For the second straight week, Kansas State will match up with a top-ten team. Oklahoma State’s victory over Texas on Saturday pushed the Cowboys up to No. 9 in the latest AP Top 25. K-State dropped five spots to No. 22 after their loss at No. 7 TCU.
The Wildcats suffered their first loss in conference play after being saddled with injury after injury and blowing an 18-point first-half lead. The Wildcats had at least eight players that were limited or had to go to the locker room during the game on Saturday.
Oklahoma State is in a similar boat, they went into their game with Texas missing six players and then saw defensive back Jason Taylor II suffer an injury on the game-sealing interception against the Longhorns. Cowboy head coach Mike Gundy said on Monday that they wouldn’t know more about the status of Taylor until later in the week, but Taylor’s mother said it was a hyper-extended knee on Saturday.
Taylor secured two interceptions on Saturday against Texas and in 2020 recovered a Will Howard fumble and returned it for a touchdown, giving Oklahoma State a 20-12 lead.
For K-State, Adrian Martinez’s situation will get more context on Tuesday when Chris Klieman has his weekly media availability. Martinez played through multiple significant injuries in his time at Nebraska, which may be telling of the severity of what he is dealing with right now.
Other Wildcats with status up in the air for the Oklahoma State game will be Daniel Green, who left the game and never returned and came back to the sideline without his helmet. Julius Brents spent time off the field for K-State, and after the game, Klieman said he probably should not have returned to the game. Ben Sinnott left in the second half with an arm injury, his status also remains unknown.
In addition to those injuries, Will Howard returned to the game at quarterback after missing some time in the game and linebacker Khalid Duke will be out for the first half due to his targeting penalty on Max Duggan in the second half of Saturday’s game.
Oklahoma State’s offense remains dynamic, averaging 44.7 points per game, but their defense is allowing opponents to put up 450 yards per contest, over 300 of which come in the air. If Howard is the quarterback on the field Saturday, he will be coming off his best game as a Wildcat according to ESPN’s QBR, which gave him his first rating of 90-plus on Saturday. Howard also threw for 225 yards, which is second most in his career behind his game against Kansas in 2020.
