MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State senior offensive lineman Taylor Poitier wasn’t ready for his college career to end at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. Standing in front of his teammates at halftime of a 7-7 game against Colorado, in a game the Wildcats needed to win to earn a bowl berth, Poitier offered some impassioned words inside the locker room.
His teammates listened.
K-State brushed off a frustrating first two quarters and flipped a switch in a 24-14 win over Colorado, lifting the Wildcats, 6-6 overall and 5-4 in the Big 12 Conference, to their fifth-straight bowl, while sending the Buffaloes, 3-9 and 1-8, to Boulder, Colorado, to prepare for next season.
“Coach Klieman brought all the seniors up at halftime and said, ‘There’s nothing else for me to say. This is on you seniors, how we’re going to finish this season,"” said Poitier, a seventh-year senior. “We seniors came up and talked. It really stuck to me and everybody else. I was like, ‘This is my last time playing at The Bill, and I’m going to give it everything I’ve got for these 30 minutes.’
“I had to finish the game on the right note, and we got it done.”
K-State earned a fifth-straight bowl berth and the 14th in the last 16 years. K-State is one of just 17 Power 4 programs to play in a bowl game at least 14 times in the previous 16 years.
K-State also finished with a 5-4 Big 12 record, the fourth-straight season the Wildcats had a winning conference record. K-State and Texas Tech are the only Big 12 members to have winning league marks in each of the last four seasons. It’s the first time K-State had four-straight years with winning Big 12 records since 2011 through 2014.
“We were able to go from 2-4 to 6-6, and we lost to two teams — one team in the Top 5 and one in the Top 15,” Klieman said. “I’m proud of the guys. It was a great effort to find a way when teams might go 3-9 or 2-10. Our guys found a way to get to 6-6. It’s not what we wanted, but we didn’t fold the tents.”
Playing amid 32-degree temperatures and a 24-degree windchill with wind gusts ripping as hard as 40 miles-per-hour at times, K-State for the second straight week used a stellar performance from running back Joe Jackson — 26 carries for 142 yards and 3 touchdowns — and a 35-yard field goal from Luis Rodriguez to battle past Colorado and quarterback Kaidon Salter, who guided a squad that had lost four straight and hadn’t won a road game all season, yet tried to play spoiler against the Wildcats.
Colorado outgained K-State, 323 to 321, but the Wildcats churned out 206 rushing yards, went 2-of-3 on fourth down, and went 4-for-4 inside the red zone.
Jackson’s first touchdown of four yards gave K-State a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, his 1-yard rush made it 14-7 in the third quarter, and his 17-yard carry provided the final points of a game that came after his school-record 293-yard, 3-touchdown performance at No. 12 Utah.
“Early on, they were definitely trying to stop the run game the best they could,” Jackson said. “I kept trusting my guys up front and kept believing things would work. We kept believing and making adjustments and things worked out.”
K-State’s offense got rolling early on a 74-yard jaunt, picking apart a Colorado defense that has struggled all season. The drive really gained tracking when Jackson rushed to his right for 27 yards to the Colorado 18 — the longest play for K-State in the first half. Then facing fourth-and-5 at the 13, Avery Johnson lofted a pass to Brayden Loftin down the left side for nine yards. Finally, Jackson went up the middle four yards for a touchdown to cap a 13-play opening drive that consumed 7:13.
“I thought at that time at fourth-and-5 that points were going to be at a premium,” Klieman said. “That was one of the worst times of the day for the weather, and then it started to get better, and then the wind picked up. We’d put such a good drive together and didn’t want to settle for three, and I never thought three points was ever guaranteed today with the wind.
“Avery did a great job of going through the progressions and he hit Loftin. That was a big first drive to take eight minutes off and go up 7-0.”
But K-State gained just 40 total yards the remainder of the first half.
“We had a really good opening drive and just a couple plays in those next drives that shot ourselves in the foot,” said Johnson, who completed 10-of-17 passes for 115 yards and rushed seven times for 36 yards. “Everybody took their turn of messing up early in the game. We had to play in unison. We stalled out in the first half and couldn’t stay on the field.”
K-State did turn Colorado away as Zashon Rich nearly intercepted a pass down the middle for the field on third down. On fourth down, Qua Moss blocked a 39-yard Alejandro Mata field-goal attempt. It marked the 10th time this season that K-State held the opponent off the scoreboard on its first drive.
“That was big time,” Klieman said. “Points were at a premium and we needed that big block.”
When Colorado attempted another drive, the Wildcats held them on fourth down at the 31-yard line.
