How to Watch: Kansas State at #13 Utah

SB Nation

After last week’s performance, there probably aren’t too many people optimistic about this week’s potential. But it all depends on which team shows up: the one that fought Texas Tech, or the one that played

with its food in Stillwater.

The Game

The Kansas State Wildcats (5-5, 4-3 Big 12) visit the Utah Utes (8-2, 5-2 Big 12).

This will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools on the gridiron, which shortens this post by a good paragraph.

This is going to be a huge challenge. With the exception of the two Big 12 teams ahead of them in the standings, to whom they’ve lost, Utah has flat boatraced everyone else on their schedule, including 7-3 Arizona State and Cincinnati.

Quarterback Devon Dampier, who’s thrown for 1668 yards at a 65.3% completion clip with 17 touchdowns against 5 interceptions and added 543 yards on the ground, was injured in Utah’s last game against Baylor. That game was two weekends ago, however, and he is not listed in the availability report. So he’s probably going to start, although there’s no guarantee. The alternative is Byrd Ficklin, who’s 21-34 for 301 yards and has 442 yards on 47 carries. Yes, that’s over 9 yards a carry.

Wayshawn Parker leads the rushing attack with 736 yards on 102 carries. Yes, that’s over 7 yards a touch. And the Utes have two other guys with over 250 yards on the ground. The primary receiving tandem of Ryan Davis and Dallen Bentley has combined for 1090 yards on 92 receptions.

The Wildcat defense will have its work cut out for it. On defense, the Utes give up only 15.6 points per game — 10th in FBS and 8th in the Power 4. They give up 184 a game in the air, and 143 on the ground; that’s 327 a game total. All three figures are better than average among all FBS teams.

So the offense might be able to get some things done, but with the Wildcats missing two of their biggest weapons with Dylan Edwards in the portal and Jayce Brown ruled out after an injury last week, it’ll be rough sailing.

Prepare for a long afternoon.

Kickoff

Saturday, November 22, 3:00pm CT at Rice-Eccles Stadium (51,444) in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Tickets

If you happen to be in or heading to the Beehive State, you can get in the gate for as low as $54 on the secondary market. Median price is $105.

Weather

It’ll be chilly, but not awful. Temps will climb into the 40s in the morning, and should reach 50° by kickoff, but they’ll begin slowly falling again after the first quarter; final gun should be around 47°. It’ll be sunny throughout.

Odds

Utah opened as a 17-point favorite, and DraftKings now has them at -17.5 with the over at 52.5. That checks out as a 35-17 win for the Utes. The money line is +575 for K-State,-+850 for Utah. Oddsshark thinks it’s going to be even worse, projecting a 42-22 win for the Utes.