A Different Energy

By: D. Scott Fritchen

It's 6:40 p.m. on Saturday and Kansas State senior quarterback Avery Johnson, a native of Wichita, Kansas, is surrounded by reporters after the Wildcats suffer a 35-16 defeat to No. 22 Houston at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. Nobody likes to lose, particularly a young man who's won 19 games as a Wildcat — sixth most by a K-State signal-caller in the last 36 years.

Reporters ask Johnson a myriad of questions about the Houston game.

Then somebody asks Johnson THE question.

It's about the KU game.

And there it is: KU week has officially begun.

"Them being the next opponent definitely helps because of the rivalry," Johnson says.

When K-State meets Kansas at 11:00 a.m. Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, it will be the 117^th straight year of the Sunflower Showdown — the third-longest active uninterrupted series in FBS history.

K-State has won a series-record 17 consecutive games against in-state rival Kansas and 30 of the last 35 meetings overall.

"It's just the history of it," K-State junior left tackle Ryan Howard says. "I'm in the meat of it now. It means everything. That's our job, to keep that trophy here. The teams before us have been doing that for so many years now.

"Now it's our turn to do the same thing."

K-State's last loss to KU came in a 52-21 defeat in Lawrence on November 1, 2008. Since then, nothing but purple and white.

K-State's stranglehold on the Sunflower Showdown has touched the careers of seven Kansas head coaches — Mark Mangino, Turner Gill, Charlie Weis, Clint Bowen, David Beaty, Les Miles and Lance Leipold.

Leipold, who is 29-38 in his sixth season at Kansas, has faced K-State five times, losing 35-10, 47-27, 31-27, 29-27 and 42-17.

"We know what this game is," Leipold says at his weekly news conference. "Sometimes we take it as, he doesn't care about the game, or the program doesn't care about the game. We know what the game is, we're not stupid. We know what this game is. Now, what I've done a poor job of, obviously, is not probably giving it enough credence of what it means to a lot of people outside of this building — and it does. There are a lot of bragging rights and pride that go back and forth. I don't want to minimize it.

"We understand it'll be a great environment, and we need to go play well."

On the home sideline Saturday will be Collin Klein, who beat Kansas by scores of 59-21 (2011) and 56-16 (2012) as starting quarterback at K-State, and then 47-27 (2022) and 31-27 (2023) as K-State offensive coordinator, and he now embarks upon his own journey as head coach in this rivalry game.

Where is the Governor's Cup Trophy residing during this week of preparation for the Sunflower Showdown?

"Right in the middle of the locker room," Klein replies at his weekly news conference.

Hours prior to his weekly news conference, Klein asks every player from the state of Kansas to stand up inside the Steel & Pipe Team Theatre at the Vanier Family Football Complex. Then he asks every staff member from the state of Kansas to stand as well.

"There's a lot of them in this room," Klein says. "There's been a lot of them in this room for a very, very long time. The pride that they take in this game and the rivalry is real, and that's something we've embraced for a long time.

"We understand it's going to go down to doing what it takes to win and playing winning football to win the game."

K-State is 3-2 overall and 0-2 in the Big 12 Conference following a 31-26 loss at Cincinnati and its setback against the Cougars. Kansas is 2-3 and 0-2 and suffered a 38-21 loss to No. 23 Missouri in Week 2, a 24-17 loss to Arizona State in London in Week 3, and a 41-24 loss at No. 12 Utah last Saturday.

"Every week we have to come in with the same mentality to put our head down, get better and prepare for our opponent," Howard says of K-State's mentality. "You have to rinse it, learn from it, and get back to work. We're hungry. We want to right this ship. We want it bad. We have to take it up another level.

"What we're doing right now isn't good enough."

K-State saw a 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 en route to a 31-26 win over the Wildcats. 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.

Houston 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.

This week, K-State ranks ninth in the FBS in rushing yards per carry (6.00), tied for 18^th nationally in runs of 20 or more yards (11), and rank 24^th in rushing yards per game (216.0).

"We just have to keep pushing," K-State junior running back Joe Jackson says. "We just have to stay together. We still have a whole season ahead of us. There's no reason to drop our heads or moan or divide. We can't let that happen. Whether it's KU, or whatever, that's going to be the best time to make sure things are going right. It happens to be them.

"You still have to come back to work and put this thing together."

