Kansas State football opens up Big 12 play against Oklahoma State this weekend as the Wildcats try to improve their record to 4-0.
Kansas State is the No. 24-ranked team in the country heading into Week 5 and despite the ranking, the Wildcats are still underdogs to Oklahoma State.
In fact, Oklahoma State is favored by four points as Kansas State will be coming to Stillwater.
Oklahoma State is fresh off a loss to Texas this past weekend, while Kansas State is coming off a bye, but had a signature win the week before against Mississippi State.
This should be a close game between conference foes, and here are three keys Kansas State must do to win the game.
3. Keep Oklahoma State’s trio in check
Oklahoma State is led by redshirt freshman quarterback Spencer Sanders, sophomore running back Chuba Hubbard and junior wide receiver Tylan Wallace.
Hubbard and Wallace are arguably the best players at their positions in the Big 12. Sanders has a chance to develop into the best quarterback in the Big 12 in the coming years as the Big 12 is front loaded with solid quarterbacks. However, Sanders is extremely talented and can hurt you with his arm or his legs.
Through Oklahoma State’s first four games, Hubbard has 642 yards on the ground and nine touchdowns while Wallace has 473 receiving yards and six scores. Sanders is getting better each game at quarterback, but his number one goal is to get these two guys the ball.
Texas did a good job slowing them down last week, which was one of the reasons the Longhorns were able to win. They still made their plays, but the Cowboys were held in check for the most part.
Kansas State will need to do the same thing Texas did in order to win. They need to go into the game already knowing that Oklahoma State’s trio are going to make plays, but they just need to keep them in check and avoid giving up the big play to them. If they can do this, they can win the game.