K-State’s running game helped them to a 44-31 win at home against UCF in the Golden Knights’ inaugural game in the Big 12. The game was K-State’s tenth consecutive sellout with an attendance of 51,912.

Will Howard got the start at quarterback despite gingerly running around during warmups. He injured his leg in last week’s loss at Missouri and was questionable to make the start.

In the first drive, though, he led the Cats to a touchdown drive with a couple of nice throws to Ben Sinnott and Jadon Jackson. They even had him run on a play in the red zone. DJ Giddens punched it in from the one-yard line after breaking off a 36-yard run earlier in the drive.

UCF was able to quickly march down the field and respond with a field goal thanks to a 48-yard run from Johnny Richardson to get them in the red zone.

The Golden Knights picked off Howard on K-State’s next possession on a throw that the senior had no business making.

They turned the turnover into a touchdown with UCF’s continued success in the run game. However, it was the third pass attempt of the game that put them on the board with a screen to running back RJ Harvey on a 3rd & 15 from the K-State 27-yard line. That put UCF up 10-7 with 1:47 remaining in the first quarter.

Giddens continued his tirade on the next K-State drive. He got his second rushing touchdown with this one coming from nine yards out after getting a 24-yard reception.

UCF got a prayer answered on a 3rd & 5 with quarterback Timmy McClain hurling one downfield off his back foot that floated into the arms of his receiver to extend the drive.

However, on their next third down, Desmond Purnell forced a fumble with VJ Payne recovering it for the Cats with 10:21 to go in the second quarter.

K-State turned that turnover into a touchdown like UCF did with Giddens getting his third rushing touchdown in the first 24 minutes of the game. On this one, the Junction City-native found paydirt from the 18-yard line, just one play after getting a 15-yard carry on 2nd & 17.

After a couple of stops by both teams, UCF pulled out the bag of tricks and executed a flea flicker to perfection hitting Kobe Hudson in stride for a 69-yard score to get UCF back in it. The touchdown made it a 21-17 game with 3:19 left in the second quarter.

K-State tried a double-reverse flea flicker to Sinnott in response to UCF’s trickery, but a missed pass interference call wouldn’t allow the play to be successful. Two plays later, they failed on a 4th & 2 to give UCF the ball right back with 1:23 to go.

Just one play later, though, McClain made a wild throw and Jacob Parrish picked him off giving the Cats one more crack at scoring before halftime.

They would come up empty after a good start to the drive. Chris Tennant would miss his first field goal of the season inside 50 yards from just 26 yards away to keep it 21-17 at the break. Giddens didn’t get any carries in the red zone, despite having 107 rushing yards in the first half and averaging close to eight yards per carry.

UCF wasted no time getting back on the scoreboard with a kick return that put them in K-State territory. On 3rd & 10, McClain found Hudson in the endzone for the second time on a 46-yard touchdown.

K-State’s first drive of the second half started off well with Giddens getting carries of 18 and 31 yards on the first two plays. The drive would stall in the red zone for the second consecutive drive, though, and K-State would settle for a field goal of 30 yards by Tennant to tie the game 24 points apiece with 9:33 remaining in the third quarter.

The next points came from the Cats on an unassuming drive that wasn’t flashy in the slightest. They got the help of two personal foul penalties which put them back in the red zone.

K-State got only two plays of more than 10 yards that drive with those being a 13-yard Giddens run and a 16-yard Giddens reception.

Howard got his first touchdown of the game and the team’s fourth rushing touchdown to put them up 31-24 with 1:28 left in the third quarter.

UCF converted on another 3rd and long, this time on the first set of downs of their next drive, getting a 25-yard run on 3rd & 21. They did it again on a 3rd & 13 with Parrish getting called for pass interference, but third time was a charm as they got a stop on 3rd & 24 to force a field goal attempt which was missed from 52 yards.

The Wildcats got back in the red zone thanks to a conversion on 4th & 2 in UCF territory with Howard hitting Sinnott for a four-yard gain.

They used all of 6:05 of the game clock before Giddens got his fourth rushing touchdown which also put him over 200 rushing yards for the night.

That put them up 37-24 with 4:01 remaining after the missed PAT by Tennant.

K-State’s defense forced a turnover on downs, and then added insult to injury with Howard getting his second rushing touchdown from the 31-yard line to give the Cats a 44-24 lead with 2:01 to go.

K-State are the kings of the crop when it comes to giving up garbage time touchdowns and tonight was no exception. UCF head coach Gus Malzahn called a timeout with six seconds left and scored a touchdown to get us to our final score of 44-31.

Giddens was the MVP of the night without a question. He finished with 207 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns with eight receptions for 86 receiving yards for a grand total of 293 scrimmage yards.

Howard finished his day 27-for-42 with 255 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. UCF held him to just 9.4 yards per completion.

He missed the mark on multiple occasions, including three times where he should have had touchdowns but just overthrew his man. The interception he had was baffling and he had another play where he scrambled and flipped it underhand to nobody which looked super awkward and probably turned off many NFL scouts who might have been watching. Howard’s rushing saved his day, though, with 64 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns.

Sinnott was second on the team in receiving with 64 yards on five catches and Phillip Brooks had six catches for 42 yards.

In all, K-State had 536 total yards with 281 on the ground averaging seven yards even per carry and 6.5 yards per play. This was far-and-away the offensive line’s best game with Christian Duffie back on the line at right tackle.

The Wildcats dominated the time of possession with 34:20 compared to UCF’s 25:37. They also had 31 first downs compared to UCF’s 19.

As for the defense, they allowed 407 yards against a team that came into the game averaging 617 per game (1st in FBS). The secondary allowed some big plays like they did last week, but they avoided giving them up in critical situations.

The defense buckled down in the second half with their only points given up being on the first possession of the half, apart from the last play of the game.

The K-State secondary still has work to do after giving up 18.9 yards per completion, but they were much better against the run giving up 4.2 yards per rush.

K-State improves to 3-1 on the season and is 1-0 in Big 12 play. They have a chance to get healthy with a bye week next weekend. Their next game will be on Friday, October 6th in Stillwater against a struggling Oklahoma State team that lost today to Iowa State. The next game from Bill Snyder Family Stadium won’t be until October 21st against TCU.