MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Skylar Thompson threw for 212 yards and accounted for two touchdowns, six different Kansas State players reached the end zone, and the Wildcats rolled to a 49-14 victory over Nicholls on Saturday night to give coach Chris Klieman a win in his debut.

James Gilbert paced a Kansas State running attack that rolled up 361 yards by going for 115 and a score. Jordan Brown, Harry Trotter and Tyler Burns also ran for touchdowns.

The Wildcats finished with 573 yards of total offense.

Indeed, it was a near-perfect start for Klieman, who led North Dakota State to four national championships in five seasons but was filling some mighty big shoes. He took over last winter for Bill Snyder, the Hall of Fame coach who took Kansas State from lowly also-ran to a perennial Big 12 contender.

The Wildcats did it in just about all phases, too. They reached the end zone on their first four possessions, got a long TD catch from Dalton Schoen and returned a fumble for another score.

Chase Fourcade, the Colonels’ star quarterback, was just 10 of 18 for 126 yards with a pick. Kendall Bussey and Julien Gums had second-half touchdown runs.

The Wildcats, who the last few years under Snyder had grown stale offensively, roared out of the locker room with a sense of purpose. They brutalized the Colonels at the line of scrimmage, were largely free of penalties and looked every bit the program from a Power 5 conference.

Trotter, a Louisville transfer, reached the end zone first. Thompson scrambled 17 yards for the second score. Brown, a North Carolina transfer, reached pay dirt next. And Gilbert, the newcomer from Ball State, ran 24 yards to give the Wildcats a 28-0 lead with 6:21 left in the first half.

In fact, the Wildcats nearly went 5-for-5 on TDs in the first half. But when Schoen hauled in a 20-yard touchdown pass, a review showed him bobbling the ball as he fell out of bounds.

That led to their only first-half miscue: Blake Lynch missed the ensuing 37-yard field goal.

Schoen finally got his touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter. He breezed past a defender and hauled in a 38-yard reception to give the Wildcats a 35-7 lead.

Jonathan Alexander’s strip, recovery and 25-yard touchdown return punctuated the win, and allowed Klieman to give his backups and third-teamers a chance to play most of the fourth quarter.

THE TAKEAWAY

Nicholls: After beating Kansas just down the road in their opener last season, the Colonels never really put up a fight. Fourcade threw a pick on their second offensive play, they went three-and-out on their next possession and the Wildcats quickly built an insurmountable lead.

Kansas State: The Wildcats looked a lot like Klieman’s teams at North Dakota State, winning the battle in the trenches and rotating running backs every couple of plays. The result was a team that was fresher and more physical as the game went along.

UP NEXT

Nicholls plays the second of four straight on the road, at Prairie View A&M on Sept. 14.

Kansas State hosts Bowling Green next Saturday before a trip to Mississippi State.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Les Miles promised to bring excitement to the perpetually rebuilding football program at Kansas.

The Jayhawks made his debut a little more exciting than he hoped.

After a late fumble in the end zone resulted in a go-ahead touchdown for Indiana State, Carter Stanley calmly led the Jayhawks right back downfield. His 22-yard touchdown throw to Daylon Charlot with 2:20 left in the game allowed Kansas to escape with a 24-17 season-opening victory Saturday.

“I think we’ll learn to win games like this without this much drama,” said Miles, who built Oklahoma State into a winner before leading LSU to a national championship. “I think we can throw the football to a number of guys and rush the football better and more efficiently than we did today and that would make — might distance ourselves from the opponent.”

There was hardly a speck of daylight between Kansas and Indiana State most of the day.

The Sycamores had clawed back from a 16-3 deficit, taking the lead when Stanley fumbled in the end zone and Inoke Moala recovered it for a touchdown with 4:24 left in the game.

But the Jayhawks’ senior quarterback calmly responded to adversity, hitting Andrew Parchment with a couple of passes, finding Charlot for a 26-yard gain then hitting him again for the go-ahead score.

The Jayhawks used an end-around pass to convert the 2-point conversion, then stopped the Sycamores in the closing minutes to avoid losing to their third FCS school in the last five seasons.

“”At the end of the day it’s 1-0 and we accomplished our goal this week. Won our game,” said Stanley, who beat out Thomas MacVittie for the starting job. “It’s going to be the same this week.”

Hasan Defense returned an interception 57 yards for a touchdown for Kansas. Khalil Herbert added 88 yards rushing, and Parchment had eight catches for 121 yards, as the Jayhawks tried to build on some of the excitement that Miles has brought to the program.

It wasn’t always pretty for the “Mad Hatter.”

His kicker, Liam Jones, missed a field goal and extra point. Stanley fumbled a snap on fourth down to spoil another drive. And there were far too many blown assignments on both sides of the ball to think Kansas is much different than its woeful years under Turner Gill, Charlie Weis and David Beaty.

