Thank you to K-State Athletics Communications for sending out the following game notes for Saturday's contest between No. 20 Kansas State and Texas.
Game 9 20/22 Kansas State at rv/rv Texas
Date: Saturday, November 9, 2019
Kickoff: 2:30 p.m.
Location: Austin, Texas
Stadium: Texas Memorial Stadium (100,119)
Series: K-State leads, 10-9
TV: ESPN
Dave Pasch (Play-by-Play)
Greg McElroy (Analyst)
Tom Luginbill (Sideline Analyst)
Radio: K-State Sports Network; k-statesports.com
Wyatt Thompson (Play-by-Play)
Stan Weber (Analyst)
Matt Walters (Sidelines)
Sirius Satellite Radio Ch. 137, XM Channel 200, Internet Channel 954
Twitter Updates: @KStateFB
K-STATE TRAVELS TO AUSTIN FOR AFTERNOON BIG 12 MATCHUP
K-State will head back on the road this week following its 38-10 win over rival Kansas as it travels to Austin, Texas, to face the Texas Longhorns. The game, which will kick at 2:30 p.m., will air on ESPN with Dave Pasch (play-by-play), Greg McElroy (analyst) and Tom Luginbill (sideline 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: 137, X: 200, Internet: 954) in addition to the TuneIn app.
A LOOK AT K-STATE
• K-State has won three games in a row following its 38-10 win over rival Kansas in Lawrence and is bowl-eligible under first-year head coach Chris Klieman.
• K-State has rushed for 1,738 yards this year on 361 carries which includes 555 yards over the Wildcats’ last two contests (277.5 ypg).
• The Wildcats also have 25 rushing touchdowns – including 11 over the last two weeks – after tallying only 20 rushing scores a year ago.
• The Wildcats’ 11 rushing scores the last two weeks are the most in the nation. Quarterback Skylar Thompson has seven of those scores, also the best in the nation the last two weeks.
• Thompson’s seven rushing scores in the last two weeks are 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 – has thrown for 1,336 yards and seven touchdowns with one interception, while three receivers – Dalton Schoen, Phillip Brooks and Malik Knowles – each have at least 15 catches and 125 yards.
• The K-State defense enters the week ranked highly in many statistical categories, including third down defense (2nd; 25.0%), first downs allowed (12th; 128), passing yards allowed (18th; 186.3), scoring defense (26th; 20.4) and pass efficiency defense (27th; 117.5).
• K-State has given up just four passing touchdowns through eight games this season, which are tied for the fewest nationally this season with Ohio State, Kentucky and Penn State.
• The Cats have surrendered only 21 total third down conversions this season, which are the fewest in the FBS.
• Safeties Denzel Goolsby and Wayne Jones lead the team with 36 tackles apiece.
• Eight different Wildcats have at least 2.0 TFLs – led by Wyatt Hubert’s 6.5 – and Hubert leads the team with 4.0 sacks.
• Cornerback AJ Parker has a team-high three interceptions to rank fourth in the Big 12.
• The Wildcats possess a great kicker/punter duo as Blake Lynch ranks 12th nationally in field goal percentage (90.9%), while Devin Anctil ranks 17th in the nation with a 45.0-yard punting average.
A LOOK AT TEXAS
• Coming off its second and final bye week of the 2019 season, Texas holds a 5-3 overall record, including a 3-2 mark in Big 12 play.
• The Longhorns started the season 4-1 with a narrow defeat at the hands of LSU – now the No. 1 team in the Associated Press Top 25 – but UT has dropped two of its last three games.
• Quarterback Sam Ehlinger has thrown for 2,378 yards and 23 touchdowns on 199-of-303 aim, while he is also the team’s third-leading rusher with 361 yards and has a team-high five rushing touchdowns.
• Keaontay Ingram leads the Longhorns in rushing with 494 yards and four touchdowns, while Roschon Johnson is close behind with 418 yards and four scores himself.
• Devin Duvernay has 33% of the team’s receptions, hauling in 69 passes for 800 yards and seven touchdowns. Jake Smith and Brennan Eagles each have five receiving scores.
• Defensively, Brandon Jones and Joseph Ossai lead the team with 55 tackles apiece, the latter tying for team-high honors with 7.0 tackles for loss.
• Juwan Mitchell has a team-best 3.0 sacks, while three Longhorns are tied for team-high honors with two interceptions.
A LOOK AT THE SERIES
• The Wildcats lead the all-time series, 10-9, including a 9-6 margin since the two became Big 12 foes.
