The Kansas State began to prepare for the army in the spring, while the coaches studied the film, and the players played in order to get an idea of the uniqueness of the offensive attack on Triple option of the Black Knights which led them to their most victorious season in history in 2024.
The preparation continued in the summer months, and after an examination session on Monday after the victory of K-State 38-35 over the Dakota of the North, all the eyes focused on a dangerous army team which can cause adjustments at any time.
Now the moment is there.
The Wildcats, 1-1 in total and 0-1 in the Big 12 conference, will seek to solve the army, 0-1, and its attack at the 6:00 p.m. on Saturday meeting in Fort Riley at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
“We had a good week of practice,” said head coach from K state Chris Klieman said. “We watched the film and we were widely criticized on Monday and put it in bed and went up in the army. I am proud of our children. We had physical practices on Tuesday and Wednesday. The energy level is up. The players do what I hoped to do, which is to hold each other with the norm that we all expect.”
K-State, recognized as one of the most successful FBS programs in the past four years, is looking to play its standard with its best performance of this start to the season on Saturday. After entering the season ranked 17 in the AP Top 25 survey, K-State underwent 24-21 defeat against State 22 of Iowa in Iowland before needing a winning reader and a defensive stop to prevent the North Dakota from probably capturing its biggest victory in history last weekend.
Now, K-State, who welcomed a service academy for the last time in 1987 in Manhattan and did not beat the army in three trials, could certainly use a good performance of spiritual salve to end his slate non-home conference before going to Arizona to play next Friday.
“We are not in crisis mode,” said Klieman, “but children know that we have to be more urgent in everything we do.”
The army, the defending champion AAC, has a 16-3 sheet in its last 19 games dating from November 2023 – a section which ranks second in the national row in percentage of victories (0.889), following only Oregon.
But the army is heading for the road for the first time this year after wasting an advance of two rounds in the second half during a 30-27 home defeat against Tarleton State, member of the FCS, made a sequence of 17 consecutive victories against the opponents of the FCS. Directed by the 129 yards by passers-by of the quarterrière Dewayne Coleman (with two affected) and 100 yards on the ground (with a touchdown), and 124 yards in total of Slotback Noah Short, the Black Knights accumulated 400 yards in total, including 280 on the ground.
“(Short) is a great player and has been a very good player for a long time,” said Klieman. “I spoke to a few coaches who played it, and they said they had a lot of good options of options, but you would better know where this child is. Whether in the game of jet, jet scan or in the game of options, he really makes them leave. We must make sure that we know where he is. He’s a very talented guy.”
The army has not played an opponent Power 4 since he faced the Missouri in the 2021 armed forces bowl and has not beat a Big 12 opponent since a 27-24 victory in overtime against Baylor on September 23, 2006.
“I hope we can play much better and give us a much better chance this Saturday than the last time,” said 12th-Ne the head coach, Jeff Monken, who has 82-58 in the army. “We are grateful for the opportunity to play a big team like Kansas State. This is one of the things that our guys really cherish in their experience at West Point is their ability to play in games like this against teams like this.
“It’s a big team. It will take our best efforts, the best we can bring together, to be in the game with them. I hope we can find this kind of effort and be competitive on Saturday evening.”
The Black Knights have all the attention of the Wildcats.
“It will be a very good football team and a four -quarter match,” said Klieman. “It is a game of goods because they want to hang on to football with long and supported after having directed the nation in time of possession and during conversions of fourth drop last year. This will be a great challenge. We must win the melee line on both sides of the ball.
“It will be a big game. You don’t often have the chance to bring a service academy here, and the army is the best of the best.”
Almost a week after Klieman deplored the inability of some of his defensive players to maintain an appropriate “eye discipline”, suggesting that he was going to release 11 defenders who demonstrated an appropriate eye discipline for Saturday, the defensive coordinator of the state of K-State Joe Klanderman said: “It’s a good time to play the army” after the recent Wildcats gaps with eye discipline.
“There was nothing that happened on Saturday that our guys were not able to do,” said Klanderman. “The guys are essential, want to do too much, get out of their work and try to do someone else’s work, and you will not be able to do this against the army. This is how they make their hay. The guys must be composed of what they do.”