The Sycamores’ Ryan Boyle threw for 219 yards with a touchdown, but he also tossed a pair of costly interceptions. Titus McCoy had 88 yards rushing before leaving with a left knee injury.

Still, the Missouri Valley school was in the game in the fourth quarter. Boyle threw a touchdown pass to Dante Jones to get the Sycamores within 16-10 with 10:52 left, and their score on defense gave them hope of their first win over an FBS school in 33 tries.

“We had our chances. Our defense played great,” Indiana State coach Curt Mallory said.

But it was the Kansas defense, so maligned over the years, that came up with a big stop. It forced Boyle into throwing a fourth-down incompletion with 1:35 left to essentially end the game.

The Sycamores will no doubt rue a couple of missed chances.

They looked as if they might have scored a touchdown just before halftime, but Dante Hendrix had a sliver of his toe out of bounds when he hauled in the catch in the back of the end zone. Boyle also had an interception at the goal line as the Sycamores were about to score.

Throw in Jerry Nunez’s two missed field goals and Indiana State made too many mistakes to overcome.

“With a new offense and a new coaching staff on offense, things weren’t going to be easy,” Defense said. “We’re in college so we don’t get preseason games to help our offense, and with us being such an older secondary or more mature secondary we already knew how the game was going to go. We just had to play our role and do our part and the offense was going to do their job at the end of the day.”

THE TAKEAWAY

Indiana State: After ripping off five straight wins to end last season, Mallory’s bunch carried that momentum into this season. The Sycamores stood toe-to-toe with Kansas all afternoon, and at several points looked to be the better team.

Kansas: The Jayhawks played without running back Pooka Williams, their best playmaker, as he served a one-game suspension for a series of off-the-field incidents. His return next week should give Kansas a big boost of speed and a much-needed offensive lift.

UP NEXT

Indiana State plays its home opener against Dayton next Saturday.

Kansas hosts Coastal Carolina next Saturday in the first meeting between schools.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) – The Packers defeated the Chiefs 27-20 in the teams’ preseason finale, but the play of the game came from Kansas City safety Harold Jones-Quartey during a dead ball in the fourth quarter.

After Packers running back Dexter Williams scored the deciding touchdown with 6:24 to play and Sam Ficken nailed the PAT, a fan raced onto the field as the teams prepared for the ensuing kickoff. Jones-Quartey aided security by making the tackle.

DENVER (AP) – Malik Reed had a pair of sacks and Denver capped a strong summer by the second-string defense in the Broncos’ 20-7 win over the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday night in front of a sparse crowd.

Reed, an undrafted rookie from Nevada who earned a spot as Von Miller’s backup with a terrific training camp, finished the preseason with a team-best four sacks.

He dumped Brett Hundley for an 8-yard loss and Drew Anderson for 9 as the Broncos built a 10-0 halftime lead on the strength of Kevin Hogan’s 6-yard TD toss to Fred Brown .

Rookie linebacker Justin Hollins also had a big game for Denver, sacking Hundley on Arizona’s third snap and harassing Anderson with an unblocked pressure and a pass deflection on consecutive snaps.

Safety Su’a Cravens, who’s had some shaky moments this summer, forced and recovered a fumble by tight end Caleb Wilson for Denver, which finished 2-3 in a preseason dominated by backups.

Broncos new quarterback Joe Flacco played in just two games, totaling 30 snaps and four drives as he prepares to begin his second chapter in Denver following 11 seasons in Baltimore. Flacco sat out the Broncos’ last two exhibitions, meaning he’ll have a nearly three-week break before playing again when Denver opens the season at Oakland on Sept. 9.

Cardinals QB Kyler Murray, the No. 1 overall draft pick, played in three preseason games but sat out the finale with most of Arizona’s starters.

Anderson’s 28-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Richardson pulled the Cardinals to 10-7, but the Broncos responded with a four-play, 75-yard touchdown drive.

Khalfani Muhammad, who had run seven times for minus-1 yard to that point, reeled off runs of 9, 12 and 52 yards, setting up Devontae Jackson’s 2-yard score.

Broncos coach Vic Fangio said he wanted to see separation from Hogan and rookie QB Brett Rypien, but he really didn’t get his wish. Hogan was 12 for 23 for 138 yards, a TD and two interceptions, including a desperation pass at halftime after Fangio called timeout with a second left. And Rypien was 8 of 11 for 86 yards with no touchdowns and an interception.

MALVEAUX-McMANUS

Broncos K Brandon McManus was 9-for-9 in the preseason, including field goals of 50 and 33 yards Thursday night, before Cameron Malveaux blocked his 54-yard attempt late in the fourth quarter.

STRONG START

Cardinals linebacker Denis Gardeck had a strong start, recording tackles on four consecutive plays on Denver’s first drive. He finished with a game-high eight stops.

