Friday Storylines: Arizona faces serious challenge against Kansas State's 'ridiculously explosive' QB

Five storylines for No. 20 Arizona's road-opening matchup with No. 14 Kansas State at Bill Snyder Family Stadium on Friday in Manhattan, Kansas. 

A key part to Arizona's turnaround on defense in its first two games against New Mexico and Northern Arizona was the drop-off in missed tackles, descending from 14 to eight.

Additionally, Arizona finally executed its pass rush after recording 22 quarterback pressures but no sacks for the first time in two years. Arizona totaled three last week, including one from San Jose State transfer Tre Smith, who led the Spartans in sacks last year and was an All-Mountain West choice.

"We didn't go chase plays, we let the plays come to us more," defensive coordinator Duane Akina said. "I felt like we chased plays, which created some mental errors. We played our defense, did our jobs, were accountable to each other and that brought the ball back to the guys who were free hitters."  

Arizona head coach Brent Brennan "thought the defense was outstanding" and "did a great job getting population to the football, and there was some really good effort pictures on the video with a lot of red jerseys in the frame.

"It was exciting to see them respond, because I know they were frustrated the week before," Brennan said. "It was great to see them respond." 

Added Arizona sophomore linebacker Taye Brown, who had a career-high 11 tackles against NAU: "We're going to get out there and swarm to the ball so if one person misses a tackle, the other 10 people are right behind you."

Gang tackling will have to be at a premium for Arizona on Friday against a Top 20 rushing attack in college football led by running backs DJ Giddens, who led KSU in rushing and receiving yards in last week's win over Tulane on the road, and Colorado transfer Dylan Edwards. Kansas State sophomore quarterback Avery Johnson, the 6-2, 192-pound former highly-touted prospect, is has a skillset akin to New Mexico quarterback Devon Dampier, who had 130 of the Lobos' 210 rushing yards in the season opener.    

"Avery is more of a complete player," Brennan said. "He's got real arm talent and he's faster. Like, he's ridiculously explosive."

Akina knows a thing or two about mobile quarterbacks. When he was an assistant at Arizona under Dick Tomey, he recruited Keith Smith, who he called "the original Johnny Manziel," and "Leap by the Lake" creator Ortege Jenkins to Arizona.  

"Quarterbacks with legs are always the way to go," Akina said. 

Later added Akina: "They create offense for you, they create momentum, because now you gotta get them on the ground in the open field. ... (Johnson) is a good football player and someone we're going to have to be aware of and contain him."

The key to slowing down a versatile quarterback like Johnson, who earned Pop Tarts Bowl MVP honors last season, is "controlling the pocket" and "stop his legs," said Smith.

"When you have a mobile quarterback, that's the plan," Smith said. "You gotta press the pocket and keep him in there, be strict to your lanes and be smart."

Facing a quarterback like Dampier in Week 1 "was great for us to see early on," Smith added.

"We got a taste for it already. We're going to be working hard to make sure we get it all cleaned up and fix it this one."

'Deepest,' 'most talented' KSU team under Klieman

Longtime Kansas State insider Tim Fitzgerald from 247Sports.com joined ESPN Tucson's "Spears and Ali" to provide and inside look at KSU. Here are three questions asked to Fitzgerald: 

Are running backs DJ Giddens and Dylan Edwards the focal points of the offense?

A: "Them and Avery Johnson, the quarterback, who they haven't really let be Avery Johnson, the quarterback. I think they want him to be Tom Brady this year and not run very much. They're so interested in protecting him ... They're not letting him play football the way he can. If they can get to that, this is going to be a really good offense.

"They've gotta get more guys involved, including Dylan Edwards and Avery Johnson.

"On the optimistic side, if you're a K-State person, they're holding back some great stuff. If you're a pessimist, you're thinking, 'They don't know how to use these guys,' because Avery Johnson is a dual-threat and a better runner than thrower. They bottled up the need to run the ball in the game so he doesn't get injured. They're just going to have to let him be himself and hope he's smart enough to not take direct hits. When he gets out of the pocket and starts moving around, he becomes a much more accurate passer and a much better football player." 

How would you describe the Chris Klieman era at Kansas State since 2019?

A: "Just a slow build. He's doing this almost identical as the way Bill Snyder did things, but with a forward-facing style. Less of the stern thinker and more of the kind father — and it's working with this generation of players. This has been a good run so far. He started off 2019 with almost no depth on the team, hit the pandemic and used that season as a lesson to hit reset and put out some problems in the locker room that were left over, reset the program and they've been pretty good since.

