Grading Kansas State’s football loss at Iowa State and looking ahead to bowl season
Chris Klieman is right.
The Kansas State football team shouldn’t have to apologize to anyone for winning eight games, especially at the end of a regular season that featured feel-good victories over Tulane, Colorado and Kansas. But if the Wildcats want to eventually supplant Oklahoma and Texas as a perennial Big 12 power, they need to aim higher.
Both of those points were true after K-State suffered a 29-21 loss against Iowa State on Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium.
The Wildcats deserve credit for winning at least eight games for the fifth time under Klieman, but it’s also fair for fans to feel disappointed about missing out on a trip to the Big 12 championship game and a playoff berth.
This team got off to a 7-1 start, after all. Limping home with a 1-3 finish, especially when one of the losses came against Houston, was less than ideal.
It wasn’t a disastrous season like we saw at Oklahoma State and Utah. But no one will be making T-shirts to remember this campaign, either.
A day after the Iowa State loss, it is time to look back on the action and hand out a few awards and grades. We also look ahead to bowl season.
Play of the game
Avery Johnson retreated 22 yards into his own end zone and allowed Iowa State to pressure him into a safety in the fourth quarter.
That gave the Cyclones a 26-21 lead and the ball with time winding down. It didn’t clinch the game for them, but it might as well have.
The Wildcats never came close to scoring again. Johnson and the K-State offensive line didn’t pick up the blitz well in that situation and they paid the price.
Player of the game
VJ Payne and Austin Romaine both had 12 tackles for the K-State defense.
It’s not their fault that the Wildcats lost at Jack Trice Stadium.
Stat of the game & quote to note
K-State lost two fumbles in its own territory, which Iowa State parlayed into a pair of touchdowns. The Wildcats have been unable to win when they turn the ball over all season, and that didn’t change here. As for the quote ...
“We just beat ourselves. We shoot ourselves in the foot.” — Marquis Sigle when asked to sum up the regular season.
K-State football grades
Offense: C. K-State fans won’t complain if Klieman decides to bring in a new offensive coordinator next season. Conor Riley was far from the only problem with this group, but the offense seemed to get worse as the year went on. The Wildcats didn’t have an identity in their final few games. Avery Johnson threw for 220 yards and three touchdowns against Iowa State, but he only completed 12 of 28 passes. The Wildcats averaged 4.6 yards per rush, but only scored three touchdowns. Fumbles hurt them. Something was just off.
Defense: B+. The Wildcats limited Rocco Becht and the Cyclones to just 137 passing yards. This was the best the K-State secondary looked all season. VJ Payne and Austin Romaine made some impressive tackles. But Joe Klanderman’s group was forced to defend short fields too often, and couldn’t come up with any turnovers.
Special Teams: F. Iowa State blocked a short field goal attempt by Chris Tennant in the second half. K-State special teams fell off a cliff this season.
Coaching: C. Klieman is going to have to figure out how to beat Iowa State more regularly if the Wildcats are going to start winning 10 games instead of eight. The Cyclones have won four of the past five in this series. And it’s telling that K-State’s only win came by a single point two years ago when it won the Big 12 and Iowa State missed a bowl.
Next up: A bowl game
Chris Klieman has already made it clear to K-State players that he wants to end the season with a bowl victory.
His message after this game: “Play the bowl game, period. Play the bowl game. And if you’re worried about it, wondering about it if you’re not going to, then ask Austin Moore, ask Brendan Mott, ask Ty Bowman and (Taylor Poitier). Ask guys that have been here since 2019 how valuable an experience that is and how important that is in the new age of college football that we play in.”
Question is: Where will K-State play this bowl season?
Big 12 bowls work a little differently than in past years. Traditional Big 12 teams are eligible for certain games and legacy Pac-12 teams are in the running for others.
The top five bowl games for traditional Big 12 teams are the Alamo Bowl, Pop-Tarts Bowl, Texas Bowl, Liberty Bowl, Rate Bowl ... in that order. The Armed Forces Bowl and the Independence Bowl could also come into play for some teams.
K-State could end up going just about anywhere. It finished with the same overall record as Baylor, TCU and Texas Tech, but all three of these teams had better conference records. If the bowls go strictly by records, the Wildcats appear destined for the Liberty Bowl in Memphis or the Rate Bowl in Phoenix.
K-State played in the Pop-Tarts Bowl last year, so that seems unlikely. The Wildcats have also made two recent trips to the Liberty Bowl, so that may not be in the cards.
They will learn their destination next weekend after the 12-team playoff bracket is revealed.
This story was originally published December 1, 2024 at 10:44 AM with the headline "Grading Kansas State’s football loss at Iowa State and looking ahead to bowl season."