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Kansas State football’s resilience reminiscent of 2022 Big 12 championship team

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Kansas State football’s resilience reminiscent of 2022 Big 12 championship team


DJ Giddens wasn’t looking to send a personal message when he shredded Colorado’s defense Saturday night in a hard-fought 31-28 Kansas State football victory over the Buffaloes at Folsom Field in Boulder.

But the Wildcats as a team were a different matter.

“Not me, but as a team we had something to prove, being able to go on the road in tight games and win,” Giddens, K-State’s workhorse running back said after rushing for 182 yards and helping set up the winning touchdown with a 35-yard reception late in the fourth quarter. “As it came to me personally, I didn’t have anything to prove.”

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Perhaps not, but Giddens continued to make his case as an elite runner. And more to his point, K-State showed an inner strength that might have been lacking in tight games last year.

By escaping Boulder with the victory, the Wildcats now are 2-0 in one-possession games after going 1-4 under similar circumstances last year. On Sept. 7, they came from behind to beat Tulane, 31-27.

Kansas State football climbs in coaches poll, AP Top 25 after win at Colorado

Kansas State football running back DJ Giddens runs wild in first half

Kansas State football vs Colorado: Scouting report, prediction for Saturday night’s game

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It took a quick three-play scoring drive capped by quarterback Avery Johnson’s 50-yard touchdown pass to Jayce Brown with 2 minutes, 14 seconds left, to put K-State ahead. And a defense decimated by injuries in the secondary, followed that with a defensive stop to seal the victory.

K-State is now 5-1 overall and tied for fourth in the Big 12 at 2-1, just a game behind co-leaders Iowa State, Brigham Young and Texas Tech at 3-0. And the victory ended the Wildcats’ four-game losing streak under coach Chris Klieman in weeks following a bye.

“Incredible game, a really good football game, like I think all of us knew it was going to be,” Klieman said. “A lot of adversity, and a lot of resilience.”

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Indeed, K-State persevered despite an injury that briefly knocked out Johnson during a long scoring drive to start the second half. And on the subsequent Colorado scoring drive that cut the lead to 21-14, the Wildcats then having four different defensive backs go down. Colorado was not immune either, playing without star receiver and cornerback Travis Hunter and second-leading receiver Jimmy Horn in the second half.

Kansas State football’s defense laser focused on Shedeur Sanders and Colorado passing game

“We had talked. When your opportunity comes, we’re counting on you and we believe in you, and you’ve got to go out there and make plays,” Klieman said of a list of backups that included quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson and defensive backs Colby McCalister, Nickendre Stiger, Daniel Cobbs, true freshman Zashon Rich and Jordan Dunbar, among others. “And it was a chance for those guys to play a lot of snaps against really good wide receivers, even if a couple of their top guys were out.

“They’re still really good players and really good receivers, and the quarterback (Shedeur Sanders) can put it on the money. And so, I’m really proud of those guys.”

Super-senior defensive end Brendan Mott said he sees similarities in this team to the Wildcats of two years ago, who also had a propensity for winning close games.

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“That’s something that I remember in our 2022 team when we won the Big 12 championship, is being able to have that depth and those young guys being able to step up and make plays, because that’s just part of football,” said Mott, who had two of the Wildcats’ six sacks of Sanders in the game. “Dudes are going to go down, and it’s next man up, and to see those young guys come in and make plays, it’s awesome.”

What Kansas State football coach, players said about Colorado coach Deion Sanders’ Buffs

Even with his top two receivers out, Sanders completed 34 of 40 passes for 388 yards and three touchdowns. But K-State’s defense stopped one Buffalo drive on VJ Payne’s interception near his own end zone in the fourth quarter, and then turned them over on downs to effectively end the game.

Johnson, who briefly went to the locker room for treatment in the third quarter before returning to finish the game, completed 15 of 23 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns. And after his fourth-quarter interception helped set up Colorado’s go-ahead score with 3:12 left, he immediately came back to engineer the winning drive.

