SE: Dominant OL, K-State Ground Game Carries Wildcats to Win at TCU

K-State’s rushing attack continued its dominance in a 30-6 victory at TCU on Saturday, etching its season all over the program’s history book in the process.

Quarterback Jesse Ertz and running back Justin Silmon set career highs as K-State tied its six-game streak of at least 200 rushing yards from 2003, helping fuel the Wildcats’ 5-1 finish to the regular season. K-State amassed 336 yards on the ground against TCU to boost the team’s rushing average to 290.2 yards in its last six games.

The numbers are more than impressive, but the Wildcats recording them know none of it would be possible without the collective improvement of their offensive line.

“They’ve been dominant for a while now. I think it’s really how close they all are. The relationships, everybody in the backfield, we’re all talking, communicating,” Ertz said of the offensive line, which returned only one full-time starter from last season in Dalton Risner, who moved from center to right tackle this year. “Those guys are unbelievable in how they communicate and correct any mistakes or anything the defense might be doing and we come back and we hit them and hit them again and they keep opening up holes for us.”

K-State head coach Bill Snyder complimented the improvement of his team after the Wildcats’ victory in Forth Worth, Texas, but said the offensive line embodied it as much as any position group.

“The shining example is our offensive line and how they went from a bunch of young pups who didn’t know left from right and all of a sudden they’re playing quite well,” said Snyder, whose team finished in sole possession of fourth place in the Big 12 after being predicted to finish eighth. “When you’re committed to (improving each day), then good things will happen.”

Senior defensive end Jordan Willis, who tied K-State’s single-season sacks record at 11.5, agreed in regards to the progress of the Wildcats’ offensive line.

“I’m very proud to see how these guys have come to work every single day to improve. Of course a lot of that has to do with Coach (Charlie) Dickey, but it also has to do with them coming in every day ready to work and improve,” Willis said. “I get excited when I see guys who aren’t looked at as typically being the best but they work and they become pretty good at what they do.”

With their latest rushing total, K-State moved into first all-time for yards per carry in a season at 5.26. K-State’s ground game also ranks fourth in program history for rushing yards in a single-season (2,769), third in yards per game (232.9) and seventh in touchdowns (36).

“It’s great, especially as quarterback,” Ertz said of orchestrating the Wildcats’ offense. “You get so many options, so many things that you can do, so much control. It’s a real complex offense, but when you get the full grasp of it and you know how to use it, it’s extremely hard to stop. We keep improving, we keep getting better and I think you can see it. We’re winning, so that’s all you can ask for.”

Ertz tallied a career-high 170 yards on 19 carries, the fourth time he’s rushed for 99 yards or more in the last five games and the fifth-most rushing yards in a game by a K-State quarterback ever. In the process, the junior passed Daniel Sams (2013) and Collin Klein (2012) to hold the fourth-most rushing yards (945) for a season by a K-State quarterback. Ertz is now 30 yards away from Ell Roberson’s third-ranking 2003 season and 90 from Roberson’s 2002 campaign in second.

“The thing about Jesse, he’s got a lot of courage and he runs deceptively well. He’s deceptively fast. You look at him and you watch him and you say he’s lead-footed, but he’s not. He was a 10.6, 10.7 100-meter guy in high school,” Snyder said. “He’s just deceptively fast. It doesn’t look like he’s running fast, but he does and he changes direction and he has a good perception of how to run and how to make people miss, so to speak, and avoid contact. He’s pretty good about it.”

Against the Horned Frogs, Ertz averaged 8.9 yards per carry, boosting his season average to 6.02 to sit in fourth in program history (min. 100 attempts) among all K-State players.

“He’s another guy that I’m proud of because I saw how hard he worked in the offseason and I know he wanted to have a good season this year for the team as well as for himself,” Willis said of Ertz. “But to see a guy go through some of the stuff he’s going through as far as injuries and week in and week out battling back every single week… every week for him is a challenge. It’s a huge challenge. You have to prepare for a ballgame, but he has to prepare through injury every single week just to get himself ready for the ballgame, so I’m very proud of him.

“To see every week a guy who is struggling on Monday to be able to do certain things but then show up to game day ready to play, I’m very proud of him for that.”

