“T.I.P.S.” for CU at K-State

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Colorado at Kansas State: “T.I.P.S.” for the 2025 Season Finale

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Once upon a time, Colorado and Kansas State played on Thanksgiving weekend on a regular basis.

As a member of the Pac-12, Colorado played Utah on Thanksgiving weekend.

As a member of the old version of the Big-12, Colorado played Nebraska on Thanksgiving weekend.

As a member of the old Big Eight, Colorado played … well, CU didn’t have a real rivalry game to close out the season. During the Big Two/Little Six era of the Big Eight, Nebraska faced Oklahoma in a nationally relevant game on Thanksgiving weekend. Meanwhile the Buffs, as often as not, would play on Thanksgiving weekend against Iowa State … or Kansas State.

Back in the day, it was nice for Buff fans to have K-State to look forward for the finale, as the Buffs, more often than not, had a poor Wildcat team to look forward to (this week’s 1990 Season Revisited game: Game 12 – No. 2 Colorado 64, Kansas State 3)

Kansas State is finishing off a disappointing season, and only has a 5-6 record. Still, the Wildcats are a 17.5-point favorite, and are likely to have their way with the 3-8 Buffs.

Based upon how each team played last weekend, and the fact that CU is having Kaidon Salter start the finale … a three-score defeat may actually count as win for the Buffs.

Any chance at a CU upset?

Let’s find out …

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“T.I.P.S” for Colorado at Kansas State – Saturday, 10:00 a.m., MT, FS1

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T – Talent

Kansas State opened the season as No. 17 ranked team in the nation, with the Wildcats one of the favorites to win the Big 12.

The featured back for KSU’s offense was to be former Buff Dylan Edwards.

Three months later, Kansas State has a 5-6 record, and Dylan Edwards has left the team, heading back into the Transfer Portal.

Kansas State’s disappointing season should be good reason for Buff fans to be optimistic.

Yeah, not so much.

Quarterback Avery Johnson has done his part this fall, with 2,270 passing yards, 18 touchdowns and only six interceptions. Johnson, it’s worth noting (since CU can’t handle running quarterbacks), that Johnson is also K-State’s second leading rusher, with over 400 yards rushing and eight touchdowns.

The running back who is making fans in Manhattan forget all about Dylan Edwards is Joe Jackson. All Jackson did last weekend against Utah was go for 293 yards on 24 carries (a nifty 12.2 yards per carry) with three touchdowns. For the game, Kansas State had 472 yards rushing in a wild 51-47 loss to the Utes.

As for Kansas State’s passing game … well, it won’t be necessary against Colorado.

The Wildcats can simply watch tape of pretty much every Buff game (including last weekend’s Arizona State game, in which the Buffs gave up 355 yards rushing to the Sun Devils). For the season, Colorado is 132nd in the nation in rushing defense, ahead of only Eastern Michigan and Georgia Southern, and just behind UMass, the only winless team in all of FBS).

Tune in Saturday morning for the Kansas State invitational track meet.

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I – Intangibles

Bowl bound … Kansas State had its sites set on the Big 12 title game when the season began. Now, at 5-6, the Wildcats have much less lofty goals.

With a win over Colorado, though, Kansas State will be bowl eligible … that’s plenty to play for.

Colorado is 3-8 … and has nothing to play for.

Huge Advantage: Kansas State.

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Tough Losses … Kansas State had a ten-point lead over Utah with less than three minutes to play last weekend. A touchdown, a quick-three-and-out, a touchdown, and an interception sealed K-State’s fate.

“That was one for the ages,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “You can’t dream that up.”

“We’re down so many players, and I know a lot of people thought we’d come over here and lay down and that maybe the kids had cashed it in,” an emotional Kansas State coach Chris Klieman said. “Because I’ve heard it enough. I’ve heard I have cashed it in. I’ve heard the players have cashed it in, we need to get new leadership here, we need to get new players, new coaches. I’m tired of it. I got to be honest with you, I’m tired of it.

“I’ve given my friggin’ … life for this place for seven years. I’ve given everything for seven years. And I think I deserve a little bit of respect. I’m frustrated like everybody else is, but I love those kids. And I’ll go to friggin’ battle with those kids any day.”

Kansas State will be taking out their frustrations on Senior Day in Manhattan.

Meanwhile, Colorado had its chances on its Senior Day in Boulder to upset Arizona State, but fell apart in the fourth quarter.

The Buffs have their share of frustrations to take out, but will they?

I wouldn’t bet on it.

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P – Preparation/Schedule

What Happens in Vegas … Coach Prime spent Sunday in Las Vegas, watching his son make his first career start.

Shedeur became the first Cleveland Browns quarterback (in 17 tries) to win their first game as a starter, leading the Browns to a 24-10 victory. Shedeur’s efforts were sufficient to earn a second start, even though former starter, Dillon Gabriel, has been released from concussion protocols.

Good news for the Sanders family, and it certainly made sense for Coach Prime, who could afford to jet down to Vegas and back to Boulder in short order.

But, Coach Prime’s team, limping to an embarrassing end to a disappointing season, still has a game to play. While Sunday’s are days off for players, other than for treatment and watching film, you would think (hope?) that your head coach would be finding ways to get his team ready for its season finale.

No one is blaming Coach Prime for wanting to see his son realize a lifelong dream … but it’s not a good look for Colorado for Coach Prime to put his son before his team.

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No fun for the Big 12 … The Big 12 conference currently has three teams ranked in the Top 25 (Texas Tech at No. 7; BYU at No. 11; and Utah at No. 14). If the pundits are correct, the only way the Big 12 will get two teams into the College Football Playoff is for Texas Tech and BYU to make the Big 12 championship game … and have BYU win.

