The Kansas State football team will host the University of Oklahoma on Saturday in Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
The Wildcats stayed at home last weekend to host Texas Christian University, and they lost 26-6. K-State is now 3-3 this season and still remains unranked nationally.
Starting quarterback Jesse Ertz did not see any playing time, so second string quarterback Alex Delton stepped up. Delton threw for 146 yards and had a 37.9 percent completion rate. Senior kicker Matthew McCrane kicked two field goals, the only efforts that put K-State on the scoreboard.
Last week, the Oklahoma Sooners hosted the University of Texas Longhorns at home. The Sooners won 29-24, and now have a record of 5-1 with a national rank of number nine.
Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield threw for a total of 302 passing yards with a 63 percent completion rate. Mayfield threw one interception and two touchdowns for the Sooners. Oklahoma running back Trey Sermon stepped up for the game against Texas, where he ran for 96 yards.
During the weekly press conference for K-State on Tuesday, head coach Bill Snyder talked about improvement for the football team.
“When you lose ballgames, obviously you have things to straighten out and get better at,” Snyder said. “When I say get better, I do not mean just players, I mean the coaches as well. All of us have a number of different things that we have to address and be able to have an honest self assessment on a variety of different things. We have to be able to make changes where changes are necessary.”
In regards to Oklahoma, Snyder also talked about the Sooners’ defense and their speed.
“They have a lot of people that run well,” Snyder said. “You look at their linebackers, and they get where they are going in a hurry. They have two basic approaches — one with an odd front and one with an even front. You never know what you are going to get. There is enough variety in their defense that creates issues in regards to preparation. Fortunately, we have been able to work against similar defenses in previous ballgames.”
Sophomore wide receiver Dalton Schoen talked about their challenge of this week.
“It is a big game, just like all of them,” Schoen said. “Another top 10 opponent is coming into our stadium. Obviously, our backs are against the wall a little bit, sitting at 3-3. We know it is a game we have to be prepared and focused for.”Related:
Schoen: A name you should get used to hearing
Snyder spoke about play calling and the schemes the Wildcats can use against Oklahoma’s defenses.
“You see a lot of different looks defensively, and if you have too much on your plate, you do not have the opportunity to test each scheme against a variety of defensive looks,” Snyder said. “It is important to be able to pair things down so you can get enough work against taking one scheme against a variety of different defenses. You just have to have repetition of all the variables that take place. The biggest concern that we have is having too much on our plate going into a ballgame and not being as prepared as we need to be.”
Also coming on Saturday, the K-State Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is working to fight hunger for the 22nd annual Cats for Cans food drive.
Wildcat student athletes will collect canned food donations two hours prior to kickoff. Drives will be open in the parking lot at all stadium entrances and throughout the week at Dillons, Hy-Vee and Walmart in Manhattan.
The goal this year is 5,000 pounds of food donations and $15,000 in cash donations.
The game between the Sooners and the Wildcats is set to kick off at 3 p.m. in Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The game will be broadcast on Fox.