• Among current Big 12 teams that were original members of the league, K-State (.600) and Oklahoma (13-7; .650) are the only two schools to have winning percentages over .500 against the Longhorns in regular-season play.
• Texas has won each of the last two games as the Wildcats will be looking to avoid their first three-game losing streak in the series.
• K-State’s last win over the Longhorns was a 24-21 victory in Manhattan in 2016, while its last win in Austin was a 17-13 triumph in 2011.
• Each of the last three games have been closely contested as the average margin of victory is 4.0 points, which includes a 40-34 overtime victory by the Longhorns the last times the two teams met in Austin.
CATS ARE BOWL BOUND
• With the win over Kansas, K-State moved to 6-2 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 overall to do so.
BACK INTO THE POLLS
• K-State went from not receiving any votes in either the Associated Press Top 25 or the Amway Coaches Poll to ranked twice this season, the latest being on October 27.
• This week, the Wildcats check in at No. 20 in the AP poll, while they are 22nd the Coaches Poll. Following its win at Mississippi State on September 14, K-State also went from zero votes to the first team of “others receiving votes” in the AP poll, while it was 25th in the coaches.
TWO OF THE BIG 12’S BEST
• Saturday’s match up between K-State and Texas features two teams that rank in the top three in Big 12 wins since the league’s inception in 1996. The Longhorns rank second with 131 wins, while the Wildcats are third with 116 victories.
• The Wildcats also rank third in the conference in winning percentage since round-robin play began in 2011. They sit at .610 (47-30), trailing only Oklahoma (.818; 63-14) and Oklahoma State (.641; 50-28).
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 23-12 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.
A NEW ERA
• The new era of K-State Football under Chris Klieman has opened with a 6-2 record through eight 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 also became just the third head coach to begin a tenure with at least six wins in the first eight games and the second to lead the Wildcats to bowl eligibility in their first season.
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 78-15 (.839), 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 6-2 so far at K-State.
• Klieman’s overall winning percentage ranks sixth 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 fourth in the Big 12 in fewest penalties penalty yards per game (55.2).
• 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 over 100 penalty yards since the 2018 season opener.
YOUNG PUPS
• K-State opened the season with 60 total freshmen (true and redshirt) on the roster, which equated to 47.2 percent of its total squad.
• The 60 freshmen were the eighth most in the nation.
• The Wildcats played 20 total freshmen (combined true and redshirt) in their season opener, which ranked seventh in the nation.
• In week two against Bowling Green, the Wildcats played 32 freshmen.
HIGH T.O.P.
• K-State enters this week third nationally in time of possession at 35:10.
• 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.
• Over the last two weeks, K-State has averaged 38:06 in time of possession, the second most in the nation among teams that have played each of the last two weeks (Air Force, 39:00).
FEW OFFENSIVE TURNOVERS
• The Wildcats only have three offensive turnovers in its first eight games (2 INT, 1 FUM), their fewest in the first eight games of a season since 2012 (2 INT, 1 FUM).
• K-State’s current three-game stretch of zero turnovers is the best since 2012 against Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and West Virginia.
• K-State was the final team in the nation to commit an offensive turnover this year when it fumbled at OSU.
• Of the Wildcats’ five lost fumbles this season, three are on punt returns and one is on an interception return.
• K-State 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 217.2 per game.
• Kansas State has 1,738 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.
• 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.
• In the last two games, the Cats have run 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 25. Last year, K-State had 20 total rushing touchdowns in 12 games.
• The Wildcats are six rushing scores away from tying for 10th in school history.
• K-State running backs have accounted for 14 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 26th nationally in scoring defense (20.4 pts/gm), while the Wildcats are first in the league and 18th nationally in passing yards allowed (186.2 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.
GETTING OFF THE FIELD
• The K-State defense has excelled in terms of getting off the field on third down during the first eight games of the year as the Wildcats rank second in the nation in third down defense (25%) behind Wisconsin (22.4%).
• The Wildcats have allowed only 21 total third down conversions this season, the fewest in the nation.
• Additionally, K-State is the only team in the nation to not allow a fourth-down conversion (0-of-8).
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 a nation-low 455 plays in its eight games, while its 56.9 defensive snaps per game rank second in the nation to Utah (56.4).
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 49 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.
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 83 games, the last being against Louisiana on September 7, 2013. During that stretch, K-State has defended against 315 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 sixth in that department by limiting opponents to just 16.54 yards per return.
***Subscribe to K-StateOnline by clicking here***
Talk K-State football and basketball in the largest, most active K-State message board community anywhere, The Foundation.
