Kansas State football determined to reverse recent struggles at Oklahoma State

STILLWATER, Okla. — Ask any Kansas State football player who has been around a while about Boone Pickens Stadium, and he'll shake his head.

Same for fifth-year coach Chris Klieman, who has come out on the short end in both of his visits to Oklahoma State. In fact, no member of the current roster was around the last time Wildcats prevailed in Stillwater in 2017.

"We haven't played our best football down there," Klieman said matter-of-factly.

The Wildcats (3-1, 1-0 Big 12) get another shot at Oklahoma State (2-2, 0-1) at 6:30 p.m. Friday in front of a sellout crowd of 55,000-plus. And trying to break the two-game losing streak at Boone Pickens Stadium clearly is top of mind.

"It's definitely something in the back of our mind, and it's definitely something that we're going to use as fuel going down there," K-State tight end Ben Sinnott said. "It's going to be our 150 staff and players going against their 50,000, and so I'm really excited for the opportunity to show the world what kind of team we really are."

Momentum is on K-State's side with both teams coming off bye weeks. The Wildcats are double-digit favorites after beating Central Florida at home, 44-31, in their Big 12 opener, while Oklahoma State fell, 34-27, Iowa State to start league play.

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Plus, K-State ended an overall three-game skid against the Cowboys last year with a 48-0 upset victory in Manhattan. Not that the Wildcats are putting a lot of stock in that outcome.

"Coach Tru (Trumain Carroll), our strength coach, he actually played at Oklahoma State and he spent a lot of time there under their strength coach, and he said those guys have been talking about that game all year and they're going to be ready to play," said senior linebacker Austin Moore. "We know they are, so we can't think just because of last year that the same thing is going to happen.

"We know they're going to be ready to play."

But so are the Wildcats. Just ask senior quarterback Will Howard, who is still smarting from his last visit to Stillwater, when he was thrust into a starting role for an injured Skylar Thompson.

Howard, then a sophomore, suffered an injury himself in the game and gave way to third-string quarterback Jaren Lewis. And adding insult to injury, he completed 4 of 12 passes for 50 yards and lost a fumble for a Cowboys touchdown in the 31-20 loss.

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"We talked about that at the beginning of this week. We really haven't had a ton of success down there at Stillwater since coach Klieman has been here," Howard said. "It's been kind of a tough place for us to play.

"It's a tough environment. The fans are going to be loud and they're right on top of you, but I think it's time for us to go down there and make a statement and get a good win down there, because we kind of have a bad taste in our mouth — me especially — of that place and I kind of want to get rid of that."

Howard's most recent outing against the Cowboys went much better. Starting in place of an injured Adrian Martinez, he had a breakout game, throwing for 296 yards and four touchdowns in last year's blowout win.

"It was a big win for sure, and we played well," Klieman said of the shutout against an OSU team that came into that game ranked No. 9 nationally. "But two totally different teams in my mind. A lot of things went right for us last year and we made some plays.

"But I don't take a lot from it."

Besides, playing at Oklahoma State is a different animal.

Related: Kansas State football takes advantage of bye week to get healthy for Oklahoma State game

"Their fans are just like right on top of you on the sideline," Moore said. "It's hard for some guys to block that stuff out, and when the coaches are trying to talk to you and you've got fans yelling in your ear, just listening for the adjustments.

"So just blocking that outside noise (is important)."

Just as important as blocking out the noise is making sure to block the Cowboys, according to Klieman, who boiled his two previous losses at Oklahoma State down to one key element.

"You can correlate that to we've not won the line of scrimmage," Klieman said. "If you don't win the line of scrimmage either side of the ball and they're able to stop our rush and they're able to rush the football, whether you're playing in the street, parking lot or at home or away, it just comes down to a mentality of being able to be physical and win the line of scrimmage.

"You've still got to be able to execute, and that's what it comes down to."

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State football eager to reverse road losses at Oklahoma State