Chris Klieman shares injury update on Deuce Vaughn, other K-State football players

Outlasting Iowa State 10-9 in a low-scoring slug fest on Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium came at a price for the Kansas State football team.

“We got beat up pretty good from the game,” Wildcats coach Chris Klieman said during his weekly news conference on Saturday.

Indeed, several prominent K-State football players suffered injuries against the Cyclones.

Deuce Vaughn limped off the field with a leg injury midway through the fourth quarter and the junior running back was unable to finish out the game. Linebacker Khalid Duke left the field early in the first half with a lower-body injury of his own and also missed the remainder of the game. Defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah played a full four quarters, but he was in noticeable pain by the end of the night.

Good thing the Wildcats have some time off before they play their next game on October 22 at TCU.

“We would have a handful of guys who would probably be questionable if there was a game this Saturday,” Klieman said. “But nobody who got injured on Saturday will miss a significant amount of time. The closest guy would be Khalid. We envision everybody practicing, probably not this week, but next week, for sure. We didn’t lose anybody long term.”

Klieman went on to say that he thinks Duke has a good chance of playing against the Horned Frogs, but it is too early to confirm his status one way or the other.

It sounds like Vaughn and Anudike-Uzomah can be penciled in as probable for the TCU game. That is excellent news for the Wildcats, considering how much those players mean to the team.

Vaughn has rushed for 661 yards and three touchdowns this season. Anudike-Uzomah has piled up 6 1/2 sacks on his way to 2 tackles this year.

Duke getting back to 100% would also be big for the Wildcats, as he has made three sacks this season.

K-State will need all of them to be at their best against the second half of the schedule.

Klieman plans to give most of K-State’s regular contributors a chance to rest their bodies this week. He said the Wildcats held a developmental practice on Monday, which featured larger-than-usual roles for young reserves. Their focus will remain there until later in the week when the Wildcats start game-planning for TCU.

By then, star players like Vaughn and Anudike-Uzomah may be ready to get back on the field.