Plenty Still on the Line on Saturday

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Senior Night. A possible Big 12 Championship berth. A perfect home record.

Those are just a few of the things that No. 19 Kansas State will be playing for when it faces Iowa State in Saturday's 7 p.m. kickoff (FOX) at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

K-State will recognize 25 players on Senior Night, and with a win, the Wildcats, depending upon the outcome of games on Friday and earlier in the day on Saturday, could be playing for a spot in the Big 12 title game.

The Wildcats, 8-3 overall and 6-2 in the Big 12, also are in search of their seventh undefeated home season in school history and the first since 2012. The other undefeated home seasons include 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998 and 1999.

K-State is 6-0 at home and has won those games by a combined score of 272-72.

That's an average score of 45.3 to 12.0 in games played in Manhattan.

"We've won in pretty good fashion each home game," senior center Hayden Gillum said. "It's been fun. Anytime you can play like we have in front of our fans, it makes for a fun weekend."

K-State comes off a celebration following a come-from-behind 31-27 win at No. 25 Kansas last Saturday, giving the Wildcats a series-record 15^th straight win in the Dillons Sunflower Showdown. The Wildcats overcame an 11-point deficit for an emotional victory at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence.

It didn't take long for K-State head coach Chris Klieman to shift his team's focus toward the Cyclones, 6-5 and 5-3, which have won their last three road games at Cincinnati (30-10), at Baylor (30-18) and at BYU (45-13).

Iowa State comes off a 26-16 home loss to No. 7 Texas.

The Cyclones, picked 10^th in the Big 12 Preseason Poll, are currently tied for fifth place in the league.

"Don't believe everything you hear and see early in the season," Klieman said. "You can tell how much those guys have improved. They play hard. This is going to be a physical game. These two teams are two of the more physical teams in the league."

K-State has won 12 of the last 15 games in the series. Seven of the last nine meetings have been decided by 10 or fewer points. K-State outlasted Iowa State in a 10-9 win last season in Ames, Iowa.

"It doesn't matter if it's a high-scoring game or a low-scoring game like last year," Klieman said. "Typically it comes down to a possession or two."

Which is why the Wildcats quickly shifted focus to the Cyclones.

"Beating KU was big, but even coming off a big loss at Texas (33-30 in overtime) or at Missouri (30-27), you have to refocus and get back to the task at hand," senior quarterback Will Howard said. "At the end of the day, there's still work left to do, and we can't let anything get in our way."

As for Big 12 Championship Game tiebreakers?

"We don't pay any attention to it," Klieman said. "We've navigated it really well the last two weeks when everybody was trying to stuff it down our throats and all our kids did was go out and win two games."

A win Saturday would mean much to the senior class.

Since the COVID year in 2020, K-State has gone 8-5 and 10-4, the first time with back-to-back eight-win seasons since 2016 and 2017. This senior class could finish the 2023 campaign with double-digit wins for a second straight season.

Leaving K-State with a string of success is important to players such as sixth-year senior wide receiver Phillip Brooks, who hammered home the desire to leave a positive legacy.

"If a Big 12 Championship Game doesn't work out, it doesn't work out, but that doesn't define how we've developed a culture here," sixth-year senior wide receiver Phillip Brooks said. "We're always going to be competing for a championship every year. What we've done and how we've grown from my freshman year to now is a win for us."

They hope there are more wins to come this season.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Phillip Brooks

Hayden Gillum

Will Howard

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