Focused on the Next Opponent - Kansas State University Athletics

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Kansas State head coach Collin Klein refers to the Wildcats' plight as "a thousand little cuts" after their recent heartbreak — a 27-24 overtime loss at Colorado — marked their fourth loss in five Big 12 Conference games this season.

"You go back through it, and we're bleeding out right now over a thousand little cuts and we have to get them shored up and we have to do it right now," Klein said at his weekly news conference. "We're making the same mistakes over and over again, and that's not going to work."

K-State dropped to 4-4 overall and 1-4 in the Big 12, and it remains winless on the road after the Buffaloes scored on an 11-yard touchdown pass in the first overtime period at Folsom Field to snap a five-game losing streak, which was the second-longest active losing streak in the FBS entering the day.

"I told our guys where we're at as a 4-4 football team right now, there are things we have to learn and get better at — myself first and foremost, our staff, and our players — and when you're facing times like this with adversity and going through things like this and learning lessons the hard way, that's a tremendous opportunity," Klein said.

"If our record was better, do we learn some of these lessons and build this foundation the right way?" Klein continued. "Maybe, I hope we do, and we should, and I'd rather learn with a few more wins – don't get that twisted one bit – however, if we learn them and we truly take advantage of where we're at and the hand we've been dealt, it can be a great thing for this year's team and for our program, and that's where the focus is, and that's where we're going to put our mind and effort because it is completely in our control in how we operate on a daily basis."

K-State's struggles come as the Big 12 enjoys one of its best and competitively toughest campaigns in its 30-year history. The league features five teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll in No. 3 Utah, No. 7 BYU, No. 13 Texas Tech, No. 17 Houston and No. 24 Arizona, and stands a legitimate chance of putting two teams into the College Football Playoff for the first time in 2026.

"It's what we said at the beginning of the year," Klein said. "The margins are always thin. I mean, it's going to come down to a possession here and there with every team and there's not a team that can't beat you, and there's not a team you can't beat. That's the exciting part, the excruciating part, and that's the motivation to make sure we do and handle things the right way so we're on the right end of it."

A total of 20 out of 40 conference games in the Big 12 have been decided by 10 or fewer points this season. The home Big 12 team is 16-3 in conference games decided by 10 or fewer points while Arizona State beat Kansas 24-17 in London.

K-State has suffered two such close shaves, as it opened the Big 12 season with a 31-26 loss at Cincinnati and now comes off the 3-point defeat to Colorado in Boulder.

Klein laments the close calls that haven't gone in the Wildcats' favor.

"Obviously, there have been one-score games on the road and through different circumstances, and we haven't been good in those situations," Klein said. "From a mentality standpoint, a competitive nature standpoint, and a mental toughness standpoint, we have to take a step forward. We can't wait for someone to hand you the game or to make a play, we have to have the mindset across the board of, 'I'm going to make the play, I'm going to do my job when it all counts and when it's all on the line,' and make it happen, because it's not going to happen otherwise."

Klein's comments come as the first-year head coach and one of the finest signal-callers in Big 12 history — a 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist — grapples with the sudden and excruciating loss of personnel at a position dear to him for nearly 20 years.

In a span of weeks, Klein has seen K-State lose star senior quarterback Avery Johnson, the all-time leader in total offensive yards and passing touchdowns, to an undisclosed injury. Then Klein lost gutty fifth-year quarterback in Jacob Knuth to ankle sprains. At Colorado, Klein rolled out sophomore Dillon Duff for his first career start before junior Blake Barnett replaced him late in the first quarter and fired three touchdown passes in the first real action of his three-year career with the Wildcats.

"I've been through some crazy quarterback situations, and I've not seen one like this before," Klein said. "I credit every one of those guys in that room because every one of those guys have faced some real stuff and not easy stuff through the last 10 weeks. They've battled with each other and had each other's back, and we're overcoming it in some ways because of that. We have to get better and there's more we can do and we still left things on the table where we could even be better."

Asked whether Johnson might play at some point the rest of the season, Klein replied, "There's an outside chance, but as this thing goes, it's probably looking longer than not."

As for whether Knuth could be available to play this week, Klein said, "Probably trending not."

Klein says that he is going with Barnett as starting quarterback when K-State faces Oklahoma State, 5-3 and 3-2, in Saturday's noon kickoff at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Barnett, who saw action in four games last year but never attempted a pass, came off the sideline at Colorado to complete 18-of-28 passes for 224 yards and three touchdowns to go along with 16 carries for 40 yards.

"Blake came in and gave us a spark," Klein said. "I want to say this too: it was a part of the plan all along for Blake to get into the game in that fourth or fifth possession, so it wasn't necessarily a reactionary move with Dillon. They both knew that going into the game. That was a part of the plan, although with the spark Blake gave and the way the game played it was obvious that we stayed with it with how he was playing and how the ball was starting to move better."

However, human nature dictates that it's simply incredibly tough to lose the team captain who is also one of the best quarterbacks in school history — a situation that the Wildcats have been forced to work through for these past several weeks.

"There's definitely reality when you lose your leader and best player like that, that has an effect, and that's real, and we've all felt that," Klein said. "However, it's a team game, and it's not just one person, and even with that adversity we've had opportunities and chances to overcome, and we haven't been able to get on the right side of that enough. The message to every other guy in that quarterback room is no different than losing a player in another room, and that is that we believe in everybody in that room in trying to prepare and develop every player in the program, so when the moment comes, they're ready to go and that they're going to answer the bell for their teammates.

"It's a real dynamic and a thing that all our players have felt and that we've felt as a staff. Our heart breaks for Avery and him obviously going through this, too, but at the end of the day, it's a team game, and we have to be better collectively to get to where we want to go."

After Oklahoma State, K-State finishes out its regular season at TCU, against Arizona, and at Iowa State. K-State must win two of the next four games to reach six wins, which would guarantee the Wildcats a bowl berth.

Asked about the prospect of participating in a bowl, Klein said, "I want to win every game that we freaking play the rest of the year, and that's where we're at, what we're working toward, and at the end of the year we'll get what we earned, and that's where our mindset is right now."

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Players Mentioned

Blake Barnett

Dillon Duff

Avery Johnson

Jacob Knuth

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