No rest for the weary, or maybe shell-shocked, Kansas State Wildcats. After a disastrous performance last Saturday at home against Army, the Wildcats have headed out on the road for their final non-conference game of the season, facing fellow Big 12 school Arizona on a Friday night in a game that doesn’t count for league standings.
The Wildcats didn’t necessarily play poorly against Army, but they allowed the Knights to wear them down with a wildly efficient four-yards-and-a-cloud offense, and a complete
inability — yet again — to get off the field on fourth down. In what has become a troubling trend in 2025, the Wildcats have allowed their opponents to go an absurd 10-12 on 4th down conversions, including 3-3 against Iowa State and 6-7 against Army. If you’re playing K-State, the odds say forget punting and just go for it on fourth, because the Cats are likely to be unable to stop the conversion.
On the other side of the ball, Avery Johnson has shown improvements in the passing game, but the running game — whether that’s Avery or the collection of running backs — has yet to really get off the ground. A big factor in that is the offensive line, as the big guys up front have looked mostly “okay” in pass protection, but below-average at best in run blocking. They aren’t blowing the defense off the line, they aren’t creating holes, and have missed fits and protections often enough to be a troubling pattern. Sure, a staff change-up at the end of last season may be in play here, but it’s not like it was a late change and the players and coaches have had the whole offseason to adjust and get on the same page…and it doesn’t look like either has really happened quite yet.
So the Wildcats take all their issues on the road on a short week, and quite honestly there’s very little to play for in the desert besides pride. Any thought of an at-large selection to the CFP is effectively gone with the 1-2 start — that loss to Army will hang like and anchor tank the rest of the season — and at this point the only thing that matters is what happens in the eight games after this one in actual Big 12 play. So, sure, a win would be great, but win or lose the only thing we’ll get out of this game is what kind of fight the guys have left. Can they shake off the rough start and regroup? Can they show a fire they’ve yet to show this season? Is this squad, with all it’s talent and fanfare, capable of being tough and demanding better of themselves?
The desert Wildcats are solid, but have yet to face a tough foe. They manged forty or more points in each of their first two games to start 2-0, beating Hawai’i 40-6 to open the season, followed by a 48-3 drubbing of Wber State last weekend. Sure, not exactly a gauntlet, but they did what good teams do in those situations and go ahead and win easily. And they’ve have vengeance on their minds are starting 2-0 last season only to walk in the Manhattan on a Friday night and leave with 31-7 loss that didn’t even really feel that close.
It’s entirely possible we’ll see a reversal tonight in Tucson — unless the purple Cats can find their fight and fire again.
We’ve got an 8:00pm CT kickoff from Arizona Stadium in Tucson, and you can catch the action on FOX (or online via FOXSports.com) with Jason Benetti (Play-by-Play), Robert Griffin III (Analyst), and Alexa Landestoy (Sidelines) on the call.
If you don’t have FOX or can’t access the stream, the game can be heard across the 28-station K-State Sports Network with Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play), former K-State quarterback Stan Weber (analyst), and Matt Walters (sidelines) calling the action. The game will also be on SiriusXM Satellite Radio Ch. 381, and available online at K-Statesports.com. Live stats are also available at k-statesports.com, and social media updates (@KStateFB) will also be a part of the coverage.
Go Cats!
