Where both teams get shaky is up front on defense. K-State is replacing seven of 11 projected starters on that side of the ball with transfer-portal newcomers, while WSU's Trent Bray is installing a new 4-2-5 look with plenty of turnover of his own. Early September games built on unfamiliar defenses tend to look sloppier than the box score suggests, which is part of why the scoring number here is more interesting than the record.
K-State comes off a bowl-less 6-6 finish that was enough to end Klieman's seven-year run, and this non-conference slot is treated internally as a résumé game after 2025's soft out-of-conference results dinged them. WSU, by contrast, enters with real momentum — a bowl victory and a QB who profiles as a plug-and-play fit for Moore's system — but that momentum comes with almost zero returning continuity on either staff, and a road trip to the Big 12 immediately after an Apple Cup opener is a brutal way to find out what a new team actually is.
Neither program has anything settled enough to call a true identity yet, which is exactly what makes this an interesting litmus test rather than a marquee showdown. Kansas State's home crowd and a returning record-setting quarterback give the Wildcats the edge on paper, but Washington State's new pieces are talented enough that this one shouldn't be treated as a formality.