K-State, USC To Tangle In Nationally Televised Intersectional Battle
Sep 20, 2002 | Football
Sept. 20, 2002
Game No. 4
No.11/11 USC (2-0) at
No. 25/23 Kansas State (3-0)
Saturday, Sept. 21, 2002
KSU Stadium (50,000)
6:10 p.m. CDT (TBS)
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format
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Radio
MID AMERICA SPORTS NETWORK will be the official network carrier for Kansas State Athletics. The network covers 25 affiliates throughout the state of Kansas. WYATT THOMPSON will be the Voice of the Wildcats for 2002, with former Wildcat QB STAN WEBER on color and CHRIS ALLISON on the sideline. STEVE WEBSTER is the executive producer of the Mid America Sports Network.
Television
The game will be the Big 12 Conference debut of the TBS/Superstation package. TBS reaches 91 million households. RON THULIN has play-by-play with analyst CHARLES DAVIS. CRAIG SAGER will be on the sideline with ERIN ANDREWS doing atmosphere features.
Tickets
Tickets are available for all Kansas State home games, except Nebraska. The Kansas State Ticket Office can be reached at 800-221-CATS.
STORYLINE
Kansas State faces 11th-ranked Southern California in the final game of a four-game homestand against non-conference competition that begins the year...
The game is the first time the Wildcats have faced a ranked non-conference opponent since losing 56-3 at Washington on 9/28/91... The Huskies were ranked eighth in the nation at that time...
This week, the Wildcats moved back into the college football national rankings for the first time since 10/13/2001 when they dropped out following a loss at Texas Tech...
The Wildcats were 25th in the Associated Press poll and 23rd in the ESPN/USA Today rankings...
K-State is looking to go 4-0 for the eighth time in Head Coach BILL SNYDER'S 14 seasons in Manhattan... The game against USC is the first non-league matchup against a ranked team in KSU Stadium since the 'Cats lost 45-10 to then-17th-ranked Iowa on Sept. 10, 1988...
The Wildcats have won 35 straight September home games... In all September contests, the Wildcats are 34-1 since 1992, with last season's 38-37 loss at Oklahoma being the only loss in that stretch.
USC is making its second trip to a Big 12 Conference school in as many weeks... The Trojans won 40-3 at Colorado last Saturday to improve to 2-0 on the season... USC opened the year with a win over Auburn at home in a nationally televised game on Labor Day weekend...
K-State is one of only four Big 12 teams which remain unbeaten overall heading into this weekend's action... Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M have yet to suffer a defeat in the 2002 season...
The matchup of ranked teams in Manhattan is one of three around the nation this week... No. 4 (AP) Tennessee hosts No. 10 Florida and No. 7 Virginia Tech travels to No. 19 Texas A&M...
The Wildcats MADE their ninth straight bowl appearance IN 2001... K-State has been to a bowl in each season since 1993...
K-State is one of only seven schools to appear in a bowl game each of the last nine years... The group includes Nebraska (33 straight), Michigan (27), Florida State (20), Tennessee (13), Florida (11) and Virginia Tech (9).
SERIES
Kansas State opened its 2001 season in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with a 10-6 victory over the Trojans on Sept. 8 that was Snyder's 100th career victory and was the first meeting ever between the teams...
The Wildcats scored all their points in the first half a year ago, getting a 41-yard field goal from Jared Brite and a second-quarter touchdown when Nick Leckey covered a fumble in the end zone for a score...
Sultan McCullough scored on a 7-yard run in the third quarter for USC, but the extra-point kick was blocked...
USC threatened in the final minutes of the game, but K-State's Henry Bryant recovered a fumble at the Wildcats 24-yard line with 2:33 left to thwart the rally...
K-State had a pair of 100-yard rushers in the game, as Josh Scobey carried 27 times for 165 yards and quarterback Ell Roberson gained 119 yards on 21 carries...
