How K-State won the Big 12 football championship with unforgettable goal-line stand

Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman pumped his fist when the Wildcats began overtime on defense Saturday at AT&T Stadium in the Big 12 championship game.

No matter what happened, he figured the Wildcats were going to win.

Even if TCU marched 25 yards and scored a touchdown to pull ahead by seven, the plan was for K-State to answer with a touchdown of its own and then walk off the field victorious after a successful two-point conversion.

But it never came to that. K-State defeated TCU 31-28 and hoisted the Big 12 championship trophy with a Ty Zentner field goal after the Wildcats kept the Horned Frogs out of the end zone with one of the best goal-line stands you will ever see in a clutch setting.

“That was a huge stop,” K-State quarterback Will Howard said. “It just allowed us to be a little more free with our play-calling. And then we have got ‘Legatron’ back there, so it makes it pretty easy on us.

“It really was awesome, though. It was remarkable. It was huge. It won us the game right there. I mean, obviously Ty’s kick won us the game, but that was the difference right there. I had full confidence in our defense and they made some really big plays today. They came up huge when it really mattered. I have got to give them a lot of credit. They stepped up.”

Here is what happened:

TCU started overtime with the ball and quickly got into scoring range with a 15-yard run from Kendre Miller. Next came a 4-yard run from Miller that gave the Horned Frogs the ball at the 6. On second down, TCU quarterback Max Duggan dived into the end zone but was ruled down inches short of the goal line.

The play was reviewed and the officials confirmed Duggan was short of the end zone, but they oddly spotted the ball back near the 1. That gave TCU two cracks at a touchdown, or a field goal if it missed on third down.

K-State needed a stop to avoid forcing its offense to win the game. The odds of the Wildcats keeping the Horned Frogs out of the end zone seemed low. TCU had rushed for a pair of touchdowns in regulation and averaged 5.9 yards per run over the course of the game.

But the Wildcats stuffed the Horned Frogs on back-to-back running plays that went to Miller straight up the gut. This was a battle in the trenches, and K-State won the hard-fought battle with Khalid Duke making a tackle at the goal line on third down. Replays made it appear as though Miller may have extended the ball across the goal line, but the play was not reviewed.

Then Daniel Green and Eli Huggins combined for a stop on fourth down. They kept Miller short of the goal line and made it so the Wildcats could win the game with a field goal.

“The overtime stop was incredible,” Klieman said. “To stop them on third down and fourth down, as good as they are up front and as good as their run game is ... Our defensive line stoop up and stuffed those guys on back-to-back plays.”

TCU coach Sonny Dykes was surprised Miller couldn’t punch it in. Miller was a first-team All-Big 12 running back this season.

“We just felt that Kendre has done it for us all year,” Dykes said. “He’s been really, really good at converting those short-yardage situations. He’s done it consistently. We’ve just got a lot of confidence in him. Obviously, if we had to do it over again, we’d do it different.”

Some will argue that TCU should have kicked a field goal on fourth down, but that is not how the Horned Frogs operate. They are always aggressive until the end.

Green was all smiles afterward.

He deserved to be. It’s not often you get to win a conference championship game with a goal-line stand.

“That was great execution overall by the defense,” the senior linebacker said. “We talked about situations like that. It just so happened that the championship game came down to this.”