‘We surprised a lot of people’: How K-State beat Stanford with a defensive masterpiece
Shortly after Kansas State put the finishing touches on an impressive 24-7 victory over Stanford on Saturday at a purple-clad AT&T Stadium, Cody Fletcher cracked a smile that felt as large as the massive video board that hangs above the field inside this iconic venue.
Why?
Because someone asked the senior linebacker if he thought the Wildcats surprised their doubters by not only beating a respected Pac-12 foe in their opening game but by doing it with a defensive effort that can be summed up with one word — dominant.
“Absolutely,” Fletcher said, pausing for effect. “I think we surprised a lot of people with our physicality, up front especially. We came out with a little bit different looks than I think people were expecting. Our tackling was also better than what it was last year.”
That’s an understatement.
K-State looked so strong on defense against Stanford that it’s almost hard to believe it surrendered 69 points against Texas in its final game of a forgettable 2020 season.
On this day, it felt like they could do no wrong. The Cardinal looked confused and overmatched every time it tried to move the ball, gaining just 233 yards on 52 plays. K-State held Stanford to 194 of those yards through the air and completely stymied Stanford on the ground.
K-State redshirt freshman safety T.J. Smith said his teammates set a lofty goal for this game. They wanted to hold Stanford below 50 rushing yards. That seemed like a pipe dream against an opponent known for having a powerful running attack under coach David Shaw. But it became reality when K-State continually swarmed to the ball and allowed just 39 rushing yards on 22 attempts.
Smith, who had two tackles and an interception in this game, thought that made the biggest statement of all.
“We played hard,” Smith said. “Every time we were on the field we wanted to get a three-and-out, and we accomplished that multiple times. We also held them to under 50 rushing yards, which was a big thing for us. I feel like we still have more to prove, but that was definitely a statement we made today. It felt good. We were out there flying around.”
Indeed, the Wildcats have clearly made some major improvements over the past few months.
That was Chris Klieman’s top priority during the offseason. He is a defensive coach at heart, and he lost sleep thinking about the way last season ended with K-State struggling to force Iowa State, Baylor and Texas into third downs during its final three games. So he brought in impact transfers like Julius Brents, Timmy Horne and Russ Yeast.
He also devoted lots of time to learning new formations that could help give them an edge. He sought out advice along the way, asking friends within the coaching industry to help him install a 3-3-5 defense, which features three defensive linemen and three linebackers, to go along with his traditional 4-2-5 look.
K-State was going to get more stops this season, no matter what ... even if it meant him ignoring the offense for days at a time while he worked closely with defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman.
“We changed things up an awful lot,” Klieman said.
All that hard work came to fruition against Stanford. If his goal was to create a brand new defense, Klieman succeeded.
The Wildcats confused Stanford from start to finish with a wide array of blitzes and coverage schemes that led to eight tackles for loss and a pair of turnovers.
“It’s a tough team to just drop back and throw the ball a whole bunch of times against,” Shaw said of K-State, “because they don’t give you a whole lot.”
If not for a meaningless touchdown pass from Tanner McKee to Bryce Tremayne with 3 minutes, 16 seconds remaining, K-State would have become the first team to shutout Stanford since 2006.
“Been working on that for eight months,” Klieman said. “And it was no secret. We needed to be better on defense this year. We worked both our four down and our three down the entire spring, and just kind of learned .... It was fun to watch those kids embrace that and play hard.”
Junior linebacker Daniel Green seemed to like the new system best, as he led all defenders with nine tackles. But Fletcher thrived in it as well, making eight tackles and a sack. Smith and Yeast both had interceptions.
Many thought K-State’s defense would struggle without Wyatt Hubert, Elijah Sullivan and A.J. Parker on the roster. But the Wildcats didn’t miss them on Saturday.
The Wildcats didn’t have to do much on offense to win this game.
“They are a pretty lethal unit,” K-State running back Deuce Vaughn said of the defense.
The Wildcats also kept Stanford off balance by substituting players at a dizzying rate. They used 57 players, and 21 of them recorded a defensive statistic.
“Playing three linemen gives you an extra guy in coverage, which is nice” K-State defensive tackle Eli Huggins said. “If we can get a rush on somebody with a three-man front, that is demoralizing.”
To be fair, Stanford may have helped K-State look so good.
K-State challenged the Cardinal to run the ball, but Stanford mostly opted to throw into zone coverage even though Shaw admitted that wasn’t easy to do. Perhaps that strategy would have worked with an experienced quarterback. Stanford receivers didn’t have much trouble getting open. But newbies like McKee and Jack West couldn’t get the job done.
Things might not be so easy for K-State when Big 12 play arrives.
For now, though, there is reason to hope. Maybe K-State’s defense will look this good all season.
Surprising or not, it’s hard to argue with the statement it made against Stanford.
This story was originally published September 4, 2021 at 5:28 PM with the headline "‘We surprised a lot of people’: How K-State beat Stanford with a defensive masterpiece."