Oct 23, 2026 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Kansas State saw its passion and hard work translate to its biggest win yet under head coach Collin Klein with an emotional triumph over Kansas in Manhattan.
Now the Wildcats seek another accomplishment — their first victory on the road — as they visit Arizona State in a 2:45 p.m. (CT) kickoff on Saturday at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.
"There's a big challenge for us at Arizona State," Klein said. "It's a very talented group. We have to play well on the road and put our best foot forward."
K-State's first meeting against Arizona State in Tempe since 1989 comes as the Sun Devils, who are 14-6 at home in four seasons under head coach Kenny Dillingham, have dropped two of their last three contests overall, and will try to capture their first home win this year over a Power 4 team.
The Wildcats, 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12 Conference, come off a 35-24 win over Kansas last Saturday after losses at Cincinnati and against No. 22 Houston to open the league season. The Sun Devils, 3-3 and 1-2, beat Kansas, 24-17, in London, England, but they have lost their last two league games with a 55-19 defeat to Baylor and a 53-25 loss at No. 10 Texas Tech last Saturday.
"Our team does not handle adversity great," Dillingham said. "We have to learn to get hit in the chin and get back up. Right now, we're getting hit in the chin and laying down. These guys do fight, but we're not playing our best football after we get hit. We have to learn to get hit and still play our best football. and that's not happening."
K-State absorbed an early punch by Kansas, which took a 17-7 lead into the second quarter, but the Wildcats responded by racking up 568 total offensive yards, including 359 rushing yards, and used seven plays of more than 20 yards to deliver a knockout blow and hand the Jayhawks their 18th-straight loss in the series.
"Looking at the film was very motivating in a lot of ways," Klein said. "The potential and opportunity to build off and improve a lot of the positive things that happened are definitely there in all three phases. Our guys' ability to push through the ebbs and flows of the game was something we hadn't done to date. That's one thing I was very, very proud and excited about, was just the resiliency and the ability to continue to battle, and to play with passion and energy no matter if things were going well or bad."
Things appear to be solid for a K-State offense that ranks 16th in the FBS with 464.6 total offensive yards per game, and that boasts the sixth-best rushing attack in the country with 239.8 yards on the ground.
"We have some gashes in there with a lot of different families of schemes and get some vertical cuts that create some explosive plays," Klein said. "You look at how hard Rodney Fields Jr. and Joe Jackson run, and they have a mindset about it and have good vision but yet still are very aggressive in hitting the hole hard. That puts a lot of strain on the defense."
That could present a challenge for an Arizona State defense that ranks 120th in the FBS in allowing 32.0 points per game, including 41.7 points against Big 12 foes — next to last among Big 12 defenses in league games.
Arizona State also ranks 90th in allowing 373.2 total yards and 93rd in giving up 156.8 rushing yards per contest. Most troubling to Dillingham? That Arizona State ranks next-to-last in surrendering 227.7 rushing yards in Big 12 games this season after ranking No. 2 in the Big 12 in giving up just 125.1 rushing yards in conference contests a year ago.
"Stopping the run and running the ball is something we've done really well the last two years," Dillingham said. "We're not stopping the run, and we're not running the ball really well. I thought we had a physical camp, but obviously not physical enough. That's the number one thing. That includes tackling and blocking and the fundamentals of the game to get you to run the ball and stop the run. We're not doing that at a high enough level. That's something we've hung our hat on and the primary thing we've struggled with."
While K-State's quarterback situation remains unclear for Saturday, Arizona State's quarterback situation appears murky as well.
Cutter Boley, a Kentucky transfer who was named starting quarterback for Week 1, threw for 387 yards for the most passing yardage in history by an Arizona State quarterback in his first appearance, while his six touchdown passes tied for second most in school history. But Dillingham benched Boley last Saturday after he threw two interceptions, including a pick-six, at Texas Tech.
Mikey Keene started the second half at Texas Tech and completed 25-of-34 passing for 256 yards and two touchdowns. Keene, a native of Chandler, Arizona, and a sixth-year senior who previously played at Michigan, Fresno State and UCF, entered the season with 8,245 passing yards with 65 touchdowns and 23 interceptions and ranks among the top 10 quarterbacks in the nation in most active career passing statistics.
Dillingham has been mum on discussing his quarterback situation this week.
"I'm not really going to get into that in great detail," he said. "I have a lot of confidence in both those guys, and conference opponent, I'm not going to get into much detail about that, if at all, or any detail, sorry."
Dillingham added: "There was some good and there was some bad (by the quarterbacks last Saturday) and there were a lot of things I could do better with in getting our guys into position to be successful. There's a lot of room for us to get better."
