Kansas State 39, Texas 14
Texas 0 0 0 14 — 14
Kansas St 10 14 15 0 — 39
First Quarter
KSt — Dan.Thomas 34 run (Cherry kick), 14:07.
KSt — FG Cherry 30, 5:08.
Second Quarter
KSt — Klein 12 run (Cherry kick), 8:22.
KSt — Klein 10 run (Cherry kick), 3:41.
Third Quarter
KSt — Dan.Thomas 9 run (Cherry kick), 14:11.
KSt — W.Powell 8 run (Cherry run), 1:19.
Fourth Quarter
Tex — C.Johnson 4 run (Tucker kick), 12:55.
Tex — McNamara 1 pass from Gilbert (Tucker kick), :31.
A — 46,734.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Texas, Gilbert 9-93, Whittaker 5-35, Newton 5-13, C.Johnson 5-11, Tucker 1-6, Team 1-(minus 18). Kansas St., Klein 25-127, Dan.Thomas 18-106, W.Powell 2-28, Hamm 1-5, Hubert 2-(minus 2), Team 2-(minus 3).
PASSING — Texas, Gilbert 32-59-5-272. Kansas St., Klein 2-4-0-9.
RECEIVING — Texas, Davis 11-109, Kirkendoll 6-72, Hales 5-41, Chiles 4-29, Whittaker 4-11, M.Williams 1-9, McNamara 1-1. Kansas St., Dan.Thomas 2-9.
MANHATTAN — Bench your senior starting quarterback for the regular-season home finale and then become bowl-eligible after burning Big 12 Conference counterpart Texas to a crisp.
That’s exactly what Kansas State did on a chilly Saturday night while beating up the Longhorns 39-14 before 46,734 fans at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
As a result, Kansas State (6-3 overall, 3-3 Big 12) is finally bowl-eligible after snapping a two-game losing skid. Texas (4-5, 2-4) dropped its third straight conference game for the first time in the Mack Brown era, this his 13th season as head coach at UT.
Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder started Collin Klein in place of senior Carson Coffman. Even though Klein never even completed a pass until midway through third quarter, the QB switch set off a domino effect of everything falling the Wildcats’ way.
Instead of using his arm, the mobile 6-foot-5, 233-pound Klein put the hurt on the ’Horns with his legs. He rushed for a game-high 127 yards in 25 carries and scored first-half rushing touchdowns covering 12 and 10 yards, as the Wildcats built a 24-0 halftime lead.
Running back Daniel Thomas, who finished with 106 yards in 18 carries, scored Kansas State’s first touchdown on a 34-yard sprint down the left sideline off an option pitch from Klein on the second play from scrimmage and the game just 53 seconds old.
Kansas State’s William Powell returned the opening kickoff 62 yards to the UT 38-yard line, giving the Wildcats a golden scoring opportunity from the get-go.
After Josh Cherry’s 30-yard field goal gave the Wildcats a 10-0 lead with 5:08 in the first quarter, Klein went to work in the second period. He engineered a nine-play, 54-yard scoring drive, capped by his 12-yard bolt with 8:22 remaining in the second quarter.
For good measure, after KSU defensive back Tysyn Hartman made his first of two interceptions, returning the pick to the UT 10. Klein scored from there on first down to increase the margin to 24-0 with 3:41 left in the half.
Hartman’s second pick, on the opening play of the second half for Texas, set up a 9-yard scoring run by Thomas just 49 seconds into the period and made it 31-0.
Powell later capped a nine-play, 83-yard scoring drive with an 8-yard scamper, increasing the margin to 39-0.
Texas avoided its first shutout since the 2004 season, in which it lost to Oklahoma 12-0, when Cody Johnson scored on a 4-yard run at the 12:55 mark in the fourth quarter.
Dominque Jones caught a 1-yard scoring pass from Longhorns quarterback Garret Gilbert with 31 seconds left for Texas’ second score.
Gilbert threw five interceptions in the game, including two picks apiece by Hartman and Ty Zimmerman.
K-State’s Stephen Harrison added an interception and also had a 12-yard tackle for loss on a botched snap on a fake field-goal attempt by Texas early in the game.
