Big 12 Championship Game Thread

[kstater]

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[BIG APPLE CAT]

Alright not to be Nancy neg but I did not like how they left out the bridge. “And when I fall down…” I mean c’mon guys that’s the part of the song where we face some adversity and grow as people

Also CF3 what is like, your entire deal exactly?  RSF is our Adam Sandler. Stand up is our thunderstruck.

[Sandstone Outcropping]

X post prepare your orifice thread:


https://twitter.com/the_felixrex/status/1599157507771236352?s=46&t=LUgHN5dbXl-N8vRhRdx8ow

[TheHamburglar]

I still don’t think it’s hit me yet. Big12 Champs.

[BIG APPLE CAT]

Also if I’m being honest I wasn’t sure how to feel about the game, like I kinda felt like we would win but wasn’t positive until J showed up and then it was like prophecy

[Sandstone Outcropping]

King Felix sipping’ on a Dr Pepps…

https://twitter.com/colecarmody52/status/1599166195470848000?s=46&t=4IKuWxiRMnUvQcLywnjBGQ

[cfbandyman]

X post prepare your orifice thread:


https://twitter.com/the_felixrex/status/1599157507771236352?s=46&t=LUgHN5dbXl-N8vRhRdx8ow

Glad the signs is over KTs nips or else that photo is extremely NSFW

[BBF$$Kat]

Any word on Malik? Knee, Lower leg, ankle?

[MakeItRain]

Any word on Malik? Knee, Lower leg, ankle?

https://twitter.com/jlkurtz/status/1599161789249245184

[mocat]

Stud

[CNS]

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Where is this for sale?

[Dugout DickStone]

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Where is this for sale?

Heaven

[kstater]

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Where is this for sale?

Saw it online at Rallyhouse yesterday

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[john "teach me how to" dougie]

[Pete]

KK (or someone) POST THE ARTICLE!

https://twitter.com/max_olson/status/1599266971404873728?s=20&t=u7eSmbirjm4WjUJhGEDoFw

[MakeItRain]

Meh

ARLINGTON, Texas — Kansas State won the dang day.

In Chris Klieman’s first meeting with his players on Dec. 11, 2018, this was how the new head coach challenged them. He knew it worked at North Dakota State. He knew, once they stacked enough days, it would work in Manhattan, Kan.

Four years later, Kansas State stunned TCU and won the Big 12 the only way they know how. They won with culture. Senior leadership. Player ownership. The power of belief. When you have those things, Klieman says, nothing can stop you.

That’s what it all comes back to when you find yourself in the high-pressure position the Wildcats faced on Saturday afternoon. You’re playing the No. 3 team in the country. Their perfect season and everything else is at stake. They’ve valiantly rallied back against you to force overtime. They’ve pushed their way down to your 1-yard line.

What do you do in that moment? How do you win on this most dramatic day? You take to heart what Klieman and your coaches have been telling you for four years: You stay in the fight.

On this day, they finished the fight and paid off all the hard work they’ve devoted to turning Kansas State back into one of the Big 12’s most consistent contenders.

After defeating Kansas last Saturday to clinch a spot in this game, the message inside K-State’s locker room was clear: This team is not going down to Arlington to collect a participation trophy. They were coming to win the damn thing. Getting it done in this 31-28 thriller and clinching a trip to the Sugar Bowl required a true team effort in every way: offense, defense, special teams, starters, backups, everyone.

“Not one second of that game we didn’t believe that we were going to come out with that victory,” senior linebacker Daniel Green said. “That just showed the character on this team, the culture we’ve got, the brotherhood we’ve got to just fall on each other and believe in each other throughout all the adversity that hit us. We still just kept believing.”

They won with Deuce Vaughn, the too-small back from Cedar Park, Texas, that other Big 12 staffs seriously regretted passing on. K-State’s coaches never wavered in telling him he was a tailback in their offense, not just some scatback or return specialist. He did what he always does on Saturday, juking out a TCU safety and putting him on his butt on his way to a crucial 44-yard touchdown and 160-yard performance. There’s not a more beloved player on that team, and he played his best in the biggest game of his career.