USC quarterback Carson Palmer had 197 yards passing and a team-high 60 yards rushing, while Kareem Kelly had seven catches for 75 yards for the Trojans.
SPROLES ROLLS
Making the first start of his career, sophomore RB DARREN SPROLES had an outstanding opening to the season against Western Kentucky... Sproles, a 5-foot-7, 170-pounder, had 130 of his career-high 135 rushing yards by halftime... Nine of those yards came on his first touchdown of the season...
He finished the game with 187 all-purpose yards, picking up 14 more on a pass reception and 38 on a pair of punt returns... Sproles had 83 of his yards in the first quarter, carrying the ball on 12 of the Wildcats' 23 plays in the period...
He added 82 yards against Louisiana-Monroe and led the Wildcats with 84 yards on only nine carries last week against Eastern Illinois...
Sproles ranks 52nd in the nation in rushing this week (90.0 yards per game) and 61st in all-purpose yards (123.0 ypg)...
Although his Wildcat career only spans nine games and 65 carries, he is averaging an impressive 7.4 yards per carry so far as a student-athlete at K-State...
His 54-yard touchdown late in the second quarter last Saturday stands as the longest run from scrimmage by a Wildcat this season...
With 210 yards last year, Sproles finished second all-time at K-State in rushing yards by a freshman.
ROBERSON RUSHING
QB ELL ROBERSON picked up in 2002 where he left off in terms of running the football... He had 10 carries for 44 against Western Kentucky, scoring his 10th career rushing touchdown with an 18-yard score in the third quarter...
He followed that with 48 yards in three carries against Louisiana-Monroe...
Roberson now has 903 yards rushing in his career and is within sight of becoming only the 20th Wildcat in school history to hit the 1,000-yard mark... He would become only the second quarterback on that list, trailing Michael Bishop, who gained 1,314 in 1997 and 1998...
Roberson had four 100-yard games in 2001, the most in a season by a Wildcat QB and matched Bishop for the most career 100-yard games by a K-State QB...
Roberson had back-to-back 100-yard games last year against Iowa State (131) and Nebraska (119), marking the second time in school history a quarterback accomplished that feat... Bishop had three straight at the end of 1998...
Roberson owns four of the top seven rushing games ever by a Wildcat QB...
With 643 rushing yards for the 2001 season, Roberson finished close to Bishop's single-season best for a QB of 748 set in 1998... He finished 2001 third on the all-time rushing list by a sophomore...
Averaging 64.3 yards per game in 2001, Roberson was 89th in the nation in individual rushing, but ranked seventh among QBs.
MORE RUSHING
There were no less than 13 Wildcats who got at least one carry against Louisiana-Monroe... LANCE KRAMER, PAUL O'NEIL and MARQUES JACKSON had their first career carry against the Indians, while LARRY LEWIS had his second...
Five different Wildcats had at least one rushing TD against ULM... Over the first three games, eight different K-State players have at least one rushing touchdown...
FB AYO SABA had as efficient a collegiate debut as possible, as the first three carries of his college career were each 2-yard touchdowns (two against Western Kentucky, one against Louisiana-Monroe)...
Saba had 11 carries for 46 yards last week against Eastern Illinois, getting career-highs in carries and yards but dropping his touchdowns-per-carry average below 100 percent...
RB DANIEL DAVIS scored his first touchdown as a Wildcat last week, going over from six yards out early in the fourth quarter... Davis has 123 yards in his last two outings and has taken over second place on the Wildcats' rushing list...
FB DANNY MORRIS leads the Wildcats in scoring with 24 points thus far after scoring two touchdowns rushing and two more on blocked-punt returns for TDs... Morris scored on a 3-yard rush and a 16-yard blocked punt return against ULM.
STREAKS
Kansas State has a 37-game home winning streak against non-conference opponents on the line... The last loss to a non-league foe at KSU Stadium came against Northern Illinois, 37-20, on Sept. 23, 1989.
