Avery Johnson didn’t let a jewelry snafu slow him down in Kansas State’s latest win

Avery Johnson was a popular person on social media as he led the Kansas State football team to a 31-7 victory over Arizona on Friday, but not everyone was posting about his quarterback highlights.

Die-hard fans and casual observers alike got a kick out of the jewelry snafu he experienced during the first quarter of that game.

ESPN cameras got a closeup of Johnson between plays when the gold chain he was wearing around his neck had come undone. The chain was hanging awkwardly outside his purple jersey, so much so that a member of the officiating crew approached Johnson between plays and informed him that he needed to fix the issue if he wanted to stay in the game.

“He just came up and said my necklace had broken or my chain had broken,” Johnson said afterward. “I was just like, ‘All right, just take it, because we’re in the middle of a drive.’ Then he got it to our equipment guy on the sideline and they got it back to me. It wasn’t even broken, it just kind of it came undone. So I clipped it back on and finished the game with it. No more problems after that.”

In any case, people noticed. A former NBA basketball player and coach who shares the same name as Johnson even posted a 44-second video about the K-State quarterback on X.

It makes sense that Johnson likes to wear some bling when he takes the field with the Wildcats.

The sophomore quarterback from Maize is not afraid to make bold choices when it comes to the clothes he wears, the lavender corvette that he drives or the runs and throws he routinely makes now that he is in command of the K-State offense.

A jewelry snafu is one of the few problems that Johnson has endured this season.

Ever since Johnson took over as QB1 at K-State he has led the Wildcats to consecutive victories over North Carolina State, Tennessee-Martin, Tulane and Arizona. He has been far from perfect during that time, but his play this season has been good enough to vault K-State all the way up to No. 14 in the Coaches Poll.

Johnson has completed 43 of 67 passes for 490 yards and six touchdowns to go along with one interception. He has also rushed for 187 yards on 28 attempts. He is coming off a 110-yard rushing performance against Arizona.

K-State coach Chris Klieman is encouraged by what he’s seen as the Wildcats turn their focus to the start of Big 12 play at BYU.

“The quarterback is a pretty good player,” Klieman said. “He rose up (Friday) when we needed him to and he played really good football. He was really calm and made some plays with his feet, made some plays with his legs. That was a fun performance to watch.”

Added Arizona coach Brent Brennan: “This guy is something different.”

Still, Johnson is not satisfied.

Of the six touchdown passes he has thrown this season, not one of them has gone to a wide receiver. He thinks the Wildcats can accomplish much more on offense once he gets more playmakers involved.

“The biggest thing,” he said, “is just getting on the same page as those wide receivers.”

Making that happen, and keeping his gold chain intact, is a priority moving forward.