Oklahoma football comes into Saturday with a 3-0 record, after the 49-14 statement win over Nebraska in Lincoln. Kansas State is coming off a shocking 17-10 loss to Tulane last week, but have had recent success against Oklahoma. It’s a primetime matchup at The Palace for the first conference matchup between both teams. Here’s some score predictions/game breakdown from our StorminInNorman team:
Connor Pasby
Score: OU 34 – Kansas State 17
After what I saw last week in Lincoln, I like the Sooners to win handily over Kansas State. It’ll be a close battle in the early moments of the game, due to the running attack the Wildcats provide with Deuce Vaughn, but the Sooners will eventually put it to a stop. Dillon Gabriel will connect on a few big plays against the Wildcats secondary, and you’ll see another big day from Marvin Mims. It’s a savvy Wildcats defense, that has played well so far this season, but Lebby will have the offense movin’.
Defensively, it’s all about stopping Vaughn. So far the front-7 for OU has played solid through three games, and I expect them to carry that on this Saturday. You’ll see a few big runs from Vaughn early in the game, but the Sooners will keep the running attack fairly quiet in the second half. (Marvin Mimms will return a punt for a touchdown)
Chip Rouse
Score: OU 35 – Kansas State 24
If you look solely at the series history between OU and Kansas State, you get the impression that the Wildcats have been patsy for the Sooners, like forever. For over 52 consecutive years, between the late 1930’s and late 1980’s, Oklahoma’s record was 50-2 against Kansas State. The Sooners have also been fairly dominant in the 2000’s, winning 12 of 16 contests against K-State. Forget about all that. 4 of the last 5 games between the Sooners and Wildcats have been decided by seven or fewer points, and the Sooners were on the losing end of two of those games.
K-State has All-American running back Deuce Vaughn on its side. That’s all you need to know about the Cats’ offense. Vaughn may be the best running back in the country this season. He is a dual threat running and catching the ball is a definite game-changer. The Sooners’ offense will be seriously tested by a good K-State defense. Another interesting fact to keep in mind is that the road team has won 8 of the last 11 games in this series.
Timothy Bailey
Score: OU 45 Kansas State 17
This is not me underestimating the Wildcats, I think they are very capable, in fact, I picked them preseason to make the conference championship game. Their loss to Tulane means very little when toe meets leather, and the Wildcats likely were caught peeking ahead. However, the way Kansas State plays football is just not a great match-up vs Oklahoma. The Sooners are very capable of stopping the ground game, which is the strength of the Wildcats, and throwing the football is not Adrian Martinez’s specialty. The game may be grindy and close for a while. but the Sooners will power on through in the end.
Douglas Miles
Score: OU 27 – Kansas Sate 17
In another four-quarter game with the Wildcats, the Sooners are the ones that make the crucial plays in the final frame. The Oklahoma O-Line will face it’s stiffest challenge, while the Sooners’ defense will be tested on whether it can get off the field against the methodical deliberate K-State offense.
Aaron Gelvin
Score: OU 28 – Kansas State 10
K-State has a couple of nice drives to open the game and then the defensive staff makes adjustments. Sooners won’t be able to run the ball as well as they did against Utep, Kent State, and Nebraska, so Gabriel will have to hit some throws that aren’t open. Lebby can’t give up on the run game and it’ll eventually play off.
Adam Willis
Score: OU 35 – Kansas State 14
The Sooners defense will have another dominating performance stifling the Kansas State running game. I believe they will contain Deuce Vaughn for the majority of the game. The offense will take another step, Sooners by 3 touchdowns in this one.
Cameron Black
Score: OU 35 – Kansas State 21
Watch out for a possible trap game. It seems no matter where they are in the rankings, OU and Kansas State is always a weird game. The Wildcats always play the Sooners hard. Look for K-State to make a game out of it for a while, but OU will pull away late.