ATLANDA, Ga. – Colin Kaepernick plans to audition for NFL teams on Saturday in a private workout arranged by the league to be held in Atlanta.

The exiled former Pro Bowl quarterback posted on Twitter: “I’m just getting word from my representatives that the NFL league office reached out to them about a workout in Atlanta on Saturday. I’ve been in shape and ready for this for 3 years, can’t wait to see the head coaches and GMs on Saturday.”

The NFL hasn’t confirmed Kaepernick’s workout details.

A person familiar with the plans told The Associated Press the league’s decision to invite all 32 teams to watch Kaepernick “came out of the blue with no prior communication.” The person said Kaepernick’s team was given a 2-hour window to accept the invitation and was denied a request to schedule the tryout on a Tuesday or another Saturday.

Kaepernick’s representatives have asked the league to provide a rolling list of teams that plan to attend the workout to ensure it’s a “legitimate process,” according to the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because details haven’t been made public.

Kaepernick hasn’t played since 2016 with the San Francisco 49ers. He helped start a wave of protests about social and racial injustice that season by kneeling during the national anthem at games.

The NFL in February settled a collusion grievance Kaepernick and former teammate Eric Reid filed against the league. Reid now plays for the Carolina Panthers.

CHARLOTTE, NC – The 2019 NJCAA Bowls are set with Kansas being represented in two of the five bowls outside of the National Championship game that will be played on December 5th in Pittsburg, Kansas, with #1 Mississippi Gulf Coast matching up against #2 Lackawanna, Pa.

KJCCC will be represented with #3 Hutchinson hosting the Monroe College Mustangs from New Rochelle, New York in the 11th annual Salt City Bowl in Saturday, December 7th.  #7 Butler Community College will represent Kansas in the Midwest Classic Bowl in Miami, OK as they take on Trinity Valley, Texas.

Sat. 7	#18 Monroe %		#3 Hutchinson		1:00 PM CST
	Salt City Bowl @ Gowans Stadium – Hutchinson, KS
	#RV Itasca %		#RV Dupage		1:00 PM CST
	Red Grange Bowl @ Bjarne Ullsvik Stadium – Glen Ellyn, IL
Sun. 8	#8 Hinds %		#4 Iowa Western		11:00 PM CST
	The Graphic Edge Bowl – Opening Game @ UNI Dome – Cedar Falls, IA
	#13 Trinity Valley %		#7 Butler		2:00 PM CST
	Midwest Classic Bowl @ Red Robertson Field – Miami, OK
	#19 Nassau %		#RV Iowa Central		3:00 PM CST
	The Graphic Edge Bowl – Feature Game @ UNI Dome – Cedar Falls, IA

Alabama is fifth in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, behind LSU, Ohio State, Clemson and Georgia, which took over the fourth spot in the selection committee’s second top 25.

LSU replaced Ohio State as No. 1 on Tuesday night after the Tigers won at Alabama on Saturday. The Buckeyes were bumped to No. 2. Clemson moved up two spots to No. 3 after two teams ahead of the Tigers lost for the first time last week, including Alabama.

The Crimson Tide fell to 46-41 to LSU and dropped two spots. Penn State, which had been No. 4, lost 31-26 at Minnesota and fell to ninth. The unbeaten Gophers climbed nine spots to eighth, the largest one-week jump in the six-year history of the College Football Playoff.

Georgia moved up two spots to give the Southeastern Conference two of the top four for the second straight week.

Selection committee chairman Rob Mullens, the Oregon athletic director, said Georgia’s loss to South Carolina (4-6) was noted by the committee, but the Bulldogs’ victories against No. 11 Florida and No. 16 Notre Dame pushed them past Alabama.

Oregon was sixth and fellow Pac-12 team Utah was seventh.

Oklahoma, the highest-ranked Big 12 team at No. 10, dropped a spot after a one-point victory against Iowa State. The Sooners face 13th-ranked Baylor on Saturday. The Bears are the lowest-ranked unbeaten team.

The highest-ranked Group of Five teams were 17th-ranked Cincinnati and 18th-ranked Memphis out of the American Athletic Conference. The highest-ranked team from outside the Power Five conferences receives an automatic bid to a New Year’s Six bowl.

The final rankings and pairings for the College Football Playoff semifinal will be revealed Dec. 8.

Alabama is the only team to make the playoff all five years. Can it get there again?

Barring a stunning November collapse by LSU, the Crimson Tide will not reach the SEC championship game. Looking back at the teams that already took that route might provide clues.

