On a slightly rainy evening at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, the Kansas State Wildcats relived a 12-year-old nightmare, but managed to exorcise the demons somewhat as they squeaked out a 38-35 win over the North Dakota Fighting Hawks.
Avery Johnson threw for over 300 yards and hurled three touchdowns, and broke off a 25-yard run on the final drive to set up the winning toss to Joe Jackson, and then the Wildcat defense held on to keep the Hawks out of field goal range to ice the contest.
But getting there
was a battle.
Both teams went 3-and-out on their opening possessions, and K-State had to convert twice on 4th-and-1 to get into the red zone on their second. Both of those conversions went for big gains, the second being a 38-yard completion from Johnson to Will Swanson. Stuck on 4th down again, K-State had to settle for a 30-yard field goal from Luis Rodriguez.
The Wildcat defense promptly gave up plays of 12, 27, and 35 yards to an FCS offense, setting up 1st-and-goal at the one. Grant Tylutki fumbled into the end zone, but quarterback Jerry Kaminski recovered in the end zone to take the lead.
Johnson responded with a 44-yard touchdown to Jayce Brown on the first play of the game in which K-State’s offensive line truly seemed to hold their blocks.
North Dakota went 3-and-out, and Johnson completed a pass for 27 yards to Devon Rice… after which K-State punted three plays and four yards later. The Hawks exploded for 82 yards, getting to the Wildcat 1; on the next two plays Kaminski completed passes at the line of scrimmage which resulted in no yardage, setting up 3rd-and-goal. Kaminski kept it from the pistol to retake the lead.
Bryce Noernberg chose to return the kickoff from the end zone, but fumbled and lost it at the 19. Two plays later, Cody Stufflebean sacked Kaminski and forced a fumble, recovered by Tobi Osunsanmi; there was a review suggesting Kaminski was in a passing motion but he was clearly trying to tuck instead.
A few plays later, including a very smart decision on Johnson’s part to go ahead and throw on a scramble for a first down instead of hitting the nitro, Johnson fired a 30-yard pass to Jaron Tibbs. It was tipped and almost intercepted, but Tibbs kept his eye on the ball and snagged it for the go-ahead score.
A 3-and-out was wiped out on 4th-and-4 when Jayden Rowe got flagged for running into the kicker. The Hawks were then hit with holding and false start calls on consecutive snaps, but converted on 2nd-and-22 with a 23-yard pass to Caden Dennis. Stufflebean sacked Kaminski, then Travis Bates sacked him again — but that was wiped out on a face mask by Justice Clemons, giving North Dakota a first down.
K-State promptly gave up plays of 13, 18, and 16 yards, the last of which was a touchdown run by Sawyer Seidl, giving North Dakota a 21-17 lead with 24 seconds left in the half — and they’d receive the second half kickoff.
K-State forced a 3-and-out to open the third quarter, and then methodically marched downfield — finally getting the running game untracked, almost tripling their rushing yardage for the game on this one drive — before DeVon Rice finally rambled in on the outside for a 9-yard score to get the Cats back on top. The defense responded with another 3-and-out.
Eight plays later, Rice plunged up the middle for 13 yards and a touchdown, and suddenly K-State had a 31-21 lead. Two tackles for loss and an Osunsanmi sack later, K-State had a third straight 3-and-out. Johnson immediately threw an interception, but it was waved off on a pass interference penalty; on the final play of the third quarter, Johnson had another fake-handoff fumble which cost the Cats 17 yards before Adonis Moise scooped it up and saved the day.
A punt opened the fourth, and North Dakota finally managed some second-half offense. After converting on 4th-and-8, Kaminski hit Korey Tai for a 22-yard score to make it 31-28, and then the Cats went 3-and-out. A pass interference call on Zashon Rich on a deep ball gave North Dakota the ball at the 30, and three plays later Seidl ran it in from 20 yards out, giving the Hawks a 35-31 lead with 4:19 to go.
Noernberg busted a decent return, letting K-State start at midfield, but after picking up one first down the Cats faced 4th-and-10 from the 42. Johnson threw behind Bradley, the pass was batted down, and North Dakota took over on downs.
