The scrambles concealed a smaller run game
Kansas State produced only three runs longer than ten yards against Houston. Two were quarterback scrambles. That detail from the Wildcats’ October 13 offensive review is more revealing than a simple demand to run the ball more often after a 35–16 defeat.
Houston held Kansas State to 117 rushing yards and 299 yards overall. Avery Johnson has carried fifteen times for 77 yards across the Wildcats’ two Big 12 games, a different picture from his 150-yard rushing performance against Tulane. Colin Klein said opponents have adjusted the edges and their formations to account for the quarterback.
Attention should leave an opening somewhere
A defense assigning a player to Johnson is spending a resource. The offensive opportunity is not necessarily asking Johnson to beat that player himself. It may be a handoff, a route or a changed blocking angle that takes advantage of the defender’s commitment.
That makes the supporting cast important to the next response. A back has to use the space created when the edge waits for the quarterback. A receiver must arrive where the passing concept expects him if coverage changes to support the run. If neither happens, the defense receives the benefit of its adjustment without paying the intended price elsewhere. Kansas State needs the quarterback’s threat to influence the entire play, even when the official rushing attempt belongs to someone else.
Do not ask improvisation to become the system
Johnson completed 46 of 80 passes for 474 yards, three touchdowns and one interception in the two conference games. The passing operation has supplied production while the ground game has become harder to free. The Wildcats should connect those observations instead of treating run and pass as separate repair projects.
Kansas visits Manhattan on October 17. The useful early sign will be whether the offense creates a planned gain from the attention Johnson draws. A scramble can rescue a possession, but it is a less dependable foundation than a play with several credible answers. Kansas State does not have to prove its quarterback can run. It needs to prove that accounting for him makes defending everyone else more difficult.
Sources & reporting
- Kansas State Athletics: practice-field offensive review, October 13 ↗
- Kansas State Athletics: Sunflower Showdown press conference, October 12 ↗
This article adds independent analysis to publicly available reporting. We did not conduct the interviews or report the game firsthand. Report a factual error.