Kansas State heads to Waco in search of rare win over Baylor

Kyle Ball has never played a football game against Baylor, but the Kansas State freshman talks about the Bears as if they are the Wildcats’ oldest and most bitter rival.

“Baylor is so tough to play,” Ball, a defensive end, said. “They know our scheme so well and they scheme for us really well. We just have to be ready to take them on.

“I have been talking to past players who played Baylor, and they keep telling me about stuff they would do and how big a game it was for them, like that one year (2012) we went 11-1 and that one loss was to Baylor. The culture here is that Baylor is always a hard game. We want to take it to them.”

K-State players young and old will have revenge on their mind when they head to Waco, Texas for an 11 a.m. game against Baylor on Saturday. No Big 12 team has given the Wildcats more recent trouble than the Bears.

Over the past four years, K-State has beaten all but one team in the Big 12 multiple times. The lone exception? You guessed it: Baylor. The Wildcats haven’t beaten the Bears since 2011, when former linebacker Arthur Brown shut down Heisman winner Robert Griffin III in the fourth quarter to preserve a 36-35 victory at Snyder Family Stadium.

Since then, this series has been a nightmare for the Wildcats. In 2012, they took a No. 1 ranking, a 10-0 record and a national championship dream to Waco and left with a demoralizing 52-24 loss. Senior safety Dante Barnett, who made his first start that night, still talks about the pain associated with that game.

In 2014, Baylor dealt K-State another blow, denying the Wildcats a share of the Big 12 championship by beating them 38-27 on the final game of the regular season. Last year, Baylor held off a late K-State surge and won 31-24.

K-State has had little trouble beating the majority of the Big 12’s power teams in recent years, but they can’t seem to defeat Baylor. The Bears have won 6 of 8 in the series, and haven’t lost to K-State at home since 2002.

“You want to go down there and get a road win,” K-State linebacker Elijah Lee said, “because that is something we haven’t done.”

This appears to be K-State’s best hope of beating Baylor since the current losing streak began. The Bears have fallen hard from their 6-0 start, losing three consecutive games. They are also down starting quarterback Seth Russell, who suffered a season-ending ankle injury last week against Oklahoma.

K-State enters the game as a two-point favorite.

But it is approaching the matchup with the mentality of an underdog.

“This could be a dangerous team,” Lee said. “You never know what to expect from a game like this. Baylor is usually a top team in the conference and they still have a chance to be a top team. There is a lot of season left and they still have a chance to finish strong.”

Added linebacker Charmeachealle Moore: “It’s Baylor, we want to get after them. Since I’ve been here we haven’t been able to beat them … They are going to come out and play and punch us in the mouth and have a good game. They are going to try and embarrass us, which they think they can.”

K-State coach Bill Snyder is more focused on helping his team play a complete game than end a losing streak to a conference opponent.

In order to do that, the Wildcats will need to slow an offense that ranks sixth nationally in yards per game with 537.5. Even against freshman quarterback Zack Smith, K-State’s defense will be challenged.

“It’s not about what happened in previous ballgames,” Snyder said. “That is not an issue for us, at least it isn’t for me. It’s about what we need to do to perform at our very best when we do go down there.”

One thing is for sure: Motivation won’t be an issue.

Even K-State freshmen have envisioned what it might feel like to exact revenge against Baylor.

“We know it is going to be a tough battle, but that would be a great feeling, especially on an away game,” Ball said. “I don’t know what that moment will be like, because it has happened for me yet, but I am looking forward to it. Hopefully it happens.”

This story was originally published November 17, 2016 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Kansas State heads to Waco in search of rare win over Baylor."