Kansas State football quarterback Will Howard puts Oklahoma State loss on his shoulders

STILLWATER, Okla. — Kansas State football quarterback Will Howard had been there before, but that didn't make it any easier to swallow.

"It's on me. I've got to be better," a somber Howard said after the Wildcats' 29-21 loss to Oklahoma State on Friday night at Boone Pickens Stadium. "We didn't play well, and I didn't play well. I didn't play well enough for us to win."

Since he helped lead the Wildcats to a Big 12 championship over the second half of last season, Howard had settled into a starting role, played with confidence, and seemingly put the difficulties of his first two years behind him.

That was not the case against the Cowboys, who made life difficult for him all night, leading Howard into his worst performance since his 2020 and '21, when as a true freshman and sophomore he struggled filling in for injured starter Skylar Thompson.

"I made too many mistakes," Howard said after completing 15 of 34 passes for a season-low 152 yards, and more importantly threw three interceptions, including one that went for an Oklahoma State touchdown. "If you asked me, I'd say this one's on me, but obviously I can't put it all on myself.

"But I take the brunt of the blame for what went on on offense, and that is what it is."

Related: Kansas State football vs. Oklahoma State recap: Cowboys win, 29-21

K-State coach Chris Klieman acknowledged as much.

"He's got play better, and he knows it," Klieman said of Howard, who threw one interception in each of the first four games, but also passed for over 250 yards in all four with a total of eight touchdowns. "And we've got to put him in a better position as well.

"We all know this, and Will's now an older kid in the fact of he's going to get a lot of blame, and I've going to get a lot of blame when we don't have success. And we probably get too much credit when we do have success, and Will will own that. But we also have to look at it from a coaching standpoint."

The first half was especially disappointing for Howard, who threw an interception on K-State's second possession and then with the Wildcats trailing by just six points less than a minute before halftime, he tossed a critical pick-six to Oklahoma State safety Cameron Epps.

Howard looked for Phillip Brooks on the right sideline, only to have Brooks make a double move and head up field. That left Epps all alone to make the pick — his second of the half — and return it 35 yards to give the Cowboys a 20-7 lead 34 seconds before intermission.

Related: Kansas State football determined to reverse recent struggles at Oklahoma State

"Bad decision," Howard said. "The guy was guarding him man-to-man. He went over top, I tried to back-shoulder him and we weren't on the same page. It's a terrible decision."

Howard completed just 5 of 11 passes for 11 yards in the first half in addition to the two interceptions. Things got bad enough that at some point in the game Klieman and offensive coordinator Collin Klein contemplated giving true freshman backup Avery Johnson a look.

"We talked about it," Klieman said. "This was a tougher environment, probably. There was a lot of cadence things going on.

"We talked about it during the game, and it was talked about between coach Klein and I, and we stuck with Will."

Howard did rush for 104 yards on 10 carries in the game, including a 74-yarder to set up the Wildcats' first score. They ran for a respectable 220 yards as a team, but it simply wasn't enough.

Howard, while visibly upset by the loss and his performance, also expressed a determination to put a difficult night behind him.

"My promise is that I'm going to work my tail off to make sure that this doesn't happen again," he said.

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State football quarterback Will Howard blames himself for loss