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College Football: Kansas Looks For First Win, Kansas State Looks For Bowl Game

By Dustin Murrell
Published on: 05:26 PST, Nov 28, 2015

In today’s University of Kansas vs. Kansas State University college football game — known as the Sunflower Showdown — the Jayhawks will try to avoid their first win-less football season since 1954, while the Wildcats continue to work towards their sixth consecutive bowl game.

In the state of Kansas, the Kansas vs. Kansas State rivalry has been dominated by KSU recently, the Wildcats having won the game for the last six years. As the Charlotte Observer noted, the Jayhawks haven’t been able to defeat the Wildcats on the football field since KSU coach Bill Snyder came out of retirement.

Outside of Kansas, as the Kansas City Star commented, the game isn’t garnering much attention. A no-win Jayhawks hosting the 4-win Wildcats for the “Governor’s Cup” doesn’t necessarily create a lot of buzz. This could potentially impact a lower-tier bowl game — which, in itself, will be of little significance.

Despite six consecutive conference losses before a comeback victory over the Iowa State Cyclones last week, the Kansas State Wildcats are still in the bowl-game picture. They started the season 3-0 before conference play started. They now sit at 4-6 overall, 1-6 in Big 12 games. A win over the Jayhawks would put the Wildcats even in conference play with the Cyclones at 2-6, and ahead of Iowa State by two games in overall play.

A Sunflower Showdown win for K-State today would also mean that, if they can get past the West Virginia Mountaineers next week, they will have earned eligibility for a bowl game.

The Jayhawks’ season has been even worse. David Beaty has yet to win a game in his inaugural season as head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks football squad. When he faces Bill Snyder and K-State today, it will be his last chance to earn a “w” in his rookie season.

And it’s not just that Kansas has yet to win a game; it’s how badly they’re losing. Of their 11 losses this season, only two have been within seven points. They’ve lost seven games by 25 or more points. They’ve lost four games by 48 or more points. For the Kansas seniors, this is the last game of their college careers. In their four years with the program, they only saw seven victories. Capturing their eighth win — and first over rivals K-State — would be a great send-off.

How important is this game? David Beaty elaborates.

“It’s one of those deals where whether you’re 10-0 or 0-11, when you come in, man, it’s a rivalry game and everything else needs to go to the wayside. We get to go out there on Saturday and we get to have a good ‘ol backyard brawl. Going to be a lot of fun. I’m excited to do it.”

Regardless of the outcome, this will be the last game of the year for the Kansas Jayhawks. Can they pull the upset to save Beaty from a season that consists solely of losses?

The Sunflower Showdown is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. CST. The University of Kansas Jayhawks will host the Kansas State University Wildcats at Kivisto Field in Lawrence, Kansas. It will air live on Fox Sports 1 (FS1).

[Image credit Jamie Squire/Getty Images]

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