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By D. Scott Fritchen
NEW ORLEANS, La. – Kansas State players headed to edge of the Yulman Stadium seating to celebrate with their fans and Chris Klieman said into an ESPN camera that “our culture won this.” The sweat that poured from the bill of the ballcap of the K-State head coach certainly epitomized the white-knuckled ride shared throughout Wildcat Nation on Saturday.
In one of the wildest finishes in recent memory, No. 17 Kansas State, 2-0, pulled out a 34-27 victory at Tulane, 1-1, at a stunned Yulman Stadium in New Orleans.
“It means a lot just coming on the road my first season as a starter and getting a win in a tough environment down here,” said K-State sophomore quarterback Avery Johnson, who completed 15-of-23 passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns and added eight carries for 40 yards. “Tulane is a really good team. It was a gritty game. We went through a lot of adversity. For me to be able to come down and be back against the wall on the road and have to put my big-boy shoes on and grit through it, I couldn’t let the whole environment get to me and I had to play my game and trust the guys I’m playing with.
“Ultimately, we came out with the win. That’s what we came here to do.”
K-State posted its go-ahead score in dramatic fashion on a 60-yard fumble return from Jack Fabris that gave the Wildcats their lead with 8 minutes, 13 seconds left in the fourth quarter, then VJ Payne effectively ended the game when he intercepted dangerous Tulane quarterback Dorian Mensah in the end zone with 5 seconds remaining, giving K-State revenge after Tulane posted a 17-10 win in Manhattan in 2022.
In a game that was touted as a matchup between two of college football’s more exciting quarterbacks in Johnson and Mensah, it was K-State’s special teams and defense that stole the show in crunch time — a nod to the notion that K-State spent the offseason building a complete team with aspirations of reaching a Big 12 Championship and more in the 2024 season.
Non-offensive touchdowns have been a staple for K-State for more than two decades, and few might’ve been more dramatic than when linebacker Austin Romaine knocked the ball from Mensah and Fabris had the presence of mind to scoop up the ball and race more than half the football field into the end zone. K-State has now recorded 133 non-offensive touchdowns since 1999, which leads the FBS.
“I just saw open field, and my sixth sense took over to scoop and score,” Fabris said. “We work on that every week in practice. It was just instinct thing, and I picked it up and ran my tail off to make sure nobody chased me down to the end zone.”
The defense, which failed to force a takeaway in its season opener, came alive as Payne intercepted a pass intended for wide receiver Yulkeith Brown in the end zone with 5 seconds left to preserve the Wildcats’ first-ever victory in the state of Louisiana. The defense, victimized in the first half, clamped down in holding Tulane out of the end zone four straight times inside the 17-yard line on its final drive.
“We made enough plays,” K-State head coach Chris Klieman said. “I don’t think we played our best football. Tulane is a good football team. Their quarterback is the real deal. This is a good, big win for us.”
K-State had some big performances as well, as junior running back DJ Giddens had 19 carries for 114 yards and added four catches for 63 yards and one touchdown. Giddens has now rushed for 100 yards in six-straight games, which is tied for the third-longest streak in K-State history. Johnson, in his third career start at quarterback but his first in a true road game, fired a 45-yard touchdown pass to Giddens on fourth down in the third quarter for the longest completion of his career. Romaine had a career-high eight tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble.
K-State has scored at least 28 points in 10 straight games — its longest streak since the 2002 and 2003 seasons.
The win was particularly satisfying for K-State players after the plight they faced in the first road game of the season. They trailed 20-10 at halftime. Inside the locker room, they didn’t point fingers. Instead, they grew tighter.
“Halftime, it wasn’t really a challenge, it was just guys saying, ‘We can play better,’” Klieman said. “The leaders really took ownership. Then we started to make some plays and got the momentum.”
Added sixth-year senior defensive end Brendan Mott: “Halftime in the locker room was something special, just looking around talking to dudes. It wasn’t just one person. It was every section, man. Everyone was pumping each other up and getting each other going. That was a culture win. That was everyone in that locker room stepping up and doing everything we could to get the W.”
Their special culture and bond carried them undaunted through the final two quarters.
K-State tied the score at 20-20 in thrilling fashion when Johnson on fourth-and-1 found Giddens running all alone behind the Tulane defense for a 45-yard touchdown with 2:26 left in the third quarter. K-State hadn’t had a gain of longer than 17 yards before Giddens caught the ball at the 23 and raced down the sideline for longest scoring play by either team.
Conversely, Tulane recorded its first first down of the second half with 10 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The first down came when Mensah hit wide receiver Mario Williams for a 47-yard gain. But Mensah suffered an apparent leg cramp following a sack by Mott, forcing Mensah to sit out one play. When Mensah returned, he immediately fired a 13-yard touchdown pass to Alex Bauman for a 27-20 lead.
The Green Wave didn’t lead for long, as Johnson’s 33-yard pass to Keagan Johnson and three runs by Giddens set up a 13-yard touchdown run by Dylan Edwards through the heart of the defense. Suddenly the teams were tied 27-27.
“We got the thing tied at 20, then they go up seven, and we answered really quickly, which was huge,” Klieman said. “We were kind of wearing them down with the pass rush. Then Austin Romaine got the strip and Jack picked it up.”
That set up the nail-biting nerves — and ensuing elation that the Wildcats might use to help fuel their preparation in a big Friday night game against Arizona on Friday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
“It’s just going to prepare us as we continued to go down the season,” Johnson said. “We’ve battled some adversity today, but we were able to get through it and ultimately come out with the win and that’s what we look to do each week.”
It was a fight in the first half, as Tulane drove into K-State territory on all six of its possessions, scoring two touchdowns and two field goals while Mensah in his second career start proved undaunted against the Wildcats’ defense, firing long passes to wide-open pass catchers and handing off to star running back Makhi Hughes, who scored the game’s first touchdown on a 3-yard rush with 49 seconds left in the first quarter.
Mensah went 19-of-29 passing for 342 yards and two touchdowns and one interception. Hughes had 21 carries for 128 yards and one score. Williams had six catches for 128 yards in the game.
K-State trailed by as many as 14-3 when Mensah in play-action found a wide-open tight end Alex Bauman down the left sideline for a 36-yard touchdown with 13:17 left in the second quarter.
The Wildcats responded with their best drive of the first half — a 6-play, 75-yard jaunt that ended when Johnson rolled left and threw across his body to a diving Will Swanson in the back of the end zone with 10:16 until halftime.
However, K-State failed to threaten the rest of the second quarter. The defense stiffened, though, as the Green Wave settled for a pair of Jacob Barnes field goals of 40 and 41 yards in the final 5 minutes to take a 20-10 lead into the locker room.
K-State had a decidedly uphill battle. The Wildcats were outgained 291-196 in the first half and allowed pass completions of 53, 37, 36 and 28 yards.
Then things clicked in the second half.
“We pressured the quarterback,” Klieman said. “We had five sacks and some pressures and forced him into some bad throws. We had to. We couldn’t sit there in zone. We had to bring it, and we played some good man coverage.
“Great resolve by our guys. We didn’t play very well in the first half.”
It’s the second half that K-State coaches, players and fans won’t soon forget.
“This is a big win for us,” Klieman said. “This is a culture win.”
