Last season's highly anticipated contest between Oklahoma and Kansas State turned out to be a mismatch as the Sooners came away with a 41-point road win.

While Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops is quick to remind his players that's in the past, Wildcats coach Bill Snyder admits history could repeat itself if his team can't figure out a way to stop Landry Jones.

In this Big 12 opener, Jones looks to lead the sixth-ranked Sooners to a sixth straight win in the series when No. 15 Kansas State visits Norman on Saturday night.

After a sluggish 24-7 victory over UTEP in its season opener followed by an easy 69-13 win over Florida A&M on Sept. 8, Oklahoma (2-0) has had an extra week to prepare for its first big test.

"Now we're getting into our Big 12 conference and we'll see how we've progressed through," said Jones, who has passed for 474 yards with four touchdowns and an interception. "I think we are heading in the right direction. It was nice to have a week where you can just focus on really yourselves, although you are still focusing on the other team."

The Sooners will be focusing on how to slow down Kansas State's ground game, while the Wildcats' primary concern is keeping Jones in check.

Last October, Jones picked apart Kansas State's secondary, throwing for a school-record 505 yards with five touchdowns as No. 11 Oklahoma thumped the 10th-ranked Wildcats 58-17.

"Coach Stoops emphasized this isn't last year," Sooners left tackle Lane Johnson said. "It's a brand new year."

New season or not, Snyder knows his team will still have its hands full.

"(Our) secondary, with the exception of David Garrett, is virtually the same," Snyder said. "That is good news. The bad news is that they got torched a year ago. Hopefully the experience has worked in their favor."

Snyder knows his team has to put pressure on Jones to be successful, something it was unable to do while failing to get a sack in last season's matchup. Kansas State also had little luck in the teams' previous meeting in 2009, when Jones completed 70.3 percent of his passes for 294 yards and four TDs without being sacked in a 42-30 victory in Norman.

The Sooners have won five straight and eight of nine over the Wildcats, with the lone defeat coming in the 2003 Big 12 championship game.

There's reason to believe Kansas State (3-0) might have better luck getting to Jones this time.

The Wildcats have combined for eight sacks in their last two games, with senior defensive end Adam Davis accounting for three of them, and Oklahoma's pass blocking has been susceptible. Jones has already been sacked four times after being taken down 10 times all of last season.

"We know we've got to play better," Johnson said, "and I think once we start firing on all cylinders and playing to the best of our ability, I think things will definitely show out there."

While Oklahoma needs to see some improvement from its offensive line, its defensive line also needs to step up against a Kansas State team that ranks 18th in the FBS in rushing, averaging 251.7 yards.

Quarterback Collin Klein has run for 210 yards to go with his 609 through the air, while John Hubert has a team-high 296 rushing yards while averaging 6.9 per carry.

"They're predicated on running the ball," Oklahoma defensive end David King said. "If we can get them uncomfortable with running the ball and make them throw the ball, that would be a successful day for us."

The Wildcats did struggle on the ground last week, and it nearly cost them.

One week after crushing Miami 52-13, Kansas State rushed for a season-low 143 yards in a 35-21 win over North Texas. The Wildcats entered the fourth quarter leading by eight before pulling away to survive an unexpected test.

"Across the board, I didn't think we played like we were capable of playing," Snyder said.

Kansas State will have to play better to come away with a victory at Memorial Stadium, where Oklahoma has won 42 of 43. The Sooners have also won their 14 home games against ranked opponents by an average of 27.4 points since Stoops took over the program in 1999.

© 2012 STATS LLC

No. 15 K-State upends No. 6 Sooners 24-19

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- For John Hubert and No. 15 Kansas State, there is no sweeter payback than avenging a dream-crushing loss at the hands of No. 6 Oklahoma.

Hubert ran for 130 yards and a touchdown, Jarell Childs scooped up a fumble and returned it for a score and the Wildcats beat the Sooners 24-19 on Saturday night to avenge a wrenching loss from last season.

From the lows of absorbing a 41-point blowout loss on their home field that snuffed out their hopes for an undefeated season to the joys of celebrating on Oklahoma's hallowed home field, the boys from the Little Apple came up big.

