Oklahoma vs. Kansas State: Five Biggest Games in Stoops-Snyder Era

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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It really doesn’t seem to matter what sport you are talking about, anytime it is Oklahoma vs. Kansas State, you can count on it being highly competitive and often very unpredictable right down to the bitter or euphoric end.

Head coach Bob Stoops will tell you that Kansas State is the team he least likes to go up against. Not so much because they are a beast in college football – but they are good all the time, the Sooner coach acknowledges – but because of the high amount of respect he has for his former boss and mentor, Bill Snyder.

Stoops worked under Snyder at K-State for seven seasons through the mid-1990s as defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator. Before that, Snyder was an assistant coach at Iowa when Stoops played there as a defensive back.

So these two go back quite a few years, which is a big reason Stoops does not enjoy having to coach against his former coach and good friend.

That has happened a total of 11 times since Stoops took his first head-coaching job at Oklahoma in 1999 after serving as an assistant for close to a decade and a half, with stops at Iowa, Kent State, Kansas State and Florida.

The Sooner head coach may not like coaching against Snyder, but he would certainly like it much less if he hadn’t been as successful as he has against his old team. And it isn’t just his old team, but also that of his brother, Mike, the OU defensive coordinator, who served in that same capacity under Snyder from 1996-98 before joining brother Bob at Oklahoma.

Stoops owns an 8-3 record against his former boss. Two of the three losses came the last two times Kansas State came to Norman. Before that, the Stoops’ Sooners were 8-1 against the Wildcats, with the one loss occurring in the 2003 Big 12 Championship game.

Oklahoma has done well in games with K-State during the Snyder-Stoops era, which began in 2000, Stoops’ second season in Norman, and has continued on a semi-regular basis right up to the present, with a brief three-year hiatus from 2006-08 after Snyder retired the first time.

From 1999 to 2010, the two schools played every third and fourth year because of the 12-team divisional alignment in the Big 12. When the conference was reduced to 10 teams, the football schedule changed to a round-robin format, under which the Sooners and Wildcats meet every year.

Here are four games I believe to be the biggest, or most memorable, between Kansas State and Oklahoma during the time that Bob Stoops and Bill Snyder, the two winningest coaches in the Big 12 era, have been on the respective sidelines:

Sep 17, 2016; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners players are introduced before the game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

October 14, 2000 – Oklahoma 41, Kansas State 31

The Sooners were coming off a huge win over their chief rival, the Texas Longhorns (Sound familiar? Only, back in 2000 it was a huge win, 63-14, the second most lopsided victory in the now 111-year history of the Red River rivalry series), and had not beaten Kansas State in the previous five meetings dating back to 1993.

Oklahoma came into the 2000 regular-season matchup with Kansas State ranked eighth in the nation and was going up against its second ranked opponent in as many weeks. K-State was No. 2 in the Associated Press poll at the time of this game.

This was Stoops’ first game against his former team, and the game was being played in Manhattan. The underdog Sooners surprised everyone by jumping out to a 17-7 first-quarter lead, and expanded their advantage to 31-14 after the first 30 minutes. Going into the fourth quarter, OU was up 38-14. K-State rallied late with two touchdowns in the final quarter, but fell short, 41-31.

Quarterback Josh Heupel led the Sooner offense, completing 29 of 37 passes for 374 yards. Antwone Savage caught seven passes for 116 yards and Josh Norman was on the receiving end of six targets from Heupel for an additional 93 yards.

It was a signature win for the Sooners in a season that would end in a national championship, the seventh in Oklahoma football history.

The following weekend, No. 1 Nebraska came to Oklahoma, which had climbed to No. 3 in the national polls. The Sooners disposed of the Cornhuskers 31-14, scoring the final 31 points in the game, and moved to No. 1 in the country for the first time since 1987.

Nov 21, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners sooner schooner during the game against the TCU Horned Frogs at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

September 29, 2001 – Oklahoma 38, Kansas State 37

One year after the Sooners had upset Kansas State in Manhattan, snapping a five-game regular-season losing streak against the Wildcats, Bill Snyder brought his team to Norman in late September 2001.

It was the fourth game of the season, and the reigning national champions were off to a 3-0 start and ranked No. 3 in the AP Top 25.

K-State entered the game ranked 11th in the country.

Oklahoma went up 14-0 after one quarter, and the Sooners added a couple more touchdowns in the second to take a 28-14 lead into the locker room at the half.

With Ell Roberson at quarterback, the Wildcats outscored the Sooners 23-10 over the final two quarters, narrowing the Oklahoma advantage to a single point, at 38-37. That’s the way things ended, with the Sooner holding on for life at the end to preserve the victory.

