Kansas State Wildcats furious after KU delivers ‘cheap shot’ hit on Skylar Thompson
Just about the only stressful moment that Kansas State experienced during a 35-10 victory over Kansas came early in the fourth quarter when Skylar Thompson gasped for oxygen as he lay on the turf after absorbing a late hit on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
KU linebacker Gavin Potter delivered the illegal blow on the K-State sideline about 2 yards after Thompson scrambled out of bounds at the end of a busted play in the red zone.
Thompson, a “super senior” quarterback who threw for 244 yards and a touchdown in the game, hopped up and returned to the K-State huddle after a few nervous seconds, saying he only had the wind knocked out of him. But K-State players were not pleased with Potter’s hit.
“It was most definitely a cheap shot,” K-State receiver Malik Knowles said.
“For it to be blatant and out of bounds,” K-State running back Deuce Vaughn added, “it’s one of those things that just makes you say, ‘Come on, man.’ There is no room for that in football.”
It was the second week in a row K-State players watched their leading passer suffer a late hit, so they decided to do something about it.
K-State running back Joe Ervin quickly approached Potter on the sideline and shoved him. Potter responded by falling backward into a teammate and then flopping to the ground as if he had been knocked out by haymaker in an attempt to draw a flag against the Wildcats. None was thrown.
Several K-State players then swarmed the area, but they were separated before a fight could break out between the in-state rivals. KU defender Kenny Logan emerged from the scuffle with an unnecessary roughness penalty, but nothing else notable happened.
Last week, K-State receiver Tyrone Howell was ejected along with two TCU defenders for throwing a punch while trying to defend Thompson following an illegal hit in the second half of that game. The Wildcats thought they handled the situation better this time.
“That’s our quarterback,” Vaughn said. “We’ve got his back no matter what. I feel like it was controlled to the point where nobody got thrown out and it was taken care of. But we just kind of had to let them know we have always got (Thompson’s) back.”
Thompson took the high road after ending up on the wrong end of both illegal hits, saying he needs to do a better job getting out bounds and avoiding that situation in the future.
But he was clearly upset that it happened to him against the Jayhawks.
“It’s tough,” he said. “That’s two weeks in a row that something like that has happened to me. I’m trying to get out of bounds and trying to protect myself there. I wasn’t expecting that, and I think that’s why it knocked the wind out of me. I’m fine. That’s good. But it’s just unfortunate.”
This hit seemed to anger K-State fans more than the late tackle Thompson took against TCU, in part because it came from Potter. Once upon a time, Potter was orally committed to play for the Wildcats as a high school recruit. But he flipped to KU on signing day and had some fun at the Wildcats’ expense during his announcement.
Potter, now a junior linebacker, is a villain of sorts to EMAW nation. That definitely adds some juice to the Sunflower Showdown football rivalry.
Thompson also has an injury history that makes any purple-clad fan nervous when he gets tackled. Remember, he missed most of last season with an injury to his throwing arm and was sidelined for two games earlier this year with an injury to his right knee.
KU coach Lance Leipold called the play “unacceptable.”
“I also told Coach (Chris) Klieman after the game that that’s not the way we’re gonna play,” Leipold said. “And I think he knows that’s not the way we coach it. So, I think that’s frustration. I think it’s a lot of things, but we’ve got to be better than that. I have to do a better job than that.”
Klieman seemed to accept the apology.
“It’s unfortunate, and it’s frustrating,” Klieman said. “Lance is a class act, and he will address it. But it happened. We hit their quarterback late and got a couple penalties. It’s some bang-bang stuff.”
K-State center Noah Johnson admitted Potter’s hit was “frustrating,” but he said it came with a plus.
Whenever those plays happen, it tends to mean K-State has beaten its opponent, both physically and mentally.
“When the opposing team is doing that, they’re doing that because they’re frustrated and they are trying to look for ways to get us to react negatively,” Johnson said. “As long as we don’t get a 15-yard penalty or get someone ejected we win on that play. It’s part of the game. I wish it wasn’t. But whenever that happens, you just have to move on and pick your quarterback up like we did today.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2021 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Kansas State Wildcats furious after KU delivers ‘cheap shot’ hit on Skylar Thompson."