Against all non-conference opponents home or away in the regular season, K-State has won 34 straight games... The last loss was a 28-16 defeat at Utah State on Oct. 17, 1992...
Kansas StatePK JOE RHEEM hit 26 straight extra-point kicks before having two blocked against Louisiana-Monroe...
Rheem also hit both his field-goal attempts in the season-opener against Western Kentucky, extending a streak of six straight field goals dating back to last year (1 vs. Louisiana Tech, 3 vs. Missouri)... His 38-yarder just before halftime vs. the Hilltoppers matched the longest of his career... He also had a 38-yarder against Missouri in last year's regular-season finale.
A NICE TOUCH
In a stretch of 6:35 during the Louisiana-Monroe game, Kansas State scored five straight times it touched the ball late in the first quarter and early in the second...
o Marc Dunn 1-yd TD run with 4:02 left in 1st qtr, Wildcats lead 14-0
o Marc Dunn 51-yd TD pass to Terence Newman with 1:26 left in 1st qtr, Wildcats lead 21-0
o Terence Newman 40-yard punt return for TD with 0:00 left in 1st qtr, Wildcats lead 28-0
o Danny Morris 16-yd blocked punt return for TD with 13;28 left in 2nd qtr, Wildcats lead 34-0
o Ayo Saba 2-yd TD run with 12:27 left in 2nd qtr, Wildcats lead 40-0
STRANGE START
The first half of the Eastern Illinois game unfolded in an interesting manner. K-State's offense was kept off the field for the first 12:54 of the first quarter, but the Wildcats were still able to grab and maintain a lead...
o Wildcats hold Panthers to a three-and-out, Rashad Washington then blocks a punt that is covered by Danny Morris in the end zone.
o The Wildcats line up in a spread set for the two-point conversion and holder Travis Brown finds Travon Magee with a pass for a two-pointer.
o EIU goes 80 yards in 11 plays for the first TD against the Wildcats in 2002, but misses the two-point try.
o K-State's Terence Newman returns the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown and the extra-point kick makes it K-State 15-6 with 7:00 left.
oPanthers repeat the 11-play, 80-yard drive scenario to score a touchdown and the extra-point kick makes it 15-13 with 2:13 remaining.
o Wildcats' offense finally takes the field with 2:06 left. K-State starts a 60-yard, 12-play drive to go ahead 22-13.
o EIU throws an incomplete pass on a fake punt, setting up Marc Dunn's 19-yard TD pass to Thomas Hill on the next play for a 29-13 Wildcat lead.
o Late in the quarter, Darren Sproles goes 54 yards for a TD, capping a 47-second drive, and Dunn hits Taco Wallace on a 58-yard TD pass for a 1-play, 8-second drive for a 43-13 halftime lead.
o K-State led by 30 points at the break despite being outgained, 252-170, trailing in first downs, 14-7, and facing a time of possession disadvantage, 22:16-7:44.
MORE THAN 1,000 GAMES
K-State stands 407-559-41 in its 107th football season...
More than a quarter of THE WILDCATS' wins (107) have occurred in the last 14 seasons under Head Coach BILL SNYDER...
The loss in the 2001 Insight.com Bowl ended an eight-year streak of winning seasons, longest at K-State in 88 years (K-State had eight winning seasons from 1905 through 1912)... Of the 34 winning seasons in 106 years of football at the school, nine have come in the last 11 years.
SCORING
Seven K-State players scored at least one point in the first game, including 11 points on a 5-for-5 PAT, 2-for-2 FG effort by PK JOE RHEEM...
That was surpassed by the 10 different Wildcats who hit the scoring column against Louisiana-Monroe... RB DANNY MORRIS scored on a run and a blocked-punt return, while CB/WR TERENCE NEWMAN had touchdowns on a punt return and a reception... WR JAMES TERRY, FB NICK HOHEISEL, WR TACO WALLACE and QB JEFF SCHWINN each scored their first points of the season against ULM...
