Kansas State vs Alabama: Sugar Bowl Open Game Thread

Dec 31, 2022 - 4:00 PM

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It’s time for the 89th Annual Allstate Sugar Bowl!

Your Kansas State Wildcats have been rewarded for a great season (10-3, 7-2) and their third Big 12 Championship with their first-ever trip to this legendary bowl game. Meanwhile, today’s opponent, Alabama (10-2, 6-2) has played in this game 16 times, with today being their 17th trip, as well as playing for a BCS Championship in this stadium in 2011.

One of college football’s oldest Blue Blood programs versus a team that was once labeled Futility U. Of course, no one under the age of 40 even has a clue just how bad K-State was once, and have lived in the glory days of Bill Snyder, who led his Wildcats to two Big 12 Titles and three Fiesta Bowl appearances, and now Chris Klieman. Klieman, building off Snyder’s foundation (instead of trying to destroy it like that one guy) while still moving this program into a new age, won his first Big 12 title in year four of the program, and was a couple close games from having the Wildcats in a position to make a run at a CFP championship.

Nearly all of K-State’s starters from the Big 12 Championship game will be available today, including Deuce Vaughn, Will Howard, Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Daniel Green, and Julius Brents. The Wildcats are prepped and ready to go, and likely the healthiest overall they’ve been since near the start of the season. Also don’t expect the Cats to do any sleep-walking today. This is a major events for K-State (and K-State fans), and if anything “too much” juice may be a problem early on.

The Wildcats will also get the full ‘Bama experience, as nearly all of the Tide’s starters are also playing today, including 2021 Heisman winner Bryce Young and 2022 Lombardi, Nagurski, and Bednarik awards winner Will Anderson, who were both expected early-on to opt-out and prepare for the NFL Draft. There will be no repeat of the talking points of the Texas Bowl last season, when K-State faced an LSU team that, depsite still having more recruiting stars total than K-State, was depleted by opt-outs and transfers. Nick Saban’s program will be ready to go today. That said, the last two times Alabama played in a Sugar Bowl without CFP implications on the line (2014 & 2008), they lost both games.

This should be a great game in New Orleans. Let’s just hope the Wildcats can pull off the stunner and earn the Sugar Bowl trophy.

We’ve got early game slot today, with an 11:00am CT kickoff from Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, LA being aired on ESPN with Dave Pasch (Play-by-Play),Dusty Dvoracek (Analyst), and Tom Luginbill (Sidelines) on the call. You should also be able to watch the game live online at ESPN.com, if you have the correct cable package.

If you don’t have ESPN, or can’t access the stream, the game can be heard across the 38-station K-State Sports Network with Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play), former K-State quarterback Stan Weber (analyst), and Matt Walters (sidelines) calling the action. The game will also be on SiriusXM Satellite Radio Ch. 83 or 81 (possibly with the ESPN Radio crew of Sean Kelley (Play-by-Play), Aaron Murray (Analyst), and Stormy Buonantony (Sidelines)), and available online at K-Statesports.com. Live stats are also available at k-statesports.com, and Twitter updates (@KStateFB) will also be a part of the coverage.

Go Cats!

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Hey, are you on Discord? We are now, too! Feel free to join us! (Make sure you click the reaction button on the rules notice though, or you won’t see anything.) We’ll have a game thread there as well!