No. 15 Kansas State Pulls Away Late to Defeat Troy

Saturday, September 9

Manhattan, Kan.

11 a.m.

Troy University

1-1 , 0-0

Kansas State

2-0 , 0-0

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Troy	0	10	0	3	13
Kansas State	7	14	7	14	42

No. 15 Kansas State Pulls Away Late to Defeat Troy

9/9/2023 3:48:00 PM | Football

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By: Troy Athletics Communications

MANHATTAN, Kan. – A late touchdown in the first half and 14 fourth quarter points were the difference as No. 15 Kansas State defeated Troy, 42-13, Saturday afternoon at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, snapping the Trojans' 12-game winning streak, the second-longest active streak in the country.

Troy (1-1) pulled within four, 14-10, with 52 seconds remaining in the first half on a 21-yard touchdown grab by Chris Lewis from Gunnar Watson. It was Lewis' second one-handed grab of the half after he made a SportsCenter Top 10 catch on Troy's previous drive to convert a 3rd-and-10.

The Trojans' momentum was short-lived as Will Howard led Kansas State (2-0) on a 5-play, 66-yard drive in just 39 seconds before the half, capped by a 38-yard touchdown pass to Phillip Brooks to send the Wildcats into the break with a 21-10 lead.

Kansas State dominated the field position battle throughout the game, but especially in the second half, where its seven drives averaged starting on the K-State 48-yard line, with four in Troy territory, including the first three of the third quarter.

The teams traded three-and-outs to open the second half, but Kansas State pinned Troy on its own 5-yard line following its first drive, and the Trojans could never recover.

Starting on Troy's 44-yard line with seven minutes to play in the third, Howard led Kansas State on an 8-play, 44-yard drive and called his number for a 2-yard score to extend the K-State lead to 28-10 with 3:47 to play in the quarter.

Scott Taylor Renfroe made it a two-possession game, 28-13, with his second field goal of the game in the early minutes of the fourth quarter, but the Wildcats answered the field goal with a five-minute touchdown drive to ice the game.

Kimani Vidal rushed for 83 yards on 17 carries to lead the Trojans. Vidal pushed his season total to 331 yards, the most by a Troy player through the first two games of a season in program history and the third most in Sun Belt history.

Watson completed 17-of-32 pass attempts for 167 yards, with Ross and Lewis pulling in five catches each. Goose Crowder made his Troy debut and completed 5-of-6 passes for 49 yards.

Howard threw for 250 yards and three touchdowns to lead K-State, while Brooks finished with seven catches for 94 yards and Jadon Jackson added four catches for 77 yards and a touchdown.

Kansas State raced out to a 14-0 lead and had all the momentum after an interception on Troy's first possession of the second quarter. However, Reddy Steward came up with another big play as he intercepted Howard in the end zone on the third play of the ensuing drive, which led to Renfroe's first field goal.

Up Next
The road doesn't get any easier for the Trojans as they open Sun Belt Conference play against East Division favorite James Madison at The Vet next Saturday. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m., and the game will be televised on NFL Network.

Quotable

Troy Head Coach Jon Sumrall
"We got the momentum back in the second quarter and got ourselves back into the game. And then that touchdown to end the half just allowed them to get the momentum back, which was unfortunate. Then, the field position game caught up to us. We kept getting pinned back in our end zone, and so we'd go three-and-out and punt and couldn't get space. We had to take chances late, going for it on fourth down. Just couldn't get the fourth and shorts to go our way. I thought we were too soft at the line of scrimmage, and it was kind of embarrassing. So, we have to get that fixed.

"They're an extremely good football team. I can't take anything away from them—hats off to Kansas State. But I don't care about the opponent. What makes me upset is we didn't play to our standard. It makes me sick. K-State is going to beat a lot of people when they play good, but we can't play the way we did and expect to beat anybody. We have a long way to go. We've got to grow up fast and mature fast. I've got to do a better job at leading them. The coaches got to coach them better, and that starts with me. We got to have each other's back because it's not good enough right now.

"We got to pick ourselves up off the mat. We haven't lost in a while. On Thursday, we talked about facing adversity and how to face it. And that's what we face today. Some of it is self-inflicted and there's all types of adversity in life. But right now, we have to pick ourselves back up and get ready for a good opponent in JMU."

Troy Safety Dell Pettus
This game is going to be put to bed real quick. We just have to make sure that we learn from today's mistakes and look forward to the future. It sucks with the outcome today, but we are going to look at the film and go back to work on Monday. We have a tight-knit group of guys who love each other, and we are going to huddle and regroup.

It's the same as last year. We had ups and downs, but we have coaches that make sure we feel appreciated and loved. At the end of the day, we are going to play for each other. Love is one of our core values, so it won't be hard to come together. This game doesn't define us or mark us as a team. And we know that. But we are going to put in the work to fix it.

Notable
• The game was Troy's first 11 a.m. kickoff since a 24-17 victory at Nebraska on Sept. 15, 2018.

• Troy extended its non-shutout streak to 110 games; the last time Troy was shutout was a 66-0 loss at Georgia in 2014.

• Troy's winning streak is snapped at 12 games, which was the second-longest active streak in the country. It was Troy's longest winning streak since the 1987-88 seasons.

• The loss drops Troy to 3-29 all-time against ranked opponents; the Trojans have lost four straight road games against ranked opponents dating back to 2017's victory at No. 22 LSU.

• Troy's first two plays that covered 10 yards both came via the tight end, an 11-yard reception by Clay-ton Ollendieck and an 18-yard reception by Ethan Conner, both on third down.

• Kimani Vidal rushed for 83 yards on 17 carries to move into fifth place all-time in Troy history with 2,680 career rushing yards, just 762 yards shy of becoming Troy's all-time leader.

• Kimani Vidal has rushed for 331 yards through the first two games of the season, the most by a Troy player since at least 2000 through two games by 94 yards. His 331 yards are the third most in Sun Belt history and tied for the 58th most nationally since 2000.

• Safety Dell Pettus extended his NCAA-best starting streak to 49 consecutive games.

• Reddy Steward became just the seventh Troy player since 2000 to have multiple interceptions in the first two games of a season. It marks the fourth time since 2018 (Tron Folsom, Terence Dunlap, Zion Williams) after Troy went 10 years (2008-18) without an occurrence of multiple interceptions by one player in the first two games.

• Javon Solomon recorded Troy's first sack of the season ... it was the 18th of his career, moving him into 15th place all-time in Troy history. He also moved into a tie for ninth place in Troy history with 32.5 career tackles for loss.

• Scott Taylor Renfroe booted two field goals to remain perfect on the season at 4-for-4 ... his four field goals are tied for the second most through the first two games of the season by a Troy kicker since at least 2000. He is one of just two Trojans, Sam Glusman, with four or more field goals in the first two games without a miss.