MANHATTAN — K-State continues its string of five games played in the month of November on Saturday as the Wildcats travel to Lubbock to face Texas Tech, looking to snap a two-game skid and elevate its bowl standing.
The game, which kicks at 6 p.m., will air on FS1 with Aaron Goldsmith (play-by-play) and Ben Leber (analyst) on the call. The contest can be heard on SiriusXM (S: 211, X: 382, Internet: 971) in addition to the TuneIn app.
A LOOK AT K-STATE
K-State is bowl-eligible under first-year head coach Chris Klieman and is looking to get back on the winning track after two-straight losses by a combined seven points.
K-State has rushed for 1,911 yards this year on 425 carries which includes 26 rushing touchdowns after tallying only 20 rushing scores a year ago.
The Wildcats are on pace to finish the 2019 season in the top 10 in school history in team rushing yards.
K-State totaled 11 rushing scores over the Oklahoma and Kansas games, which were the most in the nation over that stretch. Skylar Thompson had seven of those scores, also the best in the nation during that stretch.
Thompson’s seven rushing scores against OU and KU were the most over a two-game stretch by a K-State quarterback since Collin Klein in 2012.
Thompson – who has four career game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or later, which includes one at Texas Tech two years ago – has thrown for 1,888 yards and 10 touchdowns with three interceptions.
With 10 rushing yards against TTU, Thompson can become the fourth signal caller in school history with 3,000 career passing yards and 1,000 career rushing yards.
Receivers Dalton Schoen and Malik Knowles each have over 300 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
The K-State defense enters the week ranked highly in many statistical categories, including third down defense (4th; 26.9%), first downs allowed (16th; 169) and passing yards allowed (30th; 198.7).
K-State has given up just eight passing TDs this season, which are tied for the sixth fewest nationally this year.
The Cats have surrendered only 29 total third down conversions this season – the fewest in the FBS – while they were the final team to allow a fourth-down conversion when they did so against Texas.
Safeties Wayne Jones (45) and Denzel Goolsby (44) along with linebacker Elijah Sullivan (43) lead the team in tackles.
Eleven different Cats have at least 2.0 TFLs – led by Wyatt Hubert’s 8.5 – and Hubert leads the team with 5.0 sacks.
The Wildcats possess a great kicker/punter duo as Blake Lynch ranks seventh nationally in field goal percentage (92.9%), while Devin Anctil ranks 21st in the nation with a 44.3-yard punting average.
A LOOK AT TEXAS TECH
Texas Tech enters the game with a 4-6 overall record and a 2-5 mark in Big 12 play. The Red Raiders dropped a tight 33-31 contest at home last week to TCU.
On offense, the Red Raiders are one of the top passing teams in the country, averaging 312.9 yards a game through the air.
Jett Duffey has thrown for 2,107 yards and 14 touchdowns, while the Red Raiders have eight wide receivers with 20 or more catches, led by T.J. Vasher’s 37.
On defense, Tech boasts the Big 12’s leading tackler in Jordyn Brooks (102), while Douglas Coleman leads the league with eight interceptions.
A LOOK AT THE SERIES
K-State leads the all-time series, 10-9, including a 7-1 mark over the last eight years and a 10-6 advantage since the inception of the Big 12 in 1996.
One of those games was the first-ever Big 12 game, as the Cats topped Tech, 21-14, on Aug. 31, 1996.
K-State is in search of its fourth-straight win over the Red Raiders, which would tie the Wildcats’ longest winning streak in the series.
Two years ago in Lubbock, K-State trailed by 11 early in the fourth quarter but Skylar Thompson engineered a five-play, 80-yard drive that was capped with his own one-yard touchdown rush before throwing a pass to Dalton Schoen for a game-tying two-point conversion. In overtime, K-State scored on its first possession on a Thompson-to-Byron Pringle eight-yard pass before a Red Raider fourth-down pass attempt went out of the back of the end zone to seal a 42-35 Wildcat victory.
CATS IN NOVEMBER
Over the past decade, Kansas State has been at its best in the final month of the season as the Wildcats hold a 23-14 record in November since 2010.
K-State has not had a sub-.500 mark in November since 2009.
The Cats are in the midst of playing five games in the month of November for the first time since 2013 when they finished off the final month of the season with a 4-1 mark.