“This is what football is all about,” Johnson said. “We wanted to put the game away the drive before. It obviously didn’t go our way, but ultimately you’ve just got to make plays in big moments.

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“Coach Klieman challenged some of our captains and top players on the team to just make plays in big moments. It’s fun to play in hostile environments and just silence the crowd in big-time games. So, we just wanted to show tonight that we’re a great team and that we can win close games on the road.”

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.



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Who will the Kansas City Chiefs play in the Super Bowl?

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Who will the Kansas City Chiefs play in the Super Bowl?


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The Kansas City Chiefs are champions of the AFC. Who will they face in the 2025 Super Bowl?

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Since the Eagles won the NFC championship game earlier on Sunday, they’re also headed to New Orleans in a couple of weeks to take on the Chiefs.

Super Bowl 59 will be the Chiefs’ third straight appearance in the NFL title game, a feat no other team has accomplished before. It will also be a rematch of Super Bowl 57, when the Eagles and Chiefs faced off in State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Kansas City came away with the win in that one, 38-35.]

Here’s what to know:

Who will the Chiefs play in the 2025 Super Bowl?

The Chiefs will play the Eagles in Super Bowl 59.

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This year’s Super Bowl is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 9 with a kickoff time of 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.

Fox owns the rights to broadcast this year’s Super Bowl, so football fans in the United States can turn to their local Fox affiliate to watch the Big Game. Alternatively, the game will be available to stream on the Fox Sports app and Fubo, which offers a free trial.

How many times have the Chiefs been in the Super Bowl?

Super Bowl 59 will be the Chiefs’ seventh Super Bowl appearance in franchise history and they’re 4-2 in their previous six games.

Kansas City won Super Bowls 58, 57, 54 and 4 against the 49ers, Eagles, 49ers and Vikings, respectively. They lost Super Bowl 55 to the Buccaneers and the first Super Bowl to the Packers.



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Kansas State PG Comfortable Being ‘Head Of The Snake’ On Offense

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Kansas State PG Comfortable Being ‘Head Of The Snake’ On Offense


Kansas State point guard Dug McDaniel is a self-proclaimed “pass-first” point guard.

That doesn’t mean he can’t score the ball. He scored a team-high 15 points in Saturday’s victory against the West Virginia Mountaineers. Afterward, he said it helps teammates Max Jones and Brendan Hausen when the point guard is aggressive.

“It definitely helps the offense when the head of the snake of being aggressive,” McDaniel said. “Putting pressure on the defense, it opens it up for guys like Max and Brendan to get easier shots because they have to respect what I’m doing.”

The victory helped the Wildcats snap a six-game losing streak. Coach Jerome Tang has made an effort to make McDaniel become a better scorer.

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“Me and coach been talking the last few days,” McDaniel said. “He’s been preaching to me to be aggressive, think score first. The pass is always going to be there. I’m a pass-first point guard. That’s like second nature to me. He just wants me to be aggressive, put pressure on the defense early so I can get my guys open.”

TANG APPRECIATES THE FANS

Tang had been under fire during the losing streak, taking criticism from fans the past few weeks. The win should calm the fan base at the time being. The Wildcats (8-11 overall and 2-6) need a lot of work to improve their resume if they want an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Tang was thankful for the strong fan turnout.

“So thankful to the students, man,” Tang said. “I walked out and I saw them, my joy tank was full seeing them. They really provided great energy for us and allowed us to get off to a great start.”

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Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Kansas State Wildcats On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

Follow our coverage on Facebook

@KStateOnSI



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No. 7 Houston shocks No. 12 Kansas, 92-86 in double overtime

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No. 7 Houston shocks No. 12 Kansas, 92-86 in double overtime


It was an unforgettable night for Bill Self and the University of Kansas men’s basketball team against Houston on Saturday night and for all of the wrong reasons.

Leading by six points with 1:31 left in regulation, No. 12 Kansas lost to No. 7 Houston, 92-86 in double overtime. It was the second home loss for Self’s squad this season.

