A year ago, Oklahoma went into its Big 12 Conference game with Kansas State smarting following a 24-17 upset loss to Texas in the Red River Rivalry. The Sooners took their frustrations out by handing the Wildcats their first home shutout loss since 1991, 55-0.This year, the 19th-ranked Sooners (3-2, 2-0) come into the contest after a 45-40 victory over the Longhorns. Needless to say, Bill Snyders Wildcats (3-2, 1-1), who scored a wild 44-38 victory over Texas Tech last week, are looking forward to Saturday afternoons rematch at Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla.We cant wait to go into OU and give them a little payback for last year, said Wildcats offensive tackle Dalton Risner.Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, an assistant on Snyders first seven Kansas State teams from 1989 to 1995, says last years convincing blowout win doesnt carry much weight this time around.Last year has nothing to do with this year, Stoops said during the Big 12 coaches teleconference. Were both two completely different teams. Weve got to continue to get better as a team. We havent played close to what we think we can play.Thats especially true on defense. The Sooners who rank 109th in points allowed at 36.2 points per game yielding 40 or more points in three consecutive games. A big reason for that has been due to a rash of injuries.Going into last weeks game against Texas, the Sooners were missing five players who had started on defense at some point this season. During the game, four more were forced out, leading to an influx of young -- or at least inexperienced -- players into Oklahomas defense.I dont recall that we had that many injuries at once and so many young guys going in there and playing, Stoops said before praising their performance.They figure to need another strong one Saturday when Oklahoma hosts Kansas State.The Wildcats have won their last two trips to Norman -- the only road team to win back-to-back road games against the Sooners since Stoops took over in 1999.The good news for the Sooners is that some of the injured players are expected back soon. Defensive back Ahmad Thomas is likely to be back after taking a knee to the head last week. Outside linebacker Will Johnson should be able to play against the Wildcats as well after missing the last two weeks.But there are still plenty of holes to fill.Itd be easier to say whos set to go, Stoops said when ticking off his injured players, mostly on the defensive side. Youve just got to keep (going). The guys had a good attitude about it and those young guys, credit to them -- they had their head in the game plan in practice and they were ready to play and for the most part played well.Safety Steven Parker, a junior, was affected as well. Not only did he have to shift from free safety to strong safety to nickel back during the course of the game but its his job to make sure everyone else in the secondary is aligned correctly.Its tough, trying to get yourself lined up and on top of that, making sure that theyre doing their responsibilities, doing everything theyre supposed to be doing, Parker said. Youre calling out the defense. Its a lot just on one play, especially covering those young guys. The majority of them know what theyre doing. Its really more communication and making sure everybody is all in one and all intact.Fortunately for the Sooners they have plenty of offensive weapons to cover up for their defensive woes. Oklahoma rolled up a season-high 672 yards in the Texas win. The contest marked the just the fifth time in FBS history that a team produced a 300-yard passer (Baker Mayfield, 390), a 200-yard rusher (Samaje Perine, 214) and a 200-yard receivers (Dede Westbrook, school-record 232 yards).Oklahoma is 15-2 under Stoops in Big 12 home openers and is 16-1 in the game after playing Texas. That lone loss was to Kansas State, 31-30, two years ago in Norman.Clearance Kyrie Irving Shoes . -- Jonathan Drouin gave Halifax the boost it needed to edge host Sherbrooke Phoenix 3-2 in a shootout in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Kyrie Irving Shoes Deals . Note: The Calgary Flames announced Tuesday that Sean Monahan would not be made available to Canadas World Junior team. https://www.cheapshoeskyrieirving.com/ . -- Nathan Pancel scored twice as the Sudbury Wolves defeated the North Bay Battalion 4-2 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. Wholesale Kyrie Irving Shoes . Fernandez, coached in Toronto by former two-time Olympic silver medallist Brian Orser, scored 267.11 points and is the first champion to successfully defend since Russias Evgeny Plushenko in 2005 and 2006. Cheap Kyrie Irving Shoes . Hamelin, who triumphed in the 500 on Saturday, edged out Victor An of Russia by 0.021 seconds to maintain his lead in the World Cup standings. Russias Vladimir Grigorev was third. In the relay, Canada took control six laps from the finish line to beat Russia and the Netherlands.RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina is challenging the NCAAs jurisdiction to pursue charges in the schools long-running academic fraud scandal and is holding off on self-imposed penalties.The school on Tuesday publicly released its response to five potentially top-level NCAA charges, which include lack of institutional control. UNC acknowledged problems tied to irregular courses in a department popular with athletes but also available to non-athletes on the Chapel Hill campus, though it argued that its accreditation agency -- not the NCAA -- was the proper authority to handle such a matter.That agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, sanctioned the school with a year of probation that expired in June.UNC made several procedural arguments before responding to each charge outlined in a Notice of Allegations (NOA) sent in April. Its response is a procedural step that will eventually lead to a hearing followed by a ruling in a case likely to push into 2017.The NCAA enforcement staff now has 60 days to respond.We had classes that didnt meet our rigor, UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham said in a teleconference with reporters, but whether or not thats a violation of a bylaw is what were asking the Committee on Infractions to determine.None of the charges was tied solely to the existence of the problematic classes in the formerly named African and Afro-American Studies (AFAM) department. UNCs response cites an internal NCAA report from March 2013 that stated as much, but adds that the document wasnt provided to school officials.Rather, the response states, UNC representatives discovered it by happenstance after traveling to NCAA headquarters to review case files in person in July 2015.The multiyear case grew as an offshoot of a 2010 probe into the football program. UNCs response referenced that earlier case, noting the NCAA investigated whether academic counselors had provided improper assistance to athletes before issuing sanctions in March 2012.UNC argued that a ruling is final, binding and conclusive according to NCAA bylaws, so the March 2012 sanctions should have precluded later charges that could have been resolved previously. That points to a current charge against former faculty chairwoman and womeens basketball academic adviser Jan Boxill for providing improper assistance and suggesting a grade in a course on at least one occasion between February 2003 and July 2010.ddddddddddddThe school also cited an expired four-year statute of limitations.UNC raises these jurisdictional and procedural issues not to excuse the underlying conduct or to escape accountability for those events before its accreditor or elsewhere, the response states, but rather to ensure mutual adherence to the rules that govern NCAA enforcement actions, including this one.As a result, the jurisdictional and procedural issues make it difficult ... to assign appropriate penalties for the alleged violations, the response states.Individually, UNC disputed the institutional-control charge. It accepted that Boxill provided improper assistance in 15 of 18 cited instances, though it disagreed that she engaged in unethical conduct and suggested the charge be treated as a less-severe Level III case instead of a Level I.It also accepted that it failed to properly monitor Boxill as part of a broader oversight charge that spanned from fall 2005 to summer 2011, but suggested it be a Level II violation.Randall Roden, a Raleigh-based attorney representing Boxill, provided The Associated Press with a copy of Boxills separate response. It denies wrongdoing in the opening sentence.It did not happen, it states. Not one of the allegations against Jan Boxill is true.The case centers on independent study-style AFAM courses requiring a research paper or two while offering GPA-boosting grades. Many were misidentified as lecture courses that didnt meet.A 2014 review by former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein estimated more than 3,100 students were affected between 1993 and 2011, with athletes across numerous sports making up roughly half the enrollments.The NCAA reopened its case in 2014 and first filed charges in May 2015. UNC was near its response deadline when it reported additional information for review, pausing the process for eight months until the arrival of a new NOA.---Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap ' ' '