Stoops, Oklahoma ready for matchup with Kansas State

Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops knows his team will be tested for the first time Saturday night when it takes on Collin Klein and a talented Kansas State team. The Sooners blew out the Wildcats 58-17 in Norman last season, but with the quarterback play Klein gives the Wildcats, Stoops isn’t taking anything for granted.

"Collin (Klein) does a great job. He’s a big, strong guy that can run. He can take hits, and he’ll run through you, so you have to do a good job squaring him up," Stoops said. "Like last year, it’ll be a challenge."

The Sooners defense has allowed 134 rushing yards per game, which will add to the challenge, as the Wildcats average 251.7 rushing yards per game. Klein has accounted for more than half of KSU’s total offense.

Stoops learned from time with KSU’s Snyder

Wildcats’ head coach Bill Snyder had Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops as a graduate assistant and assistant coach on previous staffs. Stoops was with Snyder at Iowa from 1983-84 as a graduate assistant, then as a volunteer coach from 1985-87. Later in Snyder’s career, he hired Stoops to be on his Kansas State staff from 1990-95 when Stoops left to become the
defensive coordinator at Florida.

Snyder feels it is a little more difficult preparing for Oklahoma because Stoops knows his style of coaching.

"We have kind of been doing the same thing for a long period of time," Snyder said. "There has been a close relationship
between the two staffs. Everyone probably has a decent understanding of what our system’s is about."

That’s not the only advantage Oklahoma may have; because they will come off a bye
week, they’ve had two weeks to prepare for the Wildcats.

"Oklahoma has had two weeks of opportunity
anyway to prepare for us, so that part of it makes it difficult as well, especially since they’re amazingly
talented and a well-coached football team," Snyder said.

Jayhawks looking to continue solid play in running game

Tony Pierson and Taylor Cox have combined for 500 yards on the
ground and four touchdowns for the Jayhawks just three
games into the season. The Kansas offense clearly goes through those two guys, as both of them are the
most talented on the team.

Head coach Charlie Weis knows that, while Kansas doesn’t have the offensive firepower to compete with the gunslingers in the Big 12, he has to find a way to mask his inability to throw the ball up and down the field.

"I know offensive coordinators love to be
slinging the ball all over the yard every play," Weis said. "I think for us, that does not bode well. We have a couple of decent runners; I think that our teams are committed to running the football. I think the slower we can play the game, the better for us."