Game Notes: K-State at Texas Tech
Thanks to K-State Athletics Communications for sending out the following game notes for Kansas State's trip to Texas Tech Saturday night.
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Game 11 24/nr/rv Kansas State at Texas Tech
Date: Saturday, November 23, 2019
Kickoff: 6 p.m.
Location: Lubbock, Texas
Stadium: Jones AT&T Stadium (50,000)
Series: K-State leads, 10-9
TV: FS1
Aaron Goldsmith (Play-by-Play)
Ben Leber (Analyst)
Radio: K-State Sports Network; k-statesports.com
Wyatt Thompson (Play-by-Play)
Stan Weber (Analyst)
Matt Walters (Sidelines)
Sirius Satellite Radio Ch. 211, XM Channel 382, Internet Channel 971
Twitter Updates: @KStateFB
K-STATE TRAVELS TO LUBBOCK FOR EVENING BIG 12 TILT
K-State continues its string of five games played in the month of November on Saturday as the Wildcats travel to Lubbock to face Texas Tech, looking to snap a two-game skid and elevate its bowl standing. The game, which kicks at 6 p.m., will air on FS1 with Aaron Goldsmith (play-by-play) and Ben Leber (analyst) on the call. The contest can be heard across the 39-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 can also be heard on SiriusXM (S: 211, X: 382, Internet: 971) in addition to the TuneIn app.
A LOOK AT K-STATE
• K-State is bowl-eligible under first-year head coach Chris Klieman and is looking to get back on the winning track after two-straight losses by a combined seven points.
• K-State has rushed for 1,911 yards this year on 425 carries which includes 26 rushing touchdowns after tallying only 20 rushing scores a year ago.
• The Wildcats are on pace to finish the 2019 season in the top 10 in school history in team rushing yards.
• K-State totaled 11 rushing scores over the Oklahoma and Kansas games, which were the most in the nation over that stretch. Skylar Thompson had seven of those scores, also the best in the nation during that stretch.
• Thompson’s seven rushing scores against OU and KU were the most over a two-game stretch by a K-State quarterback since Collin Klein in 2012.
• Thompson – who has four career game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or later, which includes one at Texas Tech two years ago – has thrown for 1,888 yards and 10 touchdowns with three interceptions.
• With 10 rushing yards against TTU, Thompson can become the fourth signal caller in school history with 3,000 career passing yards and 1,000 career rushing yards.
• Receivers Dalton Schoen and Malik Knowles each have over 300 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
• The K-State defense enters the week ranked highly in many statistical categories, including third down defense (4th; 26.9%), first downs allowed (16th; 169) and passing yards allowed (30th; 198.7).
• K-State has given up just eight passing TDs this season, which are tied for the sixth fewest nationally this year.
• The Cats have surrendered only 29 total third down conversions this season – the fewest in the FBS – while they were the final team to allow a fourth-down conversion when they did so against Texas.
• Safeties Wayne Jones (45) and Denzel Goolsby (44) along with linebacker Elijah Sullivan (43) lead the team in tackles.
• Eleven different Cats have at least 2.0 TFLs – led by Wyatt Hubert’s 8.5 – and Hubert leads the team with 5.0 sacks.
• The Wildcats possess a great kicker/punter duo as Blake Lynch ranks seventh nationally in field goal percentage (92.9%), while Devin Anctil ranks 21st in the nation with a 44.3-yard punting average.
A LOOK AT TEXAS TECH
• Texas Tech enters the game with a 4-6 overall record and a 2-5 mark in Big 12 play. The Red Raiders dropped a tight 33-31 contest at home last week to TCU.
• On offense, the Red Raiders are one of the top passing teams in the country, averaging 312.9 yards a game through the air.
• Jett Duffey has thrown for 2,107 yards and 14 touchdowns, while the Red Raiders have eight wide receivers with 20 or more catches, led by T.J. Vasher’s 37.
• On defense, Tech boasts the Big 12’s leading tackler in Jordyn Brooks (102), while Douglas Coleman leads the league with eight interceptions.
