Baylor left a mark on K-State's players in '12 -- now the 'Cats want to return the favor
MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Baylor left a scar. A little one, shaped like the Bears' logo, just to the right of Ryan Mueller's big heart.
The last time Mueller's Kansas State Wildcats went to Waco, Nov. 17, 2012, they were 10-0, the toast of college football. K-State rolled in ranked No. 1 in the most recent Bowl Championship Series standings (remember those?), seemingly on a collision course with then-No. 2 Oregon. Quarterback Collin Klein was on the cover of the most recent issue of Sports Illustrated, the All-American Boy. The world was a purple oyster and then ...
Bears 52, K-State 24.
"Yeah," says Mueller, the Wildcats' standout defensive end. "I certainly think about it a lot."
Just like that, the Snyder Express hit a wall the way that engine did at the end of the movie "Silver Streak." The 'Cats tumbled from first in the BCS to sixth. (Oregon, which lost to Stanford just minutes after the K-State-Baylor game had ended, slipped to fifth). K-State went on to club Texas at home to clinch at least a share of the Big 12 crown and did manage, as it turned out, to cinch a bowl date with the Ducks. Only it was at the Fiesta, where Gang Green rolled, 35-17.
When the big one is so close you can sniff it, you don't forget where it went away. Or who took it from you.
"It left an indelible mark on me," Mueller says of the loss to the Bears (10-1, 7-1 Big 12), whom the Wildcats (9-2, 7-1) visit Saturday in the regular-season Big 12 finale for both.
"It was definitely the most painful loss I've had here, Auburn (a 20-14 home defeat this past September) being a close second; that was a pretty painful loss as well. That Baylor game in 2012 ... that one hurt. Big time."
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So this isn't just about a share of the Big 12 title, or a last, desperate gasp at leaping into the College Football Playoff conversation.
This is about revenge, right?
"I wouldn't say revenge," linebacker Jonathan Truman replied. "What happened a couple years ago happened. Obviously, we (hated) the outcome, but we understand we're playing for the Big 12 championship and that's our goal. So really they're (next) in our way, so we just need to prepare well and play well."
All right. Payback, then.
"I don't know if payback is the right word," Mueller counters.
On one side, old wounds.
On the other, mild desperation.
Baylor knows the stakes. Bryce Petty is expected to start at quarterback, concussion or no. The Bears even hired a public-relations firm to lobby on behalf of the program to the media, and by proxy, to the committee that will decide the CFP's Final Four. In the latest rankings released Tuesday night, the Bears landed sixth -- behind Ohio State (fifth) and Florida State (fourth) for the final berth, and looking up at rival TCU (third), despite a 61-58 home win over those same Horned Frogs.
In other words, don't expect mercy. Or niceties.
TCU also got K-State, currently ninth in the rankings, in its backyard on Nov. 8, and atomized the 'Cats, 41-20 -- a tilt that really wasn't as close as that score indicates. So now, in the "style" game, it becomes a contest of comparative margins. A bulge of three touchdowns is the bar, and darned if coach Art Briles isn't going to stop chucking and ducking until he tops it.
The Bears aren't playing for a trophy -- or half a trophy, or however Bob Bowlsby decides to slice the thing up -- so much as a shot to impress the hell out of Condoleezza Rice on national television. As long as grading is subjective, the objective is embarrassment, complete and utter obliteration.
To win the evening -- the 'Cats are 7 1/2- or 8-point 'dogs, depending on your line of choice -- you have to win the math first. Over their past 18 games in Waco, the Bears are 17-1 and averaging 53.9 points. Baylor ranks second in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision in red-zone trips -- 65, or a whopping 5.9 per game. The Wildcats, meanwhile, typically give up just 2.7 red-zone trips per contest, tied for eighth best in the FBS.
Which could be instructive. Or not. It's hard to simulate one Gumpert Apollo in practice, let alone the five or six the Bears have in the garage.
"We just want to go down there and execute and be able to walk off the field knowing that we gave them our best game and we played our absolute best," Mueller says of his final Big 12 tilt.
If there are two common elements in the Bears' past two Big 12 defeats -- both on the road, at West Virginia this fall and at Oklahoma State in '13 -- the key is putting pressure on Petty and keeping the Bears' track-star speed in check on the ground. Baylor ran for 95 yards on 42 carries in a loss at Morgantown, or 2.3 yards per pop, and got just 94 yards on 36 carries in Stillwater.
If the 'Cats can do the same, Mueller and company might just leave a little mark of their own this time 'round. And leave the CFP selection committee in Dallas with another splitting headache to throw on the pile.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
