TCU @ Kansas State preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 3, 2016 ) Kansas State 30, Texas Christian 6

TCU knocked off a pair of top-25 teams in its last two games and suddenly has the inside track at the Big 12 regular-season title if it can manage the minefield at the back half of the schedule. That begins on Saturday, when the seventh-ranked Horned Frogs visit a Kansas State squad that has yet to lose at home.

TCU is the only undefeated team left in the Big 12 after winning at Oklahoma State and escaping with a 31-24 win over West Virginia despite giving up 508 yards of offense last week. "I would bet that every game is going to be like this," Horned Frogs coach Gary Patterson told reporters after the win. "If you are going to win a championship, there is a general rule, every year I have been here for 17 years as a head coach, you win about three or four of them that are going to be ugly." TCU lost an ugly one last season at home against the Wildcats, who blasted the Horned Frogs 30-6 in the 2016 regular-season finale. "The way I look at it, (Big 12 teams) are all top-25 teams to me," Kansas State coach Bill Snyder told reporters. "I guess it is hard for people to understand that, but that is what makes college football so great. ... It is all about the same thing – who prepares the best, who plays the best and who coaches the best. That will never change."

TV: Noon, ET, Fox Sports 1. LINE: TCU -6

ABOUT TCU (5-0, 2-0 Big 12): Horned Frogs quarterback Kenny Hill struggled mightily in the loss to the Wildcats last season, completing just 5-of-11 passes for 52 yards while the team was held without a touchdown for the first time since 2006. Hill is much stronger in 2017 while completing 69 percent of his passes and is coming off a performance against West Virginia in which he threw a TD pass, ran for a score and caught a TD pass. Hill has some offensive help in the form of running back Kyle Hicks, who returned last week from an undisclosed injury that kept him out of the Oklahoma State game and delivered 71 yards on 11 carries.

ABOUT KANSAS STATE (3-2, 1-1): Wildcats quarterback Jesse Ertz ran for 170 yards and a score in addition to his 159 passing yards and a TD in last season's demolition of Kansas State and again leads his team in passing (930) and rushing (336) yards. The senior threw for 224 yards and two scores in last week's 40-34 double-overtime loss at Texas before missing the fourth quarter with a knee injury but is expected to start on Saturday. Sophomore Alex Delton is the backup and he ran for 79 yards and two TDs in relief of Ertz last week.

EXTRA POINTS

1. TCU is 2-3 against Kansas State since joining the Big 12 in 2012.

2. The Wildcats own a plus-six turnover differential.

3. Horned Frogs P Adam Nunez was named the Big 12's Special Teams Player of the Week after averaging 43 yards on seven punts last week.

PREDICTION: TCU 31, Kansas State 27