First Look: Kansas State Wildcats

Here we are, folks. The final game of the regular season, and it couldn't be a bigger game. I said in the Meet The Press post that this could be the biggest game in the history of Baylor Football. There have been quite a few of those over the past couple of years, but I think it's pretty safe to say that this is, in my mind, the biggest game that the Baylor Bears have ever played. If the Bears win, they will have accomplished something that only Oklahoma has done in the Big 12, and that's win back-to-back conference championships. With a victory, the Bears will also equal the number of Big 12 Conference championships won by the Longhorns under Mack Brown. Not to mention the potential for a potential berth in the inaugural College Football Playoff. But before we get all starry-eyed about that, the Bears have to win this one, and their opponent won't be easy. This week the Bears are squaring off against the Kansas State Wildcats.

vs.

5/5/7 BAYLOR (10-1, 7-1) vs. 9/9/12 KANSAS STATE (9-2, 7-1) Dec. 6, 2014 | 6:45 p.m. CT Waco, Texas | McLane Stadium (46,140) TV: ESPN

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Kansas St. Wildcats

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OPPONENT: Kansas State Wildcats
ODB GAME HUB: Baylor Bears vs. Kansas State Wildcats 2014
MEET THE PRESS: Baylor vs. Kansas State
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: kstatesports.com
MEDIA GUIDE: 2014 K-State Media Guide (click here for roster)
LAST MEETING:  35-25 Baylor | ODB Game Hub
LAST GAME (for K-State): K-State 51, Kansas 13
SB NATION BLOG: Bring On The Cats, at right
SPREAD: Baylor -8.5 (Open: Baylor -8.5) The line hasn't moved much, as it appears most bookmakers aren't laying odds on this game because of Bryce Petty's status.
TV COVERAGE: ESPN, 6:45 p.m. CST
WEATHER FORECAST: Cloudy, high of 66° with a 10% chance of rain (Wunderground puts temp at 62° and 9% of rain at game time) 
BAYLOR UNIFORMS: UNKNOWN at this time.

SB Nation Kansas State Preview
BaylorBears.com Preview
Bears vs Wildcats coverage

#GetUpForGameDay

We now have a location for where College GameDay will be: the South Plaza area at McLane Stadium, located at the base of the Umphrey Bridge. That's stadium-side, adjacent to the Robert Griffin III statue. If you're a student, you need to be there. Take a break from studying for a few hours... Oh who are we kidding. Take a break from sleep for a few hours, make a clever sign, and get over there for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. GameDay may come back, but it'll never be the first time that it comes to our city (see what I did there).

If you've got potential GameDay sign ideas, add them to the comments to this FanPost! Mark, Prashanth and I will be doing a live podcast on Thursday night and we'll take some time to talk about the best ones!

Now then, let's look at the Kansas State SnyderWildcats , shall we?

Kansas State 2014 Schedule/Results

Owing to the fact that conference record is the primary determination of the champion, Kansas State is playing for a share of the conference championship. One of their losses was handed to them by the Auburn Tigers at home in a game that the Wildcats should have won, but for some flukey turnovers and special teams play that makes our early struggles look stellar. Their second loss, of course, came against TCU in a game Baylor fans were hoping would have been closer than it ended up at the very least. Regardless, Kansas State is an incredibly strong team. Baylor can't expect the Snydercats to roll over and die just because Baylor's got a chance at a Playoff berth. The Bears will have to earn every point of this one.

K-State Individual Statistics

Quarterbacks

There's absolutely no mystery here. No question of which QB will start for K-State, no gamesmanship by The Wizard Bill Snyder. Jake Waters is the guy in the Little Apple, and he's very, very good. Other than completion percentage (where Waters holds the edge) and touchdowns (Petty has 25), the numbers here are strikingly similar to Bryce Petty's own numbers. It's pretty uncanny, actually, how similar they are. Petty's thrown 15 more passes but completed 9 fewer than Waters but for 30 more yards total. Their yards/attempt and adjusted yards/attempt are almost identical, and they've both thrown the same number of interceptions. That being said, while Waters isn't your prototypical dual-threat quarterback, he's rushed the ball 119 times for 440 yards and 8 touchdowns, good for second on the team. He is a major threat in this game and the defense will be challenged.

Running Backs

I went ahead and left Joe Hubener and Jesse Ertz in this table, despite the K-State official roster listing them as quarterbacks because they've accounted for a decent total of yards. What's interesting is that in recent years, the Snydercats have been known as a ball-control, grind-it-out type of team, but this season they don't have a rusher approaching 500 yards, much less the 1,000 mark. In fact, combine the totals of their three top rushers (Jones, Waters, Robinson), and they have exactly 200 more yards than Shock Linwood on the season. These numbers intrigue me, and I may have to take a look at the O-Line stats and break those down in the Advanced Stats post this week (if I'm the one to do that post, we'll see). One other thing: Yes, Glenn is part of THAT Gronkowski family. Snyder isn't afraid to make use of the fullback.

Wide Receivers

In the passing game, Waters has two primary receivers: Tyler Lockett and Curry Sexton. Put either Lockett or Sexton onto Baylor with their stats, and they're immediately the top receiver in terms of overall yardage. Those two guys are major threats. The third receiver in the offense is actually Zach Trujillo, their starting Tight End. They have five receivers in double digit catches, those five are the only ones in triple-digit yardage, also. Despite that, our cornerbacks are going to be very busy against Lockett and Sexton, who may just be as good a WR combo as the conference has. This is going to be a very interesting game.

2014 Wildcats Team Stats and Rankings

It's Question Time!

• FIRST: The guys over at Bring On The Cats are some great folks. What questions do you have that we could ask them to answer for you?
• SECOND: How confident are you that Petty will be 100% for Saturday evening's game? If he's unable to go, how confident are you in Seth Russell leading the team on Saturday?
• THIRD: How much K-State have you watched? Give me you impressions of their offense.
• FOURTH: With GameDay coming to town, plus a second-straight Conference championship on the line, show me a gif that depicts just how turnt you are for this game. I want to see gifs.
• FIFTH: What's your uniform prediction? You may have stated it in this post, but go ahead and give it to us again.