Seventeen different Kansas State players have scored this season, with 14 different players having scored touchdowns... Through 11 games a year ago, 17 K-State players scored and a dozen had at least one touchdown...
K-State leads the nation in scoring offense this week after outscoring its first three opponents 179-16... K-State is averaging 59.7 points per game this year, with California in second at 50.0 ppg...
The Wildcats have scored 25 touchdowns in their first three games, more than any other Division I-A school... N.C. State has 23 touchdowns in four games, while Iowa State has 21 and Miami, Fla., has 20...
Of those 25 touchdowns, six have come either on special teams or on defense... The NCAA combines blocked punt and punt returns into one statistical category, and only K-State and Nebraska have three punt returns for touchdowns so far in Division I this season...
The 68 points scored by K-State against Louisiana-Monroe ranked fifth on the all-time single-game list... K-State's 63 points last week against Eastern Illinois were ninth on the single-game list... The school record of 76 came on 9/16/2000 against Ball State...
The 68-point margin of victory ranked second behind the aforementioned 76-0 win over Ball State in the paragraph above...
The last time K-State posted back-to-back 60-point games was on 9/5 and 9/12/98 when the 'Cats beat Indiana State 66-0 and Northern Illinois 73-7... K-State followed those efforts with a 48-7 win over Texas and a 62-7 triumph over Louisiana-Monroe...
FB AYO SABA, WR JAMES TERRY and WR/CB TERENCE NEWMAN scored touchdowns on either their first career carry or their first career reception as a Wildcat... Newman had a catch last year in the Insight.com Bowl, but NCAA rules will not recognize bowl stats until the 2002 postseason...
FB NICK HOHEISEL joined Saba by picking up a touchdown on his first carry of the 2002 season.
PASSING
The goal for K-State to improve its passing game over a year ago is evident so far in the statistics...
QB MARC DUNN has opened the season very efficiently, completing 75 percent of his passes (15-for-20) in the first three games and throwing for five TDs combined in the last two weeks... He had four touchdowns all last season in 112 attempts...
QB ELL ROBERSON (6-for-10, 135 yards) and JEFF SCHWINN (7-for-12, 103 yards) have also found their targets often so far... A year ago, K-State finished the season with a 44.0 completion percentage, but has opened the 2002 season at 66.7 after three weeks...
In terms of NCAA efficiency rating, the Wildcats lead the nation at 217.0, well above the 92.1 they finished with in the 2001 season and nearly 26 rating points ahead of Minnesota, currently in second place...
Nine different K-State receivers have at least one catch over the first three weeks...
WR TACO WALLACE and WR DERRICK EVENS have seven catches each to tie for the team lead and are the only Wildcats thus far with at least one catch in every game.
INTERCEPTIONS
K-State had three interceptions last week against Eastern Illinois, including one returned for a touchdown...
SS RASHAD WASHINGTON went 40 yards with an interception early in the second half, making him the second Wildcat to take an interception "to the house" in 2002...
FS BOBBY WALKER went 73 yards with an interception in the opener against Western Kentucky... Walker had his second pick of the season last week against Eastern Illinois...
Walker shares the team lead in interceptions with CB TERENCE NEWMAN, who picked up interceptions in each of the Wildcats' first two games...
Walker and Newman rank T10th in the nation this week in interceptions per game...
The Wildcats have gotten at least one interception in eight straight, 43 of the last 48 games and in 52 of the last 58 outings (including bowl games)...
The Wildcats now have had 15 interceptions in their last eight games, a string dating back to last season and including the Insight.com Bowl game against Syracuse... Overall, the 'Cats have had 46 takeaways in the last 19 games...
According to research from Louisville and Southern Miss, Kansas State's 65 interceptions since the start of the 1999 season leads the nation... Louisville has 59, Nebraska 56 and Fresno State has 55 picks in the last three-plus seasons...
Newman now has seven career interceptions, moving within striking distance of the top 10 career list... Four Wildcats, including 2001 team captain Jon McGraw, are tied for ninth on that list with nine career picks...
