Things have not been rosy for the Wildcats thus far, and now they face the task of getting past an opponent against whom they have never won. Fun!
We’ll star with some bonus content: check out this piece by the AP’s Dave Skretta at military.com on the importance of this game culturally for Army, pointing out the close ties between the Army and K-State — fitting, because for obvious reasons this game was chosen as this year’s annual Fort Riley Day.
The Game
The Kansas State Wildcats (1-1, 0-1 Big 12) host the
Army Black Knights (0-1).
Army is 2-0 all-time against K-State, winning 21-6 at West Point in 1966 and 41-14 in Manhattan in 1987, meaning some of us witnessed it. In all games against military teams, the Cats are 8-7-2; that’s 0-1 against Navy, 3-0 over Air Force, and 5-4-2 against the likes of Fort Riley and Camp Funston and Olathe NAS.
Army, the defending champions of the American Athletic Conference, is led by Jeff Monken. After four good seasons as the head man at Georgia Southern — including two FCS semi-final berths — Monken was hired to replace Rich Ellerson in 2014 and has returned Army to being a consistently decent program for the first time since the Jim Young era in the 1980s, and has been Army’s best coach since the glory days of Earl Blaik in the 1940s-50s. Indeed, with the caveat that Army did not play in bowl games during Blaik’s tenure, Army has played in more bowl games under Monken than they have under all other coaches combined.
Quarterback Dewayne Coleman was injured on the first play of Army’s final drive in regulation last week. In the season-opening overtime loss to FCS Tarleton State, Coleman throwing for over 100 yards and rushing for exactly that. His status is questionable for this week’s contest, but he’s expected to be dressed out. In relief, Cale Hellums was 1-4 for 2 yards, but did run eight times for 37 yards.
Hayden Reed will now be the biggest threat on the ground; he had 88 yards on 19 carries. Noah Short caught six balls for 81 yards and also ran for 43 on 11 carries, but if Coleman is out Army’s ability to throw might be hobbled. The Army defense was effective stopping an FCS quarterback from having a good game, but also allowed said FCS team to rush for 192 yards, which would give you a hint as to what K-State’s offense is probably going to look like this week.
Kickoff
Saturday, September 6, 6:00pm CT at Bill Snyder Family Stadium (50,000) in Manhattan, Kansas.
Tickets
Plenty of tickets available on the secondary market, going in the $40s upstairs and for the high $60s on the Wildcat side. Median price right now is $77.
Weather
It looks like it’s going to be a fantastic evening at the Bill. The entire pre-game window is expected to be sunny with temperatures in the low-mid 70s, otherwise known as “perfect tailgate weather”. Clouds will start arriving around kickoff, but no rain is expected and temps aren’t expected to dip below the mid-60s until near game’s end.
Odds
After opening at -16, our friends at DraftKings say K-State is now a 17.5-point favorite. The over is 47.5, indicating a 33-15 win for the Cats. The money line is -850 for the Cats, +575 for Army. Oddshark’s computer is projects a 37-16 win for K-State.
Television
ESPN, with Roy Philpott, the fantastic Louis Riddick, and Kris Budden on the call.
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 106 or 198.
Internet Streaming
The game will stream on the ESPN app and ESPN+ (cable, satellite, or that fancy new OTT ESPN App subscription required). Audio available via kstatesports.com. Live stats provided by StatBroadcast.
Editorial note: comments are disabled on How to Watch posts to combat illicit streaming spam.