FAMILY MATTERS
The Broncos are set to exercise late owner Pat Bowlen’s plan of succession after a judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by his brother. Brittany Bowlen, 29, is planning to return to the team in a senior management position following her wedding in September, beginning a process she hopes will lead to her taking over as the franchise’s controlling owner.

INJURIES:

Broncos S Shamarko Thomas (hamstring) was injured on the kickoff coverage, and Denver WR Steven Dunbar Jr. (rib) went out in the second half.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: Open season at home against Detroit on Sept. 8.

Broncos: Open season at Oakland on Sept. 9.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Jurickson Profar homered and drove in three runs, Seth Brown added two RBIs and the Oakland Athletics held off the Kansas City Royals 9-8 on Thursday to cap a four-game series victory.

Everybody in the A’s starting lineup had a hit or drove in a run, bailing out starter Chris Bassitt after a dismal performance. Bassitt failed to survive the fifth before turning the game over to Yusmeiro Petit (4-3), who was just about the only effective pitcher all the afternoon.

Fellow relievers Jake Diekman and Liam Hendriks gave up back-to-back RBI singles in the eighth, then Hendriks gave up a two-out RBI single to Ryan O’Hearn in the ninth. But the former Royals reliever bounced back to strike out Bubba Starling and earn his 17th save.

Glenn Sparkman (3-10) also failed to make it through the fifth for Kansas City, allowing seven runs, nine hits and a walk. He also hit a pair of batters in losing his fifth straight decision.

Sparkman gave up a leadoff single to Marcus Semien, another hit to Matt Olson and plunked two batters – one of them sending home a run – in staking Oakland to a 1-0 lead.

Bassitt served up a leadoff since to Whit Merrifield, then let Jorge Soler drill a 1-0 pitch out of the park. The homer was the 37th of the year for the slugging Soler, moving him within one of matching Mike Moustakas for the single-season franchise record.

Sparkman breezed through a perfect second and third before making a mess of everything else.

Profar went deep and Josh Phegley had an RBI single during the A’s three-run fourth, then Oakland tacked on three more runs off Sparkman and reliever Josh Barnes to take a 7-2 lead in the fifth.

Bassitt nearly gave it all back. Over the span of five batters in the bottom half, the right-hander plunked one, gave up a single to another, was victimized by an error and walked the bases loaded. Then, with the bases loaded, Cheslor Cuthbert came within a foot of hitting a tying grand slam – he wound up with a two-run double instead that drew the Royals within 7-5.

Oakland tacked on another run in the sixth before the Royals got within 8-7 in the eighth. Soler came to the plate with the go-ahead run on first, but Hendriks struck him out to preserve the lead.

ODD PLAY

The A’s added a run in the ninth when Corban Joseph popped foul with one out and runners on second and third, and Cuthbert made a nifty catch falling into the third base dugout. But under Rule 5.06(b)(3), both runners are entitled to advance a base, sending Brown home from third.

A’S SUMMON NEUSE

Infielder Sheldon Neuse was called up by the Athletics to replace Khris Davis, who is on paternity leave. The 24-year-old Neuse hit .317 with 27 homers for Triple-A Las Vegas. “Looking at the numbers, it’s a really good season,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “He has a really good approach, hits the ball to right-center field, has shown some power and is a little more versatile this year, too.”

CHAPMAN OUT OF LINEUP

A’s third baseman Matt Chapman was out of the starting lineup after taking a pitch off his helmet from the Royals’ Jakob Junis in the first inning Wednesday night. “He’s got a little bit of a headache,” Melvin said, “but I haven’t heard anything that would suggest that it’s a concussion-type thing.”

UP NEXT

Left-hander Brett Anderson (10-9, 4.08 ERA) takes the mound Friday night when Oakland visits the Yankees to start a three-game set between playoff contenders. Eric Skoglund (0-0, 3.60) makes his second big league start this season when the Royals host Baltimore starting Friday night.

FHSU Athletics

INDIANAPOLIS – On Tuesday, the NCAA announced 18 regular-season Division II football games that will be a part of its 2019 Division II Football Showcase. The season-opening football game between Fort Hays State and Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Missouri is part of the showcase. The game will be available to view on several webstreaming platforms.

The first 18 games of the Division II Football Showcase are predetermined games, 16 of which are conference matchups. An additional four flex games — intended to highlight crucial matchups — will be finalized later in the season and played in November.

Selected games are featured on ESPN3 or NCAA social media as part of a new media agreement intended to promote Division II on multiple platforms throughout the season.