The Ohio State team that reached the playoff in 2016 had a three-point loss at Penn State that kept it out of the Big Ten title game. The Nittany Lions finished fifth in the committee’s final rankings with an 11-2 record. The Buckeyes on selection Sunday owned victories against the committee’s sixth (Michigan), seventh (Oklahoma) and eighth (Wisconsin) ranked teams, two on the road. They were exactly the type of team the playoff architects had in mind when they determined a conference championship should not be a requirement to make the playoff.

Ohio State was the third seed in those semifinals, so while there was some debate about whether it was fair to have Ohio State in over Penn State, the final choice for the selection committee was between Penn State and Washington, the 12-1 Pac-12 champion. The Huskies didn’t have much of a nonconference resume, but one loss was better than two and Washington got the nod.

That was also the story of the 2017 selection process. Alabama was the fourth choice that year despite getting squeezed out of the SEC championship game by West rival Auburn. The Crimson Tide finished 11-1 and on selection Sunday held victories against teams the committee ranked 17th (LSU) and 23rd (Mississippi State). Alabama got the nod over Ohio State because of what it didn’t do: Lose twice and get blown out by an unranked team. The Buckeyes (11-2) had both of those marks on their resume, and even though they won the Big Ten, it wasn’t enough.

So what does Alabama need to happen this year to keep its streak of playoff appearances alive? The Tide won’t have a resume loaded with big wins to fall back on like Ohio State in 2016. Without that, the Tide could use at least two Power Five champions to finish with two or more losses. No Power Five champ with one loss or fewer has been left out for a team that did not win a conference.

Maybe the most comparable team to Alabama from previous years is Ohio State in 2015. Those Buckeyes were the defending national champions, with a loaded team that featured Ezekiel Elliott, Joey Bosa and eight other players that were drafted in the first three rounds the following April.

Those Buckeyes lost a November game at home to Michigan State on a last-second field goal. And that was it. The Buckeyes blew out rival Michigan the next week to finish 11-1, but they really weren’t even part of the playoff conversation heading into championship weekend.

Clemson made the playoff unbeaten. Alabama was a 12-1 SEC champion. The winner of undefeated Iowa and Michigan State played a playoff play-in game at the Big Ten championship that the Spartans won. Oklahoma earned its way in by winning the Big 12 without a conference championship game, but with four victories against teams in the committee’s final top 25.

Unlike this Alabama team, that Ohio State team had a few close calls as it sorted out a quarterback competition between Cardale Jones and J.T. Barrett. But just like this Alabama team, it would have been impossible to look at those Buckeyes and not see one of the four best teams in the country.

Another difference: Alabama lost to the unbeaten No. 1 team in the country on Saturday. The Michigan State team that beat Ohio State had already lost to a Nebraska team that finished under .500. And the Spartans needed a miracle last-second botched punt to beat Michigan.

It’s difficult to project ahead what the committee will do next with Alabama. Those Pac-12 teams trailing the Tide won’t have stacked resumes either, but they could have a conference championship and only one loss, and that’s been enough to keep teams like Alabama out before.

The following local High School Volleyball Athletes earned AVCTL honors for their play over the past season:

Congratulations to these 4 young Hutch High ladies on receiving all-AVCTL D1 honors Tina Robertson-1st team Peyton Allen -2nd team McKenzie Ontjes -2nd team Maliyah Johnson- honorable mention

Congratulations to the Buhler Crusader volleyball players who earned AVCTL D. III honors! 1st Team: Hadley Waldren 2nd Team: Lean Bentley Emmie Kleinherenbrink Maddie Holland Honorable Mention: Jordan Childs Alyiva Owens Sierra Sherry

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Major League Baseball has expanded its investigation into the Houston Astros after The Athletic website reported the team stole signs during home games in 2017 by using a camera positioned in center field.

The report Tuesday quoted pitcher Mike Fiers, who played for the Astros that season, and three other unidentified people with the club. The Astros won the World Series that year — two sources told The Athletic that Houston used the system into the playoffs while another source said the system ended before the postseason.

The website said the process was started by a struggling hitter and a coach, neither of whom was identified. The camera at Minute Maid Park was connected to a television monitor in the tunnel between the Astros’ dugout and clubhouse, The Athletic said, and team employees or players would communicate expected pitches by banging a trash can to signal off-speed pitches.

“I just want the game to be cleaned up a little bit because there are guys who are losing their jobs because they’re going in there not knowing,” Fiers told the website.

