Sometimes you need to be reminded of things.
K-State football fans have been through the woodwork this season. They entered the year ranked 20th in the AP poll and 19th in the coaches poll with thoughts and aspirations of a possible magical season.
Expectations were high — probably unfairly so but with nearly the entire offense returning from a 2016 season where they won nine games including their bowl game, there was nothing stopping the mind from wandering.
Then reality hit. The Wildcats lost four out of five games after winning the first two easy non-conference games of the season. Three of those four were by a touchdown or less. The other was a TCU game where the Wildcats scored just two field goals.
Their quarterback, senior Jesse Ertz, whom some felt was due for a special season, ended up hurt for what ended up being a season-ending injury and the Wildcats had to make due with their sophomore and redshirt-freshman back-ups.
The sophomore, Alex Delton, suffered multiple concussions over his first several starts and was sidelined for redshirt-freshman Skylar Thompson.
So with all of that plus another home loss by less than a touchdown to West Virginia keeping them away from bowl eligibility and an eighth-straight bowl game, K-State fans had begun to forget.
The usual nasty online takes and reactions got nastier and greater in number and fingers flew to point the blame hoping for some sort of quick fix.
Winning does a lot for that whole forgetting thing.
The Wildcats knocked off their first AP-Top 10 opponent since 2012 two weeks ago by beating Oklahoma State in Stillwater and then followed that up with a thrilling come-from-behind win at home against Iowa State to close the regular season.
While the first three quarters had nearly nothing to offer with K-State scoring just one touchdown, the final 15 minutes were something to behold.
After leading his team to their best offensive game of the season the week before, Thompson seemed primed for a letdown and showed it in the first half.
Skylar could hardly get anything going, throwing for less than 100 yards in addition to tossing two interceptions that the Iowa State defenders were nice enough to not catch.
But that’s when it happened. After only finding the end zone after a stellar punt return in the second quarter set them up with great field position, the Wildcats drove the length of the field twice (something they hadn’t been able to do all game) and put in the end zone both times.
The first time was impressive enough. Thompson was locked in and throwing lasers, getting the Wildcats to the goal line where a trick running back pass play that running back Alex Barnes said he had been working on for over a year and a half went off perfectly.
After the defense got another stop, it was once again Thompson’s turn to show that he was highly touted out of high school for good reason.
