Kansas State holds off 29-point Oklahoma State comeback despite being almost out of QBs

No. 13 Oklahoma State was the home team against 5-5 Kansas State. The Cowboys entered as 19-point favorite and with an explosive offense, they should have been able to handle the lowly Wildcats easily. Especially given the fact that KSU is playing a freshman QB — Skylar Thompson — in only his second start, right?

Wrong. Things have been anything but easy for Oklahoma State, which fell 45-40 after battling back out of a huge hole.

The Pokes were down, 42-20, through three quarters (at one point trailing 42-13) and the game had largely and unfortunately looked like this gif over and over again.

That’s Byron Pringle hauling in a 46-yard TD catch. It was his fourth total TD on the day. He caught three TDs and ran back a kick as well. He had 166 yards receiving on only four catches.

He’d had quite the connection with Thompson, but the Wildcats offense began to stall out in the second half, and Thompson went out with a tweaked ankle in the fourth quarter. Thompson only played because of injuries at the position, and that meant that KSU had to bring in fourth-string QB Hunter Hall. They split him out wide and ran wildcat package plays to no avail, worried about forcing Hall to throw.

This is a game where the body snatchers mighta gotten to Oklahoma State early because it’s the Wildcats who were running at a 9-plus yards-per-play clip initially. It’s the Wildcats who have made the game look easy through the air and outstripped the Pokes most of the way.

There could only be one answer to how this was occurring. The wizard, Bill Snyder, was at it again.

There was slight controversy surrounding Snyder this week. A report came out that Snyder nixed a potential coach-in-waiting situation admins were trying to put in place.

Current Oregon defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt reached a “verbal agreement” to become Kansas State’s coach-in-waiting and eventual successor to Bill Snyder, former ESPN reporter Brett McMurphy reported Thursday. McMurphy says Snyder had the deal scrapped because he wanted his son, K-State associate head coach Sean, to get the job instead.

Despite the hoopla, Snyder’s boys rallied. A loss for Oklahoma State here paves the way for an Oklahoma-TCU Big 12 championship game, but the Frogs still need to take care of business next week. That would sidestep the myriad wild tie-breaking scenarios that might have needed to come into play.