Earning It Every Day on the Practice Field
Oct 13, 2026 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
It doesn't take much for Kansas State head coach Collin Klein and his team to get up for the Wildcats' next opponent in a challenging Big 12 Conference season.
It's always interesting whenever Kansas comes to Manhattan.
Klein was a part K-State's 17-10 victory over Kansas in 2009 during Bill Snyder's first year back on the sideline, which rolled into this current stretch of a series-record 17 consecutive victories in the Sunflower Showdown.
"I was there the year before, too," Klein said, referring to K-State's 52-21 loss at KU in 2008 during Ron Prince's last year at K-State. "The pain of that one in living it firsthand personally was real."
From the hurtful loss at KU in 2008 erupted a rebirth for K-State.
"That '09 team, we were building, and looking back to that, of how hard those guys on that team and how hard our staff worked at that time, that was a part of getting that momentum program-wide flipped moving forward to some of the things that were to come the next couple years," Klein said. "I do remember that day."
Klein, his coaching staff, players, and an expected sellout crowd will remember Saturday's outcome as well when K-State, 3-2 overall and 0-2 in the Big 12, meets Kansas, 2-3 and 0-2, in Saturday's 11:00 a.m. kickoff at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
K-State opened its Big 12 season with a 31-26 loss at Cincinnati followed by a 35-16 loss to No. 22 Houston in Manhattan. Now the Wildcats prepare for the 117th-straight year of the in-state rivalry game, which ranks as the third-longest active uninterrupted series in FBS history.
Kansas hasn't left Manhattan with a victory since a 30-24 win over K-State on October 7, 2007.
Klein seeks improvement on offense and defense in practice this week while also aiding and observing the mentality of his first squad as a head coach.
"We came in here today and the guys had a good mentality," Klein said. "Whenever you get punched in the face and face some adversity, you really find out what you're about, and who you are, and who you are as a group. I have great confidence in our character and our relationships we have in this building and in the belief of what we can become on that journey, and how that happens, and how it comes to fruition is what we're working toward every day.
"I believe in them and what we're doing and how we're doing it, and our process is good and our people are good, and when we get over that hump on the tipping point on some of these things, I believe it's going to be sooner than later. That's how they're approaching it and how we're approaching it."
K-State saw its 17-10 lead at Cincinnati evaporate and the Bearcats took a 24-17 lead on a 30-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter. This came after K-State quarterback Avery Johnson completed 30-of-50 passes for 292 yards and one touchdown, and he added six carries for 38 yards for an offense that outgained the Bearcats 446-436.
Last Saturday, K-State failed to keep pace with Houston, which used its balanced offensive attack and a staunch defensive effort in a 35-16 victory over the Wildcats. Houston amassed 242 passing yards and 233 rushing yards and possessed the ball for 34:49 with 26 first downs. The Wildcats, who trailed 21-3 at halftime, managed 299 total yards, as Johnson threw for 182 yards and two touchdowns and one interception, and the Wildcats rushed for 117 yards after entering the game with one of the most potent running attacks in the country.
"Offensively, we just couldn't stay on the field early in those first couple drives, had a couple 50-50 plays that we weren't able to make on either side of the ball that they made that set us behind and got us in a hole," Klein said. "We weren't able to crawl out of it. That was the story of the game there.
"Defensively, we weren't good at getting off the field on third down. Houston was 5-of-6 on third down and six-plus yards, and there's three 50-50 balls on third-and-long that we didn't win and couldn't get off the field."
Johnson, a senior who against Houston moved to No. 2 all-time in K-State history with 8,376 total offensive yards, became the first player in school history to reach 200 passing yards and 150 rushing yards in a single game in a 31-20 win over Tulane to wrap up the non-conference season.
Since then, Johnson has completed 46-of-80 (57.5%) of his passes for 474 yards and three touchdowns and one interception in his pair of Big 12 games, and he has 15 carries for 77 yards on the ground.
