MANHATTAN, Kansas (AP) — Kansas State gave Arizona a rough reception in the Big 12 on Friday night.
Even if it doesn’t count for the conference ranking.
Avery Johnson threw two touchdown passes, Dylan Edwards scored on a 71-yard punt and No. 14 Kansas State shut out No. 20 Arizona in the second half of a 31-7 victory in a rare meeting of new non-conference Big 12 rivals.
The loss ended Arizona’s nine-game winning streak, the longest active winning streak in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
“I don’t know what we want to prove to everyone else. We want to prove to ourselves that we can keep it up and play at a high level,” said Kansas State coach Chris Klieman. “It was a great week of preparation. Now we have to do it again.”
The schools had agreed to this duel before Arizona left the Pac-12 and moved to the Big 12. Since neither school could secure a replacement opponent, Kansas State and Arizona kept the game, although it did not count toward the race for the league title.
Good thing for Arizona.
Johnson finished with 156 passing yards and 110 rushing yards and DJ Giddens added 86 rushing yards and a score as Kansas State (3-0) rebounded from a lackluster road game against Tulane with a commanding win over the desert Wildcats.
“Everyone wanted to get back on the field,” said Jayce Brown, who caught three balls for 60 yards. “We wanted to show everyone what we could do.”
Noah Fifita passed for 268 yards with one interception for Arizona (2-1). Tetairoa McMillan caught 11 passes for 138 yards, but the potential first-round NFL draft pick was unable to convert any of those catches into a big play or touchdown.
“These guys just play good football,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said. “They tackle well. They cover well, they do a good job. I give this team a lot of credit. They have a well-coached football team, their guys play really hard. They’re impressive.”
The game began with laborious and time-consuming touchdown drives between the teams, but otherwise the first 30 minutes were marked by penalties, misjudgments and baffling errors by two teams that wanted to make a statement.
Arizona failed to cover a bad punt, which Edwards returned unchallenged for a touchdown. On the next drive, Fifita lazily threw over the middle into double coverage and was intercepted in the end zone by Kansas State’s Keenan Garber.
Johnson made perhaps the most embarrassing faux pas. He was sacked at Arizona’s 19-yard line with 24 seconds left in the first half. On the next play, the freshman only had to step out of bounds to stop the clock and bring the field goal team onto the field, but instead he turned the field and ran the other way, running out the clock without him having a chance to attempt.
“At the end of the first half, it’s all on me,” Klieman said. “I should have called a timeout. It’s not on the kid.”
At halftime, Kansas State still led 14-7, and the mistake didn’t matter in the end.
The nimble Johnson started throwing the ball in the second half, leading his team to two consecutive touchdown runs. The first included a 48-yard pass to Jayce Brown on third-and-12 that set up Johnson’s touchdown throw to Brayden Loftin. The next included a 21-yard toss to Loftin before Giddens plowed into the end zone, giving Kansas State a 28-7 lead.
Kansas State stopped Arizona a few minutes later on the fourth attempt and only had to wait out the fourth quarter.
“(Johnson) is a pretty good player and he stepped up tonight when we needed him,” Klieman said. “He played really good football and was really calm and made some plays with his feet. Made some plays with his legs. That was a great performance to see.”
The conclusion
Arizona might have fared better had it not been for its recurring flagging offense. It committed 30 yards worth of penalties on a single drive in the first half and finished the game with nine penalties for 74 yards.
Kansas State had something to prove after allowing 342 yards rushing and 491 total yards to Tulane in last week’s 34-27 comeback win. The Wildcats held Arizona to 324 yards of offense on Friday night.
Next
Arizona: At No. 12 Utah on September 28 in the Wildcats’ first real Big 12 game.
Kansas State: Next Saturday night at BYU.
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