Kansas State outgained Bob Stoops’ Sooners 446 to 325, and Oklahoma committed three turnovers, but still managed to survive.

The following week, OU would win a nail-biter over rival Texas, 14-3.

Oct 17, 2015; Manhattan, KS, USA; Kansas State Wildcats return specialist Morgan Burns (33) returns a punt early in a game against the Oklahoma Sooners at Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Sewell-USA TODAY Sports

December 6, 2003 – Kansas State 35, Oklahoma 7

Oklahoma finished the regular season with a perfect 12-0 record and the No. 1 ranking in the country. Six times during the regular season the Sooners scored 50 or more points.

The Sooners were the Big 12 South Division champions that season. Kansas State was the champion of the North Division with a 6-2 conference record and a 10-3 overall mark.

Oklahoma was a heavy favorite coming into the game, even with K-State ranked 13th in the country. The Sooners did not play the Wildcats in the regular season, so there was not a head-to-head analytical comparison, but some experts were calling this Oklahoma team one of the best in the school’s storied history.

The Sooners wasted little time getting on the scoreboard. A 42-yard run by running back Kejuan Jones put Oklahoma up 7-0 less than three minutes into the game.

That would prove to be the only Oklahoma points in the game. Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jason White couldn’t get the Sooner offense untracked after the quick beginning.

Behind the spectacular running of now NFL star Darren Sproles and the quarterbacking of Ell Roberson, K-State would score 35 unanswered points after the OU touchdown to open the game, 21 of those coming in the second quarter.

Sproles finished with 235 rushing yards, and K-State recorded 519 yards of total offense, as Bill Snyder’s Kansas State squad shocked the college football world with one of the season’s biggest upsets and a 35-7 victory for the Big 12 championship.

Amid an avalanche of controversy, Oklahoma dropped just one position – from No. 1 to No. 2 – in the final BCS (Bowl Championship Series) rankings. The Sooners played No. 1 LSU for the BCS Championship that season, the second time in three seasons that Bob Stoops had taken Oklahoma to the national championship game.

The Sooners lost to LSU, 21-14, in the Sugar Bowl.

Oct 18, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Kansas State Wildcats quarterback Jake Waters (15) throws during the game against the Oklahoma Sooners at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

October 29, 2011 – Oklahoma 58, Kansas State 17

Kansas State hosted Oklahoma in the 2011 regular season. The Wildcats were ranked eighth in the country coming into this game, one spot higher than the Sooners, who had dropped to No. 9 in the AP bowl after losing at home the previous weekend to Texas Tech in an upset, snapping a 39-game OU home winning streak.

K-State came into the game riding the momentum of a seven-game win streak to begin the season and a perfect 3-0 mark in the Big 12.

On the very first possession of the game, OU lost the services of running back Dominique Whaley, who was forced out of the game with a knee injury he sustained while throwing a block. Oklahoma scored twice in the opening quarter to take a 14-3 lead.

The Wildcats, behind All-Big 12 quarterback Collin Klein, roared back in the second stanza, briefly going ahead 17-14 before the Sooners countered with a go-ahead TD and a field goal to end the half leading 23-17.

The second half was all Oklahoma as the Sooners marched up and down the field virtually at will, scoring 35 unanswered points to put away the game by a commanding score of 58-17 and hand the Wildcats their first loss of the season.

Oklahoma outgained K-State by 350 offensive yards in the contest, 690-240, with 520 of those yards coming through the air from quarterback Landry Jones.

Oct 18, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Kansas State Wildcats wide receiver Tyler Lockett (16) runs as Oklahoma Sooners cornerback Julian Wilson (2) defends during the game at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Sept. 22, 2012 – Kansas State 24, Oklahoma 19

In an unusual Big 12 encounter just three games into the season, Oklahoma hosted Kansas State in Norman in a battle of ranked teams (the Sooners at No. 5 and K-State at No. 12).

The Sooners drew first blood on a 28-yard field goal by Patrick O’Hara in the opening quarter to take an early 3-0 lead.

Pinned deep in their own territory early in the second quarter, Sooner quarterback Landry Jones fumbled and it was recovered by K-State on the OU one-yard line. One play later, the Cats were in the end zone and had taken the lead, 7-3.

Oklahoma added another field goal in the second quarter to match one by Kansas State, as the Wildcats held on to a 10-7 advantage at the half.

The Sooners mounted an 88-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter to take a 13-10 lead, but they couldn’t stop K-State on the defensive end, yielding two touchdown drives to the Cats in the fourth quarter, which was good enough to pull off the road upset, something that happens very infrequently over OU when the Sooners are playing at home.

Oklahoma added a fourth-quarter touchdown of its own, but it wasn’t enough in falling to the visitors 24-19.