Collin Klein could be striking a Heisman pose if he continues to play the way he has. (Charles LeClaire-US PRESSWIRE)
Move over Geno Smith. There’s a new Heisman frontrunner in college football.
As Kansas State continues its ascent up the national rankings, quarterback Collin Klein is quickly asserting himself as the top player in the country. Klein had been living in Smith’s shadow all season, but all of that changed Saturday when the Wildcats put a 55-14 thrashing on Smith and his West Virginia team.
The surprise was not that Klein had overtaken Smith’s spot atop the Heisman lists, but rather how emphatically he had done so.
While Smith passed for just 143 yards, all while throwing his first two interceptions of the season, Klein was nearly flawless. The senior connected on 19 of 21 passes en route to a career-high 323 yards. Not only did he toss a trio of touchdowns, he ran for another four as the Wildcats blazed out to a 52-7 lead in the third quarter.
If the convention is true that a player needs a “Heisman moment” before locking up the award, Klein gave voters about half a dozen to choose from Saturday. Perhaps the most impressive came near the end of the first quarter, when Kansas State had a second-and-9 at the WVU 10-yard line. Klein stepped to the line of scrimmage to make an audible and proceeded to loft a perfectly thrown ball to Tyler Lockett in the corner of the end zone. Lockett was hardly open on the play, but Klein put it just out of the reach of safety Karl Joseph, where only Lockett could snatch it.
For someone who has been criticized as a run-first player, Klein made a big statement. But he wasn’t just connecting on short throws — he was completing passes that had NFL scouts salivating.
Midway through the first quarter, Klein was drilled by linebacker Jared Barber, but he stepped into the hit and completed a 35-yard pass to Lockett down the left sideline. Near the end of the first half, he heaved the ball 55 yards downfield to a streaking Lockett. And just for good measure in the third quarter, he threw off the defense with a pump fake, and threaded the needle into double coverage for a 21-yard score to Chris Harper.
In a span of 31 minutes, Klein had lit up the Mountaineers for seven touchdowns.
With that performance, Klein not only jumped past Smith on the quarterback ratings, he also surpassed Baylor’s Nick Florence to take over second place in the nation. His 175.8 rating, padded largely by his 10-2 TD/interception ratio, is second only to Alabama’s AJ McCarron.
As impressive as his passing statistics have been, those numbers hardly tell the story of his effectiveness.
Klein has been sacked just five times all season, and his 551 rushing yards highlight his versatility. And as much credit as we gave Smith for attempting 273 passes without an interception, an equal amount of praise needs to go to Klein for not committing a fumble.
On 110 carries (that includes each sack) Klein has rushed for 14 touchdowns and has yet to turn the ball over. And since KSU’s 35-21 victory over North Texas on Sept. 15, he hasn’t thrown a pick either.
This isn’t just good news for his Heisman chances, it’s also keeping the Wildcats in the national title discussion. In the newest BCS standings, Kansas State moved past Oregon to No. 3 in the country.
If Klein and coach Bill Snyder seem hesitant to get over-excited about their fast start, it’s because they have been down this road before.
The Wildcats got off to a 7-0 start last year before finishing the season just 3-3, and Snyder has actually danced this routine a few times in his career. In 1998, his team raced off to an 11-0 start before losing the Big 12 championship game, and the following year they reeled off nine straight wins before losing 41-15 to Nebraska.
But these Wildcats seem to have something special about them, and their three road wins against Oklahoma, Iowa State and West Virginia say a lot about their character. If Klein and company keep it up through the final stretch of the season, they might just be bringing two pieces of hardware back to Manhattan.
