The Kansas State Wildcats and the Kansas Jayhawks face off on Saturday for the Sunflower Showdown in Manhattan in a Big 12 in-state rivalry game.

The Kansas State Wildcats have picked up where they left off last season not doing a lot that is very fancy, just playing solid football and winning games. At QB Collin Klein is a Heisman Trophy contender completing 70 percent of his passes with five touchdowns and two interceptions and rushing for 289 tough yards and five touchdowns. John Hibbert  is averaging 6.5 yards per carry with four touchdowns and he also has seven receptions. Tramaine Thompson has 16 catches and three touchdowns, Chris harper has 11 catches and a touchdown, and Tyler Lockett has 10 catches. Defensively Kansas State allows 15.5 points per game, 92 rushing yards, and 262.8 passing yards with two interceptions and nine sacks. Arthur Brown has 36 tackles and a sack, Jarard Milo has 28 tackles, and Allen Chapman has 24 tackles for the stingy Wildcat defense who just continue to make plays. Bill Snyder may be getting on in years but he is still one of the soundest football minds in the game.

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The Kansas Jayhawks opened the season with a win but it has been three losses since and it’s clear Charlie Weis has a rebuilding job ahead of him. QB Dayne Crist has completed just 48.1 percent of his passes with two touchdowns and four interceptions. Tony Pierson is averaging 5.3 yards per carry with two touchdowns and Taylor Cox is averaging 5.9 yards per carry with two touchdowns but with James Sims back he is likely to carry the load as he averages 5.1 yards per carry with two touchdowns in just one game. Daymond Patterson has 17 catches, Kale Pick has nine catches, and Andrew Turzilli and D.J. Beshears each have seven catches. Defensively KU allows 23 points per game including 185.8 rushing yards and 253.2 passing yards with six interceptions and six sacks. Bradley McDougald has 34 tackles a sack, and two interceptions, Greg Brown has 30 tackles, and Ben Heeney has 27 tackles. Kansas won’t be favored in any of the remaining games on their schedule this season.

Kansas State is 12-4 against the spread in their last 16 games overall, 19-7 against the spread in their last 16 Big 12 games, and 30-14 against the spread in their last 44 games against a team with a losing record. Kansas is 4-1-1 against the spread following a loss, 3-0-1 against the spread against a team with a winning record, and 4-1 against the spread in their last five Big 12 games. The favorite is 14-3 against the spread in the last 17 meetings in this series.

Normally laying big points in a rivalry game is a very bad idea but in this spot taking Kansas isn’t really an option as they can’t stop the run and their passing game is non-existent. With Sims back in the lineup Kansas will lean on him early but they will need to abandon the run as they fall behind and it gets ugly.

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