Klein said: "We're going to be prepared for both."
Whoever starts at quarterback will face a staunch K-State unit that ranks 24th in the FBS and third in the Big 12 in allowing just 296.3 total yards of offense, and that is one of seven Big 12 teams to allow 20 or fewer points per game. The biggest problem for an Arizona State passing attack that ranks 23rd in the nation with 276.7 yards per game will come against a K-State pass defense that ranks third in the nation — tops in the Big 12 by 35.0 yards — in giving up just 136.3 yards per game. K-State also ranks fifth in the Big 12 with 2.2 sacks and 12th nationally with 7.5 tackles for loss per contest.
"We just have to stay hungry," K-State sophomore nickelback JoJo Scott said. "The Big 12 on the road is always going to be hard with different environments. We have to go there and do what we've been doing, keep working and taking it day by day and we're going to shock a lot of people. We're learning each game and we fix things. We're going to be special."
Dillingham looks for signs of improvement from the Sun Devils on Saturday, pleading for the players on his squad to "keep showing up" each week.
"We have six games left," he said. "Let's show up and work really hard and see what happens. And let's do it the next day. It doesn't guarantee you success, but it has a higher percentage than not showing up. Let's keep showing up with an attitude and go to work and see what happens. It's amazing what you can accomplish that nobody thinks is possible. That's my mindset. I'm not going to be down.
"Once our team tastes the momentum, we can do what I thought we could do from the beginning. We haven't tasted it yet. We have to taste it to get momentum. We have to find a way to create that momentum, and I have to find a way to create that momentum."
K-State seems to seethe with momentum coming off its latest victory to claim ownership once again in the Sunflower State.
"There was a lot of investment poured into that game by staff and players and emotions were very, very high," Klein said. "There's a natural tendency when you accomplish something and do something well to expend a lot of energy like that to relax and take a deep breath. We have to fight that tooth and nail because it's a one-week season, and that's how we have to look at it, and nothing we've done in the past is going to affect that."
However, the spring and fall practice and the first six weeks of the season have culminated in K-State's latest opportunity — a road win at Arizona State for the first time in history.
"We have a lot of energy for Arizona State coming off the win," Scott said. "We've prepared so much over the spring and fall and in playing four quarters of hard football. The season is going by fast with this already being game six.
"We just keep stacking days every week."
Kansas State saw its passion and hard work translate to its biggest win yet under head coach Collin Klein with an emotional triumph over Kansas in Manhattan.
Now the Wildcats seek another accomplishment — their first victory on the road — as they visit Arizona State in a 2:45 p.m. (CT) kickoff on Saturday at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.
"There's a big challenge for us at Arizona State," Klein said. "It's a very talented group. We have to play well on the road and put our best foot forward."
K-State's first meeting against Arizona State in Tempe since 1989 comes as the Sun Devils, who are 14-6 at home in four seasons under head coach Kenny Dillingham, have dropped two of their last three contests overall, and will try to capture their first home win this year over a Power 4 team.
The Wildcats, 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12 Conference, come off a 35-24 win over Kansas last Saturday after losses at Cincinnati and against No. 22 Houston to open the league season. The Sun Devils, 3-3 and 1-2, beat Kansas, 24-17, in London, England, but they have lost their last two league games with a 55-19 defeat to Baylor and a 53-25 loss at No. 10 Texas Tech last Saturday.
"Our team does not handle adversity great," Dillingham said. "We have to learn to get hit in the chin and get back up. Right now, we're getting hit in the chin and laying down. These guys do fight, but we're not playing our best football after we get hit. We have to learn to get hit and still play our best football. and that's not happening."
K-State absorbed an early punch by Kansas, which took a 17-7 lead into the second quarter, but the Wildcats responded by racking up 568 total offensive yards, including 359 rushing yards, and used seven plays of more than 20 yards to deliver a knockout blow and hand the Jayhawks their 18th-straight loss in the series.
"Looking at the film was very motivating in a lot of ways," Klein said. "The potential and opportunity to build off and improve a lot of the positive things that happened are definitely there in all three phases. Our guys' ability to push through the ebbs and flows of the game was something we hadn't done to date. That's one thing I was very, very proud and excited about, was just the resiliency and the ability to continue to battle, and to play with passion and energy no matter if things were going well or bad."
Things appear to be solid for a K-State offense that ranks 16th in the FBS with 464.6 total offensive yards per game, and that boasts the sixth-best rushing attack in the country with 239.8 yards on the ground.
"We have some gashes in there with a lot of different families of schemes and get some vertical cuts that create some explosive plays," Klein said. "You look at how hard Rodney Fields Jr. and Joe Jackson run, and they have a mindset about it and have good vision but yet still are very aggressive in hitting the hole hard. That puts a lot of strain on the defense."
