MANHATTEN, Kan.-Kansas State's true freshmen played "seasoned" despite their youth and showed that major college football wasn't "too big" for them in the Wildcats' season opening win, K-State head coach Chris Klieman said during his weekly news conference on Tuesday at the Vanier Family Football Complex."They were pretty seasoned for being as young as they were," Klieman said. "Their errors were more technique errors and not a lot of assignment errors, which is really encouraging that they're paying attention and learning from the older guys. Maybe it's block destruction or hand placements – whatever it may be – but I don't think the stage was too big for them as far as getting the call and executing the call."K-State, 1-0, emphatically answered the call during its 45-0 win over Southeast Missouri in its season opener. Now the Wildcats, who improved to No. 15 in the AP Top 25 poll this week, prepare to battle Troy, 1-0, which will be a tough test in Saturday's 11 a.m. kickoff at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.Just standing-room only tickets are available for the contest, which will be televised on FS1."It's a really good Troy team, a veteran team that's won a lot of ball games," Klieman said. "It'll be a great challenge for us come Saturday."
Gunnar Watson threw four touchdowns and Kimani Vidal rushed for a program-record 248 yards on 25 carries as the Trojans captured their 12th straight victory with a 48-30 win over Stephen F. Austin in their season-opening contest.Vidal, a 5-foot-8, 215-pound junior, has rushed for more than 200 yards in three of his last five games for Troy, the defending Sun Belt Champion, which hasn't lost since a 32-28 setback at Appalachian State on September 17, 2022.Troy owns the second-longest winning streak in the FBS. Georgia has won 18 straight."(They have) belief and confidence with just feeling they're always going to win," Klieman said. "When you have success, you feel like you're going to find a way to win."K-State found several ways to win in its opener.Will Howard did it all by becoming the sixth quarterback in Big 12 Conference history to pass, rush and catch a touchdown in a single game. RJ Garcia II had five catches for 119 yards and one touchdown, and All-Big 12 selection Ben Sinnott had five catches for 100 yards. DJ Giddens had 128 rushing yards.The Wildcats substituted throughout the contest.K-State played 78 total players in its opener, including 11 true freshmen."We played a lot of players, and there's nothing better than getting the experience of game reps," Klieman said. "A lot of things to learn and to teach from. We definitely played hard. We played physical. There were some technique things in all phases (to improve upon). We'll take some time over the next couple padded practices to work on some more technique things that we need to shore up a little bit, but I was pleased with the way the guys came out and played hard this first game."K-State ranks eighth in total offense (588.0 total yards) and was one of just five FBS teams to hold its opponent scoreless in Game 1."It was a solid effort," Klieman said.
Backup quarterback remains week-to-weekAvery Johnson came off the sideline late in the third quarter to get his first taste of FBS football, and the true freshman quarterback delivered a touchdown on his first drive as a Wildcat while gaining valuable experience in guiding the offense.Johnson went 3-of-4 for 55 yards and had five carries for 35 yards and one score.Asked if fans should read anything into the fact that Johnson — not redshirt freshman Jake Rubley — was the first backup quarterback to take the field, Klieman replied, "The biggest thing was a chance to have (Johnson) play and have him not come in and it's the last series of the game and hand it off three times and then you say that cost him one of this four games."Klieman's comments come from prior experience."I'll caution everybody, we thought the same thing with Will Howard, and all the sudden he plays six or seven games," Klieman said. "That's why we wanted to make sure we have a really good extensive look (at Johnson). We hope nothing happens, but if something does, it's not like, 'Well, (Johnson) handed it off for two plays, so now let's throw him into a game against Baylor or TCU or Texas, Tech,' whatever it may be, and that's why we did it that way."Klieman reminded reporters that Rubley missed some time in fall camp due to injury."Jake missed about a week of practice because he was nicked up," Klieman said. "Jake is back healthy, which we're excited about, because it gives us another option. We'll keep evaluating it on a week-to-week basis."
Treshaun Ward is an unfinished product at running backThere's still no telling what Treshaun Ward can do with the football in his hands. That's the vibe Klieman gives when he discusses the potential of the senior Florida State transfer running back, who measures 5-foot-10 and 194 pounds, and could make a sizable impact in the backfield."We're still learning, actually, as he gets better and better learning our offense," Klieman said. "I think he's comfortable outside the perimeter and he showed that. Where he's gaining more and more confidence is in between the tackles. He can be a really good start-and-stop and slashing type runner with great vision and quickness, but he just needs to see more of those plays, and part of that is practice time."Ward had 11 carries for 56 yards and a touchdown on a three-yard carry in the second quarter."I know he's going to improve just with his vision and understanding of how the blocks are being made."
Wide receiver Keagan Johnson remains uncertain for his debut with the WildcatsWhen K-State took the field for the its first possession against Southeast Missouri, the eyes of many fans likely scanned the field in search of sophomore Iowa transfer Keagan Johnson, the 6-foot, 193-pounder who has created a buzz since his arrival in Manhattan.But Johnson was nowhere to be found on the field. Turns out, he was injured.Could Johnson make his debut against Troy?"We'll find out this week," Klieman said. "He did some limited things (Monday), so we'll just have to play it as the week goes."Senior and former Ole Miss transfer Jadon Jackson got the start in place of Johnson. Jackson had two catches for 38 yards and a touchdown on a 33-yard reception from Howard in the first quarter."Jadon Jackson came in and played really well and blocked exceptionally well, which is an underrated stat, and he did a good job blocking at the point of attack and caught the big ball on the post route," Klieman said.Klieman was pleased with several other wide receivers as well."RJ Garcia was what I expected RJ to be because I'd seen it all through fall camp — a guy who can be a No. 1 receiver," Klieman said. "Phillip Brooks played well. I was excited to get the young guys in there with Tre Spivey and Jayce Brown. Seth Porter (who had been injured) will be pushed back into that rotation now as well."
The defensive secondary appeared solid in Game 1Klieman indicated that he was pleased with the defensive secondary, which featured some new faces. Sophomore Jacob Parrish started at one cornerback spot, and junior college transfer Will Lee III started at the other spot. While senior strong safety Kobe Savage returned to his starting role after suffering a season-ending injury in 2022, VJ Payne started at jack safety for the first time, and redshirt freshman Colby McCalister started at free safety.Several other defensive backs rotated into the lineup as well.Marques Sigle is expected to start at free safety after sitting out the season opener while serving a one-game suspension.K-State gave up 221 passing yards to Southeast Missouri."Jacob Parrish was really good," Klieman said. "He (played against) an excellent receiver who can play on a lot of Big 12 teams. He did a really good job on him. Will Lee, for his first game of Power 5, played really well. Keenan Garber played really well for his first game as a significant contributor where he wasn't thrown into the mix as a wide receiver the week before. Colby McCalister and Jordan Wright did some good things."Jack Fabris came in and just needs to keep learning what we're doing, but he made a great open-field tackle."Preparation continues for Troy quarterback Gunnar Watson, who needs just 300 passing yards to reach 7,000 passing yards in his career."We just need to keep giving those guys reps," Klieman said. "That's part of the reason why (Tuesday) we'll do some twos versus twos to keep working on the fundamentals of what we do offensively and defensively because we're going to need those guys. It's going to help a bunch that we get Sigle back this week so we're not going to have to play guys as many snaps."