MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — No. 4 Kansas State clearly established itself as the team to beat in the Big 12 as it came into West Virginia’s Milan Puskar Stadium and completely dismantled the No. 13 Mountaineers, 55-14.
The head-to-head showdown between Heisman Trophy candidates Collin Klein of Kansas State and Geno Smith of West Virginia was equally one-sided as Klein dominated the game, scoring four touchdowns rushing while completing an incredible 19 of 21 passes for 323 yards and a touchdown.
Asked if it was his best performance, Klein replied: “It’s hard to tell. Even though you look at the yards, that doesn’t always equal the best performance, if that makes sense,” the quarterback said.
He also rushed for 41 yards on 12 carries, four of them for touchdowns.
Smith struggled throughout, completing 21 of 32 passes for 143 yards while seeing his streak of consecutive passes without an interception end at 327 on his first throw of the second half, when linebacker Arthur Brown picked off a tipped pass.
It was the second week in a row the Mountaineers were held to just 14 points, but Kansas State coach Bill Snyder wasn’t taking any bows for the performance.
“We didn’t do anything out of the ordinary,” he said. “It has been a matter of week in and week out, just trying to improve day in and day out and I think our defense did that.
“We played well. We pursued the ball. We had a relentless pass rush, so to speak. We got our hands on Geno, who, by the way, regardless of the score, is a talented quarterback.”
The loss was West Virginia’s worst in this stadium that opened in 1980 since Miami came in and beat them 58-14 in 1986.
“We couldn’t get into a rhythm,” WVU coach Dana Holgorsen said. “I think we ran probably 12 plays in the first half (actually 20) and we only had the ball three times. So, it’s hard to get in a rhythm when you do that. But there’s no excuse for when we have the ball three times and don’t move it.”
Kansas State now stands at 7-0 and 4-0 in the Big 12 with victories over Oklahoma and West Virginia. WVU fell to 5-2 and 2-2 in the conference.
Little could West Virginia know that when Kansas State took the opening kickoff and drove to a field goal, it would be the best defensive stand of the first half as the Wildcats shredded the Mountaineers’ porous defense to take a 31-7 advantage.
Klein was spectacular. Although last in passing in the Big 12, he had completed 14 of 16 throws for 266 yards and a touchdown. To be honest, though, it was mostly like playing catch, throwing to wide-open receivers time after time.
Klein also ran in three TDS as he put an end to any discussion of whether he or WVU’s Geno Smith was a Heisman Trophy candidate.
“We were able to loosen them up a little bit and that definitely helped,” Klein said.
“He doesn’t do anything wrong. He doesn’t make mistakes,” Holgorsen said. “He is hard to tackle, he gets in good plays and doesn’t turn the ball over. You can say what you want about his throwing motion, but it goes exactly where he wants it to go.”
Smith did not have the ball often, but when he did, he completed 9 of 13 passes for 62 yards. In fact, K-State possessed more points at the half — 31 — than WVU ran plays — 20.
WVU’s only offense came on a 100-yard kickoff return by Tavon Austin for the lone touchdown, leading to a brief celebration in the stands that soon turned to boos when K-State responded by driving down the field again for a score.
NOTES: WVU quarterback Geno Smith had just broken the NCAA Division FBS record for consecutive passes without an interception at 273, set by Trent Dilfer of Fresno State, when Kansas State linebacker Arthur Brown picked off a tipped pass on the Mountaineers’ first play of the second half. … Tavon Austin’s 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown was the second 100-yard return of his career to go with a 98-yard TD return. It was the fourth of his career. … Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein broke the FBS record for most rushing TDs by a QB over two seasons. It had been held by Stacey Robinson of Northern Illinois and Eric Crouch of Nebraska.