The Hawks went 3-and-out, but forced the Cats to burn two timeouts as the clock moved under the two-minute mark. As Johnson pressed the team downfield, North Dakota helped by repeatedly getting injured and stopping the clock. On 2nd-and-2 from the 31, Johnson rambled free for a 25-yard gain, and then tossed to Jackson who scored from six yards out on the following play. With 42 seconds left, K-State had the lead again.
Rich atoned for his earlier pass interference with a brilliant breakup over the middle as the Wildcat defense forced 4th-and-10 from the Hawks 47 with 11 seconds to go. Kaminski’s last-gasp pass to Dennis was long, and K-State survived, somehow.
Johnson went 28-43 for 318 with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions, plus 43 yards on the ground. Jackson ran 11 times for 55 yards, while Rice added 40 yards on 7 carries. Brown had a 100-yard night, 109 yards on 12 catches and a touchdown; Bradley had 5 for 46, Tibbs had 3 for 55 and a score, and Swanson also had 46 yards on two catches.
K-State outgained North Dakota 461-315, 318-252 in the air and 143-63 on the ground. Penalties were just about dead even, and there was no major discrepancy in 3rd- or 4th-down conversion percentage.
WHAT WE LEARNED
1) There is a coaching problem.
For several years, we’ve observed the Wildcat defense being at loose ends sometimes until Joe Klanderman has had a chance to digest what he’s seeing and make halftime adjustments — which he’s very good at, make no mistake. And now we’ve seen Matt Wells also correcting a terrible offense at halftime.
Might someone consider being prepared at the start of the game for once? Football is more fun for your fans when you don’t stumble around aimlessly for two quarters and cause them stress. We promise.
But perhaps more concerning: after throwing a perfect third quarter, Klanderman got outfoxed in the fourth. North Dakota OC Isaac Fruchte countered Klanderman’s halftime adjustments and shredded the Wildcat defense in the fourth.
2) Avery has flaws, but he’s not been bad. Mostly.
We have grave concerns over Johnson’s throwing mechanics sometimes. He frequently underthrows wide-open speedsters; if you look at a lot of Brown’s long TD catches, you’ll see that he has to stop running or even hook back to get to the ball. On the interception that was wiped out on pass interference, Johnson seemed to have not picked up the safety help coming over the top.
But his stats? His stats are fine. In two games he’s 49-73 for 591 yards and five touchdowns, with no interceptions.
Many of what problems Johnson is having are the result of the worst K-State offensive line I can remember since the Stan Parrish days. There’s no getting around it. North Dakota was in Johnson’s face all night long, forcing hurried throws, quite a few of which were on target but dropped. If you look at Johnson’s numbers tonight, you’d think the line was protecting him. They aren’t.
And tonight, facing a loss, Johnson was clinical on the final drive, adding a huge run to set up the winning touchdown.
Again: he’s not perfect. He may not even be good, in Big 12 terms. But your butt clenching during the last two games has not been on him.
3) DaVon Rice looks like a player.
Rice didn’t do much in Dublin, but then Rice wasn’t expected to do much in Dublin. Dylan Edwards’s injury forced Rice into the second-option role, and he probably wasn’t ready. A week working with the ones in practice, however, seems to have gotten him on the right path.
4) Hire a special teams coach, for cryin’ out loud.
It’s been a meme for awhile, but the vaunted K-State special teams have been absent for years now, and they can now be actively described as “bad”. Prior to this year, it was just “dang, we sure miss scoring touchdowns on punts and kickoffs.” Now, the other team kicking to K-State has become a source of paranoia, Noernberg’s game-saving kickoff return notwithstanding.
K-State’s tight ends are basically just receivers at this point. Let the wide receivers coach handle them, and give that staff spot to a special teams coach. Please.
5) Unless things change, this is gonna be a long season.
This was not 2025 MVFC co-champion and FCS semi-finalist South Dakota.
This was not 2025 MVFC co-champion and FCS semi-finalist South Dakota State.
This was not 2025 MVFC co-champion and FCS champion North Dakota State.
This was 5-7 North Dakota, and K-State struggled for a last-minute win.
They can’t play like this and contend. They simply can’t. They need drastic improvement, and fast.
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
It’s Johnson on offense, although we do have to give nods to Brown and Rice as well. On defense, Cody Stufflebean’s 2 sacks, forced fumble, and a recorded hurry give him the edge.
NEXT
This undisciplined, poorly-coached mess has to host the United States Army, an entity known for its discipline.
That’ll go well, surely.