K-State faces a fading Baylor team on the road needing one win to qualify for a bowl

Three short weeks ago, Baylor was undefeated and ranked in the top 10.

Today, the Bears are considered underdogs as they prepare for a game against a Kansas State team searching for its first victory over an opponent with a winning record this season.

That’s how fast and hard the tumble has been in Waco, Texas. Baylor has gone from 6-0 to 6-3, from dreaming about the playoff to hoping for a decent bowl, from steamrolling nonconference foes to losing 62-22 to TCU. The fall has taken a considerable toll on the roster’s collective psyche.

“Any time you are working really hard and coming up short, it is hard on any football team,” interim Baylor coach Jim Grobe said. “I am sure our guys aren’t happy with having three straight losses. Hopefully, we can bounce back this week.”

Nothing has gone right for the Bears since they dropped a heartbreaker at Texas, losing 35-34 on a late field goal. They returned home for a rivalry game the following week against TCU, but players and assistants seemed more interested in making statements about former coach Art Briles than playing football and suffered a humiliating defeat.

Then they looked lifeless in a 45-24 loss at Oklahoma.

“The Texas game was really hard, because we played a good Texas team on the road and had a chance and didn’t get it done,” Grobe said. “There was a little carry over to the TCU game where I thought (the Horned Frogs) played lights out and our team played really poorly, and then this past week I thought we rallied and played really, really hard. We didn’t play well at times but we thought we had great effort out of our players.”

Baylor will need more effort than usual the rest of the way.

As if a three-game losing streak wasn’t stressful enough, they also lost starting quarterback Seth Russell to a season-ending ankle injury last week. They must now try to turn things around with freshman Zach Smith leading the offense.

It sets up as a golden opportunity for K-State to claim a road conference victory in a game few expected it to win at this time last month. Still, the Wildcats are expecting to face the same difficult Bears they haven’t beaten since 2011, even if they are two-point favorites.

“That is something we always ask for is respect, but you have to prove why they picked you,” K-State linebacker Elijah Lee said. “That is something we take a lot of pride in. I haven’t really paid any attention to that and I don’t think any of the other guys have either. We are just worried about going on the road and getting a win.”

It hasn’t been hard for K-State coach Bill Snyder to keep his players motivated.

The Wildcats are one win away from bowl eligibility, and a victory at Baylor will secure K-State’s seventh straight trip to the postseason. A win would also be revenge for the team’s older players, who watched K-State’s 2012 national championship dreams and 2014 conference championship hopes end in Waco.

More than anything, though, Snyder has advised K-State players to remember what Baylor is capable of. The Bears may appear lost at the moment, but they were good enough to beat No. 13 Oklahoma State 35-24 two months ago.

“First and foremost, they have a great deal of talent,” Snyder said. “If you look across the board on either side of the ball, they have some young guys that are very prominent players. They are very good players at what they do … They have good coaches, too.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2016 at 3:01 PM with the headline "K-State faces a fading Baylor team on the road needing one win to qualify for a bowl."