K-State was turned away moments later when Jackson was tackled for a 3-yard loss on fourth-and-1 at the Colorado 45. Moments later, the Buffaloes’ offense responded by converting on fourth-and-1 at the K-State 44-yard line. But just when it appeared they could threaten, Donovan McIntosh caught the first interception of his career when he picked off a Salter pass attempt well short of intended target Sincere Brown at the K-State 16 with 3:46 left in the second quarter.
“It was just the love and passion we had for everybody here,” senior defensive tackle Uso Seumalo said of the defensive effort. “We wanted to make sure we left the right way. I believe we did that today.”
Colorado did finally get on board with a monster 11-play, 84-yard touchdown drive that took exactly 2:00. On third-and-17, Salter completed a short pass to Omarion Miller, who turned up field and tip-toed down the sideline for a 38-yard catch-and-run to the K-State 1-yard line with 37 seconds left in the second quarter.
The Wildcats tried to make sure that the Buffaloes couldn’t fully capitalize on their longest play of the first half. First, Des Purnell tackled running back Dre’lon Miller for a 5-yard loss. Then Moss tackled wide receiver Kaleb Mathis after the catch before he could sneak into the end zone. But on third-and-goal at the one, running back Micah Welch plowed through the middle for a score to tie it at 7-7 with 18 seconds left until halftime.
Cue Klieman’s directive to the seniors inside the locker room.
“At halftime, I challenged them in a good way,” Klieman said. “I brought the seniors up. I said, “Guys, it’s 30 minutes for us to find out how we’re going to write this last chapter.”
He paused.
“We played a really good second half,” he said.
After K-State forced a three-and-out to start the third quarter, the K-State offense went to work and manufactured one of its best drives of the game. Johnson found wide receiver Jaron Tibbs on a crossing route for a 21-yard gain to the Colorado 8-yard line. Jackson went around the left side and plowed through nickelback Preston Hodge and fell backward at the goal line before his next carry on an off-tackle run went into the end zone to take a 14-7 lead.
“When we found our rhythm in the second half,” Johnson said, “we never looked back.”
Klieman said that the Wildcats needed to control the line of scrimmage, and he challenged the offensive line at halftime. K-State responded on a 14-play 30-yard drive that resulted in a Luis Rodriguez 35-yard field goal for a 17-7 lead with 10:43 left in the game. The Wildcats at times bullied the Buffaloes, picking up yards here and there, but wouldn’t be turned back.
But Colorado wasn’t finished. On the first play of the ensuing possession, Salter unloaded a 43-yard pass to Miller — the longest play by either team in the game — to the K-State 32-yard line. Then Rich was called for pass interference on Miller as they battled near the goal line, giving Colorado the ball at the K-State 17. Facing third-and-eight at the K-State 15, Salter scrambled 10 yards down the middle to the five. Finally, Welch went up the middle for a 1-yard touchdown to cut K-State’s lead to 17-14 with 7:03 left, capping a 9-play, 75-yard drive.
On the very next drive, Johnson hit Tibbs with a 16-yard completion to the Colorado 26-yard line. Then Jackson powered up the middle for nine yards as the game clock went under 3 minutes. Jackson went up the middle again, spinning around two defenders and using his right hand to keep him off the turf before leaping forward from the 3-yard line and into the end zone for a 24-14 lead with 2:37 left, capping an 8-play, 75-yard drive that consumed 4:26.
“I’m really proud,” Klieman said. “We’ve bounced back a lot this year after really tough losses. I knew for sure Colorado wasn’t going to lay down and had good players. The conditions were a struggle early on. We did not play very good football the first half and it was 7-7 and we were probably fortunate it was 7-7. It was very sloppy.”
The ending couldn’t have been much sweeter, as witnessed by the smiles upon the faces of K-State players as they walked around the entire lip of the stadium slapping hands with those fans who braved the tough conditions for the last home game of the season.
There were a whole bunch of emotions just because it was the last time we’d play on the field this year with our group of seniors,” Johnson said. “And then I thought about just joy, man.”
The joy and array of emotions became too much at times for Poitier as he described his feelings after his final home game — and now with a bowl game still to play.
“This is amazing,” Poitier said. “From where we started out at 2-4, a lot of people had doubts if we’d make a bowl game or finish out strong the rest of the season. We’re worried about people in the locker room, not people outside or those outside noises. We stuck together and got it done. I’m so grateful to be a part of this team throughout all these years.
“I’m glad we get to do it one more time with my boys and win another game.”
