An angry group of Kansas State Wildcats will take the field against North Dakota on Saturday night for their home opener in Manhattan, Kansas.
The 17th-ranked Wildcats (0-1) are coming off a 24-21 loss to Iowa State in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland, last Saturday. They felt they were their own worst enemy in the game, losing two fumbles and going 1-of-4 in fourth-down conversions.
“We’re disappointed,” head coach Chris Klieman said after the game. “We came here expecting to win and didn’t win. But I’m proud of the guys.
“I told them in the locker room, ‘We’ve got 11 more left. We’ve got to go back as a group, get some guys healthy, and get ready to go Saturday.’”
Now the Wildcats turn their attention to FCS opponent North Dakota (0-0). The Fighting Hawks were picked to finish seventh in the Missouri Valley Football Conference preseason poll.
New head coach and former player Eric Schmidt hopes to bring a toughness to the team that he describes as a “junkyard dog” mentality.
“We had an offensive line coach who I was close to when I was down at Southern Illinois,” Schmidt told the Grand Forks Herald during the preseason. “We talked a lot about the makeup of guys’ wiring and who we thought was wired the right way. We started calling them junkyard dogs. In the recruiting process, these were the guys we thought were about the right things.
“It just carried over into our team, too. It was kind of a badge of honor to be able to get that term thrown at you. Guys really rallied around that term, and ever since then, it’s just been something that we’ve talked about.”
The Fighting Hawks started last season 5-2 before losing their final five games. They will be led by senior quarterback Simon Romfo, who completed 60.8 percent of his passes for 2,051 yards with 18 touchdowns and eight interceptions last season.
Kansas State was a trendy pick to win the Big 12 Conference this season. While the team is 0-1 in the conference, there’s plenty of time to make up the lost ground. Not looking past North Dakota is key.
“The big thing is how do we respond, not for one week, but for the long haul,” Klieman said at his Monday press conference. “This is a marathon, not a sprint.”
The Wildcats will rely on dual-threat quarterback Avery Johnson. Johnson was 21-of-30 for 273 yards and two touchdowns against Iowa State. He also ran for another score.
It’s not known if starting running back Dylan Edwards, who was injured the first time he touched the ball on a punt return, will be available for Saturday’s game.
On defense, the Wildcats performed well for the first three quarters before giving up 147 yards and 10 points (not counting Iowa State running out the clock near the K-State goal line) in the fourth quarter.
“(Iowa State) made a few more plays than we did to get a lead,” Klieman said. “We were getting tired and (worn) down on defense. With six minutes to go, we were down three (points). If we get a stop, we get the ball with a chance to win. We couldn’t get the stop.”