Oklahoma State @ Kansas preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 9, 2013 ) Kansas 6, Oklahoma State 42

No. 18 Oklahoma State heads to Kansas on Saturday with a 2-0 league record and a share of first place in the Big 12 Conference standings. But the Cowboys can't afford to take the struggling Jayhawks, who already fired head coach Charlie Weis two weeks ago and replaced him on an interim basis with defensive coordinator Clint Bowen, lightly. The schedule gets a whole lot tougher for Mike Gundy's squad after this one with four of the next six games against teams ranked in the top 16 nationally - TCU, Kansas State, Baylor and Oklahoma - and all on the road starting next week with the Horned Frogs.

Oklahoma State holds a slight 33-29-3 series lead over the Jayhawks but has dominated the matchup over the last two decades, winning four straight and nine of the last 10 meetings, including a 42-6 victory last year in Stillwater. The Cowboys have also won their last five visits to Lawrence, Kan., where they haven't lost since 1994. Oklahoma State has scored at least 40 points in seven of the last nine meetings with the Jayhawks.

TIME: 4 p.m. ET, Fox Sports 1. LINE: Oklahoma State -20.5

ABOUT OKLAHOMA STATE (4-1, 2-0 Big 12): The Cowboys have had to scale things back offensively since Daxx Garman, an inexperienced junior transfer from Arizona, took over for starting quarterback J.W. Walsh, who had right foot surgery on Sept. 10 that could sideline him for the remainder of the season. Garman, who hadn't played in a competitive game since his junior year of high school before Walsh went down, has completed 75-of-128 passes (58.6 percent) for 1,200 yards, nine touchdowns and four interceptions, two of which occurred in the first half of last week's tougher-than-expected, 37-20 win over Iowa State. Running back/kick returner Tyreek Hill jump-started that win by returning the second half kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown.

ABOUT KANSAS (2-3, 0-2): It's hard to believe that a team that hired a quarterback guru in Weis as head coach could have major issues at the position, but that's been the big issue - again - for the Jayhawks. Bowen said Tuesday that Montell Cozart, who has thrown more interceptions (seven) than touchdowns (five) in five games as the starter, and backups Michael Cummings and T.J. Millweard would all receive significant reps in practice this week. "I would say it's rare for an in-season situation," offensive coordinator John Reagan told the Lawrence Journal-World of the practice regimen while adding, "What we've gotta do is find the right quarterback that's producing."

EXTRA POINTS
1. Oklahoma State has scored 20 or more points in 57 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the nation.

2. Dating to 2005, the Cowboys have won 21 consecutive games when not committing a turnover.

3. Cozart's 98.2 pass efficiency rating through five games ranks 114th out of 116 FBS quarterbacks.

PREDICTION: Oklahoma State 45, Kansas 10