The Astros said in a statement the team “has begun an investigation in cooperation with Major League Baseball” and declined additional comment.

Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow declined to talk about specifics.

“We take the allegation seriously and we’re going to look into it. If you’re not following the rules, it’s a serious matter,” he said Tuesday at the annual GM meetings. “I’m not going to get into exactly what I knew or anybody knew at this point. So I’m just going to have to wait and see. But I’m sure there will be an appropriate time to answer that question directly.”

Luhnow said he hoped the allegations wouldn’t put a damper on Houston’s recent run of success, which includes the team’s first World Series title in 2017 and an AL pennant this season.

“Teams are competing with one another and everybody’s trying to find an edge,” Luhnow said. “But we all have to follow the rules and the rules are set by Major League Baseball. We all agree to follow them and if you don’t there’s ramifications to that. We want to follow the rules and we want to compete and win. That’s what every other club does, as well.”

Danny Farquhar, who pitched for the Chicago White Sox twice at Minute Maid Park in September 2017, told The Athletic of ’“a banging from the dugout, almost like a bat hitting the bat rack every time a changeup signal got put down.” He said after Chicago changed to more complex signals “the banging stopped.”

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Carson Smith added to the sign stealing allegations on Twitter, saying that the Astros bullpen catcher would send signs to certain batters. He added that the “Astros went to extreme measures, undoubtedly still do, and it’s paid off for them.”

MLB strengthened its rules against sign stealing before the 2019 season, instituting procedures attempting to ensure teams did not use video to steal signs.

“After we review this new information we will determine any necessary next steps,” MLB said in a statement.

Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Wednesday there was “scuttlebutt” that the Astros were stealing signs during the 2017 World Series, but “we certainly did not know anything definitive at the time.” The Dodgers lost to the Astros in seven games.

“There are things that have kind of existed since the beginning of time. And then there are other things that are even more egregious and clearly across the line,” he said. “And I think there are enough people involved in it, it would be pretty brazen to do certain things. And when you do, I think people are going to find out about it.”

MLB already is investigating the Astros. Assistant general manager Brandon Taubman was fired for directing inappropriate comments at female reporters during a clubhouse celebration after the team beat the New York Yankees to win the AL pennant on Oct. 19. The team issued and then retracted a statement accusing a Sports Illustrated reporter of trying to “fabricate a story.” Taubman was fired by the Astros on Oct. 24.

Luhnow said he didn’t think the Taubman situation and the sign stealing allegations are related.

“I don’t think they’re tied together, but they obviously have come one after another it seems like the last few weeks,” Luhnow said. “It’s disappointing. If there is an issue that we need to address, we’ll address it.”

HUTCHINSON, Kan. – The bracket and seeding for the 2019 D1 National Volleyball Tournament to be played at the Hutchinson Sports Arena Nov. 21-23rd. Navarro College is the #1 seed and is undefeated at 27-0.

BRACKET

(BY STEVE CARPENTER)
(HUTCHINSON CC SPORTS INFORMATION)

HUTCHINSON, Kan. —The 2019 Salt City Bowl will feature the No. 3-ranked Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons and the No. 18 Monroe College Mustangs.

The 2019 edition will kick off at 1 p.m. on Saturday, December 7 at Hutchinson’s Gowans Stadium. Ticketing information for the 11th annual contest will be located on the bowl’s official web site www.saltcitybowl.com.

The Blue Dragons will make their 22nd overall bowl appearance, making their last nine in the Salt City Bowl. The Blue Dragons are 12-7-2 all-time in bowl games and 7-1 in the Salt City Bowl. Hutchinson played in the 2018 Salt City Bowl and defeated Navarro College 35-6.

The Mustangs are going to their second-straight bowl in the program’s eight-year history. Last season, Monroe played in the Graphic Edge Bowl and lost to Iowa Central, 36-20.

This will be the first-ever football meeting between Hutchinson and Monroe. This Friday at Great Bend, the two schools’ men’s basketball teams will play each other in the Cougar Booster Club Classic at 3 p.m. Also, the Monroe Volleyball team qualified for the NJCAA Division I Tournament next week at the Sports Arena.

The Blue Dragons were three point away from an undefeated season, ultimately finishing 2019 at 9-2 and in a three-way tie for second in the Jayhawk Conference. The Blue Dragons spent five weeks at No. 1 this season, the first time in program history Hutch was ranked No. 1 in football.

