MANHATTAN, Kan. – After becoming bowl eligible last Saturday against Iowa State, West Virginia is looking to improve its bowl standing with a Saturday afternoon meeting against Kansas State at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas.
 
Kansas State took one step closer to becoming bowl eligible for the 19^th time under Snyder with a 42-35, come-from-behind victory in overtime at Texas Tech last Saturday.
 
The Wildcats (5-4, 3-3) got an 8-yard touchdown reception from Byron Pringle in overtime, and the defense came up with a fourth-down stop in recording just its third overtime win in school history.
 
K-State has now won two straight following three consecutive midseason losses to Texas, TCU and Oklahoma.
 
Third-string quarterback Skylar Thompson was the catalyst of K-State's last two wins against Texas Tech and Kansas, entering the game in the second half when starter Alex Denton was knocked out.
 
Regular quarterback Jesse Ertz has been sidelined for the last four weeks with a knee injury.
 
Snyder said earlier this week the pecking order remains Ertz, Denton then Thompson if all three quarterbacks are healthy.
 
"It doesn't matter who their quarterback is; if Ertz is not playing then it's a shame because it's a fifth-year senior quarterback and you hate that for anybody that is in that situation," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. "They replaced him with Denton, who is extremely capable and is getting better and better and better.
 
"Then they replaced him with this freshman Thompson, who, in the fourth quarters that I studied more than anything, the kid kept getting better and better and led his team back from being down at Texas Tech to scoring 28 points and winning in overtime."
 
Kansas State's top areas include kickoff return (ranked fifth nationally averaging 26.6 yards per return), kickoff return defense (ranked sixth averaging 15.9 yards per return), punt returns (ranked 14^th averaging 13.5 yards per return), turnover margin (ranked 15^th at 0.8) and red zone defense (ranked 18^th at 73.5 percent).
 
"They're a team that fights their tail off in every phase with every player," Holgorsen said. "They're just a very disciplined team: great turnover with turnover margin, great with penalties, play mistake-free football and give relentless effort the entire game."
 
West Virginia's strongest areas include passing offense (ranked sixth nationally at 349.9 ypg.), total offense (ranked seventh at 516.3 ypg.), passing efficiency (ranked seventh at 163.5), fourth down conversions (ranked eighth at 73.3 percent), first downs (ranked ninth with 234) and scoring offense (ranked 11^th averaging 40.2 ppg.)
 
A 3:30 p.m. EST kickoff is slated for Saturday's game, which will be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Anish Shroff, Mike Golic and Roddy Jones).
 
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's coverage begins with the Mountaineer Tailgate Show at noon leading into regular game coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning at 2:30 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and through the mobile app TuneIn.
 
Here is Saturday's Countdown to Kickoff:
 
10 - West Virginia was unable to hold on to a TEN-point halftime lead the last time it played at Kansas State in 2015, falling 24-23 in the '15 regular season finale.
 
9 - The Mountaineers have NINE scoring drives of 10 plays or more, but have had 27 scoring drives of 70 yards or longer this year.
 
8 - West Virginia joins Oklahoma with the most November victories over the last two years with EIGHT.
 
7 - The Mountaineers rank SEVENTH in the country in total offense this week, averaging 516.3 yards per game.
 
6 - SIX offensive players saw action on more than 70 plays in last Saturday's victory over Iowa State - Kyle Bosch, Yodny Cajuste, Matt Jones, Colton McKivitz, Will Grier and Ka'Raun White.
 
5 - Two-time, All-Big 12 fullback Winston Dimel had 27 red-zone carries and 12 touchdowns last year for Kansas State. This season he has only FIVE red-zone carries and two touchdowns, according to our Jed Drenning.
 
4 - West Virginia returned to the national rankings for the FOURTH time this year, the Mountaineers checking in at No. 23 this week. WVU began the year ranked No. 22, fell out after losing to Virginia Tech in the opener, re-entered following a win at Kansas, dropped out again after the TCU loss and then reappeared when Texas Tech was defeated.
 
3 - Just THREE Mountaineer players have more than 23 career starts heading into Saturday's Kansas State game: Kyle Bosch (38), Dravon Askew-Henry (35) and Al-Rasheed Benton (23).
 
2 - Grier ranks SECOND in the country in touchdown passes this week with 30. He had two TD passes in last Saturday's 20-16 victory over 14^th-ranked Iowa State.
 
1 - West Virginia recorded its FIRST victory over Kansas State since joining the Big 12 Conference last year in Morgantown, 17-16.
 
Enjoy Saturday's game and be sure to stop back afterward for complete postgame coverage on your No. 1 source for West Virginia University sports, WVUsports.com.