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Monday, November 26, 2001
To Sirr, with love ... or not
By Will Weiss
ABC Sports Online
Kansas State fans remember all too well what happened in St. Louis on the first weekend of December, 1998 when the Wildcats faced Texas A&M with the Big 12 championship and a shot at the national title on the line.
|  | | Michael Bishop threw for 341 yards and ran for 101 against the Aggies. |
K-State headed into the game third in the BCS, and needed the following to occur to reach the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Beat Texas A&M in the Big 12 title game, and have either Tennessee lose in the SEC title game or Miami upset UCLA.
K-State brought 25,000 fans decked in full purple regalia to St. Louis, and they figured a trip to Tempe was a lock.
"I can't wait until we play Tennessee," one Kansas State fan said. "I wouldn't have missed this for the whole world. I've been dreaming of this since I was a kid."
"I can't recall ever being this excited about a football game," said A&M quarterback Branndon Stewart, who earned the start courtesy of Randy McCown's broken collarbone. "I couldn't wait to play all week."
Kansas State couldn't wait, either, jumping out to a 17-3 lead in the second quarter, highlighted by Michael Bishop's 66-yard TD pass to Darnell McDonald. Bishop finished the first half a perfect 8-for-8 for 159 yards and two touchdowns.
At the exact same moment K-State celebrated the touchdown, news that Miami had upset UCLA pervaded the TransWorld Dome. The door was open. Now all the Wildcats had to do was walk in and make themselves at home.
"That was a natural motivating factor. That left it all in our hands," said K-State head coach Bill Snyder. "That's all these young people have been asking for 11 weeks."
But what the Wildcat faithful had asked for, the Aggies weren't willing to concede.
On Kansas State's initial possession of the second half, Bishop made his first mistake, throwing an errant pass that found its way into the hands of All-America linebacker Dat Nguyen.
Against a stingy Wildcat defense, Texas A&M had success running the ball, and set the tone early in the second half. Dante Hall and Ja'Mar Toombs provided a powerful 1-2 combination, and Toombs' 1-yard touchdown shaved the Wildcat lead to 17-12. It was only the third rushing touchdown the Wildcat defense had allowed all season. Stewart's two-point conversion attempt failed.
The Wildcats responded with a Martin "Automatica" Gramatica field goal, and Bishop's 5-yard scoring run with 40 seconds remaining in the third made it 27-12. It appeared K-State's 19-game winning streak would turn into 20 without a problem, and folks in the Little Apple were thinking Fiesta with plenty of Tostitos and salsa.
The fourth quarter, however, saw a 180-degree turn in momentum and an equal turn in the Aggies' game plan. Mired by a 15-point deficit, A&M took to the air and found seams in the K-State secondary. Midway through the fourth, Stewart found Leroy Hodge from 13 yards out, and the lead was down to eight.
|  | | Everett Burnett came two yards from sending K-State to the National Championship Game. |
That margin seemed secure after K-State took over on downs inside four minutes to go, but when Bishop fumbled on his own 35 and A&M recovered, the purple contingent fell mute. The Aggies capitalized. With 1:09 left, Stewart hit tailback Sirr Parker with a 9-yard TD pass and followed up by hitting Parker to complete the two-point conversion to knot the game at 27-27.
On the last play of regulation, K-State almost pulled off a miracle when Everett Burnett snagged Bishop's desperation pass ... but he was stopped on the 2-yard line.
"We were up 15. Then all of sudden we're in overtime," Bishop said.
"When we were in overtime, I said to the other guys, 'Don't let this one slip away,'" Nguyen said.
K-State won the toss and deferred. Stewart hit tight end Dan Spiller for 18 yards and the Aggies were in business at the Wildcat's 7. But three straight runs by Hall proved futile, and facing fourth-and-one, coach R.C. Slocum took the three points.
"I was tempted to try and get the thing in," said Slocum. "I decided we had to take the three and take the chance we could hold them to three."
The Wildcats pounded it to the goal line as well, but chose to kick a field goal on fourth-and-one, sending the game into a second overtime. Slocum's strategy worked.
Kansas State went on offense first in the second extra session, and A&M's Wrecking Crew held the 'Cats to another Gramatica field goal to give K-State a 33-30 lead.
Then Parker, the man who tied the game, took a short pass from Stewart, bolted for the goal line and dragged several would-be tacklers with him.
"I didn't think I was in," Parker said, and replay confirmed he was brought down just short of the goal line. "But I saw the refs hands go up, so I went to celebrate with the corps."
The Aggies and the 12th Man representatives rejoiced, while K-State sat as if slugged in the gut.
"It's a sick feeling," said Bishop, whose 442 yards of total offense earned him Player of the Game honors, but were not enough to bring a victory.
"I really feel for our 26 seniors," said wide receiver Aaron Lockett. "They deserved to go to the national championship game. It's heart-breaking. It's devastating, frustrating, hard to accept."
"It's painful now," Snyder said as linebacker Jeff Kelly and running back Eric Hickson wept next to him. "This may be, in their young lives, the most difficult thing they've had to deal with. The pain that comes from this is obvious."
The resulting pain for Kansas State was a trip to the Alamo Bowl -- Ohio State and Florida received the two at-large BCS berths. Texas A&M went to the Nokia Sugar Bowl.
Will Weiss is an assistant editor for ABC Sports Online.
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