Kansas State Wildcats at TCU Horned Frogs

Kansas State and TCU both spent the offseason blowing up their quarterback rooms — this one's a proving ground for whichever rebuild actually clicked.

Bush’s Picks

KSUTCU

KSUTCU

OverUnder

Best BetTCU

TCU enters this stretch with more continuity at the top — Dykes is a known quantity coming off an Alamo Bowl win, while Klein is still a first-time head coach piecing together a roster that lost nearly 30 players. Craig's track record of high-volume production gives TCU a floor at quarterback that Kansas State's rebuild can't match on paper right now. Take the Horned Frogs to win outright at home.

Kansas State

• +Avery Johnson returns as a proven dual-threat starter
• +Tanner Morley, George Fitzpatrick back healthy up front
• −First-time head coach Collin Klein replacing Klieman
• −Lost nearly 30 players to the transfer portal

TCU

• +Sonny Dykes brings stability off an Alamo Bowl win
• +Jaden Craig arrives with 52 TDs of proven production
• −Craig has never played a Power-4 snap
• −Lost 3-year starter Josh Hoover, offense in flux

This is a matchup built entirely on turnover at the top. TCU handed the keys to Harvard transfer Jaden Craig after Josh Hoover, a 3-year starter with 31 career starts, bolted for Indiana and skipped the Alamo Bowl altogether. Kansas State went the opposite direction — Avery Johnson stuck around for a third year as the starter, but he's now playing for a rookie head coach in Collin Klein after Chris Klieman's abrupt retirement blew up the program in December.

Craig isn't just a name off the transfer board. He completed over 60% of his passes for 52 touchdowns against 12 interceptions at Harvard and owns the school's career total-yards record, and Sonny Dykes has already called the QB change an 'offensive reset' for TCU. On the other side, Klein inherits a Wildcats roster that lost close to 30 players to the portal — including leading receiver Jayce Brown to LSU — while adding around 27 new faces of his own, a real litmus test for how fast a first-time head coach can stitch a roster back together.

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KSU Kansas State

TCU TCU

Both programs enter 2026 picked in the same neighborhood in early Big 12 polling — TCU a shade ahead at 6th, K-State right behind at 7th — after the Wildcats' spectacular fall from a preseason top-3 projection to a bowl-less 6-6 finish last year. TCU, meanwhile, closed 2025 the opposite way, riding an OT win over USC in the Alamo Bowl to a 9-4 finish and a No. 25 ranking.

Kansas State Wildcats

Nov 6?vs Oklahoma State—

Oct 30?@ Colorado—

Oct 16?vs Kansas—

Oct 9?vs Houston—

Sep 25?@ Cincinnati—

Sep 19?vs Tulane—

Sep 12?vs Washington State—

Sep 5?vs Nicholls—

TCU Horned Frogs

Nov 6?@ Arizona—

Oct 30?vs Kansas—

Oct 16?@ Baylor—

Oct 2?vs BYU—

Sep 25?@ UCF—

Sep 19?vs Arkansas State—

Sep 12?vs Grambling—

Aug 29?vs North Carolina—

Health is trending the right way for Kansas State up front — offensive lineman Tanner Morley, who played over 250 snaps before going down with a Week 5 injury last season, is back for camp, and tight end/lineman George Fitzpatrick is in the mix to start again after missing time. It's a small thing, but for a team replacing this much talent, getting continuity anywhere on the roster matters.

Kansas State Wildcats

(0)

Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report

TCU Horned Frogs

(0)

Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report

None of this settles anything by kickoff in July, but it frames the stakes well for a Friday night in mid-November. Whichever program has actually figured out its new quarterback by then — Craig folded into Dykes' system, or Johnson buying in fully under Klein — is going to be the team controlling this one, not whoever simply talks a better game in preseason.