How the Kansas State staff used the rulebook to their advantage in upsetting Oklahoma

The key moment in Kansas State's 41-34 upset of then-No. 6 Oklahoma arguably occurred on a play that never even happened.

Trailing 24-20 in the middle of the third quarter, Oklahoma faced a 4th-and-5 from the K-State 43. Head coach Brent Venables opted to go for it, but in doing so the Sooners substituted, replacing running back Marcus Major with his backfield counterpart Eric Gray.

And that decision right there might have cost the Sooners the game.

Because Oklahoma substituted, K-State was allowed the opportunity to substitute. K-State head coach Chris Klieman noticed the substitution and shouted for his staff to send someone -- anyone -- on the field. Defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt send defensive end Nate Matlack to replace Cody Stufflebean, which required Matlack to run from his sideline over beyond the far hash.

Except instead of a run, it was more like a trot.

“We work on that,” Klieman told the Wichita Eagle. “It was a really sharp play by Coach Wyatt to get a defensive end for a defensive end. It would have been easy to just ship a corner out that was close to us, but we went defensive end for defensive end and we took our time.”

Video shows Major leaving the field with 19 seconds on the play clock. The center judge assumes his place in between the center and the quarterback with 15 to the snap, and Stufflebean does not begin leaving the field until the :13 mark. The official does not permit Oklahoma to snap the ball until four seconds remain on the clock, by which point it's too late. The Sooners do not get the snap off in time and take a delay of game.

"The obvious answer is, don't sub," Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby said Tuesday. "We're trying to get the right people on the field for the specific play that was called. Took too much time. I didn't want to use the timeout because I felt like we were going to be able to get it off. One hundred percent that was on me." 

The NCAA rule book is not explicit in how long the defense has to match an offense's substitution; Point E in Subsection 5 of Rule 3 simply says Team B "must react promptly" when Team A substitutes. A Big 12 officiating source explained to FootballScoop that protocol gives the defense five seconds to process and react to an offense's substitution, and it's up to the referee's discretion if the oncoming defender is moving too slowly to allow the offense a fair opportunity to snap the ball before the play clock's expiration. Clearly, Matlack moved slow enough to successfully disrupt Oklahoma's offense without moving too slowly. 

Michael Turk's ensuing punt sailed into the end zone, and K-State produced a field goal on its next drive, turning a possible 27-24 deficit into a 27-20 lead. 

As fate would have it, Oklahoma faced a nearly identical scenario on its next drive, a 4th-and-3 from K-State's 39, and this time the Sooners got the snap off in time. Dillon Gabriel's pass to Drake Stoops fell incomplete. 

We'll never know how the previous fourth down play would've turned out -- and that's entirely the point. K-State successfully played offense with its defense, which kicked OU's offense off the field.