Silmon, seeing more carries with redshirt freshman Alex Barnes out, stepped into a bigger role with ease. The sophomore paced K-State’s running backs with 133 rushing yards and two touchdowns, both career highs. His performance gave K-State its 14th double 100-yard rushing game in school history and first since 2012. During Silmon’s second-career game over the century mark and first since early in the 2015 season, he broke off runs of 35, 26, 15 and 11 yards.

“It was really good to see. He hasn’t got as many touches as he did last season, but he got his opportunity, he ran hard and he made plays, and that’s what we’re all about,” Ertz said of Silmon. “Everybody keeps stepping up and filling the spots, and that’s just how it goes.”

Stay tuned to kstatesports.com as well as @kstatesports and @KStateFB on Twitter for the Wildcats’ official bowl announcement on Sunday afternoon.

K-State VB Falls in Five Sets to Ohio State in 2nd Round of NCAA Tournament

More tears came than words initially. The end is always the hardest.

The K-State women’s volleyball season ended with a never-say-die performance from the Wildcats, who came back from a 2-0 deficit to Ohio State only to fall, 17-15, in the decisive fifth set and end its season with a 21-10 record.

“It hurts because it’s good. It’s hard to explain. It hurts when it’s over because it’s really, really good,” K-State head coach Suzie Fritz said, as her eyes welled with tears. “This team, and these seniors in particular, have brought so much to us and to me, personally, and to my life. They have enriched us in so many ways. They are extraordinary. It’s hard to know that you don’t get to see them every day, maybe more important than anything.”

The No. 14-seed Wildcats dropped the first two sets in Bramlage Coliseum, 20-25, 22-25, but rallied after a break to win the next pair, 25-22 and 25-23.

“That is a team I felt like I haven’t been part of before,” K-State senior Katie Reininger said. “This is a team that’s matured so much. The fans were amazing and they were a big part of that turnaround for us. We emptied the tank and we went for it. It was the best game I think I could’ve ended on.”

The season wasn’t too bad, either. K-State (21-10) finished in a tie for fourth in the Big 12, made its 17th postseason appearance and hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007 and the sixth time in program history. In the latest RPI rankings, K-State was 18th, the third-highest team in the Big 12.

Years from now, however, this group of Wildcats will be remembered by Fritz for much more than where they finished.

“They have so much personality. They are so different from individual to individual. They’re weird. They’re genuinely very strange, but what I love about it is they’ve always embraced it,” Fritz said, provoking laughter from the tear-filled Wildcats next to her. “They’ve embraced different. They’re very accepting of each other and each other’s quirks and awkward things. It’s pretty cool. They have created their own culture and took us along with it.”

The Wildcats lose four key seniors from this team in setter Katie Brand, a three-time First Team All-Big 12 pick, Reininger, a Second Team All-Big 12 pick this season, Brooke Sassin, who led the team in kills, and Kersten Kober, a stable force in the back row since her freshman season.

“It has exceeded my expectations beyond belief. It has gone by so fast, and it hasn’t always been easy, but I loved every moment of it,” Kober said of her career. “These people — my teammates, the community, everyone on the coaching staff — they mean the world to me. I couldn’t have asked for a better college experience at all.”

For the returning Wildcats, like All-Big 12 performer Bryna Vogel along with Kylee Zumach and freshman middle blocker Elle Sandbothe, this senior class set the bar high but showed them how to clear it as well.

“I don’t even know if I could find the words to explain how these seniors impacted me,” Sandbothe said. “They took me under their wing with all confidence and support, everything you could ever ask of them. They made me feel like family and part of the team. It’s going to hurt so bad to lose them, but the impact they’ve had on me is unexplainable.”

Johnson, Sneed Star in Return to Hometown

Senior D.J. Johnson and freshman Xavier Sneed made a return to their hometown a special one as they propelled the K-State men’s basketball team to an 84-53 victory at Saint Louis on Saturday night.

Johnson, who connected on his first 10 field goal attempts, led all scorers with 21 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Sneed reached double figures for the fifth time in his young career by scoring 15 points, which included a 4-of-6 mark on 3-pointers.

Kansas State (7-1) used a 23-9 run over the final 11 minutes of the first half to break the game open over the homestanding Billikens (2-5). The Wildcats are back home on Tuesday as they host Prairie View A&M at 7 p.m., at Bramlage Coliseum.

For a complete recap on the Wildcats’ win at Saint Louis, click here.

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: Dominant OL, K-State Ground Game Carries Wildcats to Win at TCU

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