By ARNE GREEN

Salina Journal

MANHATTAN -- Attention, Kansas: Bill Snyder is back.

And if there were any doubts that the Kansas State Wildcats are built in their coach's image, forget about it.

Riding the broad shoulders of running back Daniel Thomas and a defense that continues to improve week by week, the Wildcats ground out a workmanlike 17-10 victory over rival Kansas on Saturday in front of 48,306 at Snyder Family Stadium.

It might have been a grind, and not until the Wildcats ran the final 5 minutes, 20 seconds off the clock with a 10-play drive were they home free. But here they sit atop the Big 12 North for yet another week at 6-4 overall, 4-1 in the league, with just two games left.

"My personal goal was to play late in the season with a lot on the line, and that's what we're doing -- we're playing with everything on the line," K-State quarterback Grant Gregory said after the Wildcats ended a three-game losing streak to KU and all but knocked the Jayhawks (5-4, 1-4) out of divisional title contention. "Early in the season it didn't look great. We were not a good football team, but we're improving.

"We're buying into the system every week, we're getting a better identity and we're getting back to what we need to be."

The offensive identity has centered on the running game and Thomas, who rushed for a career-high 185 yards on 24 carries, including a 5-yarder that put the Wildcats up 17-7 on the first possession of the second half.

"Daniel just does amazing things for us all the time," said wide receiver Lamark Brown, who scored the other K-State touchdown on a 31-yard pass from Gregory with 20 seconds left in the first half, giving the Wildcats the lead for good, 10-7. "He gives us a threat on the ground, and he's just become a really good back for us."

After KU finally scored in the second half on Jacob Branstetter's 46-yard field goal with 5:20 left, it never got the ball back.

"We got some critical first downs, and we were in some really bad situations, considering what we had done up to that point in time," Snyder said. "I think the real tribute -- not to downplay the fact that they did run the clock out and did what they had to do in order to be able to maintain possession of the ball at the end of the ballgame -- but I was so proud of our defense.

"For our defense to hang in there the way they did throughout, they gave up some yardage and they gave up some field position, but they got the breaks put on. For the University of Kansas to score 10 points, it means that somebody played pretty well on the other side of the ball."

K-State limited the Jayhawks to the one field goal in the second half and to 301 yards total offense for the game -- 147 below their season average.

"Our red zone defense definitely stepped it up," safety Tysyn Hartman said after the Wildcats gave up just seven points on three KU trips inside the 20-yard line. "It's not a great thing that we let them drive the whole field on us, but once we got our heels on that cliff, we were able to stand our ground and keep them from scoring a touchdown."

KU drove to the K-State 13-yard line to start the game, only to have Branstetter miss a 30-yard field goal. The same thing happened late in the third quarter.

The Jayhawks took their only lead of the game, 7-3, on a 17-yard pass from Todd Reesing to Dezmon Briscoe with 8:18 left in the first half, capping a seven-play, 60-yard drive.

Reesing, plagued by turnovers in recent weeks, fared no better against K-State, throwing an interception deep in Wildcat territory and losing two fumbles, all in the first half. The second fumble, forced by linebacker John Houlik with safety Emmanuel Lamur recovering, gave the Wildcats the ball at the KU 43-yard line with 36 seconds left in the half.

From there, Gregory completed three straight passes to Brown, including a post corner route to the left side for the touchdown.

"That was definitely big because it gave us a lot of momentum going in (to halftime)," Brown said.

The second Wildcat touchdown, after they took the second-half kickoff and started at their own 16-yard line, was almost all Thomas. He carried the ball on five of the nine plays, covering 63 yards, including a 40-yard burst before finishing it off from the 5.

Thomas had 15 carries for 130 yards in the second half and the Wildcats finished with 266 of their 332 total yards on the ground. Gregory added 51 yards, including a pair of big third-down conversions at the end of the game, though he completed just 7 of 16 passes for 66 yards.

KU managed just 60 net rushing yards, led by Jake Sharp with 35. Reesing completed 27 of 41 passes for 241 yards with Kerry Meier catching eight for 92 yards and Briscoe seven for 76.

"We're pretty frustrated," Reesing said of his team's fourth straight loss. "That is pretty disappointing, to hit a stretch like this in the middle of your season."

KU coach Mangino credited K-State for some of the Jayhawks' misfortune.

"K-State played good, smart football," he said. "They took advantage of our miscues and capitalized on them.

"For us, our defense played pretty well as a whole. We had some tackling issues at times, but I thought our defense played well enough to win."

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