Kansas State HC defends controversial fourth-down call, blames field conditions in Ireland

However, the officials did not reverse the call after the replay. 

Following the game, Klieman told the media that the field conditions at Aviva Stadium played a role in the official's decision because rain washed away the line markers at the rugby/soccer stadium, despite crews repainting them at halftime.

"The review was not going to help because you couldn't see the lines out there," Klieman said, via Wyatt D. Wheeler of the Topeka Capital-Journal. "It didn't matter. Give them credit; they made the stop. I was hoping we'd get the stop; they ended up scoring, and we ended up scoring right away again. They did a nice job getting a drive."

The decision to go for the fourth-down conversion was the turning point in the game as it handed ISU a short field on offense during a contest where points were hard to come by. 

Klieman doubled down on his choice to go for it.

"They just made a couple more plays than us on fourth down," Klieman said. "We didn't... I would do the same thing again based on how the game was going with us struggling to slow those guys down on 4th-and-1-and-a-half."

The loss hurt KSU's standing in the Top 25 and record in the Big 12. The Wildcats have only one remaining Top 25 team (Texas Tech) on their schedule to impress the College Football Playoff committee.