The final two weeks of the season will be extremely trying for the Wildcats as they attempt to reach bowl eligibility. But the one thing they cannot afford is a loss to the worst team in the Big 12, and
that’s going to be the issue this week.
The Game
The Kansas State Wildcats (4-5, 3-3 Big 12) visit the Oklahoma State Cowboys (1-8, 0-6 Big 12).
The Pokes have long been a nightmare for K-State, regardless of who wins the game; the Cats only hold a 16-11 lead in the series since Bill Snyder came to Manhattan, and as a result Oklahoma State still leads the all-time series 43-28. This series has also been very heavily weighted toward the home team of late. In Manhattan, the Cats have routinely brutalized the Cowboys (including the worst shutout loss ever suffered by a top-10 team), while six times this century Oklahoma State has won by less than a score in Stillwater.
Alas.
Cat fans may be thankful, however, that this Oklahoma State team is so putrescent that they fired Mike Gundy, their most successful head coach ever, in September. They are next-to-last in FBS in scoring defense — not in the P4, but in all of FBS. They give up almost 275 yards a game in the air; only six FBS teams are worse (although three of those are in the ACC). They’re only mildly incompetent against the run, but still give up 170 yards a game. Add it all up, though, and the Cowboys have the worst defense in the Power Four, with only seven G6 teams giving up more total yards per game.
On offense, they don’t even crack 300 yards a game, and only three teams in all of FBS score fewer points. So this game should not be a grave challenge for the Cats.
Kickoff
Saturday, November 15, 11:00am CT at Boone Pickens Stadium (52,168) in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Tickets
Empty seats all over the place, starting at $29 with the median at $55. Turns out even Cowboy fans don’t want to watch this.
Weather
It’s going to be sunny with temperatures climbing out of the 50s when tailgating really starts, warming to 74° at kickoff. It will creep into the low 80s by the final gun, remaining sunny. Not a bad day to spend at the stadium, if you’re close by.
Odds
K-State opened as 19.5-point favorites, and DraftKings still has them there with the over at 50.5. A quick check of our trusty TI-99 tells us that’s a 35-15 win for the Cats. The money line is -1450 for K-State, +850 for Oklahoma State. Oddsshark thinks the Cowboys will cover, but K-State will still win 26-12.
Television
ESPNU with Richard Cross and Charles Arbuckle.
Radio
As always, Wyatt Thompson, Stan Weber, and Matt Walters will be on hand on the K-State Sports Network as well as via satellite on SiriusXM 382.
Internet Streaming
The game will stream on the ESPN app (subscription required, which is a problem right now if you’re on YouTube TV). Audio available via kstatesports.com. Live stats provided by StatBroadcast.
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