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Friday, December 13, 2002
ABC analysts break down Kansas State-Oklahoma
BCSfootball.com
In preparation for Saturday's Big XII Championship Game in Kansas City between No. 7 Kansas State and No. 1 Oklahoma (ABC, 8 p.m. ET), ABC's analysts broke down what each team needs to do in order to win.
Terry Bowden
ABC studio analyst
As we are seeing at several schools around the country, coaches who have brought new high-flying offensive schemes into their programs are seeing their conferences catch up towards the end of the season. For example, N.C. State, Clemson and Oklahoma all took their conferences by surprise and jumped out to great starts, but struggled to score points in their last three games. Obviously, the going has been a little bit rougher for Oklahoma against Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State.
|  | | Kansas State's defense hopes to limit the big-play potential of Curtis Fagan and the rest of the Oklahoma receivers. |
In the Big XII Championship Game, add to this that Kansas State will be getting the Sooners for the second time, and with a two-week preparation period. Throw in that Kansas State is probably a bit more talented overall on both sides of the ball, and that the game will be played outdoors at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, and you can see the difficulties the Sooners are going to have remaining undefeated.
Kansas State will take a page out of Oklahoma State's playbook and use a lot more zone coverage in its play-calling. What Oklahoma doesn't want to do is complete a lot of short passes on a cold, windy day and drive 70 or 80 yards. This seems to be the style that has the best chance to decrease Josh Heupel's productivity.
On offense, Kansas State has more ability than any team on Oklahoma's schedule to mix the pass and the run and score as often as the Sooners.
With that said, I still am going to take Oklahoma to beat the Wildcats and finish as the nation's only unbeaten team. Call it chemistry for having that mystical Cinderella season, but Oklahoma is just going to find a way to win. In 1993, when I was able to be a part of an undefeated season at Auburn, the only thing that I thought we were better than everyone else in football was in our ability to win. The same holds true for Oklahoma.
Bob Griese
ABC analyst
Kansas State has a lot in its favor. First, it is tough to beat a good team twice in a year. Second, the Wildcats have had two weeks to prepare and heal. Bill Snyder is comparable to Lou Holtz and Bobby Bowden -- you are in trouble when they have extra preparation.
|  | | Bill Snyder and his K-State coaching staff have had two weeks to prepare for the Sooners. |
The real battle will be when Kansas State is on defense. Oklahoma scored a bunch of points on them the first time. Kansas State has seen the films on what worked and didn't work, and what other teams have tried to do. In the last three weeks, Oklahoma has had different defenses thrown at them and struggled.
Josh Heupel has only thrown three touchdowns in the last three games with six interceptions. Teams are playing softer and not blitzing him as much. Early on, there was a lack of respect and teams tried to get after him and make him throw the ball. He beat them. Now, it's a little different. Kansas State will mix it up.
Special teams should be huge. Both teams have blocked punts, and both teams have had punts blocked. Both teams run punts back. When the teams are out there punting, I would not run to the refrigerator to get a snack because it could be the best part of the game.
Oklahoma has beaten some good teams away from home: Texas, Kansas State and Texas A&M, and the Sooners defeated Nebraska at home. Those are four good teams. The last couple of weeks, the Sooners might have been looking ahead to the Big XII Championship Game when they struggled against Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. It's only normal.
They've surprised everybody along the way. They are a good football team.
Brad Nessler
ABC play-by-play announcer
The first time around, I didn't think either Oklahoma or Kansas State played particularly well. They didn't think so either. This game will be better from both sides, not as high-scoring, but less mistakes. Sometimes when you have coaching staffs that know each other as well as these two, they tend to outthink each other a little bit and they tend to go too far with that. After talking with a few of the coaches, they agreed with that, saying that you can out-chess match yourself, and there might have been some of that when they played in October.
For the Sooners, they have to go back and play like they did during the stretch when they beat Texas, K-State and Nebraska. They may not be physically drained, but they are emotionally drained. In the last three weeks OU hasn't played like it did in October. They won't admit it, but the pressure of being No. 1 got heavier every week, and every week they played a bit more conservative, tighter, and more not to lose instead of going out to win. I perceive them going out to win this week.
Obviously, the folks from Manhattan have a shorter trip to Arrowhead and there should be more purple than crimson in the stands, but I could be wrong. This is K-State's second game there this year -- the Wildcats played there in the Eddie Robinson Classic to open its season -- so Arrowhead is nothing new to them. They know the field and have a fan base there. Unless the weather is horrible, and it's supposed to be nice for this time of year, I don't think the game's location will be a big factor.
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Antwone Savage hauls in a pass from Josh Heupel and goes 74 yards for a Sooners' score.