Dublin, Ireland, is no postcard trip. Forget Guinness and tourist selfies — on August 23, Farmageddon takes center stage overseas. Kansas State and Iowa State are flying across the Atlantic for the season opener. And front and center? Avery Johnson and Rocco Becht, two young QBs with the Big 12 crown in their sights. But before Johnson touches that Irish turf, a Wildcat legend had something real to tell him.

On July 22, K-State legend Michael Bishop hopped onto the 365 Sports podcast. Craig Smoak tossed the softball but added weight to it — the kind that can crush a 19-year-old QB’s chest: “Michael, I mean, there’s obviously the parallels. Avery Johnson gets brought up, and you naturally get brought up alongside him, and that’s just the way it is when you’re a legend at a school like that. Lot of expectations on this young man’s shoulders. I think everybody kind of understood last year like, ‘Hey man, he’s still young, you know, there’s a process here.’ What do you think about Avery?”

Smoak was right — Michael Bishop’s name and Avery Johnson’s get braided together every time Kansas State football hits a headline. Michael Bishop is straight-up one of the coldest QBs to ever suit up for Kansas State. Bishop came in from Blinn College in ’97 after winning a JUCO national title and wasted no time flipping the Wildcats into a powerhouse. In just two years, Bishop went 22-3 as a starter, and suddenly K-State wasn’t just good — they were living in the national spotlight.

That 1998 season was legendary. Bishop lit it up with 2,844 passing yards and 23 TDs, plus he ran for another 748 yards and 14 scores like it was nothing. K-State ripped through the regular season 11-0, climbed to No. 1 in the country, and were a Big 12 title win away from playing for it all. The double-OT loss to Texas A&M still stings, but Bishop finished runner-up in the Heisman to Ricky Williams and locked himself in as one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks of the ’90s.

Bishop is the peak standard. Johnson is the X project. The Message? Bishop didn’t hesitate, and low-key also told Avery Johnson not to hesitate: “Well, you know, if I’m on the sideline and I have a chance to just whisper in his ear, I’m going to tell him, ‘Hey, breathe, relax. You’ve been doing this your whole life. It’s just a bigger stage. You control this stage—nobody else. They’re going to follow you. So let’s go get it.’ You know, that’s something I would tell him right now before this game. Yeah, you’re in a whole different vibe right now. Live in the moment, enjoy the moment, but you’re here to do one thing. Let’s go play football. Let’s go lead these other ten guys.”

That’s a lifeline for the sophomore QB. Because last season, Johnson nearly drowned in the noise. K-State opened 7–1, punching folks in the mouth with a top-15 offense, powered by DJ Giddens slicing through defenses and Johnson flashing brilliance. They were bullying teams with a school-record 6.1 yards per carry. Playoff whispers never sounded sweeter than ever before. Then Johnson tweaked his side after dropping a 33-yard dime against Colorado, and the script flipped fast.

Three back-to-back-to-back losses against teams like Houston, Arizona State, and Iowa State. Playoff aspiration? Out of Manhattan. The late-season stats told the story: 3 touchdowns, 5 picks over five games. Defenses stopped fearing him; they started baiting him. The cool freshman looked rattled, pressing throws, forcing reads. K-State fans went from tweeting Heisman memes to biting their tongues. But guess what? — Johnson didn’t fold. He fought.

By December, he’d stacked 2,712 passing yards, a school-record 25 TDs through the air, 605 yards on the ground, and 7 more rushing scores. 4 times he dragged K-State back from the dead (4th quarter), including the all-timer in the Rate Bowl against Rutgers. Down 17 in the third? Johnson went video-game mode. 3 touchdowns, record broken, comeback sealed, that helped K-State to close their account with a 9-4 record. And with Matt Wells calling plays, he finally gets to cook without training wheels. Still, there’s a catch.

Anonymous Big 12 coach drops tea on how Matt Campbell’s defense would dismantle Avery Johnson

The hype is real, but so is the trap. Big 12 coaches did their secret ballot in July — Kansas State snagged 8 votes to win it all. Iowa State sat one behind with 7. Translation? The league sees Johnson as the make-or-break factor. And one anonymous Big 12 coach spilled the tea: Matt Campbell’s defense is built to wreck a kid like him.

“When you’re playing a team like that early, how much good-on-good can you even go? They’re gonna be in 12 personnel, shifting, motioning every play,” the coach told On3’s Pete Nakos. Translation: Campbell’s scheme is chaos in motion. You don’t get to rehearse it — you survive it. And K-State doesn’t have the luxury of facing them late with a full scouting report. Nah, Johnson needs to figure it out live and constantly for almost every play.

That’s where it gets nasty. Iowa State’s DB duo, Jeremiah Cooper and Jontez Williams, is a legit nightmare. Cooper’s a ballhawk with range, Williams is a press corner who’ll bully you at the line. Together? They headline one of the nastiest secondaries in the league. Campbell’s boys finished 11-3 in 2024, and it wasn’t luck — it was system. That 3-3-5 stack bends QBs until they break.

The anonymous coach wasn’t exaggerating. Campbell leans heavily on disguises — safety rotations, pre-snap shifts, constant motion. It’s like facing a defense with ADHD: never still, always twitching, daring you to blink first. That’s tough for a young QB still mastering patience. Johnson thrived last year when rhythm came easily. But against Iowa State, rhythm doesn’t exist.

So yeah, Bishop’s advice wasn’t cliché. It was survival code. Breathe, relax, own the stage. Because across the pond, the stage is bigger, the lights are hotter, and Matt Campbell’s defense is sneaky good.