Friday Game this Week with Kansas State Turns Sunday into Monday as the Calendar Moves Up

STILLWATER – After a Saturday of sitting out of the Big 12 football landscape, Oklahoma State at 2-2 has seen some interesting developments. The Cowboys reported back to the West End Zone after two days off (Friday and Saturday). There was a lift session on Sunday, afternoon meetings, and an evening practice. This will be an interesting week with each day playing the roll of a day ahead as game day is Friday. Now, as for the observations of a Saturday in the Big 12 where Oklahoma State and Kansas State were off …

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Shapen engineered comeback at UCF.

Baylor loooked awful trailing UCF 35-7 in the third quarter, 28-7 at halftime. Then the Bears,with Blake Shapen back at quarterback, unleashed an unlikely comeback, the largest in school history for a 36-35 win. That was just the start of the weirdness.

West Virginia ruined TCU’s home blackout  24-21 and Mountaineer head caoch Neal Brown saw as many as three players go down, two carted off the field, and possibly three lost for the season.

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Full house in LUbbock on Saturday for UH at Tech.

Texas Tech honored former head coach in the late Mike Leach, that is a strange scenario considering the two sides have argued over unpaid conditions of his contract since Leach was let go by the school. His former assistant and longtime friend Dana Holgorsen was coaching on the visitors’ sideline with Houston. The game was a recent Old-fashioned shoout-out that Leach would have appreciated 49-28.

Unbeaten Kansas rolled into Texas with starting quarterback Jalon Daniels having back issues again and unable to play. The Jayhawks looked more pedestrian and Texas rolled 40-14.

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Rocco Becht against the Cowboys.

The same Iowa State team that scored 20 points on the Cowboys in the first half scored 20 points on unbeaten Oklahoma in the first half, but the end result was differant with OU beating the Cyclones 50-20 to set up unbeaten Texas and unbeaten Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl at the State Fair of Texas for a Big 12 first-place showdown. It is the Big 12 and commissioner Brett Yormark’s worst nightmare that hopefully the second half and more of the season will take care of and the Longhorns and Sooners will take lumps. 

I was curious as I watched Iowa State offensively have success going up and down the field that first half. l also noticed Oklahoma moving the ball on the well respected Jon Heacock Cyclone defense. It motivated me to do some charting. I’m not sure what these numbers say other than in the second half Oklahoma crushed it on both sides of the football. I guess what I wanted them to say is that their is some vulnerability to OKlahoma. I think there is. 

Iowa State vs. the Oklahoma and Oklahoma State Defenses the Past Two Weeks

 Oklahoma and Oklahoma State vs. the Iowa State Defense the Past Two Weeks

Oklahoma State (2-2/0-1) has taken lumps and now prepares for defending Big 12 champion Kansas State (3-1/1-0) and their arrival this Friday inside Boone Pickens Stadium. K-State is 3-1/1-0 this season and they are talented. There are six Wildcats on offense that started the 48-0 whitewash a year again Manhattan, including quarterback Will Howard and receiver Phillip Brooks. Howard through for 296-yards, no interceptions, and four touchdowns including a 31-yard scoring play with Brooks. 

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Moore (41) in action vs. Central Florida.

There are four returning starters on the Kansas State defense from the domination and shut out of the Cowboys in the 2022 game. Kansas State has lost standout super senior linebacker and captain Daniel Green for the season. They do return defensive end Khalid Duke, who a year ago was playing linebacker and has found a home on the defensive line of scrimmage. They also have Austin Moore, who is a very aggressive defender.

The defense is still the Wildcats’ variation of the 3-3-5 mixed with some even front. They play man and zone on the back end failry equally and love to mix in blitzes from all levels and areas. 

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Will Howard came back to play well against UCF. 

I don’t think this Kansas State team is as good as they were in 2022, but Will Howard, while beat up a little, has a year more of experience. They don’t have a game breaker that can explode like Deuce Vaughn, but D.J. Giddens at running back is a workhorse that filled up the box score on offense in the 44-31 win over UCF. Giddens had 30 carries for 207-yards and four touchdowns and added eight receptions for 86-yards. They miss some of their wide receiver talent like Malik Knowles and Kade Warner, but they have Brooks’ speed and the power of fullback/tight end Ben Sinnott.

The offense is still ball control in nature with plenty of variations in the run game from power, iso, counters to the full scope of zone running including the RPO material that former coach Bill Snyder made famous with current K-State offensive coordinator Collin Klein playing quarterback. They are primarily 11 and 12 personnel with some heavy groups from time-to-time. They will hit you in the mouth.  You have to hit them back harder.