MANHATTAN, Kan. “”mdash; A whirling tornado named Daniel Thomas passed through Bill Snyder Family Stadium on Saturday, effectively blowing UCLA right out of Kansas. The senior running back from Kansas State didn’t send the Bruins to the Land of Oz, but he did bring an absolutely packed house down with a number of great plays that sparked the Wildcats to a 31-22 victory in the teams’ season opener.
Thomas rushed for 234 yards and a pair of touchdowns in 28 carries. His ability to extend runs ““ compounded with the Bruins’ tackling struggles ““ made it a long afternoon for the UCLA rush defense.
“(Thomas was) too much for us today,” UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said. “We could not get him down. Too many missed tackles.”
The Wildcats fed their guy the ball early and often; after UCLA went three-and-out to open the game, Kansas State marched down the field largely on the strength of Thomas’s legs before the senior punched in a one-yard touchdown. The score came on a fourth down and was made possible by a UCLA penalty for having 12 men on the field.
Thomas finished off the game like he started, sealing UCLA’s fate with a 35-yard scamper for a touchdown in the final minute that put the game out of reach.
“He was running like he was on a mission,” UCLA sophomore cornerback Sheldon Price said. “We knew he was going to get the ball. They weren’t running anything new, but to have a good defense you have to be good at tackling, and that wasn’t the case for us today.”
Despite Kansas State’s big day on the ground, UCLA made things interesting in the final minutes. Trailing 24-16 with just over two minutes to go, the Bruins put together a two-play, 64-yard drive that ended with redshirt sophomore quarterback Kevin Prince hooking up with redshirt freshman wide receiver Ricky Marvray for a 29-yard score. But a two-point conversion attempt failed when Prince couldn’t connect with junior wide receiver Taylor Embree in the end zone.
An inability to connect plagued the offense for most of the day. Prince ““ showing signs of rust after missing considerable amounts of practice time due to a back injury ““ was just nine-of-26 passing for 120 yards, one touchdown and a pair of interceptions. That said, his completion percentage was in no small part due to his receivers dropping eight of his passes.
“Given the rust, given where he was a week ago, I thought he played pretty well,” Neuheisel said of his quarterback. “I know there’s some things he wants back, but if we hang onto the ball I think we’re happier than we are right now.”
Despite their miscues, the Bruins still had a 10-7 lead going into halftime. Prince had a scoring run from 11 yards out after a Kansas State fumble, and kicker Kai Forbath ““ questionable coming into the game because of a nagging groin injury ““ converted his first of three field goals.
But it was the Wildcats who delivered the opening salvo to start the second half, as they got a 28-yard touchdown run from senior running back William Powell to seize a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“Certainly in the second half they were having their way with the running game,” Neuheisel said. “We were not able to control the line of scrimmage.”
The teams exchanged field goals throughout the rest of the half before Kansas State senior quarterback Carson Coffman threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Brodrick Smith that made the score 24-16 and set up the thrilling final two minutes.
UCLA’s struggles to tackle partially stemmed from limited practice reps; Neuheisel acknowledged that the Bruins did not work on tackling as much as may have been initially intended in an effort to counter the mounting number of injuries, and particularly as a response to the loss of redshirt junior center Kai Maiava in the fall scrimmage.
“(The physicality is) just something that we’ll get a feel for,” Prince said. “There’s first game jitters, and you can’t practice everything that a game’s going to present you.”
Whether or not more practice reps would have helped, the star of the game was unquestionably Thomas, who enters this season as one of the most dynamic backs in the Big-12. His shiftiness and strength amplified the Bruins’ tackling woes, something that Neuheisel had singled out as an area of concern going into the game.
In their hunt for answers in Kansas, the Bruins probably had enough brains, courage and heart to eke out a win. Instead, they’ll be asking the proverbial Wizard for some tackling dummies.
“That’s not UCLA football,” Neuheisel said of the defense’s inability to bring the opposing players down. “That’s not how we play, and it can’t be how we play if we want to have any kind of success this year.”