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University of Oklahoma Athletics
Game Primer: OU at Kansas State
October 20, 2017 | Football
9 Oklahoma
October 21 / 3 p.m. CT / Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium / Manhattan, Kan.
OPENING KICK
• No. 9/9 Oklahoma (5-1, 2-1 Big 12) goes for its 14th consecutive true road win when it plays at Kansas State (3-3, 1-2) on Saturday at 3 p.m. CT inside Bill Snyder Family Stadium (capacity 50,000) in Manhattan, Kan. The game will be televised nationally by FOX with Gus Johnson, Joel
• OU (10) and K-State (two) have combined for 12 Big 12 championships in the league's first 21 years (they shared the 2012 crown).
• Oklahoma's 74 all-time wins against Kansas State are tied for its
• Since 1999, the Sooners are 17-1 in the game after they play Texas (only loss was three years ago to Kansas State in Norman).
• OU is coming off a 29-24 win over Texas in the Red River Showdown in Dallas on Saturday. The Sooners led 20-0 in the second quarter before falling behind 24-23 midway through the fourth. A 59-yard touchdown pass from Baker Mayfield to Mark Andrews on OU's next possession put it back on top for good.
• Kansas State lost a 26-6 home game to then-No. 6 TCU on Saturday. Playing without starting quarterback Jesse Ertz, the Wildcats were outgained 395 yards to 216 and were kept out of the end zone.
• OU is 14-3 (.824) all-time as the No. 9 team in the AP poll, including a perfect 3-0 in road games and 10-1 vs. unranked teams.
• Saturday will mark the fifth time for Oklahoma to face Kansas State when the Sooners are ranked ninth, while the Wildcats have been unranked in the previous four meetings. OU is 4-0 in those games, outscoring K-State 173-40 (43-10 average).
• The Sooners have won 18 of their last 19 Big 12 games.
KEY STORYLINES
• The Sooners are 6-0 in Manhattan since 2000 and have won each game by double digits. The average score in those six meetings has been 47-23 (Oklahoma has scored at least 55 points in three of them) and OU has outgained K-State by an average of 195.7 yards. Other current Big 12 programs are 11-35 in Manhattan since the start of the 2000 season.
• Oklahoma's 13-game true road winning streak is tied with Alabama for the longest active streak in the country and tied for the third longest in school history. The program's only longer streaks were 14 games (1973-76) and 24 games (1953-58). Florida State (six) is the only other program that owns an active streak longer than five games. The Sooners' last true road loss came more than three full years ago (37-33 at TCU on Oct. 4, 2014).
• OU owns a 74-19-4 (.784) all-time record and an 11-5 (.688) Big 12-era mark against Kansas State, the highest winning percentages by a Wildcats' opponent among current Big 12 programs. In fact, no other current Big 12 program has a winning record against K-State since the league began in 1996.
• Dating back to the start of the 2012 season, the Sooners have won 28 of their last 33 regular season games away from home. In those 33 games, Oklahoma has outscored its opponents 1,295-876 (39-27 average). OU has scored at least 30 points in 26 of those 33 contests.
• After finishing fourth in Heisman Trophy voting in 2015 and third in 2016, Baker Mayfield is off to his best career start in 2017. In five-and-a-half games (he did not play after halftime against UTEP), Mayfield is 117-for-161 (72.7 percent) through the air with 17 touchdowns and one interception. He is averaging 322.8 passing yards per game. Mayfield leads the nation with his 207.3 pass efficiency rating (next best among Power 5 QBs is 191.0) after last year setting the FBS single-season record with a 196.4 mark.
• In two games vs. Kansas State as a Sooner, Mayfield has completed 45-of-58 passes (77.6%) for 628 yards, nine
SCOUTING KANSAS STATE
• After a 3-1 start to the year, Kansas State has dropped two straight and sits at 1-2 in Big 12 play. The Wildcats fell 40-34 in double overtime at Texas two weeks ago and dropped a 26-6 home decision against No. 6 TCU on Saturday.
• K-State is coached by Bill Snyder, who is in his 26th season. A 2015 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Snyder owns a 205-108-1 career record and led the Wildcats to Big 12 titles in 2003 and 2012.
• KSU ranks 49th nationally out of 129 teams in scoring offense (31.7 ppg), 90th in total offense (373.8
• Senior quarterback Jesse Ertz averaged 186.0 passing yards and 67.2 rushing yards per game through the first five
• On the other side of the ball, the Wildcats rank 39th in scoring defense (21.0 ppg), 45th in total defense (362.5
LAST TIME IN MANHATTAN
• Two years ago in Manhattan, No. 19/19 Oklahoma outgained Kansas State 568 yards to 110 and racked up 30 first downs to the Wildcats' seven in a 55-0 victory. It was OU's first Big 12 shutout since 2010 and the first time K-State was blanked at home since 1991. It also marked the first shutout of 55-0 or better on the road within Big 12 play since Texas beat Baylor 62-0 in 2005.
• The Sooners registered three interceptions, 11 tackles for loss and six sacks. They limited K-State to 65 rushing yards on 31 carries (2.1 yards per rush) and to 45 passing yards on a 22-percent completion rate (5-of-23). The Wildcats averaged 2.1 yards per play on the day.
• Quarterback Baker Mayfield, who did not play in the fourth quarter, completed 20 of his 27 pass attempts for 282 yards and a career-high five touchdowns (no interceptions). He threw all five of his TDs in the first two quarters, tying an OU record for TD passes in a half.
