The Kansas State Wildcats finished non-conference play Saturday with 37-7 win over UMass.

The Wildcats rushing game has steadily improved over the past three games. After only having 49 net yards rushing against North Dakota State in week one, the Wildcats improved to 149 net yards rushing against Louisiana and more than doubled that against UMass totaling 329 net yards rushing.

Bill Snyder, KSU Head Coach, said earlier in the week that they needed to find a way to get Senior Running Back John Hubert going. After only totaling 79 yards total rushing for the first two games Hubert more than matched that Saturday with 118 net yards rushing.

“I think there were some times when John just put his pads down and ran. Was it as consistent as I would like? No, but I thought he just ran more physical this evening,” Snyder said Saturday after the game.

Jake Waters, starting Quarterback, gave credit to the offensive line for the improved running game,” They did a heck of a job driving them off of the ball so you have to give a lot of credit to them and we just kept rolling with it.”

Waters, who is more known for his passing than running, was able to stretch his legs as well with nine carries for 76 yards,” I tried to get somthing going because I wasn’t passing the ball as well as I could have so I just tried to get somthing going making a play with my feet.”

Waters finished the game completing 5 out of 10 of his passes for 115 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

The defense saw improvement this week as well only allowing one touchdown. Kip Daily, senior defensive back, picked off A.J. Doyle, UMass quarterback, twice and returned one for a touchdown. ” They went to empty so the coachs called a good play and I saw the quarteback pull up so I just broke on the ball,” Daily said about his pick six.

Ty Zimmerman, senior, safety, felt that the defense has made a lot of improvement through the past three games,” Especially finishing. The last couple of weeks we came out in the second half and got a couple of drives where we couldn’t get off the field but I think we did a lot better job today.”

Zimmerman matched what Snyder said following the game that they have a lot they are going to have to work on this week especially going into Big 12 play.

The Wildcats will travel to Austin, Texas next Saturday to take on the Texas Longhorns (1-2). After being ranked #15 to start the season the Longhorns have fallen out of the rankings and have lost two in a row with losses to BYU in week two and #25 Ole Miss Saturday night. The Longhorns have had issues with their defense and replaced their defensive coordinator after the loss to BYU.

All of those issues meen very little however to Coach Snyder, “I understand that they are going through some difficult times but dont dare underestimate the University of Texas.”