Rivalry week has landed in Manhattan, and the Sunflower Showdown comes with more than the usual bragging rights on the line.
Kansas State will host Kansas at 11 a.m. Saturday inside Bill Snyder Family Stadium, and both teams enter with something they badly need. The Jayhawks are chasing an end to their long skid in this series, while the Wildcats are looking to steady a season that has already taken a hit in Big 12 play.
The matchup will be on FS1, with radio coverage on KFNZ (96.5 FM and 610 AM) in Kansas City and KFH (1240 AM and 97.5 FM) in Wichita. K-State is a 7.5-point favorite, and the over/under is 54.5.
For K-State, the urgency is obvious. Collin Klein’s team opened Big 12 play with losses to Cincinnati and Houston, a stretch that has knocked the Wildcats out of the conversation as championship contenders. They also need a victory just to get back above .500.
The recent history in this rivalry still tilts heavily toward the Wildcats. K-State has won 17 straight against Kansas and hasn’t lost to the Jayhawks since 2008. Last season, the Wildcats kept the Governor’s Cup with a 42-17 win in Lawrence.
One of the more interesting storylines in the game is Dylan Edwards returning to Manhattan in crimson and blue. Edwards, a 5-foot-9 running back from Derby, spent the past two seasons at K-State before transferring to KU. He has rushed for 318 yards and three touchdowns for the Jayhawks, and the home crowd is unlikely to give him much of a warm welcome.
Kansas also brings a quarterback who appears to be settling in. Isaiah Marshall struggled in early losses to Missouri and Arizona State, but his last two games have been much stronger.
He passed for 161 yards and ran for 110 in a blowout win over Middle Tennessee, then followed that with 333 passing yards and two touchdowns against Utah. His ability to threaten defenses through the air and on the ground could give K-State problems.
The Wildcats, meanwhile, have been under pressure on defense since conference play began. Cincinnati ran for nearly 300 yards against them, and Houston piled up 475 total yards in a more balanced attack. Fixing that side of the ball looks like a major issue for K-State as it tries to reset its season on Saturday.
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Kansas State Is Chasing Early Help In One Crucial Future Spot
Kansas State has been active on the recruiting trail, casting a wide net across multiple classes as it looks to build depth for the future. Among the recent offers is Texas offensive lineman Xander Fisher, part of a group that also includes Drew Langford, Cortez Jones and Noah Gigger, all of whom have attracted attention from other college football programs as well.
For the Wildcats, the bigger picture is less about any one name than the position group they are targeting and the competition that comes with it. Early offers can matter in a hurry, especially when a program is trying to get in front of prospects before the rest of the country makes the chase even tighter. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas State Heads Into Rivalry Game With Pressure Suddenly Building
Kansas State suddenly finds itself trying to steady the season after back-to-back losses to Cincinnati and Houston dropped the Wildcats to 3-2 overall and 0-2 in Big 12 play. For a team with expectations higher than where things stand right now, the early conference skid has made the margin for error a lot smaller, and first-year coach Collin Klein has already acknowledged that the issues run beyond one side of the ball.
Now the focus turns to the rivalry game with Kansas, a matchup that always carries its own weight but feels even bigger with a losing streak looming. The Wildcats will be looking for cleaner execution and a response that shows the season can still get back on track before the pressure around this start grows any heavier. [Read more 🡒]
K-State Needs This Kansas Rivalry Game More Than Ever
Avery Johnson and Collin Klein both sounded locked in this week as Kansas State turned its attention to the Sunflower Showdown, a rivalry game that now carries even more weight because of where the Wildcats stand. At 3-2 overall and still looking for their first Big 12 win, Kansas State needs a clean response after back-to-back setbacks, and the staff has made a point of narrowing the focus to fundamentals while preparing for the specific problems Kansas can create.
The Wildcats also know this matchup has become its own kind of standard in the series, with Kansas State carrying a 17-game winning streak into the meeting. Rivalry games tend to cut through record and momentum, but there is no hiding from the fact that this one feels especially important for a team trying to steady itself and avoid letting an early conference hole get any deeper. [Read more 🡒]