"You can tell how they've adjusted to even the schemes and out of formations and in certain calls that they're in to know where he's at, to maintain better edges, and there's no doubt," Klein said. "He's impacting the run game at times even when he's not carrying it. We had three runs over 10 yards (against Houston) and two of those were scrambles."
K-State ranks 11th in the Big 12 with 25 scrimmage plays of 20-plus yards and 13th with four plays of 40-plus yards.
"We do have to create more explosive plays on offense," Klein said. "We only had six total (against Houston), and we have to double that to be where we want. Is that a part of it? I'd contend that we have to do better for the big explosive things to happen, quarterback or offense wide, we have to be a lot better on base hits. We're throwing a lot, too many no-hitters on first and second down with some routine plays in the run game or pass game that's hurting that ability to create more explosives and also spread the football to attack with the running backs, quarterback and down the line."
Defensively, K-State ranks 23rd in total defense (291.8), 39th in scoring defense (19.2), third in pass defense (133.4), 95th in rushing defense (158.4), 12th in tackles for loss (7.6), 43rd in sacks (2.40), and 69th in third-down conversion defense (36.8%).
However, the Wildcats also rank 127th in takeaways in collecting three in five games, and they join Tulane as the only two FBS teams to not record an interception so far this season.
"It's capitalizing on those windows of opportunity when they come," Klein said. "The first two possessions last week, there were two opportunities we had the ball in our hands, the one off the tipped pass at midfield and the first or second play of the second drive, we do a great job robbing the stick route and almost has it. That's the first two possessions of the game and they would've been huge opportunities.
"Just making sure when we get them, we take them. We have to do a good job of understanding and reading run-pass keys better faster so when we read pass, we get our pass rush revved up to be able to disrupt the passer, which always will lead to more chaos."
For now, practice continues as K-State looks to improve itself while facing an all-too familiar foe on Saturday.
"The score is 0-0 right now and we have to earn it every single day this week on the practice field to leave the game Saturday how we want," Klein said. "That's where we're at."
It doesn't take much for Kansas State head coach Collin Klein and his team to get up for the Wildcats' next opponent in a challenging Big 12 Conference season.
It's always interesting whenever Kansas comes to Manhattan.
Klein was a part K-State's 17-10 victory over Kansas in 2009 during Bill Snyder's first year back on the sideline, which rolled into this current stretch of a series-record 17 consecutive victories in the Sunflower Showdown.
"I was there the year before, too," Klein said, referring to K-State's 52-21 loss at KU in 2008 during Ron Prince's last year at K-State. "The pain of that one in living it firsthand personally was real."
From the hurtful loss at KU in 2008 erupted a rebirth for K-State.
"That '09 team, we were building, and looking back to that, of how hard those guys on that team and how hard our staff worked at that time, that was a part of getting that momentum program-wide flipped moving forward to some of the things that were to come the next couple years," Klein said. "I do remember that day."
Klein, his coaching staff, players, and an expected sellout crowd will remember Saturday's outcome as well when K-State, 3-2 overall and 0-2 in the Big 12, meets Kansas, 2-3 and 0-2, in Saturday's 11:00 a.m. kickoff at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
K-State opened its Big 12 season with a 31-26 loss at Cincinnati followed by a 35-16 loss to No. 22 Houston in Manhattan. Now the Wildcats prepare for the 117th-straight year of the in-state rivalry game, which ranks as the third-longest active uninterrupted series in FBS history.
Kansas hasn't left Manhattan with a victory since a 30-24 win over K-State on October 7, 2007.
Klein seeks improvement on offense and defense in practice this week while also aiding and observing the mentality of his first squad as a head coach.
"We came in here today and the guys had a good mentality," Klein said. "Whenever you get punched in the face and face some adversity, you really find out what you're about, and who you are, and who you are as a group. I have great confidence in our character and our relationships we have in this building and in the belief of what we can become on that journey, and how that happens, and how it comes to fruition is what we're working toward every day.
