⚡ CFB Dashboard

To say that Kansas State's season-opening game against Nicholls went well would be an understatement. The Wildcats dismantled the Colonels, 71-3, in Collin Klein's debut as K-State's head coach. From the opening fanfare and the resurgence of traditions to a new light show at the end of the third quarter and, of course, the game itself, it was a fun night for the Wildcat faithful on Saturday night at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. It was a "really good night; I was proud of our players. Incredible atmosphere; I thought our fans did an unbelievable job, as always," Klein said in his postgame press conference. "And with a lot of players that haven't experienced this environment, and our fans, I thought the students staying in the second half and bringing the energy, even in that third quarter, was a really, really good thing and greatly appreciated. A lot of things, you know, my message to those guys before the game was: we have to play with maximum effort, maximum focus, every single snap, regardless of if things are going good or things are going bad. And the strain and finish through everything we do-that's what we've been trying to do since even January, even, you know, before the season started. "I was really, really proud; the mentality I knew and felt that the focus level through the course of this week was where it needed to be. I thought they were dialed in; I thought they attacked the game plan even through the week of preparation. We have to sustain that, and they need to keep it, and we need to keep bringing that level of intensity and focus in everything that we do on a daily basis. And there are still a lot of things that, even though things went well in the first ball game, we can improve and need to get corrected. And you know, we kicked the ball out of bounds a couple of times; we turned the ball over, you know. But for the most part, again, I thought it was a good effort collectively. We were good on third down and allowed ourselves to be able to stay on the field. We got off the field on defense, and those guys played incredibly hard." The Wildcats are now 1-0 on the season as they head into this Saturday's game inside The Bill against Washington State, but before we move on, let's take some time to dish out the first edition of their postgame grades based on the Five Keys to Victory.