How Kansas State can ‘make a statement’ with elusive road victory at Oklahoma State
Chris Klieman is the type of football coach who doesn’t care all that much about where a game is played.
To him, it doesn’t matter if Kansas State is at home, on the road or inside a neutral venue. He expects the Wildcats to win by coming up with a smart game plan and then executing it at a high level, no matter how many fans are in attendance or how much purple is being worn in the stands.
That’s why his favorite quote is “football is football.”
So don’t expect Klieman to wax poetic about his inability to beat Oklahoma State inside Boone Pickens Stadium. Yes, he has taken the Wildcats there twice during his five seasons in Manhattan and neither of those trips went well for his team. But he doesn’t view Stillwater as a haunted football destination.
He chooses to go a different route when explaining why the Wildcats lost those games 26-13 and 31-20.
“We haven’t played our best football down there,” Klieman said this week. “But you can correlate that to we’ve not won the line of scrimmage. If you don’t win the line of scrimmage on either side of the ball and they’re able to stop our rush and we’re not able to rush the football (it doesn’t matter) whether you’re playing in the street, a parking lot or at home or away. It comes down to a mentality of being able to be physical and win the line of scrimmage.”
Oklahoma State has, indeed, dominated in the trenches at home recently against K-State.
Chuba Hubbard rushed for 296 yards and a touchdown against the Wildcats in 2019. Then Jaylen Warren had 123 rushing yards against K-State in 2021, with Spencer Sanders adding on 344 more through the air via short passes that might as well have been runs.
Playing in front of a rowdy crowd didn’t help matters, but it is easy to see why the Wildcats are more focused on the Cowboys than their home environment this week, even though a sellout crowd is expected Friday.
The Wildcats seem better equipped to slow down the Cowboys this season. K-State leads the Big 12 in rushing defense (2.5 yards per rush allowed) while Oklahoma State ranks ninth in rushing offense (four yards per rush).
K-State got some revenge on Mike Gundy’s team when the Wildcats throttled the Cowboys 48-0 last season at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. That was a big win for Klieman and his squad, but a win this week would mean a little more to them.
“We talked about that at the beginning of this week,” K-State quarterback Will Howard said. “We haven’t really had a ton of success down there at Stillwater since Coach Klieman has been here. It’s been a tough place for us to play. It’s a tough environment and the fans are going to be loud. They are right on top of you.
“But I think it’s time for us to go down there and make a statement and get a good win down there, because we kind of have a bad taste in our mouths, me especially, about that place.”
Howard had a miserable game on the road against the Cowboys two years ago, as he threw for just 50 yards while filling in for an injured Skylar Thompson.
Oklahoma State dominated that game from start to finish, and K-State players could do nothing to silence the home fans.
The Wildcats will use that as motivation this week, even if Klieman says he hasn’t lost any sleep about his record in Stillwater.
“The last trip we took there wasn’t fun,” K-State tight end Ben Sinnott said. “I think we are just going to use that to fuel us. We have never won there in Klieman’s era. So it’s a big emphasis for us this week.”
