What Chris Klieman said after Kansas State's stunning loss to Houston
The Houston Cougars pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the 2024 college football season on Saturday, beating No. 17 Kansas 24-19 in a weather-delayed game that was played in a driving rain storm.
Kansas State (7-2, 4-2) came into the game as 13.5-point favorites over Houston (4-5, 3-3), but couldn't overcome the sloppy playing conditions and the Cougars' physical, relentless defense.
Houston quarterback Zeon Chriss scored the game-winning touchdown on a 41-yard run with 2:31 to play, and linebacker Michael Batton iced the game with a diving interception less than a minute later.
After the game, Kansas State coach Chris Klieman lamented his team's lack of fundamentals and praised Houston's defense.
Here are the highlights from Klieman's postgame press conference:
Klieman on if the pregame weather delay impacted Kansas State:
"No, we were engaged. You only get 12 opportunities to play, and I don't want to hear any BS about, well, we had a delay and stuff. It's football, and this is a pretty damn nice locker room. We've been in some bad ones. This is a pretty nice locker room, so I don't want to hear we didn't have the ability to lounge out and stuff. We got beat because of our fundamentals today, period."
Klieman on Kansas State's lack of technique:
"Those kids care. Those kids want to win. Those kids play their tail off. Nobody's gonna say we don't play hard. We play harder than heck man. But we're not playing with great fundamentals and techniques."
Klieman on Houston's defense:
"Being in this league six years right now, we've beaten teams that are better than us because we have better fundamentals and techniques. Today, we got beat by a team that was pretty capable, comparable to us ... that's as good a defense, other than BYU, that we've played this year. Those guys have dudes up front."
Klieman on Chriss' 41-yard touchdown run:
"The kid made a nice cutback and popped it when we were bringing everybody up to stop the run. With that being said, they had 40 rushes for 120 yards (it was officially 39 rushes for 123 yards). We played good run defense. We really did. Give them credit. Give the kid credit. He found a way to make a play. We wish we could've had somebody stay in the gap. But that part of it is football."
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Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. One of his favorite memories was covering the 1999 Fiesta Bowl - the first BCS National Championship Game - at Sun Devil Stadium.