That could present a challenge for an Arizona State defense that ranks 120th in the FBS in allowing 32.0 points per game, including 41.7 points against Big 12 foes — next to last among Big 12 defenses in league games.
Arizona State also ranks 90th in allowing 373.2 total yards and 93rd in giving up 156.8 rushing yards per contest. Most troubling to Dillingham? That Arizona State ranks next-to-last in surrendering 227.7 rushing yards in Big 12 games this season after ranking No. 2 in the Big 12 in giving up just 125.1 rushing yards in conference contests a year ago.
"Stopping the run and running the ball is something we've done really well the last two years," Dillingham said. "We're not stopping the run, and we're not running the ball really well. I thought we had a physical camp, but obviously not physical enough. That's the number one thing. That includes tackling and blocking and the fundamentals of the game to get you to run the ball and stop the run. We're not doing that at a high enough level. That's something we've hung our hat on and the primary thing we've struggled with."
While K-State's quarterback situation remains unclear for Saturday, Arizona State's quarterback situation appears murky as well.
Cutter Boley, a Kentucky transfer who was named starting quarterback for Week 1, threw for 387 yards for the most passing yardage in history by an Arizona State quarterback in his first appearance, while his six touchdown passes tied for second most in school history. But Dillingham benched Boley last Saturday after he threw two interceptions, including a pick-six, at Texas Tech.
Mikey Keene started the second half at Texas Tech and completed 25-of-34 passing for 256 yards and two touchdowns. Keene, a native of Chandler, Arizona, and a sixth-year senior who previously played at Michigan, Fresno State and UCF, entered the season with 8,245 passing yards with 65 touchdowns and 23 interceptions and ranks among the top 10 quarterbacks in the nation in most active career passing statistics.
Dillingham has been mum on discussing his quarterback situation this week.
"I'm not really going to get into that in great detail," he said. "I have a lot of confidence in both those guys, and conference opponent, I'm not going to get into much detail about that, if at all, or any detail, sorry."
Dillingham added: "There was some good and there was some bad (by the quarterbacks last Saturday) and there were a lot of things I could do better with in getting our guys into position to be successful. There's a lot of room for us to get better."
Klein said: "We're going to be prepared for both."
Whoever starts at quarterback will face a staunch K-State unit that ranks 24th in the FBS and third in the Big 12 in allowing just 296.3 total yards of offense, and that is one of seven Big 12 teams to allow 20 or fewer points per game. The biggest problem for an Arizona State passing attack that ranks 23rd in the nation with 276.7 yards per game will come against a K-State pass defense that ranks third in the nation — tops in the Big 12 by 35.0 yards — in giving up just 136.3 yards per game. K-State also ranks fifth in the Big 12 with 2.2 sacks and 12th nationally with 7.5 tackles for loss per contest.
"We just have to stay hungry," K-State sophomore nickelback JoJo Scott said. "The Big 12 on the road is always going to be hard with different environments. We have to go there and do what we've been doing, keep working and taking it day by day and we're going to shock a lot of people. We're learning each game and we fix things. We're going to be special."
Dillingham looks for signs of improvement from the Sun Devils on Saturday, pleading for the players on his squad to "keep showing up" each week.
"We have six games left," he said. "Let's show up and work really hard and see what happens. And let's do it the next day. It doesn't guarantee you success, but it has a higher percentage than not showing up. Let's keep showing up with an attitude and go to work and see what happens. It's amazing what you can accomplish that nobody thinks is possible. That's my mindset. I'm not going to be down.
"Once our team tastes the momentum, we can do what I thought we could do from the beginning. We haven't tasted it yet. We have to taste it to get momentum. We have to find a way to create that momentum, and I have to find a way to create that momentum."
K-State seems to seethe with momentum coming off its latest victory to claim ownership once again in the Sunflower State.
"There was a lot of investment poured into that game by staff and players and emotions were very, very high," Klein said. "There's a natural tendency when you accomplish something and do something well to expend a lot of energy like that to relax and take a deep breath. We have to fight that tooth and nail because it's a one-week season, and that's how we have to look at it, and nothing we've done in the past is going to affect that."
However, the spring and fall practice and the first six weeks of the season have culminated in K-State's latest opportunity — a road win at Arizona State for the first time in history.
"We have a lot of energy for Arizona State coming off the win," Scott said. "We've prepared so much over the spring and fall and in playing four quarters of hard football. The season is going by fast with this already being game six.
"We just keep stacking days every week."
Players Mentioned
Thursday, October 22
Wednesday, October 21
Wednesday, October 21
Wednesday, October 21
