Winners and Losers: DJ Giddens carries Kansas State

KSO covers the biggest winners and losers in the world of Kansas State and college athletics.

Winners

1.) DJ: It was a fantastic night for Junction City’s DJ Giddens against UCF. The Kansas State sophomore running back had the No. 3 game in terms of yards from scrimmage by a running back in school history. In terms of just rushing yards, it was the first game a K-State running back had 200 yards or more since Alex Barnes accomplished that feat in 2018.
2.) DEFENSIVE LINE: The Kansas State defensive line lived in the backfield in the Big 12 opener. All three of Brendan Mott, Nate Matlack and Khalid Duke had a sack. Cody Stufflebean also had one of his best games at K-State.
3.) PURNELL: In the absence of Daniel Green it was ‘Sam’ linebacker Desmond Purnell who really popped on Saturday night. The Topeka native was excellent against the run and setting the edge. He also received the most praise from Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman in the postgame press conference. Klieman shared that he believes Purnell is playing at an All-Big 12 level.
4.) HEALTH: K-State received a few positive health updates as well. Jake Clifton was not expected back until after the bye week, but he played for the Wildcats on Saturday night. Will Howard was described as questionable and played the whole game and looked good. Offensive lineman Christian Duffie looked good in his first game of the season and Keagan Johnson took another step by taking 52 snaps.
5.) OREGON: I’m not sure there was a more impressive performance this week than Oregon’s against Colorado. The Ducks absolutely thumped the Buffaloes 42-6, and it could have been a lot worse.

Losers

1.) NEW BIG 12 TEAMS: All four new schools in the Big 12 are 0-1 to start league play, so it wasn’t just the Kansas State win over UCF. To make it worse, all four schools also lost by multiple scores. It was a bit of a rude welcoming to the league.

2.) IOWA: The Hawkeye offense is usually inept, but they were even worse against Penn State. Brian Ferentz’s offense could only muster four total first downs and 76 yards. Woof. In fact, they only ran 33 total plays.

3.) TEXAS TECH: It has not been a great start to the season for the Red Raiders. After having high expectations, they have fallen to 1-3 on the season after losing to West Virginia. To add insult to injury, Tyler Shough broke his fibula and will miss the remainder of the season. That K-State matchup in Lubbock now appears more gettable.

4.) ESPN: It’s getting nauseating to hear ESPN discuss how it’s so sad that the Pac-12 is disbanding like they didn’t play a hand in it.

5.) FIGHTING IRISH: Losing to Ohio State because you only had 10 players on defense on the final play of the game is rough.