"We had a chip on our shoulder. They came to my house and they kind of embarrassed us. We just wanted to come out and stay on them and keep pounding them, keep pounding them, keep pounding them until the best team won," Hubert said.

Collin Klein picked up 228 yards of total offense and ran for the go-ahead touchdown early in the fourth quarter in a solid performance that outshined and error-filled night by Sooners quarterback Landry Jones.

Jones threw for 298 yards and a late touchdown to get Oklahoma (2-1, 0-1 Big 12) within five but also fumbled and threw an interception that put Kansas State (4-0, 1-0) in position to go ahead.

Jones had returned to Oklahoma instead of entering the NFL draft in part for one last shot at a national championship. That could be in jeopardy already.

"Landry's awesome. He a great quarterback," Klein said. "He made a lot of great throws. It's just sometimes they're going to get you, and we were able to be on the right end of that."

K-State coach Bill Snyder, the mentor to Sooners counterpart Bob Stoops, scored another marquee win against his former pupil. His only other win head-to-head had come in the 2003 Big 12 championship game, with the Wildcats losing in the other eight meetings.

None were more painful than when both teams were in the top 15 last October.

"He was very excited. He really didn't have too much words to say," Hubert said. "That's when you can tell when coach Snyder is excited, when he comes into the locker room and he's kind of speechless.

"We're just happy that we could come out and get a big win at OU and show the world and show the fans that we're capable of doing big things."

A handful of critical mistakes by the Sooners' quarterbacks did them in.

Jones' first big gaffe came as he rolled to his right near his own goal line and was hit by Justin Tuggle, with the ball squirting free. Childs picked it up and scored to give K-State an early 7-3 lead and a big shot of momentum.

Oklahoma was within a yard of pulling even when Blake Bell, Jones' backup who runs a power set called the "Belldozer," fumbled away a snap to snuff out a promising drive.

"It's just bad football when you turn the football over, give (up) a touchdown when you're inside the 1-yard line on second down and you lose the football," Stoops said. "It's just bad football.

"You give up three turnovers and don't get one, you're going to lose against a good football team. That's how it went."

Jones, who had claimed his main offseason improvement was his footwork under pressure, badly underthrew Brennan Clay with the pass rush closing in to close Oklahoma's next drive.

Hubert then provided some breathing room with a 9-yard TD run through traffic up the middle.

Jones responded by leading a 65-yard scoring drive, finished off by a 10-yard TD pass to Sterling Shepard with 4:09 left. He didn't get a chance to go for the win, with Kansas State running out the rest of the clock.

"I played pretty terrible. The majority of this game is in my hands," said Jones, who set a school record with 505 yards passing in the 58-17 win last year against K-State.

"I didn't take care of the ball or make enough plays. This one is probably on me."

Midway through last season, the Sooners had gone 20 straight games without even trailing at home, but now five of the last seven opponents have led - with two coming out victorious. Unranked Texas Tech snapped Oklahoma's 39-game winning streak on Owen Field last October.

The Sooners are now 78-4 at home under Stoops.

"We knew it was going to be a battle," Klein said. "Obviously, it was exactly that. Credit all facets for hanging together through when things were going well and when things weren't going so well and just being able to execute when we had to execute."

Jones averted disaster with another bad decision in the third quarter, when he flipped the ball toward Roy Finch on a shuffle pass even though Finch was already a couple steps past him. Jones scurried toward the loose ball and tried in vain to recover what was initially ruled a fumble, but the Sooners got it back after a review showed it was in fact an ill-advised pass instead of a botched handoff.

Given a second chance, Jones completed his next six passes on the drive and put Oklahoma in position for Bell's 3-yard touchdown run to make it 13-10 with 5 minutes left in the third quarter.

Another Jones mistake gave the Wildcats a chance to reclaim the lead, though.

After faking a handoff, Jones overshot Kenny Stills and K-State's Ty Zimmerman zoomed in to intercept the errant throw and give the Wildcats the ball at the Oklahoma 38. Klein cashed it in seven plays later, going 5 yards on a quarterback keeper to put Kansas State up to stay at 17-13.

© 2012 STATS LLC