein Still Carries One Sunflower Showdown Memory Into Kansas Week
Before Kansas States Sunflower Showdown winning streak took hold in 2009, the rivalry still carried the sting of what had happened the year before. Collin Klein was part of that era, and the memory of Kansass 2008 win has stuck with him as the Wildcats head into another Kansas week. For a program that has turned that 17-10 result into the start of a long run of control in the series, it remains a useful reminder of how quickly the balance can shift.
Now the head coach at Kansas State, Klein is seeing that history from a different seat, but the backdrop is the same. The Wildcats breakthrough in 2009 did more than just flip one rivalry game, it helped signal a turning point for the program and set up the kind of dominant stretches that followed. Even with all that success since, the old loss still lingers as part of the motivation that makes this week feel bigger than another date on the calendar. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas State Is Chasing A Massive Early O-Line Recruiting Prize
Kansas States recruiting board is already taking shape well beyond the current season, and Collin Klein has been busy making the kind of scholarship offers that can matter years down the line. Among the names on that list is Mead High School offensive lineman James Bennett from Colorado, a prospect who fits the Wildcats broader push to stockpile talent across multiple classes and positions.
Kleins offers have not been limited to the line, either, with linebackers Drew Langford and Cortez Jones, wide receiver Noah Gigger and others from several states getting attention as Kansas State looks ahead. For the Wildcats, the message is clear enough: the staff is trying to build depth and flexibility early, even if the biggest payoff from these offers is still waiting somewhere in the future. [Read more 🡒]