Kansas State at Iowa State: Open Game Thread

It’s October in the Great Plains, the final crops are being harvested, and we just had our first frost of the season. That can only mean one thing: it’s time for FARMAGEDDON.

The rivalry between Kansas State and Iowa State stretches back over 100 years. Like basically every consistent series that stretches back that far, K-State is on the negative side of the Win/Loss column. Both teams have a 10-game win streak in the series, with the Cyclone’s starting during WW2, and K-State’s run of dominance starting in the mid-1990’s.

Like most Big 12 opponents, since the arrival of Bill Snyder in 1989 K-State owns a significant advantage, 25-7 in favor of the Wildcats. It’s been a consistently competitive affair of late, even when K-State is a significantly better, with just a handful of blowouts mixed in a bunch of one-score kind of games.

Chris Klieman has not fared as well as his predecessor (:whispers: or even as well as Ron Prince) against the Cyclones, and is responsible for the second-worst loss of the series for the Wildcats, the 45-0 dismantling in Ames in 2020, right when the injuries and COVID issues where seriously hampering K-State’s ability to even field a football team, let alone a competitive one. Last season in Manhattan, a good Iowa State team outlasted a late K-State comeback attempt to escape Manhattan with their first victory in the Little Apple since 2004.

Now it’s time for payback. This will still be a competitive game, it is still FARMAGEDDON, but this is a game K-State needs to come out and put their foot down from the start. The Wildcats need to reclaim their dominance in this series, and that starts today. The Cyclones, coming of a disastrous loss to Kansas in Lawrence last weekend, are injured and dangerous. But the Wildcats need to finish the job that the Jayhawks started.

We’ve got FARMAGEDDON under the lights, with a 6:30pm CT kickoff from Jack Trice Stadium in Ames, IA being aired on ESPNU with Clay Matvick (Play-by-Play), Rocky Boiman (Analyst), and Dawn Davenport (Sidelines) on the call. You should also be able to watch the game live online at WatchESPN, if you have the correct cable package (no, ESPN+ does not allow you to view this game online; yes, ESPN’s subscriber model is stupid).

If you don’t have FOX, or can’t access the stream, the game can be heard across the 38-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 SiriusXM Satellite Radio Ch. 200, and available online at K-Statesports.com. Live stats are also available at k-statesports.com, and Twitter updates (@KStateFB) will also be a part of the coverage.

Go Cats!

Hey, are you on Discord? We are now, too! Feel free to join us! (Make sure you click the reaction button on the rules notice though, or you won’t see anything.) We’ll have a game thread there as well!