2023 Adversity

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Injury thread reminded me I forgot to post yesterday when adversity season really kicked off.

SPORTS EXTRA / Sep 18, 2023
Responding to Adversity
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By: D. Scott Fritchen

If there's a silver lining to Kansas State's 30-27 loss at Missouri it is this: The Wildcats have been here before.
 
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K-State came off a 17-10 home loss to Tulane in the non-conference finale last season to beat No. 6 Oklahoma, 41-34, in Norman, Oklahoma.
 
It faced adversity again nearly a month later but followed a 38-28 loss at No. 8 TCU with a historic 48-0 pounding of No. 9 Oklahoma State in Manhattan.
 
As for a 34-27 loss to No. 24 Texas? K-State went to Baylor and handled the Bears, 31-3, in Waco, Texas.
 
K-State has been down before. It hasn't stayed down for long.
 
"We have to learn from it because this is what Big 12 games are going to be about," K-State head coach Chris Klieman said. "We're going to be in a lot of one-score games, and we have to find ways to win down the stretch. I'm not disappointed at all in our players. I thought we played hard."
 
"We've had adversity before," Klieman continued. "How are you going to respond to the adversity?"
 
No. 15 K-State saw its perfect non-conference record end on a walk-off 61-yard field goal by Missouri's Harrison Mevis. It took the longest field goal in SEC history to beat the defending Big 12 Champions in Columbia, Missouri.
 
"We've got a challenge now," K-State quarterback Will Howard said. "Last year, you look at every game after we lost and we came back from it stronger and learned from it. That's what we have to do this week. We have to let it motivate us and not bring us down at all.
 
"I know we're going to be fine."
 
Offense 23 SE

K-State went 4-1 in games decided by single digits against Big 12 Conference opponents last season. That included the Wildcats' 31-28 win over No. 3 TCU to capture the Big 12 title — a game decided in overtime on the strength of Ty Zentner's 31-yard field goal at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
 
Now K-State, 2-1, prepares to face UCF, 3-0, in its Big 12 opener in Saturday's 7 p.m. kickoff (FS1) at LHC Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
 
UCF comes off a 48-14 home win over Villanova on Saturday. The Golden Knights opened the season with a 56-6 win over Kent State followed by an 18-16 win at Boise State.
 
K-State and UCF last squared off as non-conference foes in a 17-13 win by the Wildcats on September 25, 2010 amid the one of the weirdest storm systems ever to hit the Flint Hills.
 
Well, another storm could be brewing.
 
Call it the purple storm.
 
"I'm not glad we lost, but I'm glad it was an early loss so we can bounce back and get that feeling and feel that adversity for us and propel us for this home game against UCF," K-State strong safety Kobe Savage said. "(We're) getting back to work on Monday, throwing (the Missouri loss) in the bag, watching what we can fix, and just have a new game plan for UCF."
 
It's a new week. And a new season.
 
The Wildcats know they cannot dwell on their lone setback heading into conference play.
 
"If you look at last year every time we went through something like this, we came back even harder the next week," K-State tight end Ben Sinnott said. "That's definitely the plan going forward."