K-State Wildcats, Jesse Ertz had to ‘fight through it’ to earn last Texas Bowl victory
The lasting image of Kansas State’s 33-28 victory over Texas A&M five years ago at the Texas Bowl is undoubtedly Jesse Ertz placing a black cowboy hat atop his head and pointing out at a sea of purple-clad fans as he triumphantly hoisted the game’s MVP trophy for all to see.
It was such a fun moment that you might think Ertz still wears that cowboy hat from time to time, or at least displays it prominently in his Kansas City home. But you would be wrong.
Ertz says he keeps the cowboy hat he won that night inside a box somewhere, hidden deep within a closet. He’s not even sure he could find it today.
“Funny story about that hat,” Ertz said. “I got to the point where I don’t feel like I can even wear the dang hat because people give me a hard time about it. It was a unique and cool award and a piece of memorabilia that I got to take with me, but I think I only wore it twice after that. When I do wear it it’s mostly as an inside joke. I don’t know if you could tell, but I’m not really a cowboy. I can’t pull off the hat too well.”
It sure makes for a good memory now that K-State is returning to the Texas Bowl against LSU on Jan. 4. Ertz has plenty of those to relive from K-State’s win at the 2016 postseason game at NRG Stadium in Houston.
He could do no wrong against the Aggies that day. Ertz completed 14 of 20 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown, with his highlight moment coming on a 79-yard throw to Byron Pringle. Ertz also rushed for 67 yards and two more touchdowns. Many wondered how he would handle a Texas A&M pass rush that featured Myles Garrett. Turns out, that wasn’t much of a concern.
“We knew that was going to be the only time we played an opponent like that,” Ertz said. “It gave us some bragging rights to beat a team with Trevor Knight, Myles Garrett, Christian Kirk, Josh Reynolds and some other really talented players. It was fun playing against good competition.”
K-State entered that game with the same 8-4 record as Texas A&M, but the Wildcats were considered underdogs.
Ertz took it personally when ESPN displayed a graphic during the game stating that he had “deceptive speed” for a 6-foot-3 and 212-pound quarterback. He later poked fun at that remark on social media, but he played with a chip on his shoulder that night as if he somehow saw it from the huddle.
“Nothing about me should have been a surprise at that point,” Ertz said. “I had been in college for three years. Now, there’s no question that it was a little harder to identify myself on campus than, say, Jordan Willis, but those compliments always had a little bit of sting to them. They were basically saying, you’re better than we thought.”
Ertz and the entire K-State football team turned some heads against Texas A&M.
The Aggies jumped out to a 7-0 lead thanks to a 75-yard touchdown drive on their opening possession, but the Wildcats controlled the game after they evened the score on Ertz’s long touchdown pass to Pringle. On the play, Ertz spotted a coverage scheme he liked and signaled for Pringle to run a streak route. Pringle beat his man off the line of scrimmage and Ertz hit him over the top for an easy score.
K-State led 23-14 at halftime after Dominique Heath took an end around 52 yards for a score. It never trailed again.
It was difficult for Ertz to throw for big yardage that season, because he dealt with myriad injuries to his right shoulder. But he was at his healthiest for the Texas Bowl, and it showed.
Looking back, Ertz seems amazed he started all 13 games as a junior. He said he sprained his shoulder during K-State’s opening game against Stanford and the injury got progressively worse every week. It was hard for him to even lift his arm between certain games. His injury required surgery to heal, but he delayed the procedure to help his team. He rarely practiced and only played on Saturdays after receiving a numbing shot in his shoulder.
“I would get to the game and they would give me some sort of injection that would numb it,” Ertz said. “That was usually the first time I could move my arm all week, about an hour before kick off. I did that for about eight games but they shut me down during bowl prep and my shoulder started to feel better. That is part of what made the bowl so enjoyable. It was rewarding to deal with all that stuff that not many people knew about and go through all that adversity and fight through it and win that last game.”
The toughest moment of the year for Ertz came during a game at Oklahoma. He separated his throwing shoulder in the first half and was inadvertently launching balls into the crowd as he warmed up for the start of the third quarter. The injury altered his release point, and his arm was literally a loose cannon. K-State received the opening kickoff of the second half and called a passing play. Ertz turned to his receivers and warned them, “I have no clue where this throw is going.”
True to his word, the ensuing pass missed its intended receiver by 10 yards. That’s when Ertz turned to the sideline and asked to be removed from the game.
“My shoulder was cooked at that point,” Ertz said.
Stories like that help explain why Ertz only threw for 1,755 yards and nine touchdowns that season. He tried to run as much as possible and stiff-armed his way to 1,012 yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground.
“Everyone views me as a runner, and I definitely ran a lot, but I wasn’t exactly getting practice reps or healthy,” Ertz said. “It sucks, because coming out of high school I had a little bit of pride in my ability to throw the ball.”
Injuries were an unfortunate part of Ertz’s college career. He suffered a torn ACL in his first game as a sophomore and was immediately lost for the season. And he only played in five games as a senior while dealing with more knee injuries.
What might he have been able to accomplish if healthy? Ertz tries not to think about it.
In a weird way, he thinks his injuries helped make that team closer. The Wildcats lost three of their first six games, but they closed out the year on a 6-1 run. Ertz and K-State both showed what they were capable of at the Texas Bowl.
“We were dealing with a lot of stuff that no one really knew about and it brought us together as a team,” Ertz said. “The only painful thing is that we lost to West Virginia and Oklahoma State that year in games we really should have won. We had a 9-4 season, but we easily could have won 10 or 11 games. We still talk about that sometimes. We were a really good team.”
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 11:41 AM with the headline "K-State Wildcats, Jesse Ertz had to ‘fight through it’ to earn last Texas Bowl victory."