Kansas State football players eager to rekindle football rivalry with former Big 12 foe Missouri

MANHATTAN — Chris Klieman knows that most of his current Kansas State players have no recollection of the old Big Eight and Big 12 rivalry with Missouri.

After all, it's been 11 years since the series ended when the Tigers bolted for the SEC.

But he's also aware that for the eight players on the Wildcats roster from Missouri, and to a lesser degree a bunch of them that grew up in the Kansas City area on the Kansas side of the border, getting a shot at the Tigers this weekend means a little more.

"Excited about getting a chance to play Missouri again," Klieman said of Saturday's 11 a.m. renewal of the rivalry at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. "It's been a while since Kansas State and Missouri have hooked up, but I know our fans are excited about it and our players are excited."

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Just to make sure, Klieman had some of his veteran players address the team at the start of the week.

"We had some players speak (Monday) on what the game means," said offensive lineman Hadley Panzer, who grew up in Lakin, in southwest Kansas. "And if you don't have a reason for this game being already big, it's playing for those guys."

Two who spoke up, Panzer said, were junior defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah, from Lee's Summit, Missouri, and junior quarterback Jaren Lewis, from Columbia, the home of the Tigers.

Sophomore defensive end Nate Matlack was close to the rivalry in Olathe, but even he said he benefitted from listening to his teammates.

"We had a team meeting and (Klieman) brought in some of the Missouri guys just to tell some stories about how they grew up Mizzou fans and being pushed away from Mizzou, just because they never got a chance to play for them," Matlack said. "(Missouri's coaches) doubted their talent, and so that's why they came here, because they came to the school believed in them.

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"It was cool. I honestly didn't know some of those stories from some of the guys, like Randen (Plattner, senior long snapper) and Jaren and Phil (Brooks, senior wide receiver) and Felix, and so it was cool to hear that."

Anudike-Uzomah, who's coming off a breakout sophomore year and was named the Big 12 preseason defensive player of the year, has been particularly animated, his teammates say.

"I think Felix is probably one of the most passionate," said nose guard Eli Huggins. "He's had this on his calendar for a while, and as soon as the game was over Saturday night, he was saying something about it.

"So I think he's going to be hungry going into Saturday."

The last time the teams met, K-State won 24-17 in Manhattan, led by quarterback Collin Klein, who's now in his first season as the Wildcats' offensive coordinator. Saturday's matchup will be the 98th in the storied series, which Mizzou leads with a record of 60-32-5 all-time against the Wildcats.

Both teams started their seasons last week with convincing victories as the Tigers blasted Louisiana Tech, 52-24, and K-State shut out South Dakota, 34-0.

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K-State linebacker Austin Moore would have been 11 years old when K-State and Mizzou last hooked up.

"I was probably playing Call of Duty or something. Xbox, wrestling, football (and) just going to school," he said.

But Moore grew up just a mile from the Missouri border in Louisburg, so the Tigers aren't completely foreign to him.

"My grandpa was a really big Mizzou fan, so he was always watching them," Moore said. "So I did see quite a few of their games.

"He's not with us anymore, but I know if he was, he'd definitely be cheering for K-State. He was a little upset with Mizzou once they left the Big 12. But yeah, I definitely envisioned myself playing against Mizzou when I was younger."

Running back Deuce Vaughn, a Texas native, didn't have to wait for Anudike-Uzomah to address the team in order to hear about his roommate's disdain for the Tigers.

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"First and foremost, he talked to me about his story, about Mizzou and lack thereof [interest from Mizzou in recruiting], him not going," Vaughn said. "No recruitment and things like that.

"And them coming back and trying to give him an offer after he had already committed to Kansas State, and the kind of burn that he has because of that. That's something that's going to allow me to practice hard this week and watch film hard and then play hard on Saturday."

The same is true for Huggins, a Georgia native who grew up in SEC country, but knew next to nothing about Missouri.

"That kind of rubs off on all your teammates when something means a lot to somebody," he said. "It kind of makes you care about it, too, so a lot of guys close to me are a lot about this game.

"It means a lot to them, so in turn, it means a lot to me, and I want to get a win for them that much more."

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State football to renew rivalry with Missouri