SE: A Fun Ending to an Incredible Run

By Curry Sexton as told to D. Scott Fritchen

I remember the first half was almost storybook, how Jake Waters connected with Tyler Lockett for 3 touchdowns on our first three possessions against Michigan in the 2013 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. To some extent, we expected Jake and Tyler to have that success. After Tyler's first touchdown, we were like, "We've seen this a time or two." After his second one, we thought, "We have something going on here." After the third touchdown, Tramaine Thompson and I just laughed, because clearly Jake and Tyler were just toying with those guys.

Growing up as a college football fan, Michigan was obviously one of the premier football programs in the country. Getting matched up with a program with that much history and tradition and lining up against guys wearing the Maize and Blue, those are things you remember, regardless of the fact that this Michigan team wasn't as prolific as its previous teams or its future teams.

We led 21-6 at halftime and there was no doubt in our minds that we'd win the game. In doing so, we completed the greatest in-season turnaround in K-State history.

That 2013 team had a nucleus of guys who had won 21 games over the previous two seasons. We lost a ton of key guys from the 2012 Big 12 Championship team, but there was still some carryover. Ultimately, the uncertainty at quarterback along with some unfortunate key injuries to Tyler and Tramaine early in the season caused us to get off to a slow start. The North Dakota State game was a brutal finish. Ultimately, once we got settled, got healthy, really gelled, and locked on with Jake as our quarterback, we had a team that had a lot of capabilities. You saw that in the last seven games.

After starting out with a 2-4 record, we finished out winning six of our final seven games. That was a rare feat in college football.

We came to expect for Jake and Tyler to have success. Even in our lone loss down the stretch against No. 6 Oklahoma (41-31), Tyler had 12 catches for 278 yards and 3 touchdowns. Tyler was essentially unguardable and his chemistry with Jake was incredible. They demonstrated their chemistry in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. Jake completed 21 of 27 passes for 271 yards and 3 touchdowns to earn MVP honors and Tyler had 10 catches for 116 yards and 3 touchdowns for Offensive MVP honors.

Jake was incredible just like he showed throughout his career. He was patient and went through his reads and put the ball in the right spots. That is a performance that gets overlooked at times just because that bowl game wasn't as prestigious as some of the other bowl games in K-State history. That's a game where he played out of his mind and definitely ranks up there with the top K-State quarterback bowl performances. Jake and Tyler created an expectation to perform that way. Down the stretch that season when we committed to throwing the football because we were obviously well equipped to move the ball through the air, it became expected that Jake was going to dice defenses up and was going to have success through the air.

Jake ended up being the most prolific passer in K-State history and was paired with the most prolific wide receiver in K-State history. Jake's short two-year career at K-State is significantly overlooked.

For as much as we all remember Jake and Tyler's performance in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, our defensive performance gets overlooked sometimes.

Our defense allowed just two field goals before Michigan scored its only touchdown with less than 2 minutes remaining in the game. We won 31-14 and it didn't seem that close because we dominated the first half.

I can remember the feeling in the locker room after the game was bittersweet. We had a locker room full of people who were incredibly ecstatic because that was the first bowl game K-State had won in 11 years. There was an intense amount of relief in that locker room between the coaches and the players but at the same time you had a lot of seniors who understood that this was probably the last time they'd put on a uniform. We had guys who were really important in helping us achieve so much success over the three or four years, and those guys were obviously overcome with joy but also overcome with some sadness. I can remember very vividly Tramaine and John Hubert and some of those guys being overcome with emotion because those were guys who had contributed since their freshmen year and were tremendous players but probably weren't going to get a chance at the next level.

From my perspective that bowl week was probably as fun as we had. Oddly, maybe given the fact that was the least-successful team we had in my four years as far as win-loss, I just remember the week being incredibly fun. We weren't doing anything reckless, but the group of guys really gelled late in the season, and we overcame some real adversity early on, so that was a team that really enjoyed each other. That was a really fun bowl week. It wasn't filled with the glitz and the glamor of the Fiesta Bowl or Cotton Bowl, but it was just a fun bowl week. People enjoyed themselves appropriately and that showed up on the field.

One of my favorite memories of that 2013 season came about a week before the bowl game. We were leaving for Phoenix on December 23. We weren't able to go home for Christmas. There was a huge snowstorm, so a group of about 15 or 20 of us got together at my apartment and played Nintendo 64 Mario Kart and some games and then made a late-night run to IHOP. It turned into one of my favorite nights of all time. Our team really enjoyed spending time with each other off the field and trusted and believed in each other.

It was amazing to take the field at Sun Devil Stadium because that was the only bowl game I got to play outdoors. That was probably the most fun setting we played a bowl in during my career. Obviously, AT&T Stadium and University of Phoenix Stadium and the Alamodome are incredible stadiums, but playing in Tempe, Arizona, with that backdrop of the foothills was incredible.

K-State fans showed up like they always do. It was a particularly incredible turnout that year given that we'd played two bowl games in Phoenix in one calendar year. It would've been easy for our fans to decide to sit this one out. But they showed up. It was an incredible turnout. They helped create a really strong atmosphere and obviously it's undisputed that there were substantially more K-State fans than Michigan fans at the game, which really assisted us in winning the bowl game.

The win in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl was massive.

It really created excitement for the 2014 season.

Kansas State University Athletics

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