Oct 12, 2024; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Kansas State Wildcats working again Dylan Edwards (3) celebrates with head coach Chris Klieman after a landing in the course of the first half in opposition to the Colorado Buffaloes at Folsom Area. Obligatory Credit score: Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Photos The logjam close to the highest of the Large 12 Convention is in for a shake-up when Arizona State travels to No. 16 Kansas State on Saturday night time for his or her first matchup as convention foes.
Arizona State owns a 5-1 file all-time in opposition to the Wildcats. Okay-State gained the final assembly within the 2002 Vacation Bowl. The groups final met within the common season in 1989.
Arizona State (7-2, 4-2 Large 12) gained consecutive video games to affix a four-team cluster in third place within the convention. Kansas State (7-2, 4-2) is coming off a bye following a painful loss to Houston two weeks in the past.
“We’re 2-2 on the highway, so you’d hope that we might play effectively on the highway,” Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham mentioned Monday. “That is a very good setting and a very good group, coming off a bye, sadly.”
An enormous query for the Solar Devils is the well being of working again Cam Skattebo, who missed ASU’s final sport, a win over UCF, with a shoulder harm. Skattebo has rushed for 1,001 yards in eight video games performed.
“Skatt is questionable for the sport,” Dillingham mentioned. “I feel he’ll attempt to observe, a minimum of jog by some issues and run round a bit of bit. In order that’s a optimistic. He was making an attempt to get me to place him within the sport (in opposition to UCF) in the course of the third quarter.
“I used to be like, ‘No, you are not going to get suited up.’ We’ll see what it seems like for this week.”
Okay-State returned to observe Monday after the bye week.
“We had a superb open week final week,” Wildcats head coach Chris Klieman mentioned. “We gave our older guys who’ve performed a variety of snaps a little bit of a break from a restoration standpoint. We’ve quite a lot of guys who’re nonetheless nursing accidents, however I imagine everybody can be accessible Saturday.”
As an alternative of trying again at what went improper in opposition to Houston, Klieman mentioned the main focus is on what’s nonetheless forward.
“I feel it is the each day enchancment,” he added. “It is the massive image. What do now we have to get higher schematically, each offensively and defensively? It typically will get forgotten that we’re a 7-2 soccer group that has a variety of issues in entrance of us to play for. We won’t management what different groups are going to do. I feel everybody is aware of that quite a bit can nonetheless occur.”
The groups are virtually equivalent by way of scoring offense, with the Solar Devils outscoring the Wildcats by .3 factors per sport. They each additionally rely closely on the run. The Wildcats are third within the convention with 208.3 yards per sport on the bottom, whereas Arizona State is fourth at 198.0 yards per sport.
Defensively, Okay-State sits atop the dashing yards allowed listing with simply 99.4 yards per sport. ASU is third at 118.8 yards per sport.
“Anyone can beat anyone on this league,” Klieman mentioned. “We’re enjoying a very good Arizona State group that is a sizzling group. So we have got to play our greatest soccer.”
–Area Degree Media
