Sooners' Riley ready for K-State counterpart Snyder

MANHATTAN, Kan.-Lincoln Riley may be the new whiz-kid coach of ninth-ranked Oklahoma, but the reality is that he has been in the Big 12 for 15 years, first as a player at Texas Tech and then as an assistant coach for the Red Raiders.

In other words, he's seen Kansas State plenty over the years.

So while this may be Riley's first go-around leading the Sooners through the conference schedule, their trip to Manhattan today will hardly be the first time his teams have matched wits with Bill Snyder.

"You know what you're going to get from Kansas State every time you step on the field," Riley said. "A very well-coached and physical football. They challenge you on special teams. Offensively, they're very, very multiple. A lot of different run games that they present. They do a nice job scheming you up.

"You've got to be ready for it," he said. "You've got to understand those schemes."

That's because Snyder, for all the tweaks to his system over the past 25 years, never deviates too far from his core principles: establish the run, win the line of scrimmage, don't turn the ball over.

They're simple things. And they've produced more than 200 wins.

The Sooners (5-1, 2-1) will be facing a team in Kansas State (3-3, 1-2) that has struggled to adhere to those principles this season. The Wildcats had conference title aspirations after returning the bulk of a team that finished strong a year ago, but they stumbled at Vanderbilt, lost in double-overtime to Texas and are coming off a 26-6 loss to TCU that was every bit as lopsided as the final score.

 

Today's Big 12 Games

11 a.m.-Oklahoma State at Texas, ABC

11 a.m.-Kansas at TCU, FS1

3 p.m.-Oklahoma at Kansas State, FOX

7 p.m.-Iowa State at Texas Tech, FOX

7 p.m.-West Virginia at Baylor, FS1 or FS2

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