Game Rewind: Texas-Kansas State last year
For Texas-Kansas State, the circumstances are not much different this season than they were in 2013. Last year, the Longhorns was coming off two blowout losses to BYU and Ole Miss. Texas needed a win to stop the bleeding and right the ship.
The story this season has a familiar ring. Texas (3-4) needs a win to improve its chances of playing in a bowl game. Charlie Strong may want to take a page from Mack Brown’s last game plan against the Wildcats.
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The Longhorns used a balanced attack to grab an early 10-0 lead after one quarter. Johnathan Gray and Malcolm Brown combined for 43 yards and David Ash completed seven passes, highlighted by a 63-yard strike to Kendall Sanders. Texas ran 24 plays in the first quarter, including an 18-play drive that resulted in an Anthony Fera field goal.
A 21-yard Gray run pushed the lead to 17-0 in the second quarter. Gray had 57 of Texas’ 76 yards on the drive. The Wildcats simply couldn’t contain the slippery back.
Controlling the clock meant Kansas State’s offense couldn’t get going. The quarterback duo of Daniel Sams and Jake Waters struggled early against a beleaguered Longhorn defense. It wasn’t until late in second quarter that the Wildcats got on the board. A couple of Waters-to-Tyler Lockett passes set up a John Hubert 15-yard touchdown run.
Kansas State took the second-half kickoff and marched into Texas territory. A Hubert fumble, however, stopped the drive. Gray pushed the lead to 24-7 with a 15-yard scamper. He touched the ball on six of Texas’ seven plays on the drive. The series was engineered by backup quarterback Case McCoy, who replaced Ash after the starter was knocked out of the game with concussion symptoms. It would be the last time fans saw Ash in 2013.
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In the fourth quarter, Kansas State trimmed the lead to 24-14 with a 4-yard touchdown run by Hubert. McCoy countered the Kansas State score by taking Texas on an 11-play, 55 yard drive, capped by a 1-yard Brown score.
Waters answered the Longhorns score with a 1-yard score of his own. Waters and Lockett combined for 44 yards on the drive.
After a defensive stop, the Wildcats put together a nice drive to potentially close the Texas lead to one possession. Waters found Lockett for 52 yards to get Kansas State down to the Texas 11. Two plays later, Waters fumbled on a scramble. Dalton Santos recovered the fumble and Kansas State never threatened again.
Gray was outstanding – he had 141 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries. Texas had 227 yards rushing on 47 carries. Ash and McCoy combined for 225 yards passing. You would be hard-pressed to be more balanced than that.
Lockett paced Kansas State with 13 receptions for 237 yards. Waters finished with 275 yards passing.
If Texas hopes to pull off the upset today and win in Manhattan for the first time in 12 years, it may want to take a page from the 2013 game and run Gray and Brown extensively. It proved to be a winning formula.