Kansas State Wildcats College Football Pregame Quote, 08/25/2025

Opening Statement:

Good afternoon, everyone. For starters, I want to shout out and thanks our operations staff with Kacey Feldkamp and Hank Jacobs, our equipment staff with Al Cerbe, video with Scott Eilert, nutrition with Scott Trausch, medical with Mindy Hoffman and her staff, strength and conditioning with Coach Ray (Thomas), all of our support staff. What an undertaking that was, and they were flawless. That crew did a phenomenal job of orchestrating not a three-day event, but a 16-month event that (was done) in three days. They don’t get enough credit for what they accomplish and what they do. All the people that are that are underneath those leaders, they did a phenomenal job.

We are extremely disappointed in not coming away with the victory. I knew this when we scheduled the game that K-State was going to paint Dublin purple, and we did. That’s probably what makes me hurt the most, is for our fan base and for the people that traveled there. They saw a heck of a football game. They saw a really good football game between two really good teams. They had opportunities in the first quarter, and we were able to get them to turn it over and not capitalize. We had an opportunity in the second quarter when we turned them over, we didn’t capitalize. So, it’s 7-7 in the second half. A couple things – they made a few more plays than we did to get a lead. We were getting really tired, and I think wore down a little bit on defense because we were down a handful of guys. No excuse – we were down a handful of guys. So, we were getting a little bit tired. That’s why we went for it on fourth down and didn’t get it the one time when it was 4^th and 1 and we ran the ball with Avery (Johnson). All that being said, they scored. We get a quick score with six minutes and some seconds left. We’re down three, and if we get a stop, we get the ball and have a chance to win, and we couldn’t get the stop. So, credit those guys (Iowa State). I’m super proud of our football team, but disappointed in the loss. The big thing now is, how do we respond? Not for one week, how do we respond for the long haul? Because this is still a marathon, not a sprint. So, we’re disappointed in the outcome, but something I think we’re going to learn and grow from.