Many people wondered why Avery Johnson quit attempting to make plays with his legs halfway through the football season. Johnson is one of college football’s fastest quarterbacks, and the Kansas State sophomore demonstrated his dual-threat ability by averaging 64.2 rushing yards in his first five games. However, he suddenly became a pocket passer during the next five games, averaging only 18.2 yards on the ground. Then, out of nowhere, he returned to his rushing roots, totaling 72 yards and a touchdown as a rusher in a 41-15 win over Cincinnati last weekend. What has changed? Chris Klieman, K-State football coach, feels the answer is clear.
“When you don’t have a healthy quarterback, you need to be smart and not run him so much,” according to Klieman. “And he wasn’t feeling well for a while after Colorado. It is known that he was not in good health. Everyone wants to know why you’re not running him. Why don’t you run him? Well, we can’t hurt him. We can’t have him out. So we were maybe a little bit wise with him to protect him and allow him to get healthy. “People saw when he’s healthy, we’re really good on offense.” Johnson’s hip injury suffered during a road win against Colorado on October 12 was more serious than Johnson or anyone else in the K-State football dressing room realized.
When he didn’t run once and threw for 298 yards against West Virginia, many assumed he was hurt. However, Klieman stated that the Wildcats intended to exploit the Mountaineers through the air. In earlier games, Klieman stated that the game strategy was to get the ball to DJ Giddens and Dylan Edwards. But they were genuinely attempting to defend their quarterback. Even when Johnson ran the ball, he aimed to run out of bounds rather than gain yards. However, with K-State on a losing streak and Johnson feeling better in practice, Klieman encouraged Johnson to “cut it loose” as a runner last week. Johnson was eager to comply. “That’s one of my best skills,” Johnson stated.
He demonstrated this early on, rushing for 34 yards on his first play from scrimmage. “That just set the tone that we weren’t going to back down,” Mr. Johnson explained. “We’re going straight at you. Being able to get out and allow guys open up gaps for me and make explosive runs on the edge really calmed me down.” After establishing its quarterback run game, K-State appeared to be a completely different offensive. The Wildcats rushed for 281 yards and led the Bearcats for four quarters. Klieman and Johnson are looking for more of the same in Kansas State’s regular-season finale against Iowa State on Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium. “When he’s healthy, we’re very excellent.
Klieman remarked, “You can pull the football on designed runs or read runs, and you must expand the field rather than shrink it.” When you broaden it, it really opens up the running game with DJ. Then it suddenly begins to open up some of the play-action images. It allows for more possibilities.”
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