"I believe in them and what we're doing and how we're doing it, and our process is good and our people are good, and when we get over that hump on the tipping point on some of these things, I believe it's going to be sooner than later. That's how they're approaching it and how we're approaching it."
K-State saw its 17-10 lead at Cincinnati evaporate and the Bearcats took a 24-17 lead on a 30-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter. This came after K-State quarterback Avery Johnson completed 30-of-50 passes for 292 yards and one touchdown, and he added six carries for 38 yards for an offense that outgained the Bearcats 446-436.
Last Saturday, K-State failed to keep pace with Houston, which used its balanced offensive attack and a staunch defensive effort in a 35-16 victory over the Wildcats. Houston amassed 242 passing yards and 233 rushing yards and possessed the ball for 34:49 with 26 first downs. The Wildcats, who trailed 21-3 at halftime, managed 299 total yards, as Johnson threw for 182 yards and two touchdowns and one interception, and the Wildcats rushed for 117 yards after entering the game with one of the most potent running attacks in the country.
"Offensively, we just couldn't stay on the field early in those first couple drives, had a couple 50-50 plays that we weren't able to make on either side of the ball that they made that set us behind and got us in a hole," Klein said. "We weren't able to crawl out of it. That was the story of the game there.
"Defensively, we weren't good at getting off the field on third down. Houston was 5-of-6 on third down and six-plus yards, and there's three 50-50 balls on third-and-long that we didn't win and couldn't get off the field."
Johnson, a senior who against Houston moved to No. 2 all-time in K-State history with 8,376 total offensive yards, became the first player in school history to reach 200 passing yards and 150 rushing yards in a single game in a 31-20 win over Tulane to wrap up the non-conference season.
Since then, Johnson has completed 46-of-80 (57.5%) of his passes for 474 yards and three touchdowns and one interception in his pair of Big 12 games, and he has 15 carries for 77 yards on the ground.
"You can tell how they've adjusted to even the schemes and out of formations and in certain calls that they're in to know where he's at, to maintain better edges, and there's no doubt," Klein said. "He's impacting the run game at times even when he's not carrying it. We had three runs over 10 yards (against Houston) and two of those were scrambles."
K-State ranks 11th in the Big 12 with 25 scrimmage plays of 20-plus yards and 13th with four plays of 40-plus yards.
"We do have to create more explosive plays on offense," Klein said. "We only had six total (against Houston), and we have to double that to be where we want. Is that a part of it? I'd contend that we have to do better for the big explosive things to happen, quarterback or offense wide, we have to be a lot better on base hits. We're throwing a lot, too many no-hitters on first and second down with some routine plays in the run game or pass game that's hurting that ability to create more explosives and also spread the football to attack with the running backs, quarterback and down the line."
Defensively, K-State ranks 23rd in total defense (291.8), 39th in scoring defense (19.2), third in pass defense (133.4), 95th in rushing defense (158.4), 12th in tackles for loss (7.6), 43rd in sacks (2.40), and 69th in third-down conversion defense (36.8%).
However, the Wildcats also rank 127th in takeaways in collecting three in five games, and they join Tulane as the only two FBS teams to not record an interception so far this season.
"It's capitalizing on those windows of opportunity when they come," Klein said. "The first two possessions last week, there were two opportunities we had the ball in our hands, the one off the tipped pass at midfield and the first or second play of the second drive, we do a great job robbing the stick route and almost has it. That's the first two possessions of the game and they would've been huge opportunities.
"Just making sure when we get them, we take them. We have to do a good job of understanding and reading run-pass keys better faster so when we read pass, we get our pass rush revved up to be able to disrupt the passer, which always will lead to more chaos."
For now, practice continues as K-State looks to improve itself while facing an all-too familiar foe on Saturday.
"The score is 0-0 right now and we have to earn it every single day this week on the practice field to leave the game Saturday how we want," Klein said. "That's where we're at."
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