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ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ appeared to have it defended well at first. Defensive tackle Leroy Palu swapped spots with end Tre Smith and had his shoulders square to the ball-carrier. Unfortunately, Palu thought tailback Davion Godley had the ball, running to the left. That took Palu out of the play.

Gilkey looped to the outside. Linebacker Taye Brown got walled off by receiver Marvin Session. Cornerback Michael Dansby didn’t do a good enough job taking on pulling tight end Noah Bennee’s block. By the time Dalton Johnson drove Gilkey out of bounds, he had gained 16 yards.

While discussing that play this week, UA defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales issued a warning to his unit: “Avery Johnson will do the same thing, and it’ll be 60.�

Kansas State’s junior quarterback is fast and explosive. No one understands that better than ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥.

We like to dig deep into the numbers here at “Cats Stats,â€� and we’ll get there eventually this week. But we’ll start with something basic: Johnson has never run the ball more times (17) or gained more yards (110) in a game than he did against ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ last season.

That performance in Week 3 was the only 100-yard outing of Johnson’s career. His previous high was 90 yards (a game against Texas Tech in 2023 in which he ran for five — yes, five — touchdowns).

Johnson rushed for 605 yards and seven scores in 2024, his first year as a starter. Only one quarterback, West Virginia’s Garrett Greene, had more rushing yards in the Big 12. Needless to say, containing Johnson has been a major point of emphasis for the UA defense this week with K-State coming to ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Stadium on Friday.

“Avery Johnson is dangerous,� Gonzales said. “He’s not only dangerous running the zone read ... but if you lose integrity in your rush lanes like we did a couple times last year, that dude is going to get vertical on you.�

Johnson killed ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ with his legs in last year’s meeting, which K-State won 31-7. His rushing alone accounted for eight of KSU’s 21 first downs. Here’s a quick look at all eight:

• Fourth-and-1, KSU 34-yard line: 2-yard gain
• Second-and-10, KSU 36: 19-yard gain
• Third-and-1, UA 45: 6-yard gain
• First-and-10, KSU 14: 13-yard gain
• Third-and-2, KSU 25: 17-yard gain
• Second-and-7, KSU 45: 13-yard gain
• Second-and-6, KSU 41: 8-yard gain
• First-and-10, KSU 49: 26-yard gain

The last two came on back-to-back plays in the fourth quarter. The second of them — Johnson’s longest run of the night — came on a play that looked an awful lot like Weber State’s initial snap: a classic zone-read pull.

“Anytime you play somebody like that, it really challenges your defense in all aspects,� UA coach Brent Brennan said. “You have to do a great job of tackling. We’ve got to have population to the football to make sure that we get people on the ground and don’t let people get out and get loose on us.�

Any number of people could get out and get loose, including tailback Dylan Edwards, the other man in the backfield when Johnson ran that read option. Edwards went left — taking two UA defenders out of the play — while Johnson went right.

; he hasn’t played since suffering an injury on his first touch of the ‘25 season on Aug. 23. Regardless, the main person is Johnson.

“They can’t get sucked in,� Brennan said of his defensive players. “They have to contain the quarterback. There’s somebody responsible for him. We have to be smart with that. We have to be great with our eyes.�

K-State fans would like to see Johnson run more this season. After last week’s upset loss to Army, publisher Tim Fitzgerald wrote the following:

“It appears the coaches are determined to turn a potentially elite dual-threat quarterback into a pocket passer. ... Avery Johnson has compiled strong numbers passing the ball this season, but one of his biggest plays of the season came a week prior when he saved his team with a 25-yard scramble to set up the game-winning touchdown.�

UA fans reading that passage might feel a twinge of PTSD. Khalil Tate went through a similar transition when Noel Mazzone succeeded Rich Rodriguez as ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥â€™s play-caller in 2018.

But is it really true in Johnson’s case?

The numbers support Fitzgerald’s thesis. Johnson has 18 rushing attempts through three games — just one more than in the UA game a year ago. He’s averaging 6.0 per game, down from 8.5 last season. As a change-of-pace backup in 2023, Johnson averaged 7.9 rushing attempts per game.

The drop-off in designed runs isn’t as severe. Using , we deducted scrambles and sacks from Johnson’s total attempts to create a designed-run stat. Johnson averaged 7.0 designed runs per game in 2023 — when he was a raw freshman and that was his primary job — 5.9 in 2024 and 5.0 so far this year.

It’s also worth noting that K-State had just 43 offensive snaps vs. Army, which possessed the ball for 40 minutes, 29 seconds. KSU averaged 64.5 scrimmage plays over its first two games.

Using PFF’s snap totals, designed runs by Johnson have accounted for 8.5% of KSU’s total offensive plays this season. Last year, that figure was 9.4% (counting only plays where Johnson was on the field).

Is Johnson running less? Yes. Is he running a lot less? No. Should we expect to get the full Avery Johnson experience Friday night? Unquestionably.