Jackson's three rushing touchdowns leads K-State to bowl eligibility

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MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Joe Jackson rushed for 142 yards and three touchdowns as Kansas State defeated Colorado 24-14 and earned bowl eligibility for the fifth straight season on a cold and blustery day. The game-time temperature was 32 degrees with a wind chill of 24.

“Joe Jackson is becoming one of the best running backs in the conference, which is fun to watch,” K-State head coach Chris Klieman said after the game. “Last week (when Jackson set a K-State record with 293 rushing yards against Utah), Joe ran through wide-open holes, made a couple of guys miss and had huge gains. This week, those holes were really small.

"Joe was a football player this week. (He) ran through contact and delivered punishing blows.”

Quarterback Avery Johnson was 10-of-17 for 115 yards in difficult conditions for Kansas State (6-6, 5-4 Big 12). Johnson was not concerned with his pedestrian stats, because he'll get to play another game with this group of seniors.

“It means everything,” he said. “We can get extra practices in from now into the bowl game, and young guys get to develop. There’s so much development that they can get in these extra practice periods. So we don’t take any of those extra practices for granted, and we don’t take another opportunity to go play the game we love for granted.”

Kaidon Salter was 14-of-25 for 172 yards for Colorado (3-9, 1-8), who got two rushing touchdowns from Micah Welch.

“It’s not a consolation prize,” Colorado coach Deion Sanders said of staying in the game until late. “They're supposed to fight. First of all, let’s acknowledge the opposing team. They played a heck of a game. The quarterback didn’t make many mistakes. The running back ran hard, and when they need to make the plays defensively, they made plays.”

Klieman was not happy with his team's effort in the first half. He made that clear at halftime.

“I challenged them pretty good at halftime,” he said. “I said, ‘We got 30 minutes for this story to be written. And I know you seniors want to play another football game. We’ve got to go out and establish ourselves in the second half, and we’ve got to win the line of scrimmage.’”

Jackson scored his second touchdown of the day from 1-yard out with 4:32 left in the third quarter. The score capped a 56-yard drive.

The Wildcats then made it a two-score game with a 35-yard field goal by Luis Rodriguez. The Wildcats stalled at the Colorado 19-yard line, but they burned 6:43 off the clock.

Welch's second rushing touchdown of the game capped a nine-play, 75-yard drive and brought the Buffaloes to within 17-14.

But Jackson's third touchdown, a 17-yard scamper with 2:34 left, extended the lead to 10 points.

“They were trying to stop the run game the best they could,” Jackson said. “But if things weren’t going right, like they did last week, I've got to keep trusting my guys up front, keep believing they were going to make things work.”

K-State used nearly half the first quarter to take a 7-0 lead on a 4-yard touchdown run by Jackson. The Wildcats used 7:13 for a 13-play drive.

Neither team did much offensively for most of the rest of the half until Colorado marched 84 yards in 11 plays for the tying touchdown.

Welch hurdled over the line from the 1 for the score. Colorado finished the half with 162 yards of total offense. K-State finished with 114 yards, with 74 of those coming on its opening drive.

THE TAKEAWAY:

Colorado: The Buffaloes didn't look like a team with nothing to play for. They outgained the Wildcats 323-321.

Kansas State: The Wildcats struggled to find its rhythm on offense. A week after gaining 574 yards, they gained just 321.

UP NEXT:

Colorado's season is done. Kansas State will await a bowl invitation.

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