SE: Excitement Turns Into Domination

By Aaron Lockett as told to D. Scott Fritchen

Kansas State always traveled well to bowl games. I'd been going to bowl games since 1993, so I had seen all the crowds. When No. 11 K-State played No. 21 Tennessee in the 2001 Cotton Bowl, it did not shock me that purple flooded Dallas. It's just what K-Staters did. They traveled to bowl games. I always appreciated our fans for all their support. I think they were excited for our second New Year's Day bowl game.

We had a dangerous team. We had a potent offense and defensively we were tough. We ranked sixth in scoring offense and fourth in total defense. We had so much talent with Jonathan Beasley, Quincy Morgan, Josh Scobey, Randall Cummins, Milford Stephenson, Shad Meier and myself. Jamie Rheem was an All-American at place kicker and I was All-American as an all-purpose player. Quincy was an All-American. You think of our defensive players, and man, they were talented — All-American Mario Fatafehi, and Ben Leber, Monty Beisel, Dyshod Carter, Jerametrius Butler, Chris Johnson, Jon McGraw, Derrick Yates and Terry Pierce. The list went on.

Although we played the longest season in K-State history to that point, there was no fatigue at the end of the year, just excitement. We had the hiccup at home when we lost to Oklahoma and then lost at Texas A&M on the road, but we won the Big 12 North Division and had a chance to play the Sooners again in the Big 12 Championship Game. We were tied 17-17 in the third quarter after my punt return and I remember that like it was yesterday. We played pretty well, but didn't quite pull it out in the 27-24 loss.

I took a lot of pride in punt returns. That year was interesting because David Allen got injured in the season opener against Iowa and I jumped back there. I'd been a punt returner before but not in college. I learned the tricks of the trade as far as how the team blocked and from there you just trusted your speed, hit the hole, and ran. We took a lot of pride in it as a unit. I didn't want to be the weak link. I wanted to go out there and do my job and was fortunate to lead the country with 22.8 yards per punt return.

One thing Coach Snyder always talked about was the next game. We put the Big 12 title game behind us. Coach talked about Tennessee and told us to play the last game for our seniors. We had to play our hearts out for them. Someday our time would come, and we'd be seniors and we'd want the underclassmen to play really hard for us.

We were excited to play Tennessee. Tennessee was a big-time team. Tennessee was one of my final three schools when I decided to play college football and so I was happy to play them. We had a chip on our shoulder because Tennessee was always one of those teams that was up there. We just hadn't played them before. They had NFL players like John Henderson, Donta Stallworth, Travis Henry and Travis Stephens, but we knew we had a chance to compete and show our stuff.

We pretty much dominated the game.

I remember I didn't realize it was going to snow. Was it cold? Yes. But we had played in that kind of weather before. We played in the snow against Nebraska. The Big 12 was always playing in tough weather, so for us, it just felt like another game. Tennessee players came out and wore coats on the sideline. It was cold but it wasn't going to affect our success.

Beasley, Quincy and Scobey had amazing games. I had a punt return called back. We ran for nearly 300 yards. I remember Coach Phil Fulmer said we took the Volunteers out behind the shed and spanked them. We won 35-21.

The 2000 team was one of Coach Snyder's better teams. We had talent across the board at almost every position and were a really, really good team, which is why you see Beasley in the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame.

You think about it, and we went 11-1, 11-2, 11-1 and then 11-3 in 2000. We joined Florida State and Nebraska as the only programs to win 11 games in four consecutive seasons. I fight with Kevin and Tyler about this all the time. I tell them that I played on better teams, which meant I had to spread the love around and not be the guy as much. I try to tell them that, but they don't listen to me.

I was very fortunate to be on some very good teams. We won 11 games in four of my five years. The Cotton Bowl was big. We knew it was a big win for us. We took a lot of pride in that game.

Kansas State University Athletics

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