K-State, OSU have similar football programs, but how do they match up in recruiting?
Since 2009, Oklahoma State and Kansas State have given football scholarship offers to 36 players who committed to one of the two Big 12 schools.
OSU has won the recruiting battle 30 times. The Cowboys are 8-2 against the Wildcats on recruits out of Kansas. K-State hasn’t beaten the Pokes for a player out of Oklahoma, yet in that time, the on-field results lean 5-4 to OSU.
First-year K-State coach Chris Klieman said battling the Cowboys on the recruiting trail in Oklahoma is important.
“It’s Big 12 country, so you want to try to make sure and give yourself to recruiting some of those guys,” Klieman said.
OSU has won battles for players like current Chiefs star Tyreek Hill in the 2014 class, All-American receiver Tylan Wallace in 2017 and Joseph Randle, a Wichita native and former Dallas Cowboy, in 2010.
K-State has seen recruiting heartaches like watching cornerback Bryce Balous flip his commitment from the Cats to Cowboys in 2015 or seeing Topeka’s Tevin Jenkins deny K-State for OSU and becoming a four-year starter with his eyes on the NFL.
Yet, K-State enters Stillwater on Saturday undefeated as the No. 24 team in the country. Although OSU is the favorite at home, the Cowboys are 3-1 coming off their first loss at Texas in five trips.
There are several players on the K-State roster from Oklahoma who never received a scholarship offer from OSU. Junior cornerback A.J. Parker is probably the most notable.
Parker started every game for the Wildcats last season and hasn’t missed one in 2019 either. He has two interceptions and has been one of the standouts on a defense that is giving up less than two touchdowns a game.
There are seven Oklahoma natives on the K-State roster this season. Only redshirt freshman cornerback Wayne Jones picked up an offer from the Cowboys.
K-State and OSU are similar universities. They specialize in agriculture and veterinary science. They are considered college towns where the population dips significantly when school isn’t in session. They have a rural feel with a dip of the city on and just around campus.
K-State’s Bill Snyder Family Stadium holds 53,811. Boone Pickens Stadium holds 60,000. Bramlage Coliseum holds 12,528. Gallagher-Iba Arena holds 13,611.
K-State has Aggieville. OSU has Gundyville.
OSU has been the better program over the past 10 years, earning 1.9 more wins than the Wildcats per season in that time. But K-State has outscored the Cowboys 327-284, beating them by almost five points per game.
Yet there are eight players who held K-State offers on OSU’s depth chart this week. And former K-State offensive line coach Charlie Dickey is holding the same position in Stillwater this season.
Dickey said there are a lot of similarities between the programs, the personalities might be different, but the message was the same.
“The first day I got here, the first day, our first staff meeting, Coach Gundy talked about us being a more tougher, more physical, more disciplined football team,” Dickey told the Pistols Firing Blog in July. “That’s all Coach Snyder ever talked about. Those are the things he would talk about — being the toughest, most disciplined team out there. It was like hearing the same thing.”
So far in the 2020 class, K-State and OSU have offered 11 of the same players. Only one seems to be leaning one way over the other: Isaiah Jacobs, a 3-star running back out of Owasso, Oklahoma, who holds offers from the likes of Michigan, Arkansas and the two teams that will play at 6 p.m. Saturday in Stillwater.
Parker, the K-State junior cornerback, grew up about 45 minutes from Owasso. Parker said playing against the Oklahoma schools lights a new fire in him.
“Being from Oklahoma, (OU) and Oklahoma State are big games for us, just because we are from the state, and those are two schools that didn’t offer us or give us the opportunities that we wanted growing up, coming out of high school,” he said. “So going into those games, you always have a chip on your shoulder, and you are ready to go play.
“Those are the games you live for.”