Liberty Bowl 2016: Arkansas dominates Kansas State for second straight blowout bowl win

You either watched it on Saturday night, or you gave up on the game, went to a movie, and found out when you got out: TCU spotted Oregon a 31-0 halftime lead, flipped the script and forced overtime, then won after three overtime periods, 47-41. It was as crazy as it sounded.

There’s a point in seemingly every basketball blowout loss when your opponent, likely at home and already winning, nails some ridiculous 30-foot bank shot as the shot clock expires. That is the moment when you know your team officially has no chance. Fate has plans for you.

Arkansas came in as a 13-point favorite, but the Razorbacks started off slow, as Kansas State went up 7-0 and 10-7 in the first quarter. However, late-season Arkansas’ physicality was just too much for the Wildcats, and that started to pile up in the second quarter, as Arkansas raced out to a 24-10 lead.

The star was running back Alex Collins, a junior who has NFL Draft potential this season. He finished with 185 yards at eight yards per carry and three touchdowns, including this run to put the Razorbacks up 15 early in the fourth quarter.

It’s been a good year for fullbacks, with big men from Michigan State and Navy, among others, scoring memorable touchdowns this year. But no fullback has ever been as wide open as Kansas State fullback Winston Dimel was against Arkansas.

Arkansas coach Bret Bielema, a lover of big men doing athletic things, who asked to be on the Piesman Trophy voting panel, won’t be happy about his team forgetting about a fullback.

Both Snyder and Bielema got their coaching starts at Iowa with Hayden Fry. When Bielema left the Iowa coaching staff in 2001, he landed as a co-coordinator for Snyder at Kansas State, and spent two seasons under Snyder before moving to Wisconsin. The two remain close, with Bielema attending Snyder’s induction to the College Football Hall of Fame earlier this season.

Both Snyder and Bielema have struggled through disappointing seasons. Snyder’s Wildcats enter the Liberty Bowl at 6-6, having won its last three games just to reach bowl eligibility. Kansas State did manage to beat West Virginia in the regular season finale, holding the potent Mountaineer offense to 23 points.

The five power conference teams ranked ahead of Kansas State in S&P+ (Georgia Tech, Texas, Syracuse, Duke, and Virginia) had a combined 23-37 record in the regular season. The five power teams below the Wildcats (Vanderbilt, Arizona, Missouri, South Carolina, and Wake Forest) went 21-39. Of these 10 teams, only Duke and Arizona were bowl eligible.

So really, a bowl is a bonus for Bill Snyder and KSU this year. The Wildcats went 3-3 in one-possession finishes, with gut-wrenching losses to OSU, TCU, and Baylor sandwiched by tight, somewhat miraculous wins over Louisiana Tech, Iowa State, and West Virginia. KSU was often competitive and duly took care of the three worst teams on the schedule (UTSA, Kansas, South Dakota), but when things went poorly, it got pretty drastic. KSU lost to Oklahoma and Texas by a combined 78-9 and allowed 59 points to Texas Tech.

Arkansas lost offensive line coach Sam Pittman to the same position at Georgia, and coach Bret Bielema wasn’t happy. In what was apparently a last-ditch effort to keep Pittman, or get him to explain himself, Bielema took the offensive linemen to Pittman’s house.

Pittman refuted that he refused to meet with the players. He said he was waiting until the next day.