Why Chris Klieman never mentions K-State’s winning streak over KU during rivalry week

The Kansas State football team has won 15 straight games in the Sunflower Showdown, but Chris Klieman will not discuss that with players this week as the Wildcats prepare for their annual rivalry game against Kansas.

“I never have,” Klieman said, “and never will.”

Klieman prefers to go a different route. When it comes to motivating the K-State football roster for this game, he focuses on what it will take to win this weekend. Not what has happened in the past, even though the Wildcats have dominated the Jayhawks under both Bill Snyder and Klieman going back to 2009 ... before things like Uber, Venmo and the iPad existed.

Why? Because that winning streak won’t help K-State beat KU at 7 p.m. on Saturday inside Bill Sndyer Family Stadium.

“I know how important this game is for both schools and for both teams,” Klieman said. “It’s turning into a great rivalry. The last few years have been really competitive games, and we’ve found a way. Last year we were down 11 in the second half but we found a way.”

The Sunflower Showdown has tightened up since Lance Leipold took over as coach of the Jayhawks.

K-State won 31-27 last year in Lawrence but had to come from behind in the second half. In a sign of just how lopsided this rivalry has been, that was only the third time over the past 15 years that the Jayhawks were able to stay within single digits of the Wildcats.

Some may expect K-State to win more comfortably this season, because the Wildcats (6-1, 3-1 Big 12) are having a much better campaign than the Jayhawks (2-5, 1-3 Big 12), but no one in Manhattan is overlooking KU.

“We know that they have a lot of weapons on their team,” K-State offensive lineman Hadley Panzer said. “We know what they can do. They are very explosive. Records aside, we know what kind of players they have and they are a good group.”

In previous years, players like Cooper Beebe have made it clear to teammates leading up to this rivalry game that losing to Kansas is not an option.

Senior linebacker Austin Moore was happy to take over that job this season.

“I grew up in Kansas, and I have been around this rivalry my whole life,” Moore said. “There is a lot of passion and emotion that goes into it. Personally, a lot of my family is associated with KU. They either went to KU or were KU fans. I actually grew up a KU fan. I have talked about that a few times. That all goes into it. With how much more competitive it has gotten, it has made the rivalry a lot more intense. There’s always some trash talk between both sides in the offseason.”

Interestingly, neither team offered up any bulletin-board material when speaking to media this week.

K-State quarterback Avery Johnson is looking forward to making his first start against Kansas, even though it’s been a one-sided rivalry for most of his life.

“It’s one of the best rivalries in all of college football,” Johnson said. “A lot of people overlook it, but Kansas is a really talented team and so are we. It should be a battle to remember.”