Kansas State has sent out game notes for this week's visit from West Virginia.
Game 10 West Virginia at 16/rv/rv Kansas State
Date: Saturday, November 16, 2019
Kickoff: 2:30 p.m.
Location: Manhattan, Kan.
Stadium: Bill Snyder Family Stadium (50,000)
Series: K-State leads, 5-4
TV: ESPN
Mark Jones (Play-by-Play)
Dusty Dvoreck (Analyst)
Olivia Dekker (Sidelines)
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
CATS RETURN HOME TO HOST WEST VIRGINIA ON ESPN
K-State will look to bounce back from a narrow three-point loss at Texas this week as the Wildcats welcome West Virginia to Manhattan for an afternoon Big 12 match up. The game, which kicks at 2:30 p.m., will air on ESPN with Mark Jones (play-by-play), Dusty Dvoreck (analyst) and Olivia Dekker (sidelines) 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 of its last four games and is bowl-eligible under first-year head coach Chris Klieman.
• K-State has rushed for 1,789 yards this year on 387 carries which includes 25 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’s 11 rushing scores over the Oklahoma and Kansas games were the most in the nation over that stretch. Quarterback 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 – has thrown for 1,589 yards and nine touchdowns with one interception. His current 0.5% interception percentage ranks as the best mark in Big 12 history.
• With 29 rushing yards against WVU, 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 (3rd; 26.0%) and first downs allowed (17th; 152).
• K-State has given up just five passing TDs this season, which are tied for the fewest nationally this year (Ohio State).
• The Cats have surrendered only 25 total third down conversions this season, which are tied for the fewest in the FBS, while they were the final team to allow a fourth-down conversion when they did so last week against Texas.
• Linebacker Elijah Sullivan and safety Denzel Goolsby lead the team with 40 tackles apiece.
• Ten different Wildcats have at least 2.0 TFLs – led by Wyatt Hubert’s 7.5 – and Hubert leads the team with 5.0 sacks.
• Cornerback AJ Parker has a team-high three interceptions to tie for fourth in the Big 12.
• The Wildcats possess a great kicker/punter duo as Blake Lynch ranks 10th nationally in field goal percentage (91.7%), while Devin Anctil ranks 18th in the nation with a 44.9-yard punting average.
A LOOK AT WEST VIRGINIA
• West Virginia is coming off a 38-17 setback to Texas Tech and enters the game with a 3-6 overall record and a 1-5 mark in Big 12 play.
• The Mountaineers are averaging 329.7 yards per game on offense, which includes 253.9 through the air.
• Former Oklahoma quarterback Austin Kendall has thrown for 1,989 yards and 12 touchdowns on 187-of-304 aim.
• Kendall’s favorite target has been Sam James, who has 58 catches for 623 yards and two touchdowns. T.J. Simmons and George Campbell each have a team-high four receiving scores.
• Running backs Leddie Brown (227) and Kennedy McKoy (220) lead the team in rushing with McCoy having a team-high three touchdowns on the ground.
• Defensively, Josh Norwood has 61 tackles to lead the way, while Darius Stills ranks second in the Big 12 in both sacks (7.0) and tackles for loss (12.0).
A LOOK AT THE SERIES
• K-State leads the all-time series, 5-4, including a 4-3 mark since West Virginia joined the Big 12 in 2012.
• The Wildcats won the first four match ups as conference foes while WVU has won the last three, the Mountaineers’ longest winning streak in the series.
• The last two games played in Manhattan have been hotly contested with an average margin of victory being three points. K-State earned a narrow 24-23 victory in the 2015 regular-season finale, a victory that made the Wildcats bowl eligible. WVU returned the favor in 2017 when it picked up a 28-23 win.
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 23-13 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.
• Chris Klieman owns a 15-5 record in November.
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 .603 (47-31), trailing only Oklahoma (.821; 64-14) and Oklahoma State (.641; 50-28).
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 overall to do so.
IN THE CFP TOP 25
• K-State debuted in the initial College Football Playoff Rankings when it landed at No. 16, which marked the first time the Cats were ranked in the CFP poll since the final rankings of the 2014 season (11th).
• Chris Klieman is one of six head coaches to be in the first year at his school and debut 16th or better in the initial CFP rankings of a season, joining Jim Harbaugh (Michigan, 14th in 2015), Lincoln Riley (Oklahoma, 5th in 2017), Dan Mullen (Florida, 11th in 2018), Josh Heupel (UCF, 12th in 2018) and Ryan Day (Ohio State, 1st in 2019).
A NEW ERA
• The new era of K-State Football under Chris Klieman has opened with a 6-3 record through nine 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 78-16 (.830), 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 6-3 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 penalty yards per game (51.3).
• 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, nine 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 fifth nationally in time of possession at 34:26.
• 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 four offensive turnovers in its first nine games (2 INT, 2 FUM), their fewest in the first nine games of a season since 2012 (2 INT, 1 FUM).
• K-State’s had a three-game stretch of zero turnovers snapped at Texas (one fumble).
• Of the Wildcats’ six 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 198.8 per game.
• Kansas State has 1,789 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.
• 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 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 32nd nationally in scoring defense (21.1 pts/gm), while the Wildcats are first in the league and 29th nationally in passing yards allowed (194.8 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 nine games of the year as the Wildcats rank third in the nation in third down defense (26.0%) behind Wisconsin (21.6%) and Ohio State (25.8%).
• The Cats have allowed only 25 third down conversions this year, tied for the fewest in the nation with Wisconsin.
• Additionally, K-State was the last team in the nation to allow a fourth-down conversion when Texas converted one last week.
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 520 plays in its nine games as its 57.8 defensive snaps per game rank fourth in the nation.
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 84 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 eighth in that department by limiting opponents to just 16.54 yards per return.
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