The Wildcats are in Texas to face off against the Cougars in an afternoon tilt.
For the first time in over a month, your Kansas State Wildcats will be playing football while the sun shines. Kinda wild.
K-State is in Houston today to take on the Cougars for just the second-ever meeting between the two schools on the gridiron, and the first in the Space City. K-State has played in Houston before, and is 3-1 all-time in the city, including beating LSU 42-20 in the 2021 Texas Bowl in the last trip south.
K-State heads into today’s game at 7-1 overall on the season and 4-1 in Big 12 play after beating KU for the 16th-straight time last Saturday night. While he’s been stymied a bit the last couple games due to defensive adjustments, the Cats are still led by DJ Giddens on the ground. Giddens is currently 2nd in the conference in both yards (945) and yards per attempt for a leading rusher (6.5). Avery Johnson has also started to show improvement in the passing game as the season has gone along, with his tight ends the primary beneficiaries — every tight end that’s caught a pass this season has at least two touchdown catches.
Houston has had a rocky first season under Willie Fritz, who Wildcat fans will remember most as the coach that was leading the Tulane team that knocked off K-State at home in 2022. The Cougars are 3-5 overall and 2-3 in Big 12 play, and are coming off a win over Utah at home last weekend. But their best win was a 30-19 affair against TCU to open October, a game the Cougars won in Fort Worth no less. But they’ve also been blanked by Iowa State at home, and dropped their season opener 27-7 to a UNLV team that we now know is pretty decent.
If we apply the transitive property, K-State should win this game handily. KU beat Houston 42-14 a couple weeks ago, so it stands to reason that K-State should be able to do the same. But the Cats have struggled to pull away from teams at times this year, and it’s been worse on the road. Though the big win over West Virginia in Morgantown a couple weeks ago shows they may be making progress on that front.
K-State should win today. Let’s just hope it looks more like last season’s 41-0 win in Manhattan over the Cougars, and less like last week’s 29-27 win over the Jayhawks.
We’ve got a 2:30pm CT kickoff for this afternoon’s game from TDECU Stadium in Houston, and you can catch the action on FOX (or online via FoxSports.com) with Jason Benetti (Play-by-Play), Brock Huard (Analyst), and Allison Williams (Sidelines) on the call.
If you don’t have FOX or can’t access the stream, the game can be heard across the 28-station K-State Sports Network with Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play), former K-State quarterback Stan Weber (analyst), and Matt Walters (sidelines) calling the action. The game will also be on SiriusXM Satellite Radio Ch. 111 or 198, and available online at K-Statesports.com. Live stats are also available at k-statesports.com, and social media updates (@KStateFB) will also be a part of the coverage.
Go Cats!