The September 5 matchup between Fort Hays State and Central Missouri in Warrensburg will be a “hybrid model” game, meaning it has flexibility of distribution both online and on TV. Hybrid games will be distributed Free-To-View online through NCAA social media accounts — specifically, Division II Facebook (facebook.com/ncaadivisionii) and Twitter (@NCAADII) — and through conference and school digital networks. The game will also be available Free-To-View on the Fort Hays State University Athletics Facebook account (facebook.com/fhsuathletics). The game may also appear on local television channels, which will be announced closer to the game date should any local providers pick up the game.

If you have already paid for a subscription package to watch games on the MIAA Network, the game will still be available as normal just like any other week. Here is the link to the FHSU portal on the MIAA Network –  https://themiaanetwork.com/fhsutigers/. The MIAA Network OTT apps are available on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV.

“It’s always exciting to begin a new academic year and the start of the Division II season,” said Terri Steeb Gronau, vice president of Division II. “We’re looking forward to highlighting the teams that will be featured in the football showcase and promoting the Division II brand on several platforms for fans to see across the country.”

Games included in the schedule are selected from a pool of conference nominations. Of the 16 football-sponsoring conferences in Division II, 15 will be featured in at least one game. One conference declined to participate.

Of the teams competing in the slate of games, 15 appeared in the 2018 Division II playoffs, and 15 begin the 2019 season ranked in the Top 25 of the American Football Coaches Association Division II poll.

“The football showcase features several great teams and matchups,” said Daryl Dickey, chair of the Division II Football Committee and athletics director at West Georgia. “It’s always fun to follow Division II football and celebrate our student-athletes for their excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Hunter Dozier homered before driving in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning, Ryan O’Hearn also went deep and the Kansas City Royals held on to beat the Oakland Athletics 6-4 on Wednesday night.

Tim Hill (2-0) tossed two perfect innings in relief of Jakob Junis for the Royals, and Ian Kennedy survived a harrowing ninth inning to pick up his 23rd save of the season.

Kennedy walked Jurickson Profar to begin the inning, then struck out Chris Herrmann and Corban Joseph. Marcus Semien singled to bring the go-ahead run to the plate, but Kennedy got Robbie Grossman to hit a lazy flyball to left field to end the game.

Blake Treinen (6-5) faced four batters in the seventh inning without recording an out for Oakland. He allowed three hits and a walk, and Jake Diekman allowed one of his inherited runners to score.

Semien and Mark Canha homered for the A’s, who twice blew two-run leads in squandering a chance to go a season-best 22 games over .500. Oakland had won 16 of its last 22 against the Royals.

The big blows began Wednesday night with the game’s second pitch.

They didn’t stop with bats hitting balls, either.

Semien launched a solo shot off Junis to give the A’s an early lead, and the Royals’ starter proceeded to hit Matt Chapman in the helmet with a pitch two batters later. The impact launched Chapman’s helmet toward the warning track, though he remained in the game until the end of the inning.

He later scored on Seth Brown’s groundout.

The Royals tied it in the third when Tanner Roark served up Dozier’s two-run shot. The homer over the left-field bullpen was bookended by Roark hitting Whit Merrifield and Alex Gordon with pitches.

Oakland jumped back ahead in the fifth on Canha’s two-run homer, and the Royals quickly answered over the next couple innings. Jorge Soler got the first run back with an RBI double in the fifth, and O’Hearn tied it at 4-all when he belted an 0-2 pitch to right field to open the sixth.

Roark allowed four runs on five hits and a walk over six innings, striking out four. Junis gave up four runs on seven hits and a walk, striking out five.

DUCK!

Chapman immediately headed toward first base after he was hit in the helmet, and even shook off a trainer who came out to visit him. But he was eventually replaced by Chad Pinder as a precaution.

KELLER SITS

The Royals have shut down right-hander Brad Keller for the rest of the season after noticing a drop in velocity. The 24-year-old Keller, who was pounded by Oakland on Monday, already has thrown a career-high 165 1/3 innings. “I didn’t see anything after his last start that I wanted to see the rest of the year,” manager Ned Yost said. “His future is too important.”

SALE TALK

Yost declined to discuss the speculation that Royals owner David Glass is negotiating with local businessman and Indians minority owner John Sherman for a sale of the franchise. But the skipper did spend several minutes talking about the passion that Glass has for baseball, and that delivering the 84-year-old owner a World Series title in 2015 was one of the highlights of his career.

BABY WATCH

A’s designated hitter Khris Davis was a late scratch when he was placed on three-day paternity leave to be with his wife, Jill, for the birth of their second child. Davis was 4 for 8 with a homer in two wins over Kansas City before leaving for his home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. He was replaced in the lineup by Corban Joseph, and manager Bob Melvin said a roster replacement would arrive Thursday.

UP NEXT

Chris Bassitt (9-5, 3.59 ERA) starts for the A’s and fellow right-hander Glenn Sparkman (3-9, 5.52) is on the hill for the Royals as the clubs wrap up their four-game series with a Thursday matinee.