The Blue Dragons played six nationally ranked opponents this season, going 4-2, including a pair of wins over No. 2-ranked teams at the time in Iowa Western and Butler.

The Dragons rank fourth in the nation in scoring at 44.8 points per game. They are 13th in total offense at 406.2 yards per contest and fourth overall in the NJCAA in rushing at 235.2 yards per game with a nation’s best 41 rushing touchdowns.

Defensively, the Blue Dragons are fifth in scoring defense at 14.3 points per game allowed. The Dragons are eighth in total defense at 230.8 yards allowed per game. Hutch owns the fourth-best passing defense in the NJCAA at 135.1 yards allowed.

Hutchinson will face the No. 1 scoring defense in the country. The Mustangs are tied with Northeast league rival Lackawanna for No. 1 in scoring defense at 11.2 points per game. Monroe is also No. 1 in total defense at 173.1 yards per game allowed, No. 1 in rush defense (30.2 ypg) and eighth in passing defense (142.9 ypg).

Monroe also brings some gaudy offensive numbers with a nation-leading 52.5 points per game. Monroe is balanced offensively, averaging 247.6 passing yards and 172.1 rushing yards per game.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – As Kansas State celebrates the 150^th Anniversary of College Football with an alternate helmet featuring a throwback “Cats” script this Saturday against West Virginia, K-State Athletics announced that official Nike “Cats” merchandise is now available.

Cats Collection at K-State Super Store

Fans can purchase the Cats merchandise​ now at K-State Athletics’ official online store, shop.kstatesports.com, ​and the K-State Super Store located on McCall Road in Manhattan​. The Cats line will be available Tuesday at the K-State Campus Store in the student union, Rally House and Dick’s Sporting Goods locations, and Scheel’s in Overland Park.

The merchandise will also be available at the women’s basketball game against UIC on Monday night inside Bramlage Coliseum, a game that tips off at 6:30 p.m.

The game against WVU will serve as a celebration of College Football’s 150th Anniversary as the halftime entertainment will take a look back at the 124 seasons of K-State Football, including an opportunity to celebrate Hall of Fame head coach Bill Snyder.

Lower-level tickets remain for the game against the Mountaineers and start at just $30 when fans purchase 12 or more. Four-packs are also available in the view level for just $25 per ticket. Fans can purchase tickets by visiting www.kstatesports.com/tickets, calling 1-800-221-CATS or visiting the main athletics ticket office inside Bramlage Coliseum.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – K-State will look to bounce back from a narrow three-point loss at Texas this week as the Wildcats welcome West Virginia to Manhattan for an afternoon Big 12 match up. The game, which kicks at 2:30 p.m., will air on ESPN with Mark Jones (play-by-play), Dusty Dvoracek (analyst) and Olivia Dekker (sidelines) on the call. The contest can be heard on MY 93.1 fm Hutchinson and across the 39-station K-State Sports Network with Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play), former K-State quarterback Stan Weber (analyst) and Matt Walters (sidelines) calling the action. The game can also be heard on SiriusXM (S: 137, X: 200, Internet: 954) in addition to the TuneIn app.

A LOOK AT K-STATE
• K-State has won three of its last four games and is bowl-eligible under first-year head coach Chris Klieman.
• K-State has rushed for 1,789 yards this year on 387 carries which includes 25 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’s 11 rushing scores over the Oklahoma and Kansas games were the most in the nation over that stretch. Quarterback 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 – has thrown for 1,589 yards and nine touchdowns with one interception. His current 0.5% interception percentage ranks as the best mark in Big 12 history.
• With 29 rushing yards against WVU, 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 (3rd; 26.0%) and first downs allowed (17th; 152).
• K-State has given up just five passing TDs this season, which are tied for the fewest nationally this year (Ohio State).
• The Cats have surrendered only 25 total third down conversions this season, which are tied for the fewest in the FBS, while they were the final team to allow a fourth-down conversion when they did so last week against Texas.
• Linebacker Elijah Sullivan and safety Denzel Goolsby lead the team with 40 tackles apiece.
• Ten different Wildcats have at least 2.0 TFLs – led by Wyatt Hubert’s 7.5 – and Hubert leads the team with 5.0 sacks.
• Cornerback AJ Parker has a team-high three interceptions to tie for fourth in the Big 12.
• The Wildcats possess a great kicker/punter duo as Blake Lynch ranks 10th nationally in field goal percentage (91.7%), while Devin Anctil ranks 18th in the nation with a 44.9-yard punting average.