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"This is probably his deepest team and the most talented team he's had, and that says a lot."

Who are two X-factors for the game on Friday?

A: "Dylan Edwards. If they use him in the right way, he's a real problem and we saw that against Tulane. They did a reasonably good job in areas of the game, but not when he came in. Defensively, I'll go with the good and steady Desmond Purnell at one of the linebacker spots. He's turned into a significant playmaker and a solid force on defense.

"Dez Purnell has turned into a rock and steady force at defense. He's gonna be running around in that number 32 jersey making plays."

Know the name 

Arizona running back Ole Miss transfer Kedrick Reescano isn't the first player to have his name mispronounced — and it certainly won't be the last. 

People mispronouncing Reescano happens "all the time," but the sophomore from Houston set the record straight this week. It's pronounced Reese-uh-no. 

The 6-foot, 214-pound Reescano scored his first-ever collegiate touchdown last week with a 56-yard run in the fourth quarter.

"Amazing. I can't even describe anything like that," he said. "First college touchdown? There's nothing like it."

Reescano was a highly-touted prospect coming out of New Caney, Texas and signed with Ole Miss over Arkansas, Mississippi State, Houston, Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Penn State, among others. Reescano totaled 5,182 yards of total offense and 75 touchdowns at New Caney High School, before redshirting a season at Ole Miss and transferring to Arizona in the offseason. 

In the pecking order of Arizona running backs, Reescano falls behind senior transfers Jacory Croskey-Merritt and Quali Conley. However, due to Croskey-Merritt being held out of Saturday's win over NAU and potentially the road opener this week for eligibility concerns, Reescano could have more touches and potentially affect Arizona's offense. 

Arizona's running backs are "one of our stronger groups," said UA offensive coordinator Dino Babers.

"Thank you, God willing, we do have a little depth at the tailback position, and I was really proud with how those guys came in and performed," he said. 

Learning to be patient hasn't been a struggle for Reescano. 

"I just think I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be," he said. "That's it. Just have the next-man-up mentality." 

Arizona rocks red helmets

Arizona will debut its new red helmets on Friday, which has a "candy" finish and a "Cats" script decal in white font — the same logo that's currently on the hip of the team's game pants — and a white face mask. Arizona will also don white jerseys and red pants for Friday. 

Arizona's new alternate helmets are the first ones without some form of the "Block A" since its cursive "UA" look in the mid-1970s, when Arizona was a part of the Western Athletic Conference. Kansas State recently had a white alternate helmet with a purple "Cats" decal. 

Red helmets were first added to Arizona's uniform rotation in 2013 under former head coach Rich Rodriguez and have been tweaked over the years to a chrome or matte look. Arizona has an 18-17 record with red helmets since 2013, which includes the road win over No. 2 Oregon in 2014 followed by the Pac-12 South-clinching Territorial Cup win over Arizona State later that season. 

"I think they're cool," Arizona head coach Brent Brennan said of the red helmets. "I think anything the players get excited about, I love it. I think it's fun and a part of college football now. Some people may or may not agree with it, but for me, it's all about the players." 

Cat fight!

Arguably the most impactful game in the UA athletic department's history, the 1997 men's basketball championship win over Kentucky, was a Wildcat-on-Wildcat matchup. While Arizona is no stranger to facing big cats in football, including Cougars like Big 12 members BYU and Houston, and former Pac-12 foe Washington State, UA football has rarely faced other teams with the same "Wildcats" moniker. 

Arizona is 5-1-1 all-time against Kansas State and last played KSU in 1978. Arizona is 2-0 against the Northwestern Wildcats. Arizona hasn't played Kentucky in football. Arizona tied Kansas State in 1953 and lost to KSU in 1969. This year's contest between Arizona and Kansas state will be the first in Manhattan.

In addition to Arizona and Kansas State sharing the same mascot, their fans also claim same "WC" hand sign that became popular in the last roughly dozen years. Kansas State's "power cat" logo is trademarked and used by several high schools nationally, including Mountain View High School in Marana and Mesquite High School in Gilbert. Both schools pay an annual fee every year to KSU to use the power cat logo. 

Although Friday night's game between Arizona and Kansas State pits two Big 12 teams against each other, the home-and-home series that will continue next season is a nonconference game.