The triple option is mainly short of the FlexBone Formation, a system focused on the race which has been a basic food for service academies for years. During a triple option game, the quarterrier makes a decision during the game according to the defense reaction. The quarter-back can either put the ball back on the back, plunging in the middle, or it can simulate the transfer and keep the ball and run outwards, or it can launch the ball to one of the moving locations outside.
One of the main reasons why the triple option can confuse an unruly defense? Because the offensive is designed to confuse the defense, forcing the defenders to hesitate and to report on several race threats to each game. This is a disciplined execution.
A more possible for K-State? His defense held the opponents to an average of 2.9 yards per race out of 79 attempts and has 16 plated for the loss and seven bags, which ranks 24th in the FBS. Second Roman Austin Direct with 18 plated, including 10 against Northern Dakota. Defender Huge exterior Has a bag of 3.0 team bags and 3.5 plated for loss.
“It’s not just the style of offense, but they are really well trained in what they are doing,” said Klanderman. “They will be physical, you will get out of this endolori game, but that’s what it is, and if you are what you hope are, no matter if you see a triple option or an air raid or something else, you should be able to defend it.”
“It is a discipline of the eyes and a discipline in your keys and in what you do. Everything should be able to adapt. Now, we must execute. This is the most important thing. I am sure they are going to have wrinkles and make adjustments, and I hope we can stay in advance.”
Early preparation of Black Knights has apparently been useful.
“And it’s necessary,” said Klanderman. “It is a really difficult offense to prepare in four days. I think we did a decent job to get ahead.”
Meanwhile, Army will try to stay ahead of a state offense K which has totaled at least 375 yards in total in 34 games since 2022, which has been equal to the fourth row of the Power 4 teams.
Avery Johnsonwho should do his 17th Career Start, has an efficiency rating of 157.7 this season and is 49 out of 73 for 591 yards and five affected without interceptions. After competing 58.3% of his passes a year ago, Johnson completed 67.1% of his throws in 2025.
“The zero reversals of which I am most proud”, offensive coordinator Matt Wells said. “We put the ball in danger about four times, and we live on Saturday evening. If you continue to play with fire, you will get the buttocks burning. He knows, and we know it both. The percentage of launch should be higher. We have missed eight balls that were inactive, and we had a few drops. It is the business cost when you launch the ball.
“He has shown leadership and maturity, and so far, he has better launched a handful of deep bullets, a great thing during the offseason and an improvement for him. I see growth with him.”
Eleven different players have recorded captures this season, and junior Jayce Brown Sort of its best performance to date with an effort of 12 and 109 yards with a touchdown, while Jaron Tibbs And Jerand Bradley had an impact. Against North Dakota, Tibbs caught a touchdown while Bradley pulled a score of 65 yards and his own place against the state of Iowa.
While the tight ends of K-State always seem as productive, Joe Jackson and recruit of redeshirt Devon Rice Continue working hard to try to take over in the absence of a junior starter Dylan EdwardsWho has the last full match led to a precipitation effort of 196 yards in the 2024 rate bowl.
Klieman said he was not sure of Edwards’ status for the match on Saturday. Edwards was injured as he was trying to make an early release kick against the state of the Iowa and did not return.
“Dylan is getting better and better,” said Klieman. “He runs there. I can’t tell you what his status is for this week, but we make very good progress.”
Apparently true Linkon cure continues to progress too. The end of the high school the best rated in the 2025 class and the best rated signatory in the history of the state of K-State have not yet played this season after undergoing an injury during the summer.
“Linkon has been going out in the fall camp for a long time,” said Klieman. “I would not say that it is 100%, but it is probably 80%, and it trains and does a very good job. He must just make the rust overturned it and starts in the current. He helps our scout team because he is not physically ready, but over time, he will be, and he will help us.”
Monken believes that the army will be very complete on Saturday.
And he thinks that the Big 12 opponents will also have their hands full in the coming weeks.
“Their quarterrier is really fast and launches a superb and they have runners, receivers who are really talented and productive, and an offensive line that does not give up bags,” said Monken. “They are doing a great job to control football matches. This is what you want a offense to do. There is a lot of concern for their talent and their confidence and their game and their appearance. It’s a really difficult team to beat.
“Ask anyone in the Big 12. Not many teams can beat the Kansas State.”
