Wildcats Preparing for Insight.com Bowl
Dec 12, 2001 | Football
Dec. 12, 2001
Manhattan, Kan. - KANSAS STATE (6-5) vs. No. 18/18 SYRACUSE (9-3)
Insight.com Bowl - Bank One Ballpark - Phoenix, Ariz.
Saturday, Dec. 29 - 3:38 p.m. MST (4:38 p.m. CST) - ESPN2
STORYLINE
Kansas State finished with four wins in its final five games and received an invitation to play Syracuse University in the fifth annual Insight.com Bowl on Dec. 29 in Phoenix, Ariz... The game will be held in Bank One Ballpark, the home of the 2001 World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks...
The Kansas State vs. Syracuse matchup is a rematch of the 1997 Fiesta Bowl game on 12/31/97, won 35-18 by the Wildcats...
The Wildcats will be making their ninth straight bowl appearance... K-State has been to a bowl in each season since 1993... K-State is one of only seven schools to appear in a bowl game each of the last nine years... The group includes Nebraska (33 straight), Michigan (27), Florida State (20), Tennessee (13), Florida (11), Kansas State (9) and Virginia Tech (9)...
The win over Missouri in the season-finale gave the Wildcats their sixth victory of the regular season and four wins in the last five games... The lone loss in that five-game stretch came at then-No. 2 Nebraska, 31-21...
During those five games, K-State has outscored its opponents, 167-50... Taking out the loss at Nebraska, the 'Cats have held a 146-19 scoring edge combined in their victories over Kansas, Iowa State, Louisiana Tech and Missouri since Oct. 27, scoring 40 points or more three times in those four wins...
The K-State defense has allowed only three touchdowns in the last five games, two to Nebraska and one to Louisiana Tech... Two of the Huskers' touchdowns during the game in Lincoln were on an interception return and a punt return...
The Wildcats are in the midst of an eight-year streak of winning seasons, longest at K-State in 88 years (K-State had eight winning seasons from 1905 through 1912)... Of the 34 winning seasons in 105 years of football at the school, nine have come in the last 10 years... A bowl victory and a ninth straight winning season would be the longest stretch in school history...
Kansas State is also working on one of the best late-season turnarounds in school history... Should K-State recover from its four-game skid to earn a winning season, it would arguably be the best turnaround in a season in 90 years at the school... The 1911 K-State team went winless in its first four games before closing with four straight victories to end 5-4-1...
K-State stands 404-558-41 late in its 106th football season... More than a quarter of those wins (105) have occurred in the last 13 seasons under Head Coach Bill Snyder...The Wildcats finished in a fourth-place tie with Missouri in the Big 12 North Division standings... K-State was one game behind third-place Iowa State, which the Wildcats beat 42-3 in Ames on Nov. 3.
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