MANHATTAN, Kan. — Skylar Thompson maintained a business-like approach after he was on the wrong end of a late hit during Kansas State’s 31-12 victory over TCU on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
Frustrating as it was for the Kansas State quarterback to get hit hard by TCU safety Josh Foster as he was trying to run out of bounds at the end of a busted play in the third quarter, he bounced back up and kept his focus on the next play.
“I just ran away,” Thompson said following the game. “I put my head down and ran away. We have got to be smart in those situations.”
Unfortunately, not everyone involved kept a cool head.
Shortly after officials threw a penalty flag for the late hit by Foster, a skirmish between K-State and TCU players broke out about 10 yards up the sideline from where Thompson was sent to the ground.
Players on both teams threw punches and when the scuffle ended three of them were ejected — TCU safeties Da’Veawn Armstead and D’Arco Perkins-McAllister and K-State receiver Tyrone Howell. Somehow, the initial flag and subsequent ejections resulted in offsetting penalty yardage.
There were too many players bunched together at the center of the scrum to see exactly what happened during the fight, but it was clear that Howell was trying to stand up for his quarterback. K-State players had to pull him away.
“Obviously, I appreciate a lot my teammates coming over there and making sure I’m OK and standing up for me and protecting me,” Thompson said. “That means a lot to me. But we have got to be smart in those situations.”
Thompson said he found Howell after the game and had a conversation about his role in the skirmish.
“I appreciate where you’re coming from and where your heart is at,” Thompson remembered telling him, “but we have to be smarter than that. You’re a big part of our offense and we can’t afford to lose you. In situations like that we have to be smart and control our actions, even if it’s hard.”
K-State coach Chris Klieman didn’t get a good look at the scuffle, because it happened on the TCU sideline. K-State coaches worked hard to keep players from running onto the field and joining the fight.
So did running back Deuce Vaughn.
“I was just trying to grab as many purple jerseys off from there as I could,” Vaughn said. “I wanted to get them out of there before things escalated. I was a little late.”
Like Thompson, Klieman said K-State players need to make sure they don’t cross the line and get ejected from games. Otherwise, he wasn’t critical.
“For the most part, I thought we handled it well,” Klieman said. “I didn’t see it. I saw the original flag being thrown when they hit Skylar late and and then I kind of just went back to talk to (offensive coordinator Courtney) Messingham and (quarterbacks coach) Collin (Klein) about what the next play was and then all sudden I see something going on on the other sideline. I credit our guys. I credit our strength staff and our support staff for keeping our guys on the on the sideline and not rushing over. That would have been an ugly scene. It was already not a great scene.”
The whole thing only lasted a few seconds. It never escalated to a brawl and replays of the skirmish didn’t go viral on social media.
At best, it was a footnote in a game that K-State won easily.
Thompson said he will do his best to learn from the incident, and he hopes his teammates do as well.
“I have got to be better about getting out of bounds,” Thompson said. “I pulled up a little bit on the sideline there and that allowed that to happen. I should have just protected myself a little better. Luckily, I came out healthy from it.”
