SE: Enjoying the Opportunity in San Diego

By Jonathan Beasley as told to D. Scott Fritchen

The 1999 Holiday Bowl was a special way to end a special season. After coming off two 11-win seasons, a lot of people doubted if we could continue that tradition. To keep that 11-win streak alive was awesome. The San Diego weather was awesome, but we treated it like a business trip. We were playing a very good Washington Huskies team had to go out there and win the game.

We had the mindset that we were going to win. We knew that we'd missed an opportunity to go to the Big 12 Championship by one game and we felt slighted that we didn't get a chance to go to a higher bowl, but we knew this was the bowl that wanted us, and we wanted to be there, so we were going to embrace it and have fun. We loved to play football. We didn't care who it was. We'd play you on the street. We enjoyed the opportunity to be in San Diego.

The third or fourth game of the season I did something to my rotator cuff and sometimes it'd hurt bad and sometimes it wouldn't. When it'd flare up, it'd flare up. I had a hurt knee as well and got that drained every Thursday. It was just a part of football. I knew the injuries were there. I just had to battle through each week and just had to continue to work on the field and get better.

I couldn't raise my arm above my shoulder in our loss against Nebraska — our only loss during the regular season. That's the one game where we had guys open, and I couldn't even get the ball to them. After that, I found a way to get that rotator cuff working a little bit better. I was able to manage to get my arm up and throw. I still practiced. I toughed through it really. I just had to get past the soreness every week. I just had to play through it.

I went out there and played hard for those guys and showed them that I could battle through injuries and do my workmanlike job and could get through it. My leadership style? I battled injuries and wouldn't let them get to me. I stayed and watched the film. I was the first one in and the last one to leave. I got guys to come watch film with me. I threw after practice to make sure the timing was right with the wideouts. I went in every day working hard and showed guys that if you worked hard and bought into the system it works. That's what we were able to do.

We had Quincy Morgan, Aaron Lockett, Frank Murphy, David Allen, Joe Hall, George Williams and Martez Wesley. The defense was among the best in the nation with Mark Simoneau, Lamar Chapman, Darren Howard, Mario Fatafehi, Jarrod Cooper, Monty Beisel and Ben Leber. Our team was really, really close. We did a lot of things together off the field like barbeque and playing cards. It was a really tight-knit community we had. We loved playing with each other and loved to go out and practice and have fun. That's why we were able to play so well. We knew we were going against the nation's best defense each day, so we knew if we could move the ball a little bit against them, we could move the ball on anybody. Practice was always competitive. Guys were flying around. We knew that if we played hard, we had a chance to win every game.

Washington was a very good football team. They'd just gotten hot with Marques Tuiasosopo at quarterback and their defense had some guys that ended up playing in the NFL. We knew they were a tough team and a good team, and we were going to have to battle. That's what we did.

It was like any other game for us. Obviously, it helped that we got some extra time because it was a bowl game. We were able to have some extra practices and weren't trying to cram everything into one week. We were able to expand bowl prep. Guys studied, worked hard, knew the game plan. We had it all lined up by the time we got there. We just knew once we got there after five or six days of practicing the game plan we were ready to play the game.

We never gave up. We took the lead in the first quarter, they led 13-10 at halftime. We drove down and took the lead, then they drove down and regained the lead 20-17 entering the fourth quarter. We knew we had to keep fighting until the clock hit zero. We knew if we got down, we could drive down and score and that our defense wouldn't let them score again. We just knew how they played. With our game plan we were ready to go.

I did enough to win the game. I managed the game well. We knew if we could get that lead on that drive our defense was going to hold because they rarely gave up points in the second half. If we got up one point, three points or six points they were going to hold.

In the end, we put together a 20-play, 92-yard touchdown drive to end the game. That drive really helped to seal it. There were a couple third-and-longs that we completed on it. We had a third-and-12 and I threw a post-flag to Quincy. If I'd kept the ball up, he might've scored. It was a long, methodical drive. We had some penalties, we fought through them. We knew that if we got this into the end zone this game was over.

Our defense took care of the rest.

It felt good to be named bowl MVP. You never go into a game saying, 'I want to be the MVP.' I just wanted to win the game. That was the main goal, and we were able to do that. All the other stuff is extra. It made me feel good that the media respected the way we played that game. We played a really good Washington team and were fortunate to come out with the win.

Kansas State University Athletics

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