A LOOK AT THE SERIES
• K-State leads the all-time series, 10-9, including a 7-1 mark over the last eight years and a 10-6 advantage since the inception of the Big 12 in 1996.
• One of those games was the first-ever Big 12 game, as the Cats topped Tech, 21-14, on August 31, 1996.
• K-State is in search of its fourth-straight win over the Red Raiders, which would tie the Wildcats’ longest winning streak in the series.
• Two years ago in Lubbock, K-State trailed by 11 early in the fourth quarter but Skylar Thompson engineered a five-play, 80-yard drive that was capped with his own one-yard touchdown rush before throwing a pass to Dalton Schoen for a game-tying two-point conversion. In overtime, K-State scored on its first possession on a Thompson-to-Byron Pringle eight-yard pass before a Red Raider fourth-down pass attempt went out of the back of the end zone to seal a 42-35 Wildcat victory.
CATS IN NOVEMBER
• Over the past decade, Kansas State has been at its best in the final month of the season as the Wildcats hold a 23-14 record in November since 2010.
• K-State has not had a sub-.500 mark in November since 2009.
• The Cats are in the midst of playing five games in the month of November for the first time since 2013 when they finished off the final month of the season with a 4-1 mark.
ONE OF THE BIG 12’S BEST
• Kansas State ranks third all-time in Big 12 wins since the league’s inception in 1996 with 116, trailing only Oklahoma and Texas.
• The Wildcats also rank third in the conference in winning percentage since round-robin play began in 2011. They sit at .595 (47-32), trailing only Oklahoma (.823; 65-14) and Oklahoma State (.646; 51-28).
CATS ARE BOWL BOUND
• With the win over Kansas, K-State got win No. 6 and became bowl eligible for the 22nd time in school history.
• Since 1990, K-State has qualified for the postseason 21 times, including this season.
• Chris Klieman became the second coach in school history to take the Wildcats to a bowl in their first year as coach and the fourth coach overall to do so.
A NEW ERA
• The new era of K-State Football under Chris Klieman has opened with a 6-4 record through 10 games.
• Klieman, who was named the 35th head coach in school history on December 10, 2018, was just the fourth head coach in K-State history to start 3-0.
• He is the second head coach in school history to lead the Wildcats to bowl eligibility in their first season, while he can tie for the most wins by a first-year head coach in school history with a victory on Saturday.
A WINNING HISTORY
• A proven winner with a championship history, Chris Klieman came to Manhattan after capping his five-year stint as head coach at North Dakota State by winning his fourth national championship in 2018.
• Klieman guided the 2018 Bison to a perfect 15-0 record, making NDSU just the fifth team in FCS history to go undefeated and untied on the way to a national championship.
• A native of Waterloo, Iowa, Klieman has a career record of 78-17 (.821), as he went 69-6 in his five seasons at North Dakota State, 3-7 in one year as the head coach at Division III Loras College in 2005 and 6-4 so far at K-State.
• Klieman’s overall winning percentage ranks eighth among all active NCAA coaches – regardless of division – and tops among active FBS coaches.
FEW FLAGS
• One staple of Kansas State football throughout the years has been limited penalties, and the 2019 Wildcats have continued that trend.
• K-State enters the week ranked third in the Big 12 in fewest penalties with 58 this season.
• The Kansas game was an anomaly as the Wildcats were flagged 11 times for 113 yards, the first time they had over 10 penalties and 100 penalty yards since the 2018 season opener.
CATS TOPS IN NON-OFFENSIVE TDs
• K-State is the nation’s best in non-offensive touchdowns over the last 20-plus seasons as it has 115 since 1999, eight more than the next closest team.
• Entering the season, the Wildcats were averaging 5.6 non-offensive touchdowns per year since 1999, while the yearly average for the other 105 teams to play FBS football since 1999 was 3.3.
• Kansas State’s average is boosted by the fact that it has at least five non-offensive touchdowns in six of the last eight years.
HIGH T.O.P.
• K-State enters this week ranked fifth nationally in time of possession at 34:30.
