ESPN Insider Article:
Is Kansas State country's No. 2 team?
October, 21, 2012
Oct 21
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Justin K. Aller/Getty ImagesCollin Klein and the Kansas State Wildcats dominated West Virginia on Saturday.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Kansas State trailed Oregon by three-thousandths of a point in the initial BCS standings, so the Wildcats will -- some wacky, rogue computer notwithstanding -- pull past the Ducks when the second installment is released Sunday evening.
That's meaningful in some capacity to every member of K-State's team after a 55-14 road whipping of 13th-ranked West Virginia moved the Wildcats to 7-0 and 4-0 in the Big 12. But it means more to senior receiver Chris Harper. He transferred from Oregon to Kansas State to be closer to his home in Wichita, Kan.
"Yeah," a smiling Harper said late Saturday night. "It means a little something extra."
Harper said he called Ducks back Kenjon Barner (more on him later) on Friday. The former teammates did some friendly chirping, and they looked forward to the possibility of their teams meeting in the BCS title game.
"You know, that just might happen," Harper said, stepping out of every player's one-game-at-a-time trance to consider it.
Oregon-Kansas State isn't the likeliest of outcomes, not with Alabama and Florida still up top and looking strong Saturday. But it isn't completely implausible, either.
Harper said he "definitely" considers Kansas State to be every bit the team as those around the Wildcats in the BCS standings.
"We just don't get the love that they get," he said. "We beat Oklahoma, and everyone's still talking them up. We're like, 'Can we get any kind of love?'
"I hope they [the national audience, media] were watching today. I think we proved something."
West Virginia was likewise destroyed last week at Texas Tech. But that was Lubbock. It couldn't happen again, right? Not at rowdy Milan Puskar.
If anything, Saturday's result was more thorough -- because K-State did it on the road, where it has won an impressive nine of its past 10 games.
Wildcats quarterback Collin Klein elevated his name to the top of the Heisman pile, scoring seven total touchdowns on seven consecutive possessions. The three passing and four rushing scores came in a span of 31 minutes, from 3:33 left in the first quarter until there was 2:25 remaining in the third.
Klein was in complete control, which coach LHC Bill Snyder said he has come to expect of his quarterback regardless of the final statistics. But those were there, too. He had been close, but Saturday was Klein's first career 300-yard passing game.
Klein had two incompletions. His counterpart, Geno Smith, had two interceptions.
"I started calling him 'John' during the game," Harper said. "He was rocking that No. 7 like Elway."
The score was 52-7 at the end of that touchdown binge. Country roads were carrying Mountaineers fans home while the K-State contingent celebrated, closing the night with chants of Snyder's name and smacking hands with the Wildcats in a processional as the team headed to the locker room.
"All three phases contributed to the momentum," said Klein, who was sheepish when facing Heisman questions and apologized that his hand was "messed up" when he shook hands with reporters.
"But I'm all right," the humble star insisted.
So is his team.
Alabama still looks like the clear-cut No. 1 in the country, but Kansas State made its case for No. 2.
Then again, so did Florida earlier in the day Saturday. And Oregon was sharp Thursday night in breezing past Arizona State.
(I can't in good faith include the living-on-a-prayer unbeatens, Notre Dame and Oregon State. But more on the Irish in a bit; it'll get its chance this week.)
So, who's No. 2?
Oregon has the benefit of starting closest to the top, while K-State and Florida have had to climb the polls. So that helps with the human voters, the coaches and the Harris participants. It's also the case for abandoning the preseason poll or delaying the first vote until October to destroy preconceived notions.
Florida likely has the best résumé, which is why the computers are in love with the Gators. Saturday's win, along with victories at Texas A&M, at Tennessee and against LSU, are as good as it gets at this point.
But K-State's road wins in Norman and Morgantown are strong, too. Really strong. A team that skated by in close games, winning eight of 10 in 2011 by 4.5 points a game, showed Saturday it can put the pedal down when it needs to.
