Kansas State Seeks 17th Straight Sunflower Victory over Kansas
BY COLE DEUTSCHENDORF | 365 Sports
The last time Kansas beat Kansas State, Instagram didn’t exist. You have to go back to November 1, 2008, when KU trounced K-State 52-21 in what was its last winning season before the Lance Leipold era. For K-State, that loss fell in the middle of a five-game skid that sealed Ron Prince’s fate, with his firing coming the following Wednesday after going 0-3 against the Jayhawks as head coach.
Seventeen years later, K-State has not lost to Kansas despite some close calls. The last two years, in fact, have been separated by only six points in two of Kansas’ three best seasons since 2008. In 2023, Wildcat quarterback Will Howard threw a pass that would have been a walk-in touchdown for Kansas and made the score 34-16 with 10 minutes remaining in the 3rd quarter. Instead, the potential interception was dropped, and K-State would come storming back from an 11-point deficit to win 31-27, running the last five minutes off the clock following a red zone interception from the defense.
Last year, the margins were even thinner. K-State, just like 2023, trailed going into the fourth quarter, 27-23. A field goal from Chris Tennant made it 27-26 early in the fourth. The Jayhawks would have the ball with four minutes left and the lead, giving them a chance to run the clock out just like the Wildcats did in the year prior. Instead, quarterback Jalon Daniels would fumble, K-State would recover, and kick the go-ahead field goal from 51 yards out with less than two minutes left. The defense would get a stop, and the Wildcats would kneel it out to make it 16 consecutive wins.
The matchup certainly feels different this year. The two teams are in a relatively similar situation, with both coming into the season with high hopes and expectations, and both falling short of them so far. They both sit at 2-2 in Big 12 play, both teams with plenty of chances to turn those two losses into wins if it weren’t for a play here or there. Despite the 2-2 start for KU, they will come into David Booth Memorial Stadium with as much confidence as a team that’s lost to its rival 16 straight times can have.
K-State feels better about its season now than it did after the Baylor loss, but there’s still disappointment lingering. A big win over TCU helps soothe some of the sting from the four one-possession losses they’ve had this year, but there are still plenty of what-ifs seven games into the season. But one look at the Big 12 standings, which feature the Wildcats right in the middle of the pack at 2-2, and there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.
With two games still ahead against Texas Tech and Utah, who knows? Maybe the Wildcats could go on a run similar to 2003, when they lost three consecutive games, two in Big 12 play, before winning seven straight games, including the Big 12 Championship over eventual national champion runners-up in Oklahoma.
But before that, they’ve got business to handle in Lawrence. Losses against Iowa State and Baylor hurt. A loss to Kansas would be a sucker punch to the solar plexus.