It may not have been very convincing, but its a win, and the Wildcats will take it. Kansas State improved to 4-0 on the season with a 17-13 victory over the University of Central Florida in a game that featured a 1 hour and 26 minute weather delay early in the first quarter. Unfortunately the lightning in the air did not translate to many sparks on the field for K-State who struggled offensively the entire game, amassing 2 yards of offense in the first quarter and outgained 170-43 at halftime. The Wildcats did not cross into Central Florida territory until their final drive of the third quarter.
Opportunely for Kansas State, quarterback Carson Coffman came through in the clutch leading them on a game winning touchdown drive capped off by his 7 yard scramble for the end zone with 24 seconds left. The drive started with 5 minutes and 14 seconds remaining after UCF took the lead with a field goal. Coffman began the drive with two incompletions leaving many Cats fans to undoubtedly assume his poor play would continue as he looked incompetent throughout the game up to that point. Coffman then called timeout and executed one of three third down conversions on the drive with an 18 yard strike to Andre McDonald. As K-State moved into field goal range Coffman took the conservative route, handing the ball off to Daniel Thomas 5 times and completing 2 passes before getting into the end zone.
Coffman finished the day with 189 yards passing completing 11 of 22 for 1 touchdown and 1 interception. His performance may have been enough to get by the Knights, a Conference USA opponent, but he will need a much more productive outing if the Cats hope to compete with the powerhouse Nebraska Cornhuskers who travel to Manhattan a week from Thursday for an ESPN primetime matchup. Running back Daniel Thomas will need to be a bigger factor against the Huskers as well after carrying the ball 22 times for a season-low 76 yards. The Wildcats finished the game with 272 yards of total offense, 11 first downs and 3 turnovers.
Fortunately for the Cats they were bailed out by a couple of timely interceptions and another impressive performance from their defense. Emmanuel Lamur picked off a pass in the red zone in the second quarter and Terrance Sweeney destroyed the Knights chances of an improbable comeback with an interception in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter. UCF dominated time-of-possession, controlling the ball for 36:35, but the K-State defense refused to budge, limiting the Knights to only two field goals following a first quarter touchdown run.
Kansas State has next weekend off before hosting the #6 ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers on Thursday October 7 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
-- Ben Sojka, Wildcat 91.9 Sports Staff
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