MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Avery Johnson threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Joe Jackson with 42 seconds left and No. 17 Kansas State escaped with a 38-35 victory over FCS opponent North Dakota on Saturday night.
Kansas State avoided becoming the first ranked team to lose two games in August in the history of the poll, and also dodged its first 0-2 start since coaching great Bill Snyder’s first season in 1989. The Wildcats opened last week with a 24-21 loss to Iowa State in Dublin.
“If we’re going to play like this every week, we’re not going to be the team that we want to be,” Johnson said. “There are little things we can take from from this week. But ultimately, I don’t think we should be satisfied with how we play tonight.”
North Dakota — playing its its first game under coach Eric Schmidt — missed a chance to become the seventh FCS (formerly I-AA) team to knock off a school in the AP Top 25. Montana was the last to accomplish the feat, beating then-No. 20 Washington 13-7 in 2021.
“When they really needed something at the end of the game, they put together a drive to be able to win the football game,” Schmidt said. “So congrats to them. As we tell our guys now, ‘How are you going to respond to this, some adversity now in your life, and get ready for Portland State?’”
K-State blew a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter, with North Dakota taking a 35-31 lead on Sawyer Seidl’s 20-yard run with 4:19 left.
Johnson then drove the Wildcats 81 yards on 10 plays for the winning score.
“He was calm and made play after play after play,” Wildcats coach Chris Klieman said. “Even when we had a drop, he came back, made a play, and then we ultimately get a score.”
Johnson was 28 of 43 for 318 yards and three touchdowns.
North Dakota led 21-17 at the half, and Kansas State took a 31-21 lead into the fourth. North Dakota started the rally with Jerry Kaminski’s 22-yard touchdown pass to Korey Tai.
North Dakota’s Jerry Kaminski was 23 of 38 for 231 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for two touchdowns.
The Fighting Hawks were looking for their first victory over an FBS opponent since edging Wyoming in 2015.
North Dakota: The Fighting Hawks were not intimidated playing a Power 4 opponent on the road, matching the Wildcats until the final seconds.
Kansas State: Could drop out of the poll after the shaky start.
North Dakota: Hosts Portland State on Saturday.
Kansas State: Hosts Army on Saturday.
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North Dakota wide receiver Nate DeMontagnac (3) can't catch a long pass in the end zone for a touchdown as he is chased by Kansas State safety Wesley Fair (18) during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in Manhattan, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Cumberland, Md. (AP) — Three members of the Zizians, a cultlike group linked to six deaths across the U.S., were granted permission Friday to work together in preparation for their upcoming trial on trespassing, weapons and drug charges.
Jack LaSota, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank are among a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists drawn together by radical beliefs about veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence.
Authorities have described LaSota, a transgender woman known as Ziz, as the apparent leader of the “extremist group." Since 2022, Zizians have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord, the landlord’s subsequent killing, the deaths of Zajko’s parents in Pennsylvania, and a highway shootout in Vermont that left another member and a U.S. Border Patrol agent dead.
LaSota, Zajko and Blank were arrested in February after a property owner said he found them living in box trucks on his land in Frostburg, Maryland. Zajko was charged in Vermont with lying on her application to buy the gun used to kill agent David Maland in January 2025, while LaSota faces separate federal charges of being an armed fugitive.
On her way into the courthouse Friday, LaSota accused prosecutors of pressuring the trio to commit perjury by accepting plea deals and said, “They're violating our speedy trial rights.” Friday's hearing was supposed to include discussions of the trio's motions to dismiss the charges and logistics of the trial that begins Feb. 9. Much of the agenda was postponed until Jan. 30 after Zajko indicated a desire to fire her attorney.
Earlier, Allegany County Circuit Court Judge Michael Twigg agreed to allow the trio to work together on their defense. Since their arrest, LaSota and Blank have been allowed to meet, but Zajko was kept apart in what she described as “absurdly difficult circumstances.”
When the prosecutor told the judge he had reason to believe the three had already been communicating amongst themselves, LaSota interjected, “In the car ride here!”
“We should be able to talk to each other without being recorded and without fear of our notes being intercepted," LaSota said.
“We're adults. We have work to do, and we want to do our work," Zajko said.
At one point, all three spoke up in support of each other.
“I repudiate any notion of protecting me from our codefendants,” LaSota said.
“I do, too,” said Zajko.
“As do I,” Blank said.
In the Vermont case, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Zizians member Teresa Youngblut, who has pleaded not guilty to murder for her alleged involvement in the shootout. Though she initially faced lesser charges, President Donald Trump's administration had signaled early on that more serious charges were coming as part of its push for more federal executions.
At the time of the shooting, authorities had been watching Youngblut and her companion, Felix Bauckholt, for several days after a Vermont hotel employee reported seeing them carrying guns and wearing black tactical gear. She is accused of opening fire on border agents who pulled the car over on Interstate 91. An agent fired back, killing Bauckholt and wounding Youngblut.
Two other members of the Zizians group are awaiting trial in connection with the 2022 attack on a landlord in California that left another member dead. Zajko has been called a person of interest in the deaths of her parents later that year, and another member of the group is charged with killing the landlord three days before the Vermont shooting.
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Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire.
In this image from video, Michelle Zajko, who is associated with a cultlike group known as Zizians that is linked to several deaths across the U.S., is escorted into court for a pretrial hearing on trespassing, gun and drug charges in Cumberland, Md., Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)
In this image from video, Daniel Blank, who is associated with a cultlike group known as Zizians that is linked to several deaths across the U.S., is escorted into court for a pretrial hearing on trespassing, gun and drug charges in Cumberland, Md., Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)
In this image from video, Jack LaSota, also known as Ziz, who is at the center of a cultlike group known as Zizians and linked to several deaths across the U.S., is escorted into court for a pretrial hearing on trespassing, gun and drug charges in Cumberland, Md., Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)
In this image from video, Jack LaSota, also known as Ziz, who is at the center of a cultlike group known as Zizians and linked to several deaths across the U.S., is escorted into court for a pretrial hearing on trespassing, gun and drug charges in Cumberland, Md., Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)
