MANHATTAN, Kan. - Todd Reesing threw for 267 yards and three touchdowns to lead Kansas to a 30-24 victory Saturday over No. 24 Kansas State, a week after the Wildcats won at Texas.
"We're the first Kansas team to win here since 1989," Reesing said. "So that in itself should prove to anyone who was doubting us before the game that we are for real."
Kansas (5-0, 1-0 Big 12) overcame some potentially ruinous mistakes and struck for a quick TD just 65 seconds after giving up the lead in the fourth quarter. With their first road victory over a ranked team since 1995, they've started a season 5-0 for just the third time in 39 years .
"This was a great team effort," Kansas Coach Mark Mangino said. "The kids hung together on the sideline, thecoaches stayed calm, we stayed with the game plan and good things happened."
Reesing, who had thrown for 1,119 yards and 11 touchdowns in his first four games, hit Dexton Fields with a 30-yard scoring pass for a 27-24 lead with 6:27 left in the game.
The Wildcats (3-2, 1-1) had capitalized on Fields' mistake and taken the lead on a halfback option pass about a minute earlier.
Minutes after Kansas took the lead, Kendrick Harper, who missed the first four games with an injury, intercepted Josh Freeman's pass on the 26 and Scott Webb converted it into a 24-yard field goal with 2:21 remaining.
Freeman, Kansas State's 6-6 sophomore, outgained the 5-9 Reesing, completing 31 of 48 passes for a career-high 305 yards and 1 touchdown. But he also was intercepted three times, the last by Aqib Talib, Kansas' two-way star, with 1:12 to play.
Sports, Pages 40 on 10/07/2007