News and Notes: Sunflower Showdown

News and notes while looking forward to seeing Mark Mangino and Bill Snyder square off again.

• Kansas (5-3 overall, 1-3 Big 12) will head down I-70 to Highway 177 for the 107th meeting with in-state rival Kansas State (5-4, 3-2) Saturday. Kick-off is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. If you can't be at the Bill in person, you can see the game on Versus.
• KU's on a three-game skid. The Jayhawks haven't lost four straight since since the middle of the 2006 season. They're 28-10 since that four-game losing streak.
• KU is 6-5 on the road the last three seasons, including a 2007 win in Manhattan.
• The Jayhawks are 19-18 against the Big 12 North under head coach Mark Mangino. They are 9-3 against the North the last three seasons.
• KU is 2-0 on Versus this season and 3-0 in games that kickoff before noon.
• A win over the Wildcats Saturday would give Kansas six victories for the fifth straight season. KU has only had similar streaks twice in school history (1895-99 and 1902-06).
• Kansas has won their first game in the month of November the last four seasons: twice against Nebraska and once each against Iowa State and Kansas State.
• Between his head coaching tenure at Kansas and his years as an assistant at Kansas State, Mangino has been a part of 15 Sunflower Showdowns. He has been on the winning sideline 11 times.
• KU leads the all-time series, 65-36-5. The Jayhawks have also won three straight and four of the last five in the series.
• Kansas' 106 meetings with Kansas State is the third most-played series in school history, following 117 games against the Slavers and 115 against Nebraska.
• 98 consecutive meetings between the Jayhawks and Wildcats makes it the fourth-longest uninterrupted series in the nation, behind KU-Corn, Wisconsin-Minnesota and Clemson-South Carolina.
• RB Jake Sharp needs 103 rushing yards to pass Jon Cornish (2,245 yards) for ninth place on the all-time KU rushing list and 106 to pass L.T. Levine for eighth (2,248).
• WR Kerry Meier needs just 10 more receiving yards to become the fourth Jayhawk in school history to reach the 2,000 yard mark for his career. With one more TD catch, Meier will move into a tie for second place on the career TD receptions list (17).
• Meier and WR Dezmon Briscoe are tied for the top spot in the school record book with 189 catches each.
• Briscoe needs just 16 all-purpose yards to pass Ring of Honor legend Ray Evans (3,259 yards) for seventh on the all-purpose yardage list. With 79 yard receiving, he will pass Kansas State legend Jordy Nelson (2,822 yards) for 10th on the all-time Big 12 receiving list. Finally, he has caught at least seven passes in his last four games, at least four in the last 11 and at least two in the last 26.
• DE Jake Laptad (16.5 sacks) needs one sack to move into fifth on the Kansas all-time sack list. Nate Dwyer and Dana Stubblefield both had 17.
• QB Todd Reesing needs just 37 yards to become the 5th Big 12 quarterback to pass for 10,000 yards.
• Reesing's third-quarter TD pass to Briscoe was the 26th such connection between the two. This is the highest total for an active QB-WR duo in the nation.
• KU's seven turnovers the last two games matches their total for the first five games.
• Despite their recent passing woes, KU is still on pace to set a new school record for passing yards per game. Going into Manhattan, KU is averaging just over 311 yards a contest.
• KU's combined 34 points over the last two games matches their lowest total since a two-game stretch in 2005. The Jayhawks' 258 total yards against Texas Tech last week was their lowest output since 2005.
• On the other side of the ball, KU's defense held Tech to 253 yards passing. Going into Saturday, Tech had averaged 418 passing yards a game.
• KU's run defense continues to be solid, giving up 99.1 yards per game. If they succeed in holding opponents under 100 yards per game this season, it will be just the third time in school history they've done so. The other two teams were the 2005 and 2007 editions.
• Celebrity birthdays Saturday include child actor-turned-convicted felon Dana Plato (45); fold singer Joni Mitchell (66); jazz legend Al Hirt (87); preacher Billy Graham (91); Leon Trotsky (130); and Marie Curie (142).