MORE INTERCEPTIONS
Walker's 73-yarder for a touchdown against the Hilltoppers was the first pick for a score since Milton Proctor had an interception for a TD last season at Iowa State...
His pick was the 4th-longest in school history and the longest in six seasons... Mario Smith had the proverbial record-never-to-be-broken 100-yard interception return for a TD against Missouri in 1996... John Welch (90 yards, 1984) and C.J. Masters (80 yards, 1992) have had longer returns with interceptions...
Kansas State has now had at least one interception returned for a touchdown in each of the last eight seasons... The last time K-State failed to take one to the house was in 1993.
HELL0, NEWMAN
In addition to being a preseason candidate for the Thorpe Award, the defending Big 12 Conference indoor track champion at 60 meters and the reigning Big 12 100-meter champion outdoors, CB TERENCE NEWMAN is making his presence felt as one of the most versatile threats in all of college football...
The senior captain from Salina, Kan., has scored on a 51-yard pass reception on offense against Western Kentucky, a 40-yard punt return against Louisiana-Monroe, and a 95-yard kickoff return last week against EIU...
He is only the third Wildcat in history to have scored on both a kickoff and punt return and only the second to have accomplish that feat in the same season... Mack Herron scored on a punt and kickoff return in the 1968 season, while Aaron Lockett hit the end zone on both types of returns in his career...
Newman now has 311 all-purpose yards this season, second on the team to RB DARREN SPROLES... He has earned those yards on one pass reception, two interceptions three kick returns and six punt returns... As a result, he is averaging 25.9 yards per touch of the ball...
Newman now has 595 career kick-return yards and is within 70 yards of 10th on the all-time career list... Ivan Pearl had 665 yards on 41 returns from 1980 through 1983...
His 43.7 kick-return average would currently rank 3rd in the NCAA if Newman had the requisite 1.2 returns per game to qualify for the list...
Still, Newman is sixth this week on the NCAA punt-return list with a 20.3 average.
SHUTOUTS
Kansas State's shutout in a 68-0 win over Louisiana-Monroe was the ninth since the inception of the Big 12 Conference... The Wildcats have more shutouts in the seven-year history of the league than any other school...
K-State has posted a shutout in each of the last nine seasons... The last season in which the Wildcats failed to blank an opponent was 1993... In those nine years, Kansas State has posted 13 shutouts...
The 2002 Wildcat defense allowed only three points in the season-opener against Western Kentucky and held the Hilltopper running game to just 110 yards rushing and 183 yards in total offense...
Much of the yardage by Western Kentucky came in the fourth quarter, as the Hilltoppers posted 78 yards rushing in the final period.
The 'Cats followed that up with another defensive effort under 200 yards... ULM gained 160 yards against the 'Cats, including just 33 on the ground...
The last time K-State held back-to-back opponents under 200 yards was on 9/16/2000 (51 vs. Ball State) and 9/23/2000 (138 vs. North Texas)...
K-State held four opponents to less than 200 yards in total offense in 2001 (New Mexico State, Texas A&M, Iowa State, Louisiana Tech)...
Snyder-coached K-State teams have held opponents to less than 200 total yards in a game 28 times, including the two this season.
TENACIOUS 'DEE'
LB JOSH BUHL led K-State with 13 tackles against Western Kentucky, becoming the first Wildcat this season to hit double figures in tackles... Buhl joined LB TERRY PIERCE and SS RASHAD WASHINGTON with a team-high six tackles against Louisiana-Monroe...
Buhl was credited with 15 tackles last week against Eastern Illinois, the most by a Wildcat this season... He and Pierce (10 tackles) each hit the double-figure mark against Eastern Illinois...
The Wildcats rank second in the nation with a 5.3 ppg average, trailing only Tennessee's 5.0... Behind Tennessee's one TD allowed, K-State, USC, Arkansas and Arizona have given up two so far this year...
