K-State Football Set For 2002 Season Opener
Aug 29, 2002 | Football
Aug. 29, 2002
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Western Kentucky (0-0)
at Kansas State (0-0)
Saturday, Aug. 31, 2002
KSU Stadium (50,000)
6:10 p.m. CDT
Radio
MID AMERICA SPORTS NETWORK will be the official network carrier for Kansas State Athletics. The network covers 25 affiliates throughout the state of Kansas. WYATT THOMPSON will be the Voice of the Wildcats for 2002, with former Wildcat QB STAN WEBER on color and CHRIS ALLISON on the sideline. STEVE WEBSTER is the executive producer of the Mid America Sports Network.
Television
No live television of this game. A highlight package from the first half will be available on satellite at SBS-6, transponder-5, starting at 9:15 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets are available for all Kansas State home games. The Kansas State Ticket Office can be reached at 800-221-CATS.
STORYLINE
Kansas State opens its 107th season of football at home against Western Kentucky... The game will be the first of four straight home contests against non-conference opponents for the Wildcats...
The Aug. 31 contest against the Hilltoppers is only the fourth time K-State has opened a football season in the month of August (8/30/86, 8/31/96, 8/26/2000)... The 'Cats are 3-0 in those August games...
K-State has also won 12 straight season-openers, a string dating back to 1990... The last time the Wildcats lost their first game of a season came in head coach Bill Snyder's first game as a Wildcat, when K-State lost 31-0 at Arizona State on 9/9/89...
K-State opens the season at home for the 10th time in Snyder's 14 seasons in Manhattan...
Kansas State, which was 6-6 a year ago, finished the 2001 season with an invitation to play Syracuse in the fifth annual Insight.com Bowl in Phoenix, Ariz... The game was held in Bank One Ballpark, the home of the 2001 World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks... Syracuse defeated K-State, 26-3...
The Wildcats MADE their ninth straight bowl appearance IN 2001... 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) and Virginia Tech (9)...
The win over Missouri in the season-finale gave the Wildcats four wins in the last five games... The lone loss in that five-game stretch came at then-No. 2 Nebraska, 31-21.
SERIES
Kansas State won the only previous meeting between the teams, beating the Hilltoppers, 38-13, on 9/11/93... That game was the second contest of the '93 season for the Wildcats, who had opened with a 34-10 win over New Mexico State en route to a 9-2-1 season that ended with a Copper Bowl victory that began K-State's current run of nine years with a bowl appearance...
In that game, Western Kentucky led 10-7 late in the second quarter before the Wildcats came back to lead 14-13 at halftime... Chad May rallied K-State in the second half by throwing touchdown passes to Kevin Lockett and Andre Coleman, and rushing for a score himself.
STRONG FINISH
During the final five regular-season games of 2001, K-State outscored its opponents, 167-50... Taking out the loss at Nebraska, the 'Cats 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 allowed only three touchdowns in the last five regular-season 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...
Kansas State also had one of the best late-season turnarounds in school history... K-State recovered from its four-game skid to go 6-5 in the regular season, arguably 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...
MORE THAN 1,000 GAMES
K-State stands 404-559-41 after its 106th football season...
More than a quarter of THE WILDCATS' wins (105) have occurred in the last 13 seasons under Head Coach BILL SNYDER...
The loss in the Insight.com Bowl ended 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 106 years of football at the school, nine have come in the last 11 years...
STREAKS
K-State had a string of 16 games with at least one rushing touchdown snapped by Syracuse at the Insight.com Bowl... Prior to the bowl game, the last time the 'Cats failed to score on the ground was on 10/28/2000 at Texas A&M...
Freshman PK JOE RHEEM has hit his last 17 extra-point kicks... His last miss was in the third quarter of the Kansas game (10/27)... Since then he hit his last two against the Jayhawks, six straight at Iowa State, all three at Nebraska, all five against Louisiana Tech and hit his lone attempt against Missouri... An extra-point kick was missed due to a mishandled center snap against the Tigers, an attempt that officially goes down as a failed team rushing conversion...
Kansas State owns a 34-game home winning streak against non-conference opponents... The last loss to a non-league foe at KSU Stadium was against Northern Illinois (37-20) on 9/30/89... Against all non-conference opponents home or away in the regular season, K-State has won 31 straight games, with the last loss being a 28-16 defeat at Utah State on 10/17/92.
ROBERSON RUSHING
QB ELL ROBERSON had his fourth 100-yard game of 2001 by leading the Wildcats in rushing against Nebraska (11/10) with 119 yards on 16 carries... His four 100-yard games were the most in a season by a Wildcat QB and matched Michael Bishop for the most career 100-yard games by a K-State QB...
