K-State ultimately fell short 26-13 thanks to a dagger by Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey, but no one can say the Wildcats didn’t make a furious attempt at a comeback. Stanford head coach David Shaw is looking to lead his program to their first ever College Football Playoff berth in 2016, while Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder is looking for his program to turn it around, as he heads into his 25th year as their head coach.
Advertisement
Friday marked the beginning of Jesse Ertz’s fourth season at Kansas State, a lengthy time span in which he has often been the Wildcats’ best practice quarterback.
WACO, Texas – Seth Russell threw four touchdown passes in less than a half and No. 23 Baylor beat FCS team Northwestern State in their first game since the sudden dismissal of coach Art Briles.
Despite plenty numerous chances in the second half, Kansas State couldn’t get enough momentum to come back against No. 8 Stanford on Friday night in Stanford Stadium.
With every game there are always positives and negatives to take away from the final gun, and we learned some things about this team tonight.
“We have more talent than we’ve had in the past, and we’ve had a lot of good people in the past”, Barnett said. “We’re so much better.’ It’s not about his yards, not about his carries, it’s about our machine when we’re humming”. Ryan Burns, making his first start, looked like a star in the making, completing 14 of 18 passes for 156 yards.
“We had a lot of mental errors, a lot of things to clean up”, McCaffrey said. I counted at least three broken tackles on that first run.
McCaffrey finished second behind only Alabama running back Derrick Henry in the Heisman trophy race last season, and broke Barry Sanders’ 27-year-old NCAA single-season record in all-purpose yards in 2015.
McCaffrey finished with 126 yards rushing on 22 carries and 76 of his yards coming on his two touchdown runs. For Kansas State, it was seeing how far they had to go in a season where they have been projected to finish anywhere from the Big 12’s top three to last place. “I expect him to play his role as I expect everybody else that steps on the field to do their job and let the other guys around them do theirs”.
The defense provided most of the Stanford highlights as the game wore on, finishing with eight sacks, including a safety from a Jordan Watkins sack in the fourth quarter.
Ertz and Pringle almost connected on a deep ball in the first half when Pringle separated from his defender and got his hands on a pass thrown above his head, but he couldn’t hold on.
“There was just absolutely no consistency with us offensively”, Snyder said.
While the jump cut will get all the attention (gotta feel for that poor, helpless defender), the patience and vision displayed by McCaffrey was just as impressive. The defense was up to the task to make the lead hold but could have more trouble doing that once the Pac-12 schedule starts. Junior college transfer Byron Pringle will give a boost to a receiving group that has only one player (Deante Burton) with at least five career starts. He also caught seven passes for 40 yards.
“I loved the effort and passion”, Shaw said.
Stanford: The Cardinal are off before beginning conference play at home against No. 20 USC.
Advertisement
“We set the bar for where we are, and in two weeks it’s got to be higher”.