K-State also ranks 6th in total defense and 8th in pass efficiency defense.
STINGY WITH SCORES
Kansas State ranks 1st in the nation in scoring offense and 2nd in scoring defense for the second straight WEEK... Only Oklahoma (4th in both scorong offense and scoring defense) and Oregon State (T6th in scoring defense, 10th in scoring offense) rank in the top 10 in both categories in Division I-A...
In another list from the folks at Southern Miss, Kansas State ranks 4th since 1999 in fewest rushing and passing TDs allowed... In three-plus seasons, Southern Miss has allowed 53 touchdowns by its defense, with Oklahoma (61), Miami, Fla. (62) and Kansas State (65) close behind.
SHORTS
o K-State has won 56 of its last 58 games when scoring first... The Wildcats are 86-9 under Bill Snyder when scoring first...
o The Wildcats have shown an early tendency to scoring quickly...uK-State has scored 27 times this season on 25 touchdowns and 2 field goals
o6 have come without scoring drives
(on defense or on special teams)o 7 have come on drives of less than 1:00
o 8 have come on drives of 1:01 or less
o14 have come on drives of 2:00 or less
o 5 have come on 1-play drives
o 10 have come on drives of 4 plays or less
BARNETT STARTS
K-State senior OT THOMAS BARNETT is among the nation's leaders in the number of starts he's had in his career... The start against Eastern Illinois was Barnett's 33rd in his Wildcat career (6 in 1998, 10 in 1999, 14 in 2000 and 3 in 2002)...
Among returning linemen nationally, only 23 players have started more games, a list that is led by the 42 starts made by Marshall's Steve Sciullo... Among Big 12 schools, only Rex Richards of Texas Tech (35) has more starts than Barnett.
SCHEDULE
On the NCAA weekly list of toughest schedules in the nation, Kansas State ranked 4th last season... Eight of the Wildcats' 11 opponents a year ago played in postseason bowls...
Opponents on the 2002 schedule have combined to win 17 national championships (USC-8, Nebraska-5, Texas-3, Colorado-1).
IN 2002, KANSAS STATE WILL PLAY EIGHT HOME GAMES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SCHOOL HISTORY...
SEVEN OF THE WILDCATS' 12 OPPONENTS IN 2002 PLAYED IN THE POSTSEASON A YEAR AGO (Western Kentucky, Eastern Illinois, Southern California, Colorado, Texas, Iowa State, Nebraska).
RHEEM HITS LISTS
Sophomore PK JOE RHEEM is 36-for-40 in extra-point kicks early in his Wildcat career...
That actually has him among top 10 lists for career extra-points and extra-point attempts.
WILDCATS IN NFL
A check on opening day rosters in the NFL for this weekend finds 26 Kansas State players either on active rosters, practice squads, injured reserve or other reserve lists...
The alumni on NFL lists is fourth among teams in the Big 12 Conference, behind only Nebraska (36), Texas A&M (30) and Colorado (29)...
Monty Beisel, DE Kansas CityJerametrius Butler, CB St. LouisRock Cartwright, FB WashingtonLamar Chapman, DB ClevelandJarrod Cooper, FS CarolinaAndy Eby, OL Green BayDeMarcus Faggins, CB HoustonMario Fatafehi, DT ArizonaMartin Gramatica, K Tampa BayDarren Howard, DE New OrleansKendyl Jacox, C New OrleansJeff Kelly, LB AtlantaBen Leber, LB San DiegoKevin Lockett, WR WashingtonMatt Martin, OT TennesseeJon McGraw, DB N.Y. JetsDamion McIntosh, OT San DiegoShad Meier, TE TennesseeQuincy Morgan, WR ClevelandJosh Scobey, RB ArizonaMark Simoneau, LB AtlantaMIlford Stephenson, OL San FranciscoJustin Swift, TE San FranciscoJerry Togiai, DT AtlantaRyan Young, OT HoustonTodd Weiner, OT Atlanta
