Kansas State Wildcats most to blame for shocking blowout loss to BYU

09/23/2024 08:05 PM

Week four of the college football season was yet another exciting on as we saw a couple different ranked vs. ranked games, but there were good games involving ranked teams all over the country as well. A lot of them took care of business, and others… not so much. One program that didn’t rise to the occasion on Saturday was the Kansas State football team. The 13th ranked Wildcats went on the road to take on BYU, and they ended up getting blown out despite coming into the matchup as the favorite.

This past week of college football was a good one, and the Kansas State football team getting blown out against BYU was certainly one of the most surprising results of the weekend. There were a lot of other crucial games over the weekend as well, however.

Things got started on Friday this weekend with a big top-25 matchup between Illinois and Nebraska. The Fighting Illini went on the road into a tough night atmosphere and picked up one of the biggest wins that the program has seen in a very long time.

On Saturday, there were a couple other big top-25 matchups as well. Michigan picked up a huge win at home against USC to begin conference play, and Tennessee took down Oklahoma on the road to prove that they are one of the best teams in the SEC.

In the Big 12, Utah picked up a huge win on the road against Oklahoma State. With the loss by Kansas State, the Utes look like the clear favorite to win the conference. If the Wildcats want a chance in the conference, they need to play a lot better than they did on Saturday night.

Week four is now over, and it’s hard to believe that we are already 1/3 of the way through the college football regular season. A lot of teams have now played 4/12 games.

After four games, the Kansas State football team is ranked #23 in the country, and they are 3-1. The Wildcats dropped 10 spots down to #23 in the country with the loss.

For almost an entire half, this looked like it was going to be a low-scoring, defensive slugfest. Kansas State was keeping BYU off the scoreboard, and the Wildcats kicked a couple field goals and had a 6-0 lead late in the second quarter. It looked like it was going to be a close game throughout. Then, disaster struck for the Wildcats.

The final couple minutes of the first half couldn’t have gone any worse for Kansas State. The Cougars kicked a field goal to make it 6-3, and then on the following Kansas State drive, BYU had recovered a fumble and returned it for a touchdown to make it to 10-6. Two plays later, the Wildcats threw an interception, and the Cougars scored immediately after to take a 17-6 lead into the locker room.

Truly a disastrous end to the half for Kansas State. They weren’t up by a lot of points, but they weren’t letting BYU score at all and they did have the lead. Then, out of nowhere, the Cougars scored 17 points and had a comfortable lead at halftime. That sequence changed the entire game.

The second half of this one was all BYU. The Cougars came out of the locker room with an edge, and the Wildcats looked like they didn’t want to be there.

BYU scored two quick touchdowns right out of the gate, and one of them was a 90-yard punt return. After that, the Cougars were up 31-6, and the game was essentially over. The Wildcats showed no fight at all in the second half. They tacked on one field and BYU scored one more touchdown, ending the game with a score of 38-9. It was an embarrassing night for Kansas State.

When a game like this happens, the blame has to fall on the coaches. It always starts at the top.

Chris Klieman didn’t do a good enough job

The majority of the blame falls on Kansas State football head coach Chris Klieman for this loss. He had a tough road game to prepare for, and he clearly didn’t do a good enough job getting his players ready. Yes, the players are the ones that do the job on the field, but the fact that his team led for almost the entire first half just to get completely dominated in the second half shows that the BYU coaching staff made much better adjustments than Klieman and his staff. It starts at the top, and Klieman has to be better.

Turnovers and special teams were a major issue

One of the biggest problems that the Kansas State football team had in the game were the turnovers, and special teams miscues were unfortunate as well. Quarterback Avery Johnson threw a couple costly interceptions, there was the fumble recovered for a touchdown and a 90-yard punt return score. You aren’t going to win tough road games when those things happen.

The turnovers and the punt return touchdown led to 28 of the 38 BYU points. Avery Johnson certainly has to do a better job of taking care of the football, but there are a lot of people at fault when it comes to all those points. If you take those mistakes away, Kansas State is in this game.

This was a tough one for the Wildcats to swallow, and they just made way too many mistakes. The good news is that one loss will not define the season and they have a lot of time to turn things around. It also didn’t necessarily look like BYU was far and away the better team, the Wildcats just have a lot of mistakes to clean up.

Kansas State will look to bounce back this weekend in a big one as they will host #23 Oklahoma State. The Wildcats and Cowboys will kick off at noon ET/11 CT on Saturday from Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas. The game will be airing on ESPN, and the Wildcats are currently favored by six.

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