Kansas State gave Arizona a tough introduction to the Big 12 on Friday night. Even though this game won’t affect the conference standings.
Avery Johnson threw two touchdown passes, Dylan Edwards returned a punt 71 yards for a touchdown, and No. 14 Kansas State shut out No. 20 Arizona in the second half, winning 31-7 in a rare nonconference game between new Big 12 rivals.
The loss ended Arizona’s nine-game winning streak, which was the longest active streak in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
“I don’t know what we’re trying to prove to everyone else. We’re trying to prove to ourselves that we can sustain this and play at a high level,” Kansas State coach Chris Klieman said. “That was a great week of preparation. Now we have to do it again.”
The schools had scheduled this game before Arizona moved from the Pac-12 to the Big 12. Since neither team could find a replacement opponent, Kansas State and Arizona kept the game, but it won’t count towards the league title race.
That was fortunate for Arizona.
Johnson had 156 yards passing and 110 yards rushing, and D.J. Giddens added 86 yards rushing and a touchdown, as Kansas State (3-0) bounced back from a mediocre road win over Tulane with a strong performance against the Wildcats from the desert.
“Everybody wanted to get back on the field,” said Jayce Brown, who had three catches for 60 yards. “We wanted to show everybody what we could do.”
Noah Fifita had 268 yards passing for Arizona (2-1) with an interception. Tetairoa McMillan had 11 catches for 138 yards, but the potential first-round NFL draft pick couldn’t turn any of those catches into a big play or a touchdown.
“Those guys just play good football,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said. “They tackle well. They’re in coverage, they do a good job. I give that staff a lot of credit. They have a well-coached football team, their kids play really hard. They’re impressive.”
The teams exchanged long, time-consuming touchdown drives to start the game, but the first half was marked by penalties, mental errors, and confusing mistakes from both teams trying to make an impact.
Arizona didn’t cover a poor punt that Edwards ran back untouched for a touchdown. On the next drive, Fifita threw a careless pass into double coverage and was intercepted by Kansas State’s Keenan Garber in the end zone.
Johnson made perhaps the biggest mistake. He was sacked at the Arizona 19-yard line with 24 seconds left in the first half.
On the next play, the freshman should have stepped out of bounds to stop the clock and bring out the field-goal team, but he ran in the opposite direction, causing the clock to run out and missing the chance for a field goal.
“It is all on me at the end of the first half,” Klieman said. “I should have called timeout. That isn’t on the kid.”
Kansas State still led 14-7 at halftime, and the error didn’t affect the outcome.
In the second half, Johnson began to play more effectively, leading his team on two consecutive touchdown drives. The first drive included a 48-yard pass to Jayce Brown on third-and-12, which set up Johnson’s touchdown pass to Brayden Loftin.
The next drive featured a 21-yard pass to Loftin before Giddens ran into the end zone to extend Kansas State’s lead to 28-7.
Kansas State stopped Arizona on fourth down a few minutes later and then only needed to manage the fourth quarter to secure the win.
