College football’s first Power 5 weekend of 2020 gifts fans with upsets galore

Kansas State loses at home to Arkansas State

Kansas State did not anticipate losing at home in their season opener against a Sun Belt opponent who lost the week prior.

The Wildcats started the game on fire when Phillip Brooks took in a 17-yard pass from Skylar Thompson for the touchdown to give head coach Chris Klieman and his team an early 7-0 lead. The student section was rocking and things looked to be going very well for Kansas State.

However, one player in particular for Arkansas State was preparing to put on a show on national TV.

Arkansas State wide receiver Jonathan Adams Jr. is a senior and has not had a season with over 900 yards. In his first game against Memphis, he had six catches for 65 yards and no touchdowns. However, in his game against Kansas State, he started the game with a 2-yard touchdown reception from Logan Bonner and he was just getting warmed up.

After Adams’ touchdown to tie the game at 7-7, Kansas State’s offense continued to produce, putting up two consecutive touchdowns on a 3-yard touchdown run by Deuce Vaughn and a 7-yard touchdown catch by Briley Moore to give the Wildcats a 21-7 lead midway through the second quarter. Arkansas State would answer to cut down the Wildcats lead on a 48-yard touchdown pass to Roshauud Paul from sophomore receiver Jeff Foreman on a trick play.

Kansas State would enter halftime with a 21-14 lead.

In the third quarter, both defenses stepped up limiting the offenses of both teams. However, the backup quarterback for the Red Wolves connected on an 8-yard touchdown pass to Giles Amos to tie the game at 21-21 to end the quarter. The fourth quarter would provide a lot of excitement and offense for both teams.

Early in the fourth, Adams caught his second touchdown on the day when he pulled in a 5-yard pass from Bonner to give Arkansas State a 28-21 lead. Kansas State answered back with a Harry Trotter 5-yard touchdown run to tie it back up at 28 apiece. The first field goal of the game occurred with just under three minutes remaining in the game when Blake Lynch connected on a 35-yard field goal. However, with a three-point lead, the Kansas State defense had to step up to avoid an upset.

After a very unfortunate injury to a Kansas State player, play resumed and the Red Wolves had one last chance to either tie the game or score a touchdown to give them an upset over Big 12 Kansas State. With just under 40 seconds left in the game, Adams came up big again when he secured a 17-yard touchdown catch from Hatcher to give the Red Wolves a 35-31 lead which would end up being the final score.

It is easy to look at Adams’ three touchdowns and see how Arkansas State pulled off the upset but it truly was a team effort that saw three different players throw touchdown passes and a Red Wolves offense that nearly put up 500 yards of total offense.

https://twitter.com/tCFBCountry/status/1304869277330272257

It was not a good day overall for the Big 12 but it’s just one week of football and next week can yield different results in non-conference play.

Oh, and let’s not forget Kansas had a late nightmare performance against Coastal Carolina, losing 38-23 and capping off the Big 12’s forgettable opening weekend.