Johnson, who will make his 32^nd career start on Saturday, is one of three active FBS quarterbacks with 6,500 passing yards and 1,500 rushing yards in a career, and he ranks second in K-State history in total offensive yards (8,376), third in passing yards (6,668), third in rushing yards by a quarterback (1,708) and first in touchdown passes (57).

This season, Johnson became the first player in K-State history to pass for 200 yards and rush for 150 more in a single game. He currently ranks 19^th nationally in total offensive yards per game (284.4), 23^rd in completions per game (20.80), and leads all FBS quarterbacks in rushing yards per carry (8.50).

Johnson is 2-0 as starting quarterback against Kansas, completing 30-of-51 passes for 484 yards and four touchdowns and no interceptions, and rushing 20 times for 84 yards and three scores on the ground in the two games — a 29-27 win in Manhattan in 2024 and a 42-17 win in Lawrence last season.

"It's such a good rivalry that it's hard not to get fired up for it, and that'll just add fuel to the fire," Johnson says. "Regardless of who we go against each week, we need to bring our own fire."

Kansas will need to bring its own fire, for sure, inside a football stadium where no Jayhawks team has won in 20 years. In its latest loss at No. 12 Utah, though, the Jayhawks rallied from a 14-point deficit to close to within three points in the fourth quarter of their 41-24 loss.

Redshirt freshman Isaiah Marshall completed 19-of-37 passes for a career-high 333 yards and two touchdowns, while junior wide receiver Cam Picket had eight catches for a career-high 134 yards.

"(Marshall) keeps getting better week in and week out, and he's creating explosive plays for them," Klein says. "It's going to be a challenge. You can see he's got really good athleticism. He extends plays and pushes the ball down the field."

Kansas forced a pair of turnovers at Utah, including a David Santiago strip-sack and an interception by Jalen Todd, which was the Jayhawks' first interception of the season.

Kansas ranks 127^th in the nation with one interception this season. K-State joins Tulane as the only teams in the nation that haven't recorded an interception this season.

"It's just making sure when we get opportunities, we take them," Klein says. "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 as far as that goes."

And there could be chaos, for sure. Although K-State's average margin of victory over Kansas in the last 17 years is 23.6 points, two of the last three meetings have been close with the Wildcats winning 31-27 in 2023 in Lawrence and 29-27 in 2024 in Manhattan.

K-State has won each of the last eight meetings in Manhattan and 15 of the last 16 dating to 1993.

"I'm sure there's points in the social media world that we got to get the tide turned on this," Leipold says. "You can remember for a lot of years I said it can't be much of a rivalry unless we hold our end up the bargain up. We haven't done that yet, and we're well aware of that, and we have to find a way to get it done on Saturday.

"I know it's important to our fan base and it should be and it's important to our football team. We're going to need great preparation to have a chance to go into their home and find a way to win a game."

It didn't take K-State junior safety Koy Beasley long to understand the significance of the Sunflower Showdown. The transfer from Miami (Ohio), who began his college career at Purdue in 2024, hails from Cincinnati, Ohio.

"The first time I got here, they talked about the rivalry," Beasley says. "I know this is really passionate — Kansas and Kansas State. I'm ready, and I can't wait to see the atmosphere Saturday."

For seasoned veterans like K-State senior cornerback Donovan McIntosh, it's pretty easy to know when KU week has arrived.

"Every time KU week comes up, the energy is different," McIntosh says. "We have to go out there and win the game. The energy is very different."

And, yes, a different energy seems to waft around Powercat Sports Grill in Manhattan when Klein takes the stage for his weekly coach's radio show with Voice of the Wildcats Wyatt Thompson on Wednesday night. Purple fills the restaurant. Lots of purple. It's packed. And everyone is listening.

"We have a lot of guys on our roster and a lot of guys on our staff that have been around this game for a very, very long time, and that's a huge deal to every one of us," Klein says. "Not playing our best football on top of that, that fire is burning pretty hot, and we're excited for that."

Thompson says, "This is a big one. Everybody knows it, and I know you're looking forward to it."

Klein replies, "Oh yeah, absolutely."

Thompson says, "Give me one really big key to handling the emotion of the game."

Klein replies, "Well, I think it's just that, it's channeling all that emotion, it's channeling all that energy that we're going to have as a team, that our guys have, that the stadium will have, all of that, and being able to channel that into detailed, winning football."

When it comes to the Sunflower Showdown rivalry, the emotion runs thick.

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Koy Beasley

Ryan Howard

Joe Jackson

Avery Johnson

Donovan McIntosh

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