Coupled with his career-high 131 yards at Iowa State (11/3), Roberson's back-to-back 100-yard games marked the second time in school history a quarterback accomplished that feat... Bishop had three straight at the end of 1998...
Roberson owns four of the top seven rushing games ever by a Wildcat QB...
With 643 rushing yards for the season, Roberson finished close to Bishop's single-season best for a QB of 748 set in 1998... He finished 2001 third on the all-time rushing list by a sophomore...
Averaging 64.3 yards per game in 2001, Roberson was 89th in the nation in individual rushing, but ranked seventh among QBs.
DOUBLE-CENTURY GAMES
Roberson and RB JOSH SCOBEY both hit the century mark against Iowa State, the second time in the season and sixth in school history K-State had a pair of 100-yard rushers in a game...
Scobey had 172 yards and Roberson added 131 against the Cyclones, each scoring two rushing TD...
Roberson and Scobey also pulled off that feat in the season-opener at USC, with Scobey going for 165 and Roberson rushing for 119 in L.A...
Prior to 2001, the last time the Wildcats had a pair of 100-yard rushers in a game was on 10/28/95 when Eric Hickson had 121 yards and Mike Lawrence 118 against Kansas... The last time a quarterback was involved in a double 100-yard game prior to 2001 came on 10/6/73 when Steve Grogan had 100 yards to go with 131 by RB Isaac Jackson...
RUSHING NOTES
RB DARREN SPROLES had a career-high 66 yards on five carries against Louisiana Tech... It was the second time in three weeks that he had improved his personal-best, as he had 51 yards at Iowa State... With 210 yards, Sproles finished second in rushing yards by a freshman... The freshman record of 304 was set in 1976 by Roosevelt Duncan...
FB ROCK CARTWRIGHT hit a career-best with 56 yards in nine carries against USC and had a career-high 11 carries against A&M...
RBs DANNY MORRIS hit a career-high in rushing yards with 54 against New Mexico State... Morris led K-State with 35 yards on four carries against Colorado...
Kansas State ranked 5th in the nation in rushing offense (257.7 ypg), but the rushing attack was even more effective late in 2001... Over the final five regular-season games, K-State averaged 310.2 yards on the ground and 301.5 per game over the last six games...
Kansas State's per-game rushing average of 257.7 was 30 yards better than the school-record average of 227.4 set in 1953.
PASSING
QB ELL ROBERSON had career-highs in attempts (32), completions (12) and passing yards (257) against Oklahoma (9/29)...
Adding his 115 rushing yards to 257 yards passing against the Sooners, the 372 yards in individual total offense that day ranked 10th on the all-time single game list at K-State...
Roberson ranked 94th in the nation in individual total offense, averaging 149.8 yards per game...
Roberson had a 72-yard touchdown strike to WR DERRICK EVANS in the first half against New Mexico State (9/22), as Evans made the most of the first catch of his collegiate career... It stood as the longest completion by the Wildcats last season...
QB MARC DUNN had season-highs of 16 completions, 40 attempts and 197 yards against Texas Tech (10/13) in his first start as a Wildcat... He had a season-high two touchdowns against Kansas.
INTERCEPTIONS
Kansas State had nine interceptions in the last five games against Iowa State, Nebraska, Louisiana Tech, Missouri and Syracuse...
Prior to his pick in the end zone against Missouri, CB TERENCE NEWMAN'S two previous interceptions both came against Oklahoma... Newman finished T77th in the nation in interceptions...
The pick by CB BOBBY WALKER against Iowa State was his first as a K-State player...
Despite not getting a takeaway against either Texas A&M or Kansas, the Wildcat defense earned 39 takeways in the last 16 games, including the 2001 Cotton Bowl... They forced one turnover against Syracuse...
The Wildcats have gotten a pick in 40 of the last 45 games and in 49 of the last 55 outings (including bowl games).
DEFENSE
The 2001 Wildcats had a stretch of 156:16 between a TD by Joe Weber of Texas A&M in the third quarter on 10/20 and Eric Crouch's 14-yard run with 9:06 left in the first half on 11/10...
Statistically, Kansas State stepped up defensively over the last few weeks of the 2001 season...
Louisiana Tech came into its game in Manhattan averaging 456 yards per game in total offense and was the third-ranked pass offense in the nation at 351.3 yards... K-State held the Bulldogs to just 175 yards in total offense and 144 yards passing... Only one of the Bulldogs' nine first downs came in the second half...
Nebraska came into the game as the top rushing offense in the nation, but was held 50 yards below its average with a 264-yard day against the Wildcats... The Huskers had 324 yards in total offense, nearly 130 below their season average...
