The Texas A&M Aggies, who limped to the finish line this season after a 6-0 start, will take on Big 12 opponent Kansas State in the Texas Bowl on Wednesday, Dec. 28, at NRG Stadium in Houston.

The Aggies lost four of their final six games of the regular season, finishing 8-4 (4-4 in SEC, fourth in the West). Their opponent in the Texas Bowl, the Wildcats, went the opposite direction, winning their final three including an impressive 30-6 thrashing of TCU on Saturday.

Here’s a closer look at Kansas State:

Record

Like Texas A&M, the Wildcats finished 8-4. They posted a 6-3 conference record and finished fourth in the 10-team conference. Kansas State started slow, going 3-3 over the first half of the season with losses at Stanford (26-13), at West Virginia (17-16) and at Big 12 Conference Champion Oklahoma (38-17). Non-Power 5 victories over FAU (63-7) and Missouri State (35-0) were unimpressive, but the Wildcats began to show signs of life after a 44-38 home victory over conference foe Texas Tech.

The Wildcats finished strong. Only a close home loss to Oklahoma State (43-37) tarnished the second half of their season. Otherwise, the Wildcats reeled off victories over Big 12 foes Texas (24-21), Iowa State (31-26), Baylor (42-21), Kansas (34-19) and TCU.

Offensive leaders

The Wildcats are led by dual-threat QB Jesse Ertz. Eighth in the Big 12 in rushing at 78.8 yards per game, the junior ran for 945 yards on the season, including a season-high 170 against TCU. He also threw for 1,560 yards, ranking ninth in the conference at 130 passing yards per game.

However, Kansas State was last in the Big 12 in passing offense with just 153.8 yards per game. That’s nearly 100 yards less than the second-worst passing team in the conference — Kansas (240.4). Ertz threw for 200-plus yards only once this season. It came in the season opener against Stanford (207).

Defensive leaders

Junior LB Elijah Lee paced the Big 12’s top defense. Lee ranked third in the conference with 98 tackles, including 67 solo stops on a Wildcats defense that gave up the conference’s fewest rushing yards per game (112.6), total yards per game (382.2) and points per game (21.8).

Senior DL Jordan Willis is tied for eighth in the nation in sacks with 11.5.

The Wildcats struggled somewhat against the pass, ranking eighth of 10 teams, allowing 269.6 yards through the air per game. In a pass-happy conference, the Wildcats yielded big passing yardage to Texas Tech (529), Oklahoma State (457), Oklahoma (372), Iowa State (339), Kansas (302) and West Virginia (298).

Coach

Bill Snyder is a legend at Kansas State. So much so, in fact, that the stadium is named after him. He’s won 201 games (201-105-1) over two stints as the Wildcats’ head coach. He came to Kansas State when the program hadn’t won in 27 consecutive games (0-26-1). It had gone to one bowl game in the program’s history prior to Snyder’s arrival in 1989.

He is completing his 25th season with the Wildcats. The Texas Bowl will be his team’s 19th bowl appearance. Snyder’s teams have finished 13 seasons ranked in the Top 25. He guided the Wildcats to a No. 3 finish in the 1998 BCS standings. Snyder has two conference titles under his belt with a program that had only one over its history prior to that.