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  • OU linebacker Corey Nelson says the Sooners are hungry to play a ranked team. The Sooners host Kansas State at 7 p.m. Saturday at Owen Field.(Jackson Laizure/Getty Images)

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September 18, 2012

Shinn at 3 p.m.: OU building steam for K-State

The Norman Transcript

NORMAN — Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops piqued fans on Monday when he issued a subtle challenge to be a factor in Saturday's game against Kansas State.

That may work or it may not, but the meeting between the sixth-ranked Sooners and 15th-ranked Wildcats is the kind that has been rare during the last two years. OU did not face a ranked team at Owen Field in 2011.

The last time it played a ranked team at home was Sept. 11, 2010, when it routed then 14th-ranked Florida State 47-17. A ranked Big 12 Conference team hasn't visited Norman since the 2009 Bedlam game.

OU topped then 11th-ranked Oklahoma State, 27-0, in that year's regular-season finale.

"OU players understand the Kansas State game is an opportunity that doesn't come around often.

It’s just something about playing ranked teams and teams that are just as good as us, we just build this fire, this thirst to just get better and to be better than them. With that hunger and fire and thirst, it just allows us to play at a higher level," linebacker Corey Nelson said. "That would be the big difference and that would be why we have so much momentum coming into games like that here."

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