Against Texas A&M, Kansas and Iowa State, the Wildcats allowed only 575 yards (191.7 ypg), holding A&M (189 yards) and Iowa State (174) to less than 200 yards in total offense... K-State also held New Mexico State (115) under that 200-yard mark...
The rushing defense also improved late in the year... Prior to the Nebraska game, K-State had allowed only 46.8 ypg rushing over a four-game stretch (Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Kansas, Iowa State), including only 23 to the Cyclones... For the second straight year, K-STATE SET A SCHOOL RECORD FOR FEWEST RUSHING YARDS ALLOWED PER GAME, GIVING UP 96.5 IN 2001 AFTER ALLOWING 98.2 IN 2000...
K-State held Oklahoma to just nine yards in rushing offense, the fewest ever in a Sooner victory... The last time the Wildcats held an opponent to less than 10 yards rushing was 10/16/99 when K-State forced Utah State to minus-7 yards... Since the start of the 1999 season, K-State has held 12 of its last 37 opponents to less than 50 yards rushing, including five last year...
The Wildcats held Texas A&M to just 36 yards in total offense in the second half... Outside two first-half scoring drives (13 plays for 73 yards late in the first quarter and 5 plays for 83 yards early in the second period), the Aggies gained 33 yards the rest of the game...
The shutout by Kansas State against New Mexico State was the 15th in Coach BILL SNYDER's 13 seasons... It also marked the eighth straight season the Wildcats have blanked at least one opponent... K-State has eight shutouts during the six-year history of the Big 12 Conference, the most by any team in the league in that span...
DL TANK REESE WAS VOTED THE DEFENSIVE NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR IN THE BIG 12 BY THE LEAGUE'S COACHES... It was the third straight year a K-State player earned that honor... DB Derrick Yates earned the award in 2000 and Mario Fatafehi was the coaches' pick for top defensive newcomer after the 1999 season.
SHORTS
* Kansas State held a 2,835-1,061 edge over its opponents in rushing yardage during the 2001 season... The Wildcats scored 34 times on the ground to only six for their opponents... Only Miami, Fla. (47), Brigham Young (41) and Air Force (36) had more rushing touchdowns than the Wildcats... Only Bowling Green (5), Oklahoma (5) and Maryland (5) allowed fewer rushing TDs than K-State last year...
* K-State and Maryland were the only schools in the nation among the top 15 nationally in both rushing offense and rushing defense... The Wildcats were 5th offensively (257.7 ypg) and 11th defensively (96.5 ypg)... Maryland was 11th offensively on the ground (220.7 ypg) and 9th defensively (90.6 ypg)...
* Kansas State has returned 33 punts or kicks for touchdowns, not counting blocked kicks, since 1936... Of that number, Aaron Lockett and David Allen combined for 11 of those returns...
* The 64 points scored by K-State against New Mexico State were eighth on the team single-game list...
* K-State has held the time of possession advantage in 16 of its last 17 games... The Wildcats led the Big 12 Conference in average time of possession per game at 33:49...
* K-State has won 53 of its last 55 games when scoring first... The Wildcats are 84-8 under Bill Snyder when scoring first...
* Prior to the Lousiana Tech postponement on Sept. 15, the last time a K-State football game was postponed or cancelled was on 11/23/63 when the Wildcats' game at Oklahoma State was cancelled due to the assassination of President John Kennedy.
SCHEDULE
ON THE NCAA WEEKLY LIST OF TOUGHEST SCHEDULES IN THE NATION, KANSAS STATE RANKED 4TH LAST SEASON...
The NCAA takes the won-lost record of all teams on a school's schedule and ranks the opposition's percentage... Wildcat opponents in 2001, were 72-42 (.632)... Only California (.652), Colorado (.637) and Kansas (.635) had tougher schedules than K-State in 2001... Big 12 teams were 2nd (Colorado), 3rd (Kansas), 4th (K-State), 8th (Oklahoma State), 13th (Nebraska), T17th (Missouri and Texas Tech) in the nation...
EIGHT OF THE WILDCATS' 11 OPPONENTS IN 2001 PLAYED IN POSTSEASON BOWLS...
Opponents on the 2002 schedule have combined to win 17 national championships (USC-8, Nebraska-5, Texas-3, Colorado-1).
IN 2002, KANSAS STATE WILL PLAY EIGHT HOME GAMES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SCHOOL HISTORY...
SEVEN OF THE WILDCATS' 12 OPPONENTS IN 2002 PLAYED IN THE POSTSEASON A YEAR AGO (Western Kentucky, Eastern Illinois, Southern California, Colorado, Texas, Iowa State, Nebraska).
