#22 K-State completely dismantled #9 Oklahoma State in all three phases for a final score of 48-0. The Wildcats could not have asked for more a better game for the entire 60 minutes.

K-State won the coin toss and decided to receive, which is something head coach Chris Klieman done multiple times this season. Their normal starting quarterback Adrian Martinez couldn’t go, so it was backup quarterback Will Howard who got the start, and he picked up where he left off last week against TCU.

Klieman made an incredibly gutsy call to go for it on 4th & 10 from the Oklahoma State 38-yard line, and Howard hooked up with senior wide receiver Kade Warner in the endzone to put the Cats up first.

Junior running back Deuce Vaughn got the next score on a 62-yard rushing touchdown, his second-longest of the season, to give them a quick 14-0 lead after two possessions.

The Wildcat defense got early stops on a 4th down near midfield, and a forced fumble from linebacker Austin Moore.

The offense fed off the defense’s energy and answered with another touchdown, this time from wide receiver Phillip Brooks. He ran a brilliant wheel route and made the catch in the endzone for a 31-yard touchdown to go up 21-0.

Oklahoma State quarterback Spencer Sanders misfired on the next possession and K-State cornerback Julius Brents was able to make the interception. Warner got his second receiving touchdown of the afternoon on a little bubble screen from the 41-yard line to make it 28-0.

K-State got the ball back with a little less than seven minutes left and the Cats were able to milk the clock all the way down to the end and get a 1-yard touchdown pass to Vaughn making it 35-0 at the half.

The Wildcats were all about taking care of business and playing mistake-free football in the second half, and they executed it perfectly. They had five possessions and scored on three of them with a pair of field goals from their punter Ty Zentner, who has been converted to their field goal kicker as of this week, and a touchdown from freshman running back DJ Giddens.

The fans stormed the field and the students carried Howard on their shoulders off the field in celebration of the victory.

Klieman is now 4-2 against top-ten opponents with two of them at home. Former head coach Bill Snyder in his 25-year tenure had five top-ten wins and only two of those were in the stadium now named after him.

It was a historic day in Manhattan on Saturday with a ton of career highs and milestones from multiple players. Howard had a career high in passing yards (296) and passing touchdowns (4). His four touchdowns is tied for the most ever in a single game by a K-State quarterback, and they all came in the first half.

Malik Knowles also had a career-high in receptions with eight. He also had 113 receiving yards. Warner finished with five receptions for 117 yards and two receiving touchdowns.

Vaughn had 22 carries for 158 rushing yards and the rushing touchdown. He also had four catches for 18 yards and his receiving touchdown.

Vaughn leapfrogged Daniel Thomas and 2022 K-State Ring of Honor inductee Ell Roberson for third all-time in career rushing yards in school history with 2,948. He needs just 46 more rushing yards to place solo-second all-time and get past John Hubert who had 2,993. It seems like more than a longshot for him to place first all-time as soon-to-be gold jacket owner Darren Sproles rushed for an absurd 4,979 rushing yards in his career.

Vaughn also got his 30th career rushing touchdown which places him fifth in school history.

The K-State defense got their second shutout of the season. It’s the first time since 2002 that a K-State defense has held two opponents to zero points in a season. That year, K-State did it three times.

Linebacker Nick Allen got a start replacing Daniel Green, who was injured in the TCU game. Allen led the team with eight tackles including a tackle for loss.

Oklahoma State suffered their largest loss in the 69-game series between the two teams. This was Mike Gundy’s largest loss of his career, and his first loss to Klieman. It’s only the third time that one of Gundy’s Oklahoma State teams has been shutout with the last one coming in 2009.

K-State got the largest shutout win over a top-ten opponent since 1966. It’s also the largest ever by a lower-ranked opponent.

Coming into the game, Oklahoma State averaged 44.7 points per game, which was fourth in the country.

Before this season, K-State was winless in games following a loss in the Klieman era. K-State is 2-0 in said games this season with both wins coming against top-ten teams.

The Wildcats are back in the driver seat for getting to Arlington as they are now in solo second place at 4-1 in Big 12 play and 6-2 overall. They play Texas next week in the first primetime game at the Bill this season with a 6:00 p.m. kick. It will be their fourth game under the lights this year.

The Longhorns had the week off and currently stand at 5-3 overall and 3-2 in Big 12 play, which is tied for third with Baylor and Oklahoma State. This will be the biggest game to date for the Wildcats. If they win, they will have a tiebreaker over two of the three teams currently tied for third place. If they lose, they will be tied with the Longhorns and will not have the head-to-head tiebreaker against them.