It began on third down and goal to go from the 8-yard line and with six seconds remaining in the fourth quarter as Blake Barnett stood and clapped his hands in shotgun formation with Kansas State trailing Colorado 21-14 at Folsom Field. One receiver split out to the right. Two to the left. Tight end Garrett Oakley moving from right to left and then back to the right in the slot. Shortly after Barnett received the football, the Buffaloes' defensive line leaked into the pocket.
"We only had one chance to come out here for the first time, and that part is really, really tough," Casey Alexander says, sitting at a long, black table and in front of a purple backdrop, the arms of his lavender quarter-zip crossed while faint droplets of sweat dot his forehead against the bright light inside the innards of Bramlage Coliseum in his first postgame Kansas State news conference on a trying Tuesday night.
Her name is Shaila Nde, and she's an 18-year-old true freshman from Barcelona, Spain, and the 6-foot former standout in FIBA international basketball just played the first official game of her life on American soil, and she sits in the postgame interview room at Bramlage Coliseum in her white Kansas State women's basketball uniform with purple trim, and she smiles — and she smiles some more — after a season-opening 61-41 win over Wichita State on Monday night.
Kansas State head coach Collin Klein refers to the Wildcats' plight as "a thousand little cuts" after their recent heartbreak — a 27-24 overtime loss at Colorado — marked their fourth loss in five Big 12 Conference games this season.
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