MANHATTAN, Kan.—South Dakota led Kansas State 24-12 entering the fourth quarter, and had a 51-yard field goal try in the final seconds fall short in a highly-entertaining 27-24 KSU win before a sellout crowd of more than 50,000 Saturday night at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
It was a rematch of the 2015 season opener when Kansas State won 34-0, but this game was nothing like that one. South Dakota held its lead until the 7:21 mark of the fourth quarter, and at no point looked like underdogs. Junior quarterback
Austin Simmons passed for 257 yards and accounted for two scores. The Coyote defense forced four turnovers including a 25-yard pick-six from senior linebacker
Alex Gray right before halftime that gave South Dakota its 12-point lead.
The turning point came on a dazzling, 85-yard punt return by Kansas State wide receiver Isaiah Zuber with 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter that closed the gap to 24-19. Five minutes later, Zuber was back in the end zone catching a 10-yard touchdown from Skylar Thompson. Alex Barnes bulldozed in the two-point conversion for what turned out to be the final score of the game.
The Coyotes went 3-and-out on the ensuing possession, and Kansas State appeared to have it wrapped up after Thompson converted a 3
rd-and-5 to Dalton Schoen with a minute to go. But USD safety
Phillip Powell forced a fumble on the first-down run and South Dakota had life.
Starting from its own 16 with 50 seconds left and two timeouts, Simmons hit
Dakarai Allen for 10 yards,
Levi Falck for 18, Allen for another 12, and a pass interference penalty moved the ball to the KSU 29 with seven seconds remaining.
A false start moved the ball back to the 34, and Simmons threw incomplete to set up the long field goal try.
Mason Lorber, whose first kick as a Coyote was a 27-yard make back in the first quarter, came up well short from 51 yards away. He also had a 47-yarder hit the cross bar and bounce backwards back in the third quarter.
Simmons attempted the second-most passes in program history in his first collegiate start. He was 24 of 56 with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Allen with 1:29 left in the second quarter that gave USD a 17-12 lead. Gray's interception and return came on the next play from scrimmage.
Falck had a career-high 140 yards and tied USD's single-game record with 11 receptions. Allen hauled in four passes for 42 yards.
Kansas State climbed inside the Coyote 30 four times in the first half, but settled for four Blake Lynch field goals. He was good from 24, 22, 38 and 44 yards. Kansas State outgained USD 228-195 and possessed the ball for 20 minutes in the first half, but trailed by 12 at the break.
Thompson started, but rotated with Alex Delton at quarterback for Kansas State in the first half before orchestrating the comeback in the fourth quarter. Thompson completed 8 of 14 passes for 61 yards while Delton was 5 of 14 for 91. Both threw an interception and the two combined for 23 rushes for 136 yards. Barnes ran 21 times for 103 yards.
Kai Henry ran 10 times for 58 yards for South Dakota. His 37-yard rumble to the 7 set up the touchdown pass from Simmons to Allen before halftime. Allen made a shoestring catch in the back of the end zone for his seventh collegiate score.
In addition to the pick-six, Gray had two sacks, forced a fumble and led the Coyotes with six tackles. Powell also had six stops and an interception, and he forced two fumbles. South Dakota totaled four sacks to just one for Kansas State.
South Dakota returns to Vermillion to host Northern Colorado next Saturday at 2 p.m. The Bears lost 17-14 at home against McNeese State Saturday in their season opener.
