It looked a lot like some of Bill Snyder's Kansas State teams in the first half. Another way to look at it was that it looked a lot like some of Chris Klieman's teams at North Dakota State, too.

It just wasn't done with a lot of running yards. The play-calling was balanced, but most of the damage was done through the air, particularly with Malik Knowles' two touchdown catches in the first half.

They had an 18-play scoring drive that took over 9 minutes off the clock. Both were Texas Bowl records. It was also the second-longest scoring drive in bowl history for the Wildcats, falling short of a 20-play scoring drive in the 1999 Holiday Bowl.

At one point, they led LSU in plays 29-3 and another time, 35-6. It was thorough domination for 95 percent of the second half.

Though it wasn't that K-State took their foot off the gas, they had a poor stretch of football that provided LSU with an opportunity, despite manhandling the Tigers for much of the game.

Because of some poor tackling, which tends to crop up in bowl games because of the long lay-off and a poorly defended pass by Ekow Boye-Doe, LSU found the end zone just before the break to make it a two-score game.

The Wildcats actually had a chance to respond. Knowles could have had his third score of the half, but instead went the wrong way on the ensuing kickoff and was brought down by the Tigers' kicker.

Kansas State did convert a pass to Eric Hommel to set up a 54-yard field goal try, but it was not converted by Ty Zentner. He had to assume the kicking duties for the Texas Bowl because Chris Tennant was unavailable.

That meant that the Wildcats went into halftime with a two-possession lead, but it was LSU ball to open the second frame with an opportunity to pull within one score despite being out-played by K-State in incredible fashion.

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LSU may have had a golden chance to climb back into the game when the second half began, but it didn't come close to going their way. They went three-and-out on offense and that was answered with a rushing touchdown from Deuce Vaughn of 18 yards.

That was followed by Kansas State turning them over on downs. It effectively eliminated the Tigers from coming back against the Wildcats and put the bowl game on ice and crowned K-State the Texas Bowl champs and made Klieman the first coach other than Bill Snyder to win a bowl game for the program.

Let's be honest. It's going to be tough to not give Collin Klein the offensive coordinator title on a permanent basis after the Texas Bowl. It was a brilliantly-called game and the sequences all flowed together well throughout the game.

There were also some interesting wrinkles. One was a shovel pass on third and short to Ben Sinnott that also included fake jet action. There was a wide receiver screen going against the LSU blitz for a first down conversion.

They motioned out of a heavy formation to an empty one at the goal line in the second half and ran a pick play for Deuce Vaughn that resulted in a touchdown catch for the back and one of his four for the game.

A lot of bunch formations were used by Klein, in general.

It was one of Skylar Thompson's best games as a Wildcat, which included perhaps his best ball of his career on a dime of a throw to Phillip Brooks.

Klein had the LSU defensive coordinator on his heels and kept him guessing the entire night and they only punted once and that was because of penalties and being backed up too much on the Tigers' side of the field.

He's done everything in his power to be the next offensive play-caller for K-State.