Big 12 Breakdown and The Big Question For Each School : #4 K-State
By Cade Welty and Sean A Dillon
We’re breaking down the Big 12 as we get closer to the 2026 season. We’re breaking down each team getting closer and closer to #1. Today we look at Houston.
#16 – Iowa State #15 – Colorado #14 – Kansas #13 – cincinnati #12 – Oklahoma State #11 West Virginia #10 UCF #9 Baylor
#8 – TCU #7 – Arizona State #6 – Arizona #5 – Houston #4 – Kansas State #3 – ???
Kansas State: How do you maximize Avery Johnson?
From Big 12 titles and eating mascots in a bowl game, the Kansas State Wildcats fell a bit short this past season. Nom, nom, nom. After an injury riddle in 2025, the Wildcats would finish the season at 6-6, going 5-4 in conference play. They would also see the retirement of their head coach, Chris Klieman. Klieman led K-State to a 54-34 record with one Big 12 title in 2022. The decision from Klieman opened up a job search for their next head football coach.
After a short search, the Wildcats brought back a former QB, now turned coach in Collin Klein, who was just the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M. Klein will be the 4th head coach at Kansas State since 1989 and will try to keep the winning tradition alive for the Wildcats. Their 6-6 record in 2025 marked the first non-winning season since 2020 (which was shortened due to COVID-19), only their 3rd since 2016.
Heading into 2026, this marks the guaranteed last season of QB Avery Johnson (pending 5 for 5 rulings), who has been one of the more dynamic players in the Big 12. In his three seasons, he has passed for 5,576 and ran for 1,378 yards with 70 total TDS. For 2025, we saw an overall regression in offensive production with yards and touchdowns dropping for both categories.
How do you maximize Avery Johnson?
A question that new play caller and head coach Collin Klein will have the honor of answering. When asked about the QB, Klein took a different approach to what he liked about the senior leader.
“ I would argue some of his best attributes are not physical. I know everyone sees how fast he is, everybody sees the arm talent. He’s one of the best competitors I’ve been around”
Avery Johnson appeared on Kansas State Wildcats on KCSN where he talked about how the new coaching staff feels different. “We’ve got a lot more energy. Our coaches are younger; they bring more energy to practices and really to everything that we do.”
So, again, how do you maximize a player with all the ability to be a top player in the conference? Well, the first area is to let him run the ball. In 2025, he only rushed for 477 yards, averaged 4.4 yards per attempt and only 39.8 yards per game. These are all down to his great 2024 season, which makes you think was it scheme or was the league figuring him out?
In 2025 the team as a whole saw a drop in rushing production with 800 less yards, 7 less touchdowns and not a single 1,000 yard rusher. Kansas State has a recipe that works with the players they have brought in. Running the ball a lot and effectively. The team’s 2,056 rushing yards is their lowest since 2015 when they ran for 2,041 yards and went 6-7 overall.
This plays right into Klein’s scheme as he coached Johnson in 2023 and used him for run packages which saw 5.7 yards per carry and 7 touchdowns (5 of those were in one game against Texas Tech). Then at A&M Klein brought them the second best rushing offense in the SEC averaging 195.5 yards per game.
Keys to Success:
So we know the key to success for Kansas State in 2026, and it is to run the ball and keep doing it. For Klein, he gets the reward of six returning starters on offense with the huge return of junior RB Joe Jackson, who took the starting role and ran with it for 911 yards, 8 touchdowns on 169 carries. With other positions returning, such as one OL and two TEs, it should be a familiar talent group at Kansas State, but they did add to the returners with a couple of transfers. They bring along Izaiah Williams, a WR from Texas A&M who caught 7 passes for 64 yards and one touchdown. The incoming sophomore will join another SEC transfer WR Josh Manning from Missouri. Manning brings a create after the catch ability to Manhattan Kansas. Those two WRs will be in charge of replacing Jayce Brown’s production as the WR left for LSU.
On the defensive side they are only returning 3 starters with them all being defensive backs. They lost two talented players with LB Austin Romane leaving for Texas Tech and EDGE Chiddi Obiazor going to Indiana. They rebuilt the defense through the portal bringing in high valued pass rusher Wendell Gregory from Oklahoma State but with a brand new front 7 the Wildcats will have some gelling to do to climb their way back into Big 12 contention.
For 2026 the Wildcats say hello to an old QB and will say goodbye to another but as long as they run the ball and find a way to get the defense to work. They should return to being one of the contenders in the Big 12 again.
Kansas State 2026 Football Schedule :
Conference Games *
9/5/2026, Nicholls : 6:00 P.M. CT
9/12/2026, Washington State : 11:00 A.M. CT
9/19/2026, Tulane, Time : 11:00 A.M. CT
9/26/2026, at Cincinnati *, Time : TBA
10/10/2026, Houston *, Time : TBA
10/17/2026, Kansas * , Time : TBA
10/24/2026, at Arizona State * , Time : TBA
10/31/2026, at Colorado *, Time : TBA
11/7/2026, Oklahoma State *, Time : TBA
11/14/2026, at TCU * , Time : TBA
11/21/2026, Arizona * , Time : TBA
11/28/2026, at Iowa State * Time : TBA
Sean’s Thoughts:
Collin Klein is returning to Manhattan, and the real question is where he lands on the Stanley Ipkiss pipeline. Does he stay mild mannered and get walked all over by Big 12 defenses, or does he slap on a purple Zoot suit, unleash Avery Johnson, and turn K-State into full ‘Sssmokin!’ chaos? I’d like to see the 2nd, but feel the 1st is equally possible. If he freezes halfway through the season like Scott Frost or Kliff Kingsbury, that mask is going to blow up right in his face. How do you manage head coaching, play calling and balancing out the integration of a culture while rebuilding an entire front seven especially after Austin Romaine left for the Red Raiders. Let us tell you it isn’t going to be easy. But the Wildcats are dangerous.
Avery Johnson proved he could be a bowling ball on the ground but he has to convert 3rd downs and make K-State more explosive downfield. Can the portal band-aids in the wide out room give Avery open targets in replacement of Jayce Brown? Or will it be Avery screaming “Blow the whistle, Blow the Whistle” like Papke in Necessary Roughness? Only time will tell.
Klein gets a slow easy start that, like a roller coaster, climbs uphill until they hit the road for the last four of six including late season trips to Arizona State, TCU and Iowa State. K-State fans might be screaming at the end of the season if Klein’s heavy QB usage breaks Avery into tiny pieces.
I see them winning 8+ games but they aren’t dangerous enough. I see K-State fans chugging those new stadium wide beers a lot faster than they’ll quench their thirst for a Big 12 Title.