The lack of respect/interest in the Big 12 can be seen from the schedule for Saturday’s games. Twelve Big 12 teams will face off on Saturday. Of the six games being played, five will be played at the same time as the Ohio State/Michigan game. The entire Big 12 final weekend slate, with the exception of the Cincinnati/TCU game (which kicks off at 1:30 p.m., MT) will be over by early afternoon.

The nation will watch the Wolverines take on the Buckeyes, then settle in to watch games like Oregon at Washington; Vanderbilt at Tennessee; Alabama at Auburn; and UCLA at USC.

Not a good look for a conference trying to avoid a second consecutive season with only one representative in the College Football Playoff.

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Injury reports … Every Wednesday, at 8:00 p.m., MT, the Big 12 “Player Availability Reports” are posted. Each team is required to reports on player in the following categories: “Out”; “Doubtful”; “Questionable”; and “Available”. The CU/Arizona State injury report can be found here Wednesday night.

There has been a great deal of discussion as to the validity of these reports. Some teams take it seriously, and their reports are accurate. Others don’t pay much attention to detail … or truthfulness.

Going forward, the system either needs to be improved and enforced – or eliminated.

In the meantime, CU’s injury report has been fairly accurate – and depressing. At defensive line, CU had six of its nine players on the roster out with injury for the Arizona State game. Down to three healthy defensive linemen, CU used backup offensive lineman Mana Taimani for 17 snaps on defense against Arizona State.

All told, CU had 49 healthy scholarship players on Saturday night – and the number hasn’t been much higher in other recent games.

Check in Wednesday night to see if the Buffs will get a few players back for the finale against Kansas State … but don’t expect much in the way of good news.

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S – Statistics 

CU’s rushing offense goes from absurd all the way up to poor … The good news? Colorado is tied with Alabama in the rushing offense stats. The bad news? Colorado and Alabama are each rushing for an average of 123.3 yards per game … good enough to be tied for 107th nationally.

After being last in the nation the past two seasons in rushing offense, the Buffs are doing better this season, but that’s as much to do with fewer sacks bringing down the rushing numbers as it is with any success in actually getting positive results running the ball.

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Any hope for the Buffs? … Well, Kansas State just gave up 51 points to Utah, surrendering 292 rushing yards and 259 passing yards.

For the season, the Wildcats have been vulnerable through the air, giving up 227 yards per game passing (79th nationally). They have also been in some high-scoring games. K-State is giving up an average of over 27 points per game (88th nationally).

Of course, it takes a solid offense to exploit these weaknesses. Unfortunately, Colorado is 92nd nationally in passing offense (205.6 yards per game), and 110th in scoring offense (21.5 points per game). In fact, CU has scored more than 24 points only twice this season – against Delaware and Wyoming back in September.

The Kansas State defense can be scored upon … if you’ve got the offense to do it with.

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Prediction … 

The Ohio State/Michigan will be played at the same time as the Colorado/Kansas State game.

Thank God.

No one is going to watch the CU/K-State game … and that’s just as well. You can be forgiven for watching the Game of the Day from Ann Arbor and just watching the scroll on the bottom of the screen for updates of the Buffs limping into the offseason.

The forecast for Saturday in Manhattan calls for 41-degrees and a mix of rain and snow. That should help keep the crowd down, and may serve to make both teams want to get the game over with as soon possible.

Kansas State will run the ball at will against CU’s tissue paper thin defensive line. If the Buffs can at least keep the Wildcats from 60-yard runs, KSU’s scoring drives could at least chew some clock.

CU’s offense could score against the Kansas State defense. But, with Kaidon Salter at the helm, and the team having nothing to play for, expecting execution at a high level from the offense this weekend is a pipe dream.

Hate to say it, but the only way this game the Buffs are still in the game in the second half is if both teams agree to use a running clock in the first half.

Feel free to watch Ohio State/Michigan, or Miami/Pittsburgh, or Clemson/South Carolina, or Kentucky/Louisville at 10:00 a.m., Saturday.

Hell, Houston at Baylor, with the 5-6 Bears trying to get to bowl eligibility, is more likely to be entertaining than CU/Kansas State.

The off-season officially starts on Sunday, but the Buff Nation is already there …

Prediction … Kansas State 40, Colorado 13

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2025 Predictions (8-3 Straight up; 8-3 Against the spread) …

• Colorado 27, Georgia Tech 23 … Actual: Georgia Tech 27, Colorado 20
• Colorado 38, Delaware 13 … Actual: Colorado 31, Delaware 7
• Colorado 24, Houston 20 … Actual: Houston 36, Colorado 20
• Colorado 27, Wyoming 13 … Actual: Colorado 37, Wyoming 20
• No. 25 BYU 24, Colorado 20 … Actual: No. 25 BYU 24, Colorado 21
• TCU 34, Colorado 21 … Actual: TCU 35, Colorado 21
• Colorado 28, No. 22 Iowa State 21 … Actual: Colorado 24, No. 22 Iowa State 17
• Utah 31, Colorado 17 … Actual: Utah 53, Colorado 7
• Colorado 23, Arizona 20 … Actual: Arizona 52, Colorado 17
• West Virginia 28, Colorado 20 … Actual: West Virginia 29, Colorado 22
• Arizona State 30, Colorado 20 … Actual: Arizona State 42, Colorado 17

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2024 Predictions … (Straight up: 10-3; Against the Spread: 10-3) …
2023 Predictions … (Straight up: 8-4; Against the Spread: 7-5) …
2022 Predictions … (Straight up: 10-2; Against the Spread: 9-3) …
2021 Predictions … (Straight up: 9-3; Against the Spread: 7-5) …

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This post, about the Kansas State game, from the 2025 Season, is filed under Article.
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