A LOOK AT WEST VIRGINIA
• West Virginia is coming off a 38-17 setback to Texas Tech and enters the game with a 3-6 overall record and a 1-5 mark in Big 12 play.
• The Mountaineers are averaging 329.7 yards per game on offense, which includes 253.9 through the air.
• Former Oklahoma quarterback Austin Kendall has thrown for 1,989 yards and 12 touchdowns on 187-of-304 aim.
• Kendall’s favorite target has been Sam James, who has 58 catches for 623 yards and two touchdowns. T.J. Simmons and George Campbell each have a team-high four receiving scores.
• Running backs Leddie Brown (227) and Kennedy McKoy (220) lead the team in rushing with McCoy having a team-high three touchdowns on the ground.
• Defensively, Josh Norwood has 61 tackles to lead the way, while Darius Stills ranks second in the Big 12 in both sacks (7.0) and tackles for loss (12.0).

A LOOK AT THE SERIES
• K-State leads the all-time series, 5-4, including a 4-3 mark since West Virginia joined the Big 12 in 2012.
• The Wildcats won the first four match ups as conference foes while WVU has won the last three, the Mountaineers’ longest winning streak in the series.
• The last two games played in Manhattan have been hotly contested with an average margin of victory being three points. K-State earned a narrow 24-23 victory in the 2015 regular-season finale, a victory that made the Wildcats bowl eligible. WVU returned the favor in 2017 when it picked up a 28-23 win.

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 23-13 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.
• Chris Klieman owns a 15-5 record in November.

ONE OF THE BIG 12’S BEST
• Kansas State ranks third all-time in Big 12 wins since the league’s inception in 1996 with 116, trailing only Oklahoma and Texas.
• The Wildcats also rank third in the conference in winning percentage since round-robin play began in 2011. They sit at .603 (47-31), trailing only Oklahoma (.821; 64-14) and Oklahoma State (.641; 50-28).

CATS ARE BOWL BOUND
• With the win over Kansas, K-State got win No. 6 and became bowl eligible for the 22nd time in school history.
• Since 1990, K-State has qualified for the postseason 21 times, including this season.
• Chris Klieman became the second coach in school history to take the Wildcats to a bowl in their first year as coach and the fourth overall to do so.

IN THE CFP TOP 25
• K-State debuted in the initial College Football Playoff Rankings when it landed at No. 16, which marked the first time the Cats were ranked in the CFP poll since the final rankings of the 2014 season (11th).
• Chris Klieman is one of six head coaches to be in the first year at his school and debut 16th or better in the initial CFP rankings of a season, joining Jim Harbaugh (Michigan, 14th in 2015), Lincoln Riley (Oklahoma, 5th in 2017), Dan Mullen (Florida, 11th in 2018), Josh Heupel (UCF, 12th in 2018) and Ryan Day (Ohio State, 1st in 2019).

A NEW ERA
• The new era of K-State Football under Chris Klieman has opened with a 6-3 record through nine games.
• Klieman, who was named the 35th head coach in school history on December 10, 2018, was just the fourth head coach in K-State history to start 3-0.
• He is the second head coach in school history to lead the Wildcats to bowl eligibility in their first season, while he can tie for the most wins by a first-year head coach in school history with a victory on Saturday.

A WINNING HISTORY
• A proven winner with a championship history, Chris Klieman came to Manhattan after capping his five-year stint as head coach at North Dakota State by winning his fourth national championship in 2018.
• Klieman guided the 2018 Bison to a perfect 15-0 record, making NDSU just the fifth team in FCS history to go undefeated and untied on the way to a national championship.
• A native of Waterloo, Iowa, Klieman has a career record of 78-16 (.830), as he went 69-6 in his five seasons at North Dakota State, 3-7 in one year as the head coach at Division III Loras College in 2005 and 6-3 so far at K-State.
• Klieman’s overall winning percentage ranks eighth among all active NCAA coaches – regardless of division – and tops among active FBS coaches.

FEW FLAGS
• One staple of Kansas State football throughout the years has been limited penalties, and the 2019 Wildcats have continued that trend.
• K-State enters the week ranked third in the Big 12 in fewest penalties penalty yards per game (51.3).
• The Kansas game was an anomaly as the Wildcats were flagged 11 times for 113 yards, the first time they had over 10 penalties and 100 penalty yards since the 2018 season opener.

