The offense was in sync, and big defensive plays by Gunner Maldonado and Qua Moss late in the game helped Kansas State eat the clock to preserve a 34-20 win over Central Florida Saturday afternoon at Bill
Snyder Family Stadium.
On a beautiful day for football, almost everything came up Wildcats, who built a 31-10 lead before softening late. Dylan Edwards was the main driver, finally back to full health; he racked up 166 yards on the day and kept the offense churning, but he wasn’t the only hero.
K-State got the ball first, and after two plays which looked entirely too much like most of the season, Avery Johnson rumbled for 25 and Edwards picked up 16. Then K-State whipped out a double-pass trick play, with Lincoln Cure (of all people) heaving the ball downfield. It was picked off at the 8-yard line by Deman Henderson, though, and things were already looking grim. The Cats managed to force a punt early, but it bounced in front of Sterling Lockett and skipped back to the 17.
K-State came out with backup quarterback Blake Barnett lined up alongside Johnson, and went to Barnett on the ground over the next four plays, picking up a pair of first downs. Barnett came out, and after another first down the offense stalled. On 4th-and-6, the Cats went for it and Johnson retreated way too far, then ran forward and tried to throw, but was sacked for a loss of five and fumbled out of bounds.
The Knights went 3-and-out, and the Cats moved the ball well through the end of the first quarter. After the break, a bad snap looked like a nightmare but Johnson managed to get the ball to Jaron Tibbs for a couple of yards. Two plays later, Joe Jackson caught a short pass but didn’t reach the sticks, and Chris Klieman opted to at least get on the board, calling on Luis Rodriguez for a 38-yard field goal.
After moving the chains once, Cody Stufflebean absolutely drilled Tayven Jackson, who almost got picked off by VJ Payne, who should have caught it. UCF had to punt again, and Lockett tried to return it from the nine; he only got six yards, leaving K-State starting a drive deep again. The Cats went 3-and-out, but Simon McClannan boomed a 65-yard punt to pin UCF at their 12.
UCF was forced to go with Jacurri Brown in relief, and he threw a pick to Gunner Maldonado. K-State got to start from the Knights’ 26, but only picked up eight on three plays. On 4th-and-2 from the 18, the Cats lined up to go for it; UCF called timeout, giving everyone a chance to think about it. K-State persisted, and Johnson scrambled for 14 to set up 1st-and-goal from the four. Edwards bounced outside and scored, but Andrew Leingang was called for holding. Johnson ran again, and once again didn’t quite get to the pylon. From about a foot out, Joe Jackson dove over the line to score the first first-half touchdown UCF had given up all season, and K-State took a 10-0 lead.
After a loss of five on a run, Brown threw to DJ Black on the sideline, and Wesley Fair tried for the pick with no help near him; Black grabbed it and raced to the end zone, an 82-yard play to get the seven points right back.
Bryce Noernberg took a hit on the kickoff, causing a brief delay. Edwards got the ball over the 40 immediately, then got stuffed leading into the two-minute timeout. A 20-yard pass to Tibbs was followed by a 13-yarder to Lockett, who threw a nice block two plays later to free Johnson for an 8-yard run. Edwards then repeated Johnson’s two near-touchdowns, getting down to the three, and Johnson lobbed the ball to a wide-open Will Anciaux to get the lead back to 10 with 45 seconds left in the half.
UCF didn’t use either of their two remaining timeouts, neither after Brown ran and failed to get out of bounds or reach the sticks, nor after a bad snap forced him to cover for a loss of four, and the half came to an end.
The Knights went 3-and-out to open the second half, and the Wildcat offense went off. A 35-yard catch-and-run by Garrett Oakley took K-State down to the two, and then he took a shovel pass into the end zone.
Tayvan Jackson was able to return for the Knights, and Myles Montgomery got loose for a 45-yard run, nearly doubling UCF’s rushing yardage for the day. On third down, Jackson scrambled out of a coverage sack, but slid too early, setting up 4th-and-1. Brown came back in to run, and he did pick up the first down — but he fumbled, and Justice Clemons recovered for the Cats.
The Cats went 3-and-out, but McClannan boomed another punt, a 54 yarder and a fair catch. Jackson opened the drive with a 37-yard toss to Duane Thomas. A few plays later, Maldonado almost got a second pick, unable to hold on as he dove. A play later, Zashon Rich sacked Jackson, setting up 3rd-and-15; Chiddo Obiazor and Tobi Osunsanmi got him again on the next play, forcing a 53-yard field goal attemt by Noe Ruelas, which just barely snuck over the crossbar.
