2012 Kansas State Wildcats football team

The 2012 Kansas State Wildcats football team represents Kansas State University in the 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Wildcats play their home games at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, in Manhattan, Kansas as they have done since 1968. 2012 is the 117th season in school history. The Wildcats are led by head coach Bill Snyder in his 21st overall and fourth straight season since taking over his second tenure in 2009. K-State is a member of the Big 12 Conference. Conference play began with an upset victory over the Oklahoma Sooners, which was the first win for the Wildcats in Norman since October 25, 1997, and the regular conference season came to a close with a fifth straight win over the Texas Longhorns, ending with an 8-1 to clinch a share of Big 12 title with Oklahoma. Both teams made in the postseason since in the 2003 Big 12 Championship Game. The team was invited to the third Fiesta Bowl appearance, where they were defeated by Oregon, which made its first Fiesta Bowl loss since 2003 in the 2004 Fiesta Bowl, ending with an 11-2 record.

Off-season
The 2011 Wildcats finished the season with a 10–3 record overall, 7–2 in Big-12 play, behind Oklahoma State. They were invited to the Cotton Bowl Classic, where they were defeated by the Arkansas Razorbacks, making it the first Cotton Bowl Classic loss for the Wildcats since 1996 team lost to the BYU Cougars in the 1997 Cotton Bowl Classic.

In mid-August, highly touted incoming freshman quarterback Tavarious Bender decided to leave the team and the university for undisclosed reasons.

Schedule




Missouri State
The Wildcats were favored by 34 going into the game.

Miami
Kansas State was favored by 7 going into the game.

North Texas
Kansas State was favored by 28½ going into the game.

Oklahoma
Oklahoma was favored by 14 going into the game.

Kansas
Kansas State was favored by 24 going into the game.

Iowa State
Kansas State was favored by 7 going into the game.

West Virginia
West Virginia was favored by 2.5 going into the game. The game was hyped as a matchup between Heisman Trophy hopefuls Geno Smith from West Virginia and Collin Klein from Kansas State. Kansas State took an early lead and had the score at 52-7 with 2:25 left in the third quarter. The final score was a Kansas State victory 55–14.

After the conclusion of the season, ESPN sportswriter David Ubben named this the fifth best game of the Big 12 Conference for the season.

Texas Tech
Kansas State was favored by 7 going into the game.

Oklahoma State
Kansas State was favored by 8.5 points going into the game.

TCU
Kansas State was favored by 7 points heading to the game.

Baylor
Kansas State was favored by 11 points going into the game.

Texas
Kansas State was favored 10.5 points heading to the game.

2013 Fiesta Bowl (vs. Oregon)
Oregon was favored 9 points going to the game.

Coaching staff
The following is a list of coaches at Kansas State for the 2012 season.