CATS TOPS IN NON-OFFENSIVE TDs
• K-State is the nation’s best in non-offensive touchdowns over the last 20-plus seasons as it has 115 since 1999, nine more than the next closest team.
• Entering the season, the Wildcats were averaging 5.6 non-offensive touchdowns per year since 1999, while the yearly average for the other 105 teams to play FBS football since 1999 was 3.3.
• Kansas State’s average is boosted by the fact that it has at least five non-offensive touchdowns in six of the last eight years.

HIGH T.O.P.
• K-State enters this week fifth nationally in time of possession at 34:26.
• The Wildcats’ best season time of possession average since 1985 was 33:55 during the 2011 season.
• K-State has possessed the ball for over 40 minutes twice this season, including a 42:52 mark against Bowling Green to rank eighth in Big 12 history.

FEW OFFENSIVE TURNOVERS
• The Wildcats only have four offensive turnovers in its first nine games (2 INT, 2 FUM), their fewest in the first nine games of a season since 2012 (2 INT, 1 FUM).
• K-State’s had a three-game stretch of zero turnovers snapped at Texas (one fumble).
• Of the Wildcats’ six lost fumbles this season, three are on punt returns and one is on an interception return.
• K-State was the final team in the nation to commit an offensive turnover this year when it fumbled at OSU. The Cats went the first 189 minutes, 38 seconds of the 2019 season without committing an offensive turnover.

RACKING UP RUSHING YARDS
• The Cats showed at the outset of the year its ability to run the ball, a mark that now stands at 198.8 per game.
• Kansas State has 1,789 total rushing yards this season. The Wildcats hit the 1,000-yard mark in their fifth game, marking the eighth time since 2000 but just the second since 2013 it only took five games to get to 1,000.
• K-State carded over 300 yards rushing in each of the first two games, the first time since at least 1965 that the Cats went over the 300-yard mark twice to open a season.
• Against OU and KU, the Cats ran for 555 yards and 11 scores on the ground. Their 342 rushing yards against Kansas were the most in a Big 12 game since totaling 366 yards at TCU in 2016.

RUNNING TO PAYDIRT
• Seven different Wildcats have tallied rushing touchdowns this year for a team total of 25. Last year, K-State had 20 total rushing touchdowns in 12 games.
• The Wildcats are six rushing scores away from tying for 10th in school history.
• K-State running backs have accounted for 14 rushing touchdowns this season after the position group only had 13 in 2018.

DEFENSE RANKING HIGHLY
• K-State ranks second in the Big 12 and 32nd nationally in scoring defense (21.1 pts/gm), while the Wildcats are first in the league and 29th nationally in passing yards allowed (194.8 yd/gm).
• Kansas State has finished in the top 25 nationally in scoring defense only twice since 2003. In terms of pass defense, K-State has not finished better than 40th in the country since 2003 when it ranked seventh.

GETTING OFF THE FIELD
• The K-State defense has excelled in terms of getting off the field on third down during the first nine games of the year as the Wildcats rank third in the nation in third down defense (26.0%) behind Wisconsin (21.6%) and Ohio State (25.8%).
• The Cats have allowed only 25 third down conversions this year, tied for the fewest in the nation with Wisconsin.
• Additionally, K-State was the last team in the nation to allow a fourth-down conversion when Texas converted one last week.

LIMITED SNAPS
• Thanks to its efficiency on third downs, the K-State defense is one of the nation’s leaders in fewest defensive snaps played.
• K-State has defended against just 520 plays in its nine games as its 57.8 defensive snaps per game rank fourth in the nation.

SCORING IN THE THIRD PHASE
• Kansas State has been far and away the best team among FBS programs over the last 15 years when it comes to scoring via a kickoff or punt return.
• The Wildcats have a combined 50 kickoff- and punt-return touchdowns since 2005, 19 more than any other FBS school during that stretch.
• Malik Knowles got things going for the Wildcats in that department in 2019 with a 100-yard kickoff return at Mississippi State, while Joshua Youngblood went 98 yards for a kickoff-return score at Texas.

DEFENSE ON KICKOFFS
• K-State has been consistent in terms of kickoff coverage as the Cats have not allowed a kickoff-return touchdown in the last 84 games, the last being against Louisiana on September 7, 2013. During that stretch, K-State has defended against 315 kickoff returns.
• K-State has ranked in the top 30 nationally in kickoff return defense each of the last five seasons, including a No. 2 national ranking in 2017.
• The Wildcats enter this week ranked eighth in that department by limiting opponents to just 16.54 yards per return.