The college football season's cupcakes kickoff games are behind us and the real fun of separating contenders from pretenders can truly begin. The Kansas State Wildcats football team is looking for a quality road win this week but the Tulane Green Wave have plenty of reasons to feel confident going into ESPN's early morning college football matchup. First, Tulane beat Kansas State on the road two years ago. Now, the New Orleans-based private school is on a path toward the College Football Playoffs with a new dynamic quarterback.

Yulman Stadium should be packed and full of friendly faces too after Kansas State fans gave up their tickets in droves. Add in Kansas State's Chris Klieman's admissions and it's easy to suspect there is some lowkey fear in the visitor's locker room. Kansas State's season could be derailed in the Crescent City. Tulane can play with a bit more freedom knowing a Top 25 loss does not necessarily kill their Group of Five CFP chances.

Kansas State football drenched in bad memories

The Kansas State coach stresses hydration going into one of college football's most humid environments. Tulane's Swamp is a bit more intimate than Florida's but it has a far better offense. The Kansas State football team will have a hard time keeping up once those mid-game cramps start biting hamstrings like gators chomp chicken scraps. Revenge game emotions will only serve to suffocate the Green Wave's guests if Tulane can drag them into deep water.

That's why Klieman spent time dismissing the significance of the visit. Well, that and it's quarterback Avery Johnson's first-ever road start. Kansas State coughed up two turnovers in a 41-6 win over UT-Martin. Tulane is the underdog but Darian Mensah's Green Wave can no doubt pull off the upset, at least according to Shaadie Clayton-Johnson.

“Just watching him, that dude doesn’t look like a redshirt freshman to me. He doesn’t look like the young cat that he is. The way he carried himself, I’ve never seen that from somebody in their first time stepping on the field at the collegiate level,” Clayton-Johnson said. “I know people talk about (Mensah's) poise, his calmness. For me, it's his swag.”

Klieman spent a portion of Monday's press conference explaining why Kansas State went with a vanilla offense in the opener. The Wildcats wanted to keep the wildcard plans close to the vest. Tulane went all out in a 52-0 win and never left second gear against Southeastern Louisiana.

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It just sounds like one team has spent a lot of time doing too much to not show too much of the playbook or their emotions. The other team will have a lot more fans on their side going by social media and ticketing apps.

Tulane football talking about cheap tickets

Tulane was already celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Yulman Stadium with 10% off tickets to the game against the nationally ranked Kansas State football program this Saturday. The Wildcats from the other Manhattan (non-Big Apple edition) must not have felt welcome in the Big Easy.

This suggests Kansas State's fans have been worried for months. Usually, a premium road game against a unique opponent would sell out before school was in session. Tulane head coach Jon Summerall is not worried about any of these optics, however.

“We're going into big boy football real fast,” Summerall admitted. “This is grown man football.”