Kansas State DB: ‘They’re Ranked, We Definitely Want To Beat a Ranked Team’

Five quick stats on OSU.

• OSU will go into Saturday’s ranked for the 79th time in the last 110 games
• OSU is 50-6 in their last 56 games against unranked opponents (KSU is unranked)
• OSU is 42-17 in conference games since 2010
• OSU is 7-1 in its last eight true road games
• OSU is 1-8 in Manhattan since 1988

Something has to give on Saturday where unranked Kansas State will be facing ranked Oklahoma State in a venue where Oklahoma State has one win since I was three years old.

“This is a good challenge for us,” said KSU defensive back D.J Reed. “They’re ranked, we definitely want to be a ranked team. On offense they’re pretty good. One of their receivers — I don’t know his name — he’s a good football player. I think the Texas Tech QB was really good. But this guy is pretty good. He makes a lot of plays”

“I think the experience has allowed him to do things extremely poised and make quality decisions,” added head coach Bill Snyder of Mason Rudolph. “The game has slowed down for him, and when that happens, the innate capability that he has comes to the forefront. He has the ability to make good decisions and the poise to go through his reads and progressions and be an accurate thrower.”

He did last week anyway. Snyder continued about what makes OSU difficult to play.

“Their whole front seven is big and they play hard,” added Snyder. “So it is going to be a tough match up between the offensive line and tight end, fullback, all of us blocking and controlling the line of scrimmage.”

This Saturday will likely be a change in pace for OSU fans. Kansas State has only run 529 plays which comes out to 66 a game whereas OSU generally runs 10 more than that. That’s scary for me because OSU will have to be super efficient.

“It’s a little bit of a different game,” said Mike Gundy. “For us, we don’t want to change our game. We want to play our game. We want to be sound in all three phases, but the numbers are different just based on the number of snaps that Kansas State and the teams that Kansas State play get during the game.”

Kansas State could very well knock off a ranked team like it wants to in Manhattan. It won’t be an upset though. Not with OSU’s history there. Not with the methodical, weary nature with which the SnyderCats play. In fact, a win here by the Pokes would be just as big as last week’s at home against West Virginia.