• The Wildcats’ best season time of possession average since 1985 was 33:55 during the 2011 season.
• K-State has possessed the ball for over 40 minutes twice this season, including a 42:52 mark against Bowling Green to rank eighth in Big 12 history.
FEW OFFENSIVE TURNOVERS
• The Wildcats only have six offensive turnovers in its first 10 games (3 INT, 3 FUM), their fewest in the first 10 games of a season since 2012 (3 INT, 2 FUM).
• K-State’s had a three-game stretch of zero turnovers snapped at Texas (one fumble).
• Of the Wildcats’ seven lost fumbles this season, three are on punt returns and one is on an interception return.
• K-State was the final team in the nation to commit an offensive turnover this year when it fumbled at OSU. The Cats went the first 189 minutes, 38 seconds of the 2019 season without committing an offensive turnover.
RACKING UP RUSHING YARDS
• The Cats showed at the outset of the year its ability to run the ball, a mark that now stands at 191.1 per game.
• Kansas State has 1,911 total rushing yards this season. The Wildcats hit the 1,000-yard mark in their fifth game, marking the eighth time since 2000 but just the second since 2013 it only took five games to get to 1,000.
• The Wildcats are 89 yards away from totaling 2,000 rushing yards for the 10th time in the last 11 years.
• K-State carded over 300 yards rushing in each of the first two games, the first time since at least 1965 that the Cats went over the 300-yard mark twice to open a season.
• Against OU and KU, the Cats ran for 555 yards and 11 scores on the ground. Their 342 rushing yards against Kansas were the most in a Big 12 game since totaling 366 yards at TCU in 2016.
RUNNING TO PAYDIRT
• Seven different Wildcats have tallied rushing touchdowns this year for a team total of 26. Last year, K-State had 20 total rushing touchdowns in 12 games.
• The Wildcats are five rushing scores away from tying for 10th in school history.
• K-State running backs have accounted for 15 rushing touchdowns this season after the position group only had 13 in 2018.
DEFENSE RANKING HIGHLY
• K-State ranks second in the Big 12 and 32nd nationally in scoring defense (21.4 pts/gm), while the Wildcats are first in the league and 30th nationally in passing yards allowed (198.7 yd/gm).
• Kansas State has finished in the top 25 nationally in scoring defense only twice since 2003. In terms of pass defense, K-State has not finished better than 40th in the country since 2003 when it ranked seventh.
LIMITED SNAPS
• Thanks to its efficiency on third downs, the K-State defense is one of the nation’s leaders in fewest defensive snaps played.
• K-State has defended against just 578 plays in its 10 games as its 57.8 defensive snaps per game rank lead the nation.
GETTING OFF THE FIELD
• The K-State defense has excelled in terms of getting off the field on third down during the first 10 games of the year as the Wildcats rank fourth in the nation in third down defense (26.9%) behind Wisconsin (24.2%), UAB (26.5%)and Ohio State (26.8%).
• The Cats have allowed only 29 third down conversions this year, the fewest in the nation.
• Additionally, K-State was the last team in the nation to allow a fourth-down conversion when Texas converted one two weeks ago.
SCORING IN THE THIRD PHASE
• Kansas State has been far and away the best team among FBS programs over the last 15 years when it comes to scoring via a kickoff or punt return.
• The Wildcats have a combined 50 kickoff- and punt-return touchdowns since 2005, 19 more than any other FBS school during that stretch.
• Malik Knowles got things going for the Wildcats in that department in 2019 with a 100-yard kickoff return at Mississippi State, while Joshua Youngblood went 98 yards for a kickoff-return score at Texas.
DEFENSE ON KICKOFFS
• K-State has been consistent in terms of kickoff coverage as the Cats have not allowed a kickoff-return touchdown in the last 85 games, the last being against Louisiana on September 7, 2013. During that stretch, K-State has defended against 316 kickoff returns.
• K-State has ranked in the top 30 nationally in kickoff return defense each of the last five seasons, including a No. 2 national ranking in 2017.
• The Wildcats enter this week ranked eighth in that department by limiting opponents to just 16.64 yards per return.
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