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Sept. 11, 1999 SportsLine wire reports |
MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Frank Murphy really did break his right foot a month
before the start of the season.
But try telling that to anyone who saw him run on Saturday night.
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Game summary T O P N E W S
Murphy ran for 149 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries Saturday night, leading No. 17 Kansas State to a 40-0 victory over Temple.
"I just kept praying, 'God, I've got to have a great game one of these days,"' said Murphy, a senior who entered the season as David Allen's backup. "It felt good to have it be this game right here."
The Wildcats won in front of a record crowd of 50,624, the result of a 10,000-seat expansion of KSU Stadium.
Murphy scored on runs of 31 and 7 yards as Kansas State (1-0) used a 23-point second quarter to take a 26-0 halftime lead.
"He's been running well for each of the last four or five days," Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said. "He deserves something good to happen to him, for him, because he works so hard."
Defensive end Darren Howard forced two fumbles and returned his first career interception 22 yards for a touchdown for Kansas State. The Wildcats had four takeaways, all leading to scores, and held Temple (0-2) in its own end of the field until the last 5½ minutes of the game.
Temple actually began that drive inside Kansas State territory after Leon Gray recovered a fumbled pitchout at the Wildcats 45. Kansas State coach Bill Snyder reinserted his first-team defense in an effort to keep the shutout, and was successful when safety Lamar Chapman and linebacker Mark Simoneau drove Marcus Godfrey out of bounds at the 4 on fourth down with 3:19 left.
He defended his decision to go for the shutout at the risk of getting one of his starters injured.
"We're going to have to play some games where some guys have to take 75 snaps," he said. "You can't run scared in this game."
The Owls managed only 81 yards of offense, 35 in the first half. Kansas State had 227 yards by halftime and finished with 430.
"We didn't play well on offense today," Temple coach Bobby Wallace said, "but we're playing a great of a defensive front as you'll see."
Murphy's first scoring run, a cutback across the field after a sweep to the right sideline, gave the Wildcats a 17-0 lead with 9:32 left in the first half. His second TD came just under four minutes later, after Howard knocked the ball loose following a completion and Ben Leber recovered at the Temple 38.
"I wasn't really thinking about causing a fumble," Howard said. "I was just trying to make a tackle."
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| Kansas State's Frank Murphy runs for 149 yards and two touchdowns on just 13 carries.(AP) |
Fumble recoveries also set up Kansas State's first two scores, each of which came shortly after the Wildcats missed a scoring opportunity.
Kansas State came away empty on its opening drive when Allen fumbled at the Temple goal line and the ball rolled over the end zone sideline for a touchback. Jason Kazar recovered Jason McKie's fumble three plays later at the Owls 32, and Jamie Rheem capitalized with a 48-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.
Murphy replaced Allen on the Wildcats'next series, but Snyder said the decision to put him in wasn't solely based on the fumble.
"We were getting ready to put him in. I wasn't sure exactly when we were going to do it," Snyder said. "It wasn't exclusively the fumble, but that may have been the nail in the coffin."
One play after Rheem missed a 50-yard attempt late in the first quarter, Devin Scott fumbled when sacked by Howard. Chris Johnson recovered at the Temple 20, setting up Allen's 2-yard touchdown run with 13:42 left in the half.
Kansas State's last two points of the half came with 31.4 seconds left, when Bryce Libel blocked a punt out of the Temple end zone for a safety.
Jonathan Beasley, successor to Michael Bishop at quarterback, struggled through a 4-for-14 first half, then hit Quincy Morgan for a 63-yard touchdown and a 33-0 lead in the third quarter. He finished 9 for 22 for 132 yards.
Howard's interception return came two plays later.
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