A year ago, K-State welcomed Houston to the bill for their first-ever meeting and absolutely dogged the Cougars in a 41-0 rout. The game was actually over so early that Will Howard – who was 15-17 with two touchdowns – didn’t even break the 200-yard mark. DJ Giddens didn’t get a 100. And K-State still put up almost 400 yards on the Cougar defense.

The Cougars went on to a 4-8 season and are only slightly better this year. Can the Wildcats keep that big zero on the scoreboard? Can the offense roll? We’ll find out.

The game

The 17th-ranked Kansas State Wildcats (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) visit the Houston Cougars (3-5, 2-3 Big 12).

As noted, this is only the second meeting between the two teams. Of course, Houston has a new coach this year: Willie Fritz, who is 1-0 against the Cats when he was in charge of Tulane’s surprising victory in Manhattan in 2022. Something has to be done, you guess.

Houston isn’t great. They beat TCU, but TCU could lose to almost anyone this year. They also beat Utah, which is…well, worse than Houston. Rankings don’t lie. Houston’s losses have been to Cincinnati and Iowa State, which they can’t really be blamed for, an undersized Oklahoma team and UNLV, teams no better than K-State, and…Kansas, which they absolutely won twice has wiped out. weeks ago.

Quarterback Donovan Smith, who helped K-State beat his own team last year, has completed 65% of his passes — for just 867 yards and four touchdowns against eight interceptions. Houston has rushed for just 1,176 yards this season, which is barely more than Giddens and Joe Jackson combined, let alone Avery Johnson and Dylan Edwards. They are averaging 15.6 points per game and giving up more than 22, a number that dropped thanks to 60 minutes against the Utah offense last week. K-State scores 32.8 and registers under 22.

What we’re saying is that every indication here is that you’ll be relaxing comfortably by 4pm, but you never know what weird thing could happen, especially given the weather forecast.

Kick-off

Saturday, November 2, 2:30 PM CT at TDECU Stadium (40,000) in Houston, Texas.

Tickets

You can get in the door for less than $10. With a few exceptions, each ticket costs less than $75, and for the average ticket, give someone a photo of Andrew Jackson and you’ll get a ticket and change.

Weather

The weather is going to be very bad. Rain should start early in the morning, ruining your tailgate, and thunderstorms are forecast for a six-hour period between 11am and 4pm, which could cause delays. Anyway, the temperature will be around 70 degrees all day.

Chances

The Cats opened at -9.5 and things have gotten worse for Houston since then. DraftKings currently has the line at -13 with the over at 46, indicating a 30-16 win for K-State. The money limit is -550 for K-State, +410 for Houston. Oddshark’s computer is even more purple and expects a 34-14 win.

Television

After a week on a secondary network, K-State returns to a primary network as the game will appear on FOX. Jason Benetti, Brock Huard and Allison Williams are called.

Radio

As always, Wyatt Thompson, Stan Weber and Matt Walters will be on the K-State Sports Network and via satellite on SiriusXM 111 or 198.

Internet streaming

The game will be streamed via the FOX Sports app (cable/satellite subscription required). Audio available at kstatesports.com. Live stats provided by StatBroadcast.

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