Kansas State @ Kansas preview
David Booth Memorial Stadium (Lawrence, KS)
Last Meeting ( Nov 29, 2014 ) Kansas 13, Kansas State 51
Kansas State ended a long losing streak last week, and Kansas is aching to do the same. In short, it’s been a season to forget for the two Sunflower State rivals, but they both have plenty to play for aside from the Governor’s Cup when the Wildcats visit the Jayhawks on Saturday.
A victory last week at Iowa State snapped a six-game skid for Kansas State and kept Bill Snyder’s team in bowl contention. “I think it helps to move forward – it’s a building block for us,” Wildcats wide receiver Kody Cook said at the team’s Tuesday news conference. “As for week-to-week preparation, we like to look at every week the same, have that 1-0 attitude that coach talks about. That is the same attitude we bring every week that we hope to go 1-0, continue to build on it and hopefully have the opportunity to be in a bowl game.” Kansas, meanwhile, is still searching for its first victory and has one last opportunity to avoid joining the 0-10 Jayhawks of 1954 as the only winless teams in the program’s 115-year history. “We never looked at it (the season) as difficult, (but) we knew it was going to be a challenge,” first-year Jayhawks coach David Beaty said Tuesday at his weekly news conference. “We knew that our results were going to be a direct proportion of how much we were going to be able to put in, (and) I think we know as a team and as a staff that if we want more, we have to continue to give more.”
TV: 4 p.m. ET, Fox Sports 1. LINE: Kansas State -20
ABOUT KANSAS STATE (4-6, 1-6 Big 12): Against Iowa State, the Wildcats rallied from a 35-14 first-half deficit, and Jack Cantele’s 42-yard field goal with three seconds remaining put an end to the program’s longest losing streak since 1989. Cantele wasn’t the only special-team standout, either, as Morgan Burns returned a kickoff for a touchdown for the second straight week and the third time this season. K-State’s five fumble recoveries also aided greatly in the comeback, and now the Wildcats must beat Kansas and visiting West Virginia on Dec. 5 to officially become bowl eligible for the sixth straight season.
ABOUT KANSAS (0-11, 0-8): The Jayhawks were hoping to build off their best effort of the season – a 23-17 defeat at then-No. 15 TCU on Nov. 14 – but instead suffered their second-most lopsided loss (49-0) of the season last Saturday against visiting West Virginia. Kansas is tied for the FBS lead for most first-time players (39) and most first-time starters (33), including freshman quarterback Ryan Willis, who has started the last seven games and thrown for a school-freshman-record 1,504 yards this season. Predictably, though, Kansas ranks last in the Big 12 in a number of statistical categories, including scoring offense (15.4 points) and defense (46.2) and total offense (334.1 yards) and defense (578.8).
EXTRA POINTS
1. Kansas leads the series 64-42-5, but Kansas State has won six straight and 19 of the last 23 meetings.
2. Apart from the six-point setback to TCU, the Jayhawks have lost their other 10 games by an average of 33.3 points.
3. Kansas S Fish Smithson, who leads the FBS with 7.8 solo tackles per game, missed the West Virginia contest with an ankle injury, but Beaty said Smithson has been looking improved this week in practice and thinks he’ll be able to play.
PREDICTION: Kansas State 34, Kansas 17