This week’s write up will be over the big 12 championship game, between the TCU Horned-Frogs and KSU Wildcats. This will be TCU’s first time back since losing to Oklahoma in 2017. Kansas State will be making their third appearance and first since knocking off #1 Oklahoma in 2003.
The Horned Frogs seem to be the obvious choice going into the big 12 championship, but I think that Kansas state thinks otherwise. Since the Wildcats went on the road in the middle of the season to TCU where the Horned Frogs made a tremendous come back to beat the Wildcats, they have put themselves back together to have a great season and win some major games to put them at 9-3 for a rematch against the Frogs. What plays into K-State’s favor is it’s hard to beat a team twice.
The Horned Frogs started the season off hot and have managed to continue it by going 12-0 during regular season play. They’re led by Max Duggan, an Iowa high school football star who shows that he is willing to win at any cost. He is the main factor for this game, and with the help of his teammates I think we’ll see either the best ball Duggan has played or something very close to it. But let’s not give all the credit to Duggan, their Defense has been air-tight all season. They make the big plays when they are needed most for the Horned Frogs to succeed. They also have one of the best receivers in college right now, being Quentin Johnson.
The Wildcats are led by a fierce and downhill offense. Adrian Martinez, the transfer from Nebraska, started out as the QB up until they went to TCU and he came out for injury. Up to that point it was hard for Defenses to key on them with both Duece Vaughan and Martinez being the two fastest players on the field, putting Defenses in have-to situations on where to overcommit defenders. A lot of what they run is from the mind of Collin Klein who is a former QB of the Wildcats. Collin had a lot of success running this style of offense in his days playing for the Wildcats, including upsetting Oklahoma in Norman.
In the first matchup with TCU, Will Howard took over from Martinez at QB and played well. He is a better pocket passer than Martinez as he is calmer in the pocket and lays down dots on his receivers. Look for K-State to keep TCU off-balance by bringing in run packages with Adrian Martinez based on TCU’s run fits. Chances are a big play to turn this game may come off a play action out of this set.
The Wildcat’s Defense is always sound and plays with solid fundamentals but this year they have made some big mistakes in key games such as TCU where it cost them.
Finally, for the University Foot-Ball picks, our formula likes K-State -1. Logan, our guest blogger believes that TCU will pull off the unusual and beat Kansas State for the second time this season. Paul, our editor sees this game coming down to a 2 point conversion on the goal-line for a K-State win. We shall see on Saturday in what looks to be the best game of the weekend!
