Kansas State secured its first win of the season in Week 1 against UT Martin 41-6. However, this first win may have raised more questions than it answered for the Wildcats. Head coach Chris Klieman talked about how having so much to prepare for a team can make you over-prepared and he just might have been right.
"I was not particularly pleased with the first half offensively," Klieman said in a postgame press conference. "Just didn't get into a rhythm, didn't think we had a lot of energy and juice, and challenged the guys at halftime, because I thought we were better than that."
Kansas State went into halftime against UT Martin up just 17-3 and the offense looked like it just could not get anything going. The defense was doing its job in getting stops and the ball back to the offense, but there was no rhythm or hurry on that side of the ball.
With so much excitement surrounding Avery Johnson's debut as the starter, fans were ready for an offensive explosion, but got anything but. The first half was abysmal offensively, but luckily the Wildcats picked it up in the second half to get what looked like a convincing win even with a mistake to start out the half.
"Sure enough, we made a mistake on the opening kickoff," Klieman said. "I thought the defense did a great job of stepping up and holding them to three, then I thought we kind of imposed our will a little bit from there on and made some explosive plays."
There were some standout players for Kansas State though and the biggest one was Colorado transfer Dyland Edwards, a transfer everyone was excited to see. Edwards coming in was exciting because of his play at the running back position, but also because of his relationship with Johnson. Johnson and Edwards have been friends since they were kids and now are playing college football together.
"We all know what kind of talent this kid has, and I was so excited to see him cut it loose," Klieman said. " I thought he ran extremely hard with the football, broke some tackles, and ran through some arm tackles, he's electric, as we see."
Kleiman for the most part said he was happy with K-State's play in the first game, but he knows there is a lot to work on going forward.
Kansas State is set to take Tulane in Week 2 in New Orleans hoping to get revenge from their 2022 loss.