Kansas St hopes to give Snyder birthday upset of No. 2 TCU

Airing it out will be key if the Horned Frogs want to come out on top in this one.

TCU knows they can’t sleep on Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder, especially with the way he prepares his team for big games.

Scouting Oklahoma: The 10th-ranked Sooners will be on upset alert but will rely on resourceful quarterback Baker Mayfield to make the plays on offense. After losing to Iowa State last weekend, you would be hard-pressed to find a win on their schedule. The best cure for the Tech blues might be playing the Cyclones in Lubbock. The over/under for this game is 63.5 total points.

No. 10 OKLAHOMA (4-0, 1-0): If the Sooners take care of business until mid-November, they will have full control of whether they win their eighth Big 12 title – and first in three seasons to end their longest championship drought under coach Bob Stoops.

No. 2 TCU (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) at Kansas State (3-1, 0-1 Big 12) (6:30 p.m. Saturday, KDFW/Ch. 4): The Horned Frogs may have turned a corner defensively with a near shutout of Texas last week. Baylor has to put Kansas away or risk slipping in the polls.

Even though the Kansas State defense is going to have a hard time keeping up with the speed of Boykin, it’s going to be a madhouse in Manhattan and and the Horned Frogs are aware of that. Iowa State tailback Mike Warren has consecutive games of at least 100 yards rushing. Texas is last in the Big 12 in total offense and scoring, so it’s doubtful the Longhorns have the firepower to take on Oklahoma, which averages 521 yards a contest. After Oklahoma State’s final-minute field goal to beat K-State 36-34 last week, coach Bill Snyder’s team probably can’t afford another loss and still have any realistic chance in the Big 12 race.

But the Horned Frogs, ranked No. 2 in the country, are getting healthier. The defense must overcome the loss of senior safety Karl Joseph, who suffered an ACL injury in practice this week. TCU’s Trevone Boykin and Baylor’s Seth Russell are tied for the FBS lead with 19 touchdown passes. Klein may have to step up into a bigger role for the Wildcats if injuries to two of their top receivers, Kody Cook and Dominique Heath, keep them from contributing. The Wildcats’ run game has been boosted by redshirt freshman Justin Silmon, who is averaging 5.1 yards per carry.

Coming off a game in which the Wildcats allowed Oklahoma State to throw for 441 yards, they will now face the nation’s fourth-best passing offense (396.4 per game) and the man who leads the nation in touchdown passes with 19. Though the Wildcats have never defeated a team as highly ranked as TCU at home, they are always risky at Snyder Family Stadium.