Still, Kansas had a chance to close out Houston late in the first overtime session and looked poised to do just that with 18 seconds left on the clock.

Leading by six points, Kansas guard Dajuan Harris stepped to the free-throw hoping to increase KU’s lead to eight points.

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Instead, Harris missed both free throws and the Cougars took full advantage. After the second miss by Harris, Emanuel Sharp pulled Houston to within three points when his three-point attempt splashed through the net.

After a brief 30-second timeout, Kansas, up by three points, turned the ball over, which resulted in a game-tying three by Mylik Wilson.

Houston, in outscoring Kansas, 13-7 in the second overtime, never trailed during that final overtime session.

With 58 seconds left in double overtime, Kansas pulled to within two points but would get no closer in the final 58 seconds of the second overtime.

A number of factors played a role in Saturday night’s home loss to Houston. Missed free throws certainly hurt, but so did KU’s inability to inbound the basketball late in regulation and overtime.

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“We didn’t execute, put it on me,” said Bill Self on Saturday night. “We got a way to get it in that we practice every day and, obviously, maybe not having KJ (Adams), who’s our best athlete that can get open, but we didn’t make a great effort to get open and didn’t call the timeout when we had one.

“When the count got to four, I should have done that,” he added. “And then the second one, we didn’t make a great effort, and then when they threw it in, I didn’t tell them to foul immediately. If something went bad, I thought that was sending the wrong message. So, obviously, something did go bad, and then they make the shot. So yeah, we had numerous opportunities. We played really well. Kids fought their asses off and obviously just didn’t make plays when it counted the most, and they made everyone.”

Kansas, leading 66-64 with 16.7 seconds left in the second half, turned the ball over (called for a five-second violation), right under the Houston basket.

With 14 seconds left, Shakeel Moore fouled J’Wan Roberts, who converted both free throws to tie the game.

Self, after the game, was asked if bouncing back from a loss like the one suffered against Houston is easier said than done.

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We’re not going to move on from this,” said Self. “Hopefully, we won’t tomorrow. Hopefully, we will Monday, and put it behind us, but it’s a tough one. It’s a tough one. I think the only one that I can remember that would be comparable, and it wasn’t as bad, but was when Acie Law made the shot against us with Texas A&M and we had that game in hand and they went to the Hack-a-Shaq on us and we ended up missing free throws.

“So that’s the only one that I can remember, a home game, in which it probably, we left out of here probably hurting as much as we did today. But with that being said, guys, two pretty good teams playing, and there wasn’t a nickel’s worth of difference between us, and we didn’t have KJ (Adams), so there was some good to it, too.”

In moving to 14-5 overall and 5-3 in conference play, Kansas, in losing to Houston, was led by Flory Bidunga (19), Hunter Dickinson (17), Rylan Griffen (17), and Zeke Mayo (16).

Dajuan Harris added eight points, five rebounds, 12 assists to just one turnover and two steals, while Shakeel Moore added seven points, and David Coit chipped in two points.

Aside from scoring a career-high 19 points, Bidunga also pulled down seven rebounds, dished out two assists, and was credited with one steal.

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Self, late on Saturday night, was asked about the performance of Flory Bidunga.

“I thought Flory did well,” he said. “He just gets tired, but I thought he did well, and he made his free throws at a pretty good clip for Flo. But our five guys that started, I thought, and when Rylan (Griffen) came in, even though Rylan didn’t do a lot of things, but if he’s open, he just shot it and made it today, which was great, which was the equivalent of what Wilson did for them. But when Flo or Hunt came out of the game, we had no offense.

“The ball just stops,” he added. “I mean, it just stops, and that’s when you got to rely on others, and you got to move it and everything. And so that was very disappointing that we didn’t help or cover for Flory and Hunt when they weren’t in the game because we became very stale and stagnant. But Flow was good. He was good. He got some touches around the rim, but you got to understand something. The reason why he got a lot of those points is because Hunter drew a lot of attention.”



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