Another road game, another bitter loss to avenge.
Let’s go back in time.
January 1, 1996. Dallas, Texas. The Cotton Bowl. K-State finally made the big time, somewhat, making their first appearance in one of the nation’s most storied bowl games. The Cats, ranked 14th in the nation went into the fourth quarter leading the fifth-ranked BYU Cougars 15-5.
And then Chris Canty got cramps, and Joe Gordon had to leave the game, and current Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian marched BYU down the field twice for touchdowns to slink away with a 19-15 win.
It’s time to get that one back.
The Game
The 13th-ranked Kansas State Wildcats (3-0, 0-0 Big 12) visit the Brigham Young Cougars (3-0, 0-0 Big 12) in the conference opener for both teams.
This is the ninth meeting between the schools. The first was a 36-7 Wildcat win in Manhattan in 1957, followed by a 24-7 home win in 1963. That game was the first in a series of three home-and-homes between the schools, in 1963 and 1965, 1971-72, and 1976-77. The home team won all six of those contests, and of course BYU evened the overall series at 4-4 with that Cotton Bowl victory.
The Cougars were not awesome in 2023, compliling a 5-7 record, 2-7 in the league, and dropping their final five games to miss out on bowl eligibility for only the second time since 2005. That losing streak was painful for BYU, as the last two losses were a one-score setback at home against #14 Oklahoma and an overtime loss at #20 Oklahoma State to end the season.
So far, things have been fine in 2024, but not horribly impressive. The Cougars handled FCS Southern Illinois in the opener before struggling to an 18-15 win at SMU. A 20-point victory at Wyoming last week looked better, but Wyoming is 0-3 with a loss to FCS Idaho, so there’s not much to take away from that win either.
BYU is going to throw the ball. Quarterback Jake Retzlaff is the team’s leading rusher on the season with only 113 yards. He’s got 841 passing yards, but 40% of that was against Southern Illinois, and he’s got seven touchdowns against three interceptions — and three of those touchdowns were against Southern Illinois. If the K-State defense that bottled up Arizona last week is still awake by gametime, some things could happen. Fun things.
Kickoff
Saturday, September 21, 9:30pm CT at LaVell Edwards Stadium (63,470) in Provo, Utah.
Tickets
If you’re in Provo, tickets are avaliable on the secondary market for as low as $40 in the upper tiers of the end zones, and as high as over $500 for the good stuff. The average is around $66; for the most part, anything there or lower is end zone seating, anything higher is sideline.
Weather
Partly cloudy with temperatures in the mid-60s at kickoff, dipping into the high 50s by game’s end. Tailgating (such as it is) weather will be mostly sunny and in the mid-70s.
Odds
K-State opened as a 7.5 point favorite; it’s now an even -7 at DraftKings with the over at 49.5, indicating a 28-21 win for the Cats. The money line is -258 for K-State, +210 for BYU. Oddshark’s computer… man, I don’t know. They’re giving BYU another touchdown and two missed K-State extra points — okay, the latter is believable — projecting a 28-26 BYU win. But they’re 0-3 on picking K-State games this year, so whatever.
Television
ESPN with Dave Flemming, the very tall Brock Osweiler, and Stormy Buonantony. Disney and DirecTV had reconciled their difference, so there are no roadblocks to your viewing experience.
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 83.
Internet Streaming
The game will stream on ESPN+ (subscription required, but see above). Audio available via kstatesports.com. Live stats provided by StatBroadcast.
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