West Virginia at Kansas State

Date: Saturday, December 5, 2015

Kickoff: 3:30 p.m.

Location: Manhattan, Kan.

Stadium: Bill Snyder Family Stadium (50,00)

Series: K-State leads, 4-1

TV: FS1

Joe Davis (Play-by-Play)

Brady Quinn (Analyst)

Kris Budden (Sidelines)

Radio: K-State Sports Network; k-statesports.com

SIRIUS Satellite Radio Ch. 83, XM Satellite Radio Ch. 199

Wyatt Thompson (Play-by-Play)

Stan Weber (Analyst)

Matt Walters (Sidelines)

Twitter Updates: @kstatesports and @kstate_gameday

 

K-STATE EYES BOWL ELIGIBILITY ON SENIOR DAY
Fresh off its second win in as many weeks, K-State returns home on Saturday for Senior Day with bowl eligibility on the line as the Wildcats host West Virginia in the 2015 regular season finale. The sold-out game will kick at 3:30 p.m., and be broadcast nationally on FS1 with Joe Davis (play-by-play), Brady Quinn (analyst) and Kris Budden (sideline) on the call. The contest can also be heard across the K-State Sports Network with Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play), Stan Weber (analyst) and Matt Walters (sideline) calling the action.
A LOOK AT K-STATE

• The Cats, guided by 2015 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Bill Snyder, are 5-6 this year, which includes close losses to No. 19 OSU, No. 2 TCU and No. 2 Baylor.
• The Cats are coming off a 45-14 win at KU and 38-35 win over Iowa State the week before that saw them erase a 35-14 second-half deficit to tie for the largest comeback in school history (21 points).
• K-State outscored the Cyclones, 24-0, in the second half and also held their offense to 144 yards and forced four fumbles over the final 30 minutes, the most since forcing four against Baylor in 2007.
• K-State took the Horned Frogs down to the wire behind four rushing touchdowns by Joe Hubener and two more from running back Charles Jones. The Cats tied the game at 45 with 1:47 left, but TCU scored a late TD for the win.
• That came a week after K-State took a 34-33 lead over OSU in Stillwater with 3:01 left, but the Cowboys kicked a field goal with less than a minute left for a two-point win.
• Hubener ran for a career-best 153 yards against the second-ranked Bears as the Cats had the ball with less than a minute to play in the game with a chance to tie the game.
• Jones has been fantastic of late, rushing for 525 yards in the last seven games. The junior had a career-best 122-yard effort at Texas, the most by a K-State running back since the final regular-season game of 2013.
• Defensively, the Cats are paced by linebackers Elijah Lee and Will Davis with 70 and 50 tackles, respectively.
• Defensive tackles Travis Britz and Will Geary have also been a force, combining for 77 tackles (7.0 per game), 16.0 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks.

SENIOR DAY

• A total of 18 seniors will play their final home game as Wildcats on Saturday: Aaron Bennett, Reed Bergstrom, Travis Britz, Marquel Bryant, Morgan Burns, Jack Cantele, Dalton Converse, Kody Cook, Andre Davis, Luke Hayes, Nate Jackson, Kyle Klein, Matt Kleinsorge, Jordan Kupersmith, Boston Stiverson, Stanton Weber, Cody Whitehair and Dillon Wilson.

A LOOK AT THE SERIES

• K-State leads the all-time series, 4-1, and is 3-0 against WVU since the Mountaineers joined the Big 12.
• K-State has won the only prior meeting in Manhattan, a 35-12 victory in 2013.
• K-STATE IN DECEMBER
• K-State has won two of three December regular-season games since 2011, with both victories coming at home (Iowa State in 2011, Texas in 2012).
  • This weekend’s game ties for the latest home game in school history as the 1896 team played to a 6-6 tie against Fort Riley onDecember 5 that year.

  RECORD ATTENDANCE
  • Attendance at K-State games have been at an all-time high over the last three years as K-State has recorded 26 consecutive sellouts, a number that is expected to reach 27 after Saturday.
  • For a second-straight year, K-State finished the 2014 season second nationally by filling up its stadium at a 106.16-percent clip, a number that was just 0.18-percent behind Oregon (106.34).
  • K-State is averaging 53,130 fans this season and averaged 53,081 fans in 2014, a number that increased from the 2013 season (52,887).
  • Each of the last seven home openers since Bill Snyder’s return – dubbed the “K-State Family Reunion” – have been sellouts with an average of 51,655 fans in attendance.
  • Twenty of the largest 25 crowds in stadium history have come in the last two-plus years.
  • K-State is currently second nationally in percentage of capacity filled at 106.26 percent, just .46-percent behind Oregon.

  HUBENER DEVELOPES IN RUNNING GAME
  • Although junior Joe Hubener has shown the ability to throw the deep ball as he ranks 12th nationally in yards per completion, his running game has taken over during the second half of the season.
  • The Cheney, Kansas, native ranks second on the team with 598 yards and 13 touchdowns. His total yardage includes a pair of 100-yard games, rushing for 111 yards and four touchdowns against TCU and 153 yards and two scores against Baylor, while he had 90 (ISU) and 88 (KU) yards the last two weeks.
  • Hubener’s 13 touchdowns this year are tied for third nationally among quarterbacks, and his total is just two shy of entering the school’s top-10 list.
  • He has multiple touchdown runs in four games this season, including three of the last four contests.
  • His 153 yards against Baylor rank fifth in school history by a quarterback and were the most by a Wildcat quarterback since Daniel Sams had 199 yards against Baylor in 2013. His four scores against TCU tied for the third most in a game in school history.

  JONES COMING ON STRONG
  • Junior running back Charles Jones is having his best days as a Wildcat as of late as he has accounted for 85.8-percent (525-of-612 yards) of his season rushing total over the last seven games (63.5-percent of season).
  • The Shreveport, Louisiana, native recorded a career-best 122 yards on 18 attempts at Texas, which was the most rushing yards by a K-State running back since John Hubert at Kansas in the 2013 regular-season finale (220).
  • He narrowly missed another 100-yard game at Texas Tech, finishing with 99 yards.
  • Of his six career games with 75-plus rushing yards, four have come this year, including three of the last four games.
  • During the game at Texas Tech, Jones became the 27th player in school history to hit the 1,000-yard mark in a career. He now has 1,152 career rushing yards to rank 22nd in school history.

  TOP FRESHMEN
  • Running back Justin Silmon and wide receiver Dominique Heath are just two of the many freshmen contributing this season.
  • Silmon has 348 rushing yards this year, which ranks second in school history among freshmen. He has bettered the marks of Darren Sproles (210 yards in 2001) and Daniel Sams (235 yards in 2012), among others.
  • Heath ranks second on the team in catches (27), while he is third in yards (298) and tied for first in TDs (3).
  • He ranks third in school history in catches, yards and touchdowns by a freshman.

  RYAN LACKEY
  Assistant Director | Athletics Communications