They won with Felix Anudike-Uzomah, the edge rusher who was once a skinny 220-pound recruit who intrigued at a summer camp in 2019 with his length and work ethic, then flipped from North Dakota State before signing day. He developed into the Big 12’s Defensive Player of the Year and powered a unit that kept pressuring and punishing TCU quarterback Max Duggan all day.

They won with Will Howard, who couldn’t have been more deserving of this feat. He was thrown into action as a true freshman when Skylar Thompson got hurt and had to start long before he was ready. Howard, Anudike-Uzomah and Vaughn were all true freshmen on that 2020 team that started 4-1 before a humbling finish of five consecutive losses. They always talked about how their class was going to do something special at K-State. How far they’ve come in just three years made this victory even sweeter.

This staff brought in Nebraska grad transfer Adrian Martinez going into 2022, believing he might be the missing piece for a title run. Martinez and Howard became tight friends through their competition. Offensive coordinator Collin Klein vividly remembers the moment of truth before the Oklahoma State game. They stood in the tunnel, a mere 10 minutes before kickoff, still unsure who was going to start. Martinez was a true game-time decision. The unselfish nature of both quarterbacks revealed itself.

“Will Howard is looking at Adrian,” Klein recalled this week, “and going, ‘Hey, you gotta make the best decision for where you’re at. Don’t worry about me. If you want to give it a try, I’ll come in.’”

Howard came in and absolutely thrived. The Wildcats averaged 39.5 points per game when they went with him. Martinez, still injured and unavailable to play, backed him every step of the way. After enduring four years of losing, Martinez walked off the field at AT&T Stadium with a cigar and a grin.

“Both kids have helped us win a Big 12 championship, for sure,” Klieman said, “and both kids rallied around each other when the other one wasn’t playing. That’s a culture. That’s a sign of a group of guys that love each other.”

They won with so many more players you might not have noticed. Like Keenan Garber, the wide receiver who asked Klieman if he could move to defensive back a month ago to help this team. He was the emergency backup, on scout team up until Thursday, and he had to step in and play his best for 21 snaps after Ekow Boye-Doe was injured.

“That’s the sign of a culture,” Klieman said. “That’s the sign of not wanting to let guys like Daniel Green and Eli Huggins down.”

They won with RJ Garcia II, a talented second-year wideout stuck behind senior starters who also had to step up when Malik Knowles got hurt and delivered a 25-yard touchdown catch, the first of his career. He’s been mentored throughout these two years by Vaughn, who says he screamed at the top of his lungs when Garcia scored. These Wildcats had to count on a bunch of freshmen on Saturday to survive, even some guys you’d never expect. Damian Ilalio, a redshirt freshman from Manhattan, only played five snaps in Big 12 play this season. Yet there he was lined up over the center at nose guard on the decisive fourth-and-goal stop.

“Championship teams have resolve,” Klieman said. “They count on each other when it’s crunch time.”

They won, ultimately, with Ty Zentner hitting a 31-yard field goal. Klieman praised him as truly one of their most valuable players on this run to a title. The senior punter took over placekicking duties at the end of October. He’s 9 of 9 on field goals ever since. After setting him up for the game-winner, Howard gave a smiling Zentner a high five as he ran off the field. “Let’s go win a championship,” Howard told him. He couldn’t bear to watch the attempt, but he had no doubt.

“I just keep saying I have no words,” Howard said. “This doesn’t feel real, you know?”

And they won with Klieman and his coaching staff. Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor took a chance on the guy he trusted most, believing that Klieman could handle the pressure of succeeding LHC Bill Snyder, bring everything he learned from leading North Dakota State’s dynasty at the FCS level and figure out how to replicate that success in Manhattan.

