Kansas State vs TCU: Open Game Thread

It’s game day again!

These extra breaks are no fun when they’re sandwiched so close together, but today starts a streak of seven-straight weekends with Kansas State Wildcats football. Lets hope the coaches and team used this last bye week to gird themselves for the long haul.

The start of Big 12 conference play has not been kind to the Wildcats. The offense has suffered especially heavily, looking nothing like the unit that started the season off so strongly. Of course, as many feared, injuries have played a big part of that. Skylar Thompson is fine (we assume), but his top receiving target and one of his better back-field mates have both missed significant time the last two game weeks. This team was walking a fine line to begin with, and that line for the wide receiver corps was maybe no thicker than a hair. And with Malik Knowles still out, that line gets even smaller.

But this team must move on, and other players must step up in to the void. Which, for the 2019 Wildcats, means that true freshmen are going to need to step up. At wide receiver, Joshua Youngblood has already seen more and more action each week, and guys like Chris Herron and Keenan Garber will get their shots at early action as well.

The visitors have issues of their own. The TCU Horned Frogs have been able to score points, but have not looked stellar doing so. Their best wins this season have come against Purdue and Kansas, and neither of those teams have looked any good this year. Their best game this year may be taking Top 20 SMU to the wire at home before ultimately falling to the Mustangs. While the Wildcats are needing a win to get back on track, the Horned Frogs are looking to keep their own head above water before their schedule gets even tougher. Today also marks the big return of Wildcat expatriate Alex Delton, who elected to use his grad-transfer option to head to Fort Worth during the offseason.

We’ve got two borderline-desperate teams in Manhattan today, things could get wild.

Be sure and check out our pre-game content for you this week. Jon brought you this week’s How to Watch post with all the important details for today’s game. TB dropped his Kicking the Tires preview of the Horned Frogs (and picked the visitors to win, the hater). And Drew has his in-depth breakdown of the Wildcat offense, and it’s all about execution.

We’ve got another afternoon kickoff, with the 1:30pm kickoff airing on FSN (or, more precisely, FSKC and other select Fox Sports regional networks) with Justin Kutcher (play-by-play), Petros Papadakis (analyst), and Shane Vereen (analyst) on the call. You might be able to stream the game via FoxSportsGo, if you are in the correct market.

If you don’t get FSN, or can’t access the stream, the game can be heard across the 39-station K-State Sports Network with Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play), former K-State quarterback Stan Weber (analyst), and Matt Walters (sidelines) calling the action. The game will also be on Sirius channel 211, XM Channel 202, and available on the TuneIn app. Live stats are available at k-statesports.com, and Twitter updates (@KStateFB) will also be a part of the coverage.

Go Cats!