• The 110 yards surrendered by OU were its fewest on the road since Oct. 15, 2005, when it gave up 97 yards at Kansas. It was the third lowest opponent yardage total on the road of the Bob Stoops era.
• Cornerback Zack Sanchez picked off two passes, returning the second one 38 yards for a TD on K-State's opening possession of the second half to give OU a 42-0 lead. Fellow cornerback Jordan Thomas had OU's other interception.
• The Wildcats pushed No. 4 TCU to the brink the week before (led 35-17 at
MAYFIELD UP FOR THE CHALLENGE
• Playing away from home has not been an issue for Baker Mayfield, especially the last two seasons. In OU's 10 games away from Norman since the start of the 2016 campaign (six true road contests, four at neutral sites), Mayfield has completed 206-of-288 passes (71.5 percent) for 3,296 yards (329.6 per game) and 30 touchdowns against just five interceptions (6-to-1 ratio) for a pass efficiency rating of 198.6. He has averaged 16.0 yards per completion and 11.4 yards per attempt. Mayfield has also rushed for five scores in those outings, helping the Sooners to a 9-1 record (lone loss was to Houston in the 2016 opener at NRG Stadium in Houston).
IMPACT FRESHMEN
• Three of Oklahoma's top playmakers on either side of the ball are true freshmen. Running back Trey Sermon is averaging a team-high 78.2 rushing yards per contest and is tied for the team lead with his five total touchdowns (three rushing, two receiving).
• Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, who last year as a high school senior registered 2,032 receiving yards and 33 touchdowns, leads the Sooners with four receiving scores and ranks second with 20 catches and 63.5 receiving yards per game despite missing the final
• Kenneth Murray has started every game at middle linebacker and ranks third on the team with 36 tackles (6.0 per contest). He became OU's first true freshman in 42 years to start a season opener at inside linebacker (Daryl Hunt was the last to do it in 1975).
GETTING DEFENSIVE
• Oklahoma ranks in the top four in the Big 12 in sacks (tied for first; 2.5 per game), yards allowed per rush (tied for second; 3.4), passing touchdowns allowed (third; 1.3 per game), total defense (fourth; 368.0
• Senior defensive end/linebacker Ogbonnia Okoronkwo leads the Big 12 and is tied for eighth nationally with 6.0 sacks (1.0 per game), paces the Big 12 and is tied for second nationally with three forced fumbles, and ranks second in the league with 10.0 tackles for loss (1.7 per game). He has 19.0 career sacks to rank second at OU among linebackers and tied for 11th among all players.
• Okoronkwo has recorded at least half of a sack in each of OU's six games and at least one full sack in five contests.
• Redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Kenneth Mann ranks sixth in the Big 12 with his 0.6 sacks per game (3.0 on the year), while sophomore cornerback Parnell Motley is tied for fourth with two interceptions (returned one 77 yards for a TD against Tulane) and tied for second with seven passes defended.
NO PASSING FANCY
• Oklahoma has held 14 of its last 16 opponents to under a 60 percent pass completion rate. Over the last 11 games, OU opponents have combined to complete just 53.9 percent of their passes (188-for-349). Five of those 11 have been held to a mark below 50 percent.
• By comparison, OU has completed at least 60 percent of its passes in each of its last 16 games, and at least 70 percent in nine of those contests.
MORE MAYFIELD
• Baker Mayfield has thrown a touchdown pass in a school-record 32 consecutive games (every game of his OU career). He's thrown at least two TD passes in 19 consecutive contests (57 TDs to nine interceptions during the stretch). Sam Bradford held the previous Big 12 record for consecutive games with multiple TD passes with 17 in the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
• Mayfield threw 21 TD passes between interceptions (from the third-to-last game last year and Saturday's Texas contest). His school-record streak of attempts without an interception reached 200 (Jason White held the previous OU standard of 198 straight passes, all in 2004).
• Mayfield's 17 touchdown passes this year are the second most among quarterbacks who have thrown one or zero interceptions (Ohio State's J.T. Barrett has 21 TD passes against one interception).
• Mayfield completed his first 16 pass attempts against UTEP (school record to start a game) in the season opener and his final 14 pass attempts at Ohio State.
• With his 329-yard first-half passing effort against UTEP, Mayfield now owns three of OU's five best all-time marks for passing yards in a half (2. 332 at Kansas in 2015; 3. 329 vs. UTEP; 5. 316 vs. Tulsa in 2015).
EXTRA POINTS
• Oklahoma has three Kansas natives on its roster in defensive lineman Amani Bledsoe (Lawrence; Lawrence HS) and offensive linemen Quinn Mittermeier (Topeka; Washburn Rural HS) and Ben Powers (Wichita; Kapaun Mt. Carmel HS).
• OU defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach Mike Stoops spent seven seasons as an assistant coach at Kansas State (1992-98) and assistant defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Kerry Cooks was a graduate assistant there in 2003. Both stints were served under current K-State head coach Bill Snyder.
• The Sooners' school-record 15-game streak of scoring at least 30 points came to a halt in Saturday's 29-24 win over Texas.
• Austin Seibert ranks fourth nationally by registering touchbacks on 84.1 percent of his kickoffs (37 of 44).
• OU has thrown 19 TD passes this season and is one of just six teams to throw one or zero interceptions.
• Mark Andrews leads the nation's tight ends with his 20.0 yards per catch this season. He has registered team highs of 23 catches and 459 yards and has scored three touchdowns.
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