On the night of the hire, Taylor got crushed by K-State fans irate that he hired his friend and not Seth LittreLL or Jim Leavitt. They sent him hundreds of angry emails. Once those fans saw one video of Klieman addressing his new team, they changed their tune. As a member of the College Football Playoff selection committee, Taylor wasn’t allowed to attend the Big 12 title game. He was stuck in a hotel 20 miles away, sequestered with the committee. His celebration will have to wait until he gets home.

But everyone else in this program made it count, staying on that field inside AT&T Stadium long after the trophy presentation — as long as they possibly could — to take pictures and share hugs and soak up the spoils of four long years of grinding and believing. Ask any K-State player how they did it, and they’ll point to everyone else in this program. They got the culture right during an eight-win season in 2021 thanks to a locker room that grew close after the challenges of 2020. From the very first day of their winter workouts in January, these Wildcats sincerely believed they were ready to contend.

“Everybody just gets along with everybody,” Anudike-Uzomah said. “We have that culture to trust each other, to trust what we’ve been through. And we’ve been through a lot of stuff.”

When that culture is real, you can build a team capable of responding the right way to anything. The Wildcats lost early to a Tulane team that’s going to the Cotton Bowl. The next week, they went on the road and beat an Oklahoma team ranked No. 6 at the time. They lost at TCU a month later on a night wrecked by injuries. They answered with utter dominance in a 48-0 win over No. 9 Oklahoma State.

Then they lost a nail-biter against Texas that left no more room for error in the Big 12 race. But as Klieman told his team, you can’t trip on something that’s behind you. K-State had to go 3-0 against a tough schedule and got it done, handling its business as well as the unbeatable teams Klieman coached up in Fargo.

“These last four weeks, I think our preparation in the final 48 hours — us finishing practice on Thursday to teeing it up on Saturday — has been as good as anything I’ve ever been involved with,” Klieman said. “Guys owning it, locking into the final details, playing with unbelievable focus and unbelievable resolve for each other. These last four weeks, our guys have been so locked-in and razor-sharp.”

Four years of hard-earned progress. Four weeks of high-stakes football. Four quarters of resilient effort against one of the best teams in college football. Fourth-and-goal in overtime. For Kansas State, that’s how you win the dang day and many more to come.

[williamthewildcat]

Good article. Was word for word what he said in the post game presser.

[TaqMan]

That is truly a bad song. Hopefully this propels Kleiman and Klein to get a decent K State cap.

I challenge you to watch the original one from 2003 and not get pumped. I mean, this was such an amazing game! 2022 version fell a little flat IMHO.

[Sandstone Outcropping]

That is truly a bad song. Hopefully this propels Kleiman and Klein to get a decent K State cap.

I challenge you to watch the original one from 2003 and not get pumped. I mean, this was such an amazing game! 2022 version fell a little flat IMHO.

I'm still not tired of it...


Not sure if this one will stay up but it has some good highlights. What every happened to that Panjakes guy who was making vids back in 2012? He had a really nice one of the OSU night game at BSFS

[pissclams]

What every happened to that Panjakes guy who was making vids back in 2012? He had a really nice one of the OSU night game at BSFS

he was decapitated.  he was drunk as a skunk. he was flying down Route 6. he slides under an 18 wheeler. pop. snaps right off.

[muqluk]

What every happened to that Panjakes guy who was making vids back in 2012? He had a really nice one of the OSU night game at BSFS

he was decapitated.  he was drunk as a skunk. He was flying down Route 6. he slides under an 18 wheeler. pol. snaps right off.

This for real?

[Sandstone Outcropping]

What every happened to that Panjakes guy who was making vids back in 2012? He had a really nice one of the OSU night game at BSFS

he was decapitated.  he was drunk as a skunk. He was flying down Route 6. he slides under an 18 wheeler. pol. snaps right off.

This is horrible, if true.

[DreamWeaver69]

Guys, that was a blast!

[yoga-like_abana]

Is there any argument against that being the greatest win/game in 'Cats football history?

[SkinnyBenny]

guys 'clams was quoting The Office