Grades from Kansas State’s thrilling win at Oklahoma and a look ahead to Texas Tech

After three quiet games at the start of his Kansas State football career, Adrian Martinez went out and totally redeemed himself by leading the Wildcats to a 41-34 victory over Oklahoma on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

Much like in the movie “Dumb & Dumber,” he saved the day and changed the outlook on K-State’s season by doing something totally unexpected.

Martinez threw for 234 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 148 yards and four touchdowns. The Nebraska transfer came through with clutch passes and runs while finally looking like the aggressive playmaker K-State fans hoped he would be when he joined the Wildcats last offseason.

Combine his stellar game with 116 rushing yards from Deuce Vaughn and some key defensive stops, and Chris Klieman’s team once again played spoiler against Oklahoma. K-State is 3-1 against the Sooners since Klieman became coach in 2019. No other Big 12 team has beaten them more than once.

With the win, K-State (3-1, 1-0 Big 12) is once again looking like a darkhorse contender in the league championship race. Oklahoma (3-1, 0-1) has some ground to make up in the league standings.

Now, let’s look back on the action from Saturday and hand out a few awards and grades. We also look ahead to next week’s game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Play of the game

Martinez scrambled for a 55-yard gain when K-State needed a first down in the worst possible way.

The Wildcats were facing a third-and-long from their own 41, trying to protect a touchdown lead in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. What to do? Offensive coordinator Collin Klein dialed up a play that was supposed to give Martinez four passing options down field on vertical routes. But the Sooners didn’t properly spy Martinez in the backfield and left the middle open. So he took advantage by sprinting forward and making a play with his feet instead of his arm.

Player of the game

Martinez is the obvious choice.

Skylar Thompson had some monster games against Oklahoma when he was Kansas State’s quarterback over the past few years, but not even he put up the kind of numbers that Martinez did on Saturday.

Stat of the game

Eleven, as in Oklahoma committed 11 penalties against the Wildcats.

Not only was K-State the better team in this game, it was the more disciplined team.

Quote to note

“Beating a team like this and being on a team like this is a special feeling, one I’ve never had in my career.” - Adrian Martinez.

Grades

Offense: A. The Wildcats set the tone in this game by scoring a touchdown on each of their first two drives to take a 14-0 lead. Martinez was electric, Vaughn reached the century mark, six different receivers caught passes with Ben Sinnott leading the way for 80 yards. K-State finished with 509 total yards. This was the balanced approach fans had been waiting to see.

Defense: C. Give K-State credit for forcing five Oklahoma punts and turning away the Sooners on one fourth down. But the Wildcats gave up a lot of yards. Oklahoma finished with 550 total yards and Dillon Gabriel threw for 330 of them.

Special Teams: B. Chris Tennant connected on a pair of field goals and Malik Knowles had a significant kickoff return in the first half.

Coaching: B+. Chris Klieman brought out the best in his quarterback this week and had his team ready to play a week after a disappointing loss. K-State also benefited from some quality coaching moves on Saturday, including a substitution exchange that led to a delay of game penalty on Oklahoma as the Sooners were trying to convert on fourth down.

Next Up

Traditional Big 12 powers Oklahoma and Texas both lost this weekend. That doesn’t happen very often.

The two teams that beat them will play against each other next week at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

K-State will host Texas Tech at 11 a.m. on Saturday in a game that suddenly now seems worthy of more than ESPN+.

The Red Raiders are 3-1 with impressive victories over Houston and Texas. They are coming off a 37-34 overtime victory against the Longhorns. Their only loss came on the road against North Carolina State.

K-State has traditionally performed well against Texas Tech, as the Wildcats have won 10 of the last 11 games in the series. But this also feels like a new Red Raiders team under coach Joey McGuire.