Kansas State finds its stride: Wildcats secure first Big 12 win with 34-20 victory over UCF

“I'm like, ‘Here we go again,’” said Kansas State coach Chris Klieman, whose team's first four games this season had been decided by one score, and who nearly had his 58th birthday spoiled when the Knights began to mount their comeback.

“Proud of the guys to get some stops on defense after we gave up some explosive plays," Klieman said.

Tayven Jackson, who missed a chunk of the game with an injury, returned to throw for 115 yards for UCF, which had won its last 16 games under Scott Frost dating to his first tenure with the program. Myles Montgomery had 119 yards rushing.

Kansas State has never lost to UCF in three meetings.

“We fought. We just weren’t consistent enough, and that’s what we have to keep working on is not making the mistakes that hurt you,” Frost said. “We needed to be better on offense early on to keep our defense off the field.”

The Knights were rolling off a 34-9 rout of North Carolina, but Kansas State must have had plenty of time to scout them during their bye. The Wildcats shut down the UCF offense even before Jackson got hurt with 10:48 left in the first half.

Jacurri Brown entered the game and immediately threw an interception, leading to Joe Jackson's TD run and a 10-0 lead.

UCF finally got a big play moments later, when Brown hit DJ Black down the sideline. Kansas State's Wesley Fair missed a tackle, and the resulting 82-yard TD reception was the longest by a Knights player since Doug Gabriel's 83-yarder in 2001.

But the Wildcats answered with a 73-yard touchdown march, and Will Anciaux's catch gave them a 17-7 lead at the break.

“We just didn't get started as fast as we like to," Montgomery said, "and on the road in the Big 12, you have to start fast.”

Not much changed after halftime. Brown and the Knights went three-and-out to start the third quarter, and Kansas State added to the lead with another long touchdown drive. And when Jackson's surprising return sparked the UCF offense, Brown came in to run a sneak on fourth down, and the backup quarterback promptly fumbled the ball away.

Edwards added a 75-yard touchdown run later in the third quarter, helping to put the game out of UCF's reach.

K-State's injury

The Wildcats played most of the way without wide receiver Jayce Brown, who had been dealing with “something,” Klieman said, and tried to play but ultimately could not. He's their leading receiver with 25 catches for 284 yards and two scores.

Fond farewell

The Knights were playing for the first time since offensive line coach Shawn Clark died unexpectedly on Sunday. The 50-year-old Clark was hospitalized after a medical emergency on Sept. 9, but the school said last week that he had been stable.

The takeaway

UCF struggled mightily to move the ball when Jackson was out of the game. Once he returned, the ground game got going and the Knights began to resemble the offense that scored 68 points in a rout of North Carolina A&T.

Kansas State turned loose Johnson to run the ball for the first time this season, and that seemed to open up an offense that had struggled with inconsistency. The athletic QB finished with the third-best rushing total of his 26-game career.

Up next

UCF returns home to face Kansas on Saturday night.

Kansas State heads to Baylor on Saturday.

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