On the very next play, Edwards broke right and got loose, racing 75 yards to put the Cats up 31-10. The Cats almost forced a 4-and-out, but an inadvertent face mask on Malcolm Alcorn-Crowder wiped out the stop, and two plays later Jaden Nixon got loose for a 54-yard touchdown run.
The face mask favor was returned by UCF to open the next drive, but the Cats were forced into a 3-and-out after Oakley dropped a pass he should have caught for a first down. Montgomery got loose again for 44, but then the Knights got hit with a holding call and a delay of game to face 1st-and-25, but two plays later Jackson hit Marcus Burke for 30 to move the chains, beating Clemons. On 3rd-and-4 in the red zone, a false start pushed UCF back, and then after an incompletion another delay penalty made it 4th-and-14. Ruelas came on to make a 40-yarder, but that left the game as a two-score contest at 31-20.
On third down, Cure finally got to catch his first career pass, for a first down. Oakley let another pass get through his hands, Edwards was dropped for a loss, and Johnson threw one through Lockett; K-State had to punt.
On 4th-and-2, Maldonado came to the rescue again, breaking up a pass attempt to get K-State the ball back on the UCF 45. That didn’t put the game to bed, but it let K-State clear a minute and a half off the clock before Rodriguez slotted one in from 48 yards out.
What put the game away was the next play from scrimmage. Jackson went deep, but Qua Moss ripped the ball out of Thomas’s hands. Edwards burned two plays worth of clock without moving the chains, then on third down did move the chains, after which the Cats were able to kneel it out for the win.
Johnson had a nice day, going 18-25 for 168 and two touchdowns, and adding 75 yards on 12 carries. Edwards finished with 166 yards and a score on 20 totes. Barnett had 23 yards on 5 touches in his experimental outing. Tibbs caught 8 balls for 72 yards, both leading the team; Oakley had 2 for 36 with a score, Adonis Moise had 2-17, and Joe Jackson had 2-12 (plus six yards on five carries). Lockett and Cure both caught their first career passes today, as well.
K-State outgained the Knights 434-402, 266-205 on the ground while UCF led 197-168 in the air. The Cats won the turnover battle 3-1, held UCF to 3-13 on third down and 0-2 on fourth while converting 6-14 and 1-2 themselves, and had a huge advantage in the penalty column.
WHAT WE LEARNED
1) A healthy Dylan Edwards is kind of important, it turns out.
The big touchdown run was, well, big of course. And 166 is 166. But just as importantly, Edwards moved the chains frequently and was a big key in the offense continuing to move downhill. Having him back and keeping him upright could be huge in turning the season around.
2 Johnson and Tibbs are getting in sync.
He doesn’t show up much in the above recap because most of his work was possession catches, but Jaron Tibbs has clearly become Johnson’s favorite receiver. How much of this is a result of Jayce Brown’s disappearance from the field during the opening drive is a valid question, but Johnson had already started looking his way in previous weeks. Johnson targeted Tibbs ten times today and he caught 80% of them.
3 The defense was spitting fire.
Eight tackles for loss. Three sacks. A forced fumble, recovered (although it would’ve been a turnover on downs regardless). Two interceptions.
Unfortunately, for all the big plays they made, they also gave up far too many. Indeed, today was the rare occasion where a Joe Klanderman team was entirely on-point in the first half and soft and frustrating after halftime. You can point to a missed assignment on almost every big UCF play, and that’s frustrating. But the game plan was solid, the fire was there, and ultimately the defense made big plays when they had to — most adequately demonstrated by getting off the field on third/fourth down at a much better rate than previous games.
4 Matt Wells called a much better game.
Yeah, there were a couple of clunkers, and having Lincoln Cure’s first recorded stat of the season being an interception is a real head-scratcher. The decision to play Barnett alongside Johnson was weird, but effective and deserving of credit for creativity. The Cats never came up empty in the red zone, and on 14 instances of facing third down, they ultimately converted half of them. Not perfect, but much better.
5 The offensive line was also a lot better.
There were only a couple of plays where Johnson had to run for his life, a vast improvement over the Arizona debacle. The run blocking was still spotty, but the line has to be given proper credit for the Cats putting up over 250 yards on the ground, right?
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
You run for over a buck fifty, you’re the offensive player of the game. So congrats to Dylan Edwards. On defense, Gunner Maldonado stepped up in a big way today and gets the honor, but that’s no slight against Qua Moss, who has an argument.
NEXT
The Cats head down to Waco to face the Baylor Bears in another 11am contest.
