Colorado Tied by Kansas State : Big Eight: Wildcats’ 35-yard field goal with 21 seconds to play dampens Buffalo title hopes, 16-16.

Tate Wright’s 35-yard field goal with 21 seconds to play gave Kansas State a 16-16 tie with Colorado Saturday that jeopardizes the Buffaloes’ conference title hopes.

“This is a game which we really wanted to win,” Buffalo linebacker Ron Woolfork said. “But if I can’t win, I’d certainly rather tie than lose. We shot ourself in the foot too many times. But we hung in there and maintained the tie.”

Colorado (4-2-1, 2-0-1 Big Eight) got its only touchdown late in the second half after a Kansas State turnover.

“We were fortunate in getting the turnover that allowed us to score a touchdown,” Coach Bill McCartney said. “We just weren’t sharp. They pressured us better than we’ve been pressured. We needed to make a few big plays on offense to get them out of what they were doing to us and we didn’t do it.

“As well as our defense played, we should have iced the game, but we didn’t score any touchdowns. We kept them in it. A tie will mean a lot to their program.”

A 44-yard pass from Chad May to Kevin Lockett set up the tying kick for Kansas State (5-1-1, 1-1-1), which had taken its first lead at 13-9 with 9:57 to play on May’s two-yard pass to Brad Seib. That capped a 13-play, 77-yard drive.

“Everybody was playing deep,” cornerback Dalton Simmons said of the pass to Lockett. “We pursued to where the quarterback was rolling out and he just came open over the middle. Somebody should have been there.”

Wildcat Coach Bill Snyder chose to go for the field goal on fourth and three from the 18 against the wishes of some of his players, who thought the Wildcats should have tried to make the first down.

“Our kids have played awfully hard and I didn’t want them to go into the locker room having lost the ballgame,” Snyder said. “I never really play for a tie, but at the time it seemed the best of two options.

“I feel badly for our youngsters. Emotionally, they’re caught in the middle of the road, but I thought that down the road it would help us, depending on how the conference plays out.”

May said the Wildcats were despondent afterward.

“They were upset when they went into the locker room, but Coach came in and explained, and I think they understand it,” May said. “In the long run, it will help us.

“We knew it was our season here. We had to do something, or we would lose two in a row and it would really hurt us.”