Kansas at Kansas State Football Preview: Can KU Stop the Run?

The Jayhawks travel to Manhattan as they end the regular season with the Sunflower Showdown.

The college football regular season ends on Saturday, and for the first time in 14 years, Kansas will get to keep playing football in December or later. But first, the Jayhawks are looking to get back on track against its in-state rival in the Sunflower Showdown. And this will be no easy task.

Opponent Overview

Team: Kansas State

Record: 8-3

Line: KSU -11.5

Team Form

Kansas State has somewhat quietly—in terms of national buzz—put together a fantastic season that has the Wildcats ranked No. 12 in the country and sitting in second place in the Big 12 standings at 6-2.

KSU has lost twice since its bye week (Oct. 15) but both losses have come within 10 points to quality teams (TCU and Texas) and the wins have been dominant. The Wildcats blew out Oklahoma State (48-0) and Baylor (31-3) before winning a shootout at West Virginia 48-31. Aside from the WVU game, the defense has been lock-down, and even with giving up 31 points in its last outing, KSU is only letting opponents score an average of 18.7 points per game, which is good for No. 15 nationally.

Players to Watch

It all starts with the smallest guy on the field, Deuce Vaughn. Vaughn is over 1,000 yards for the second straight season (1,148 so far this year) and has two games remaining to try and pass his personal best of 1,404 yards set last season.

Though the area he won’t catch is in rushing touchdowns. Vaughn only has six so far this year after 18 last season, and only three of those have come in Big 12 play. The big reason for that was quarterback Adrian Martinez, who has 10 rushing touchdowns while being second on the team in rushing yards at 615. Vaughn is also extremely dangerous in the passing game. He is KSU’s second-leading receiver with 38 catches and has three touchdown catches. Malik Knowles is leading the Wildcats in receptions (44) and receiving yards (669) but the biggest touchdown threat has been Kade Warner, who has five touchdown receptions.

Will Howard has played the majority of the last two games at quarterback and he’s been a catalyst for the Wildcats’ offense. Howard has only played in four games but he amassed 1,011 yards while completing 65% of his passes and tossing 11 touchdowns to just two interceptions. Last week against WVU, Howard went 19-27 for 294 yards and two touchdowns with one pick. He was also 19-27 against Baylor coming in for Martinez and threw three TDs in that one.

The name to know on the defensive side of the ball is defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah. Anudike-Uzomah leads the conference in sacks at 7.5 and also has nine tackles for loss and has forced two fumbles. Linebacker Austin Moore is also a game-wrecker, leading the team in tackles (94) and recording eight tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, and an interception.

Matchups to Watch

It all starts with the running game. Kansas has been gashed in consecutive weeks on the ground and now face one of the best backs in the Big 12. KSU averages 208 yards rushing this season and the Jayhawks defense is now giving up 190 rushing yards per game, though that number has ballooned to 345.5 yards per game in the last two contests. The Wildcats, meanwhile, are giving up 144 yards rushing on an average of 4.1 yards per carry.

For the Kansas offense, the question will be how accurate and safe with the ball can Jalon Daniels be? Opponents are only completing 58% of their passes against this KSU defense and the Wildcats have 14 interceptions so far this year through 11 games. Daniels will have to be accurate and not turn the ball over if KU has any shot at winning.

Prediction

I sure hope the Kansas defense has woken up and fixed some glaring issues after two embarrassing weeks where it’s been way too easy for Texas Tech and Texas to do whatever they want on offense. Unfortunately, I have to see it before I buy into it. I picked a Kansas win against Tech and a close loss to Texas and was proven wrong. I also need to see that Kansas will not dig itself in a 14- or 21-point hole on the road like it has routinely this year. Because that won’t work against this defense.

I do think some of the early struggles for Daniels against Texas were due to obvious and understandable rust after being out for an extended period of time. I am more bullish on us seeing a version of Daniels closer to what we saw earlier in the year, but I’m not sure it’s enough in this spot on the road against a really good team.

Kansas State 38, Kansas 28

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