All this should settle over the next six weeks, with one of the teams (or someone else) emerging, but we're paid to wonder about the chances that it doesn't. Can we begin the playoff now, please?
Some things to consider for these three teams:
• Is it that inconceivable that Florida could win the rest of its regular-season games, lose to Alabama in the SEC title game -- and still be the second-best team nationally behind the Tide, in a different-but-similar replay of Bama and LSU in 2011? It would at least be a team to play for the conference title, but it would again not be a conference champ.
That would be a pure rematch. And the country, outside the South, would melt down.
• A lot has been made of the fact that Oregon and USC would potentially play twice this season. But let's say Oregon wins the first, giving USC two losses. The second game, the Pac-12 title game, would be at Autzen.
The Ducks wouldn't get as much credit for the second win in terms of the BCS as they would for the first, since the Trojans would be knocked down in the polls and computers. That could be important if it really gets down to comparing schedules and résumés.
Oregon State continuing to win could wind up being a big boost for the Ducks.
• A few weeks ago, we were saying that Florida State needed Florida to continue winning to bolster the Seminoles' schedule and national championship hopes. It's sort of the opposite now.
The Gators, because of their previous big wins, don't need the aid as much as an ACC team -- but they could if it does wind up being a comparison of one-loss teams in the end.
FSU scuffling around against Miami didn't really inspire confidence that the Noles can get to the UF game unscathed.
• K-State, the only undefeated team left in the Big 12, is firmly in the driver's seat in the conference. It already has a tiebreak with one of the two one-loss teams, Oklahoma, and it could nail down the other this week when Texas Tech goes to Manhattan.
With a win against the Raiders, the Wildcats would have to lose at least twice against Oklahoma State, TCU, Baylor and Texas to hand over the title. Stranger things have happened, but it's hard to fathom with how Snyder coaches his team. K-State appears here to stay.
"Winning a national championship is the goal," Harper said. "We're taking baby steps, but that's the goal."
Here are 10 other takeaways from the college football weekend:
1. West Virginia is sinking fast
There were fireworks at halftime. Big, expensive ones.
Burning brightly for a few seconds, exploding and then fading away, they served as the perfect metaphor for the West Virginia offense. Two weeks ago, Smith and the Mountaineers were talk of the nation, explosive and exciting. Now, we're left wondering whether we've seen the offense's grand finale -- in October.
Justin K. Aller/Getty ImagesGeno Smith struggled again on Saturday.
It's not completely stunning that Texas Tech and K-State defeated West Virginia, but how they did certainly is. West Virginia had seven points until there were three minutes left in Lubbock, and it didn't score its first offensive touchdown until the fourth quarter against the Wildcats.
For all the issues the defense has had, the offense has vanished. It's kind of simple: Teams are covering Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey more effectively, keeping them in front of them, and it's forcing shorter throws and more runs for the offense. Then, when the team falls behind, Smith winds up pressing -- and making mistakes.
Those errors resulted Saturday in his first two interceptions since Dec. 1, 2011 -- a span of 273 passing attempts. Snyder said he told his team that if it intercepted Smith three times, "we'd stop the game and have a pep rally."
It was still elation afterward for the Wildcats. And it was the opposite in the Mountaineers' locker room, where the well-mannered Smith seemed to channel his inner Tebow, albeit not as demonstratively.
"We have reached our low," Smith said. "This is as low as it gets. I have never dealt with an adversity of this magnitude. I have never lost two games in this manner.
"I have to do a better job of being a leader, stepping up and getting guys to respond. I am going to do that. I am going to dig deep. I have to look myself in the mirror and just figure out ways to get better."
That's sort of what West Virginia's players and coaches were saying last week, though. Can they find a way to again translate words and motivation to the field?
Smith will take a lot of criticism -- and he was getting the majority of the praise when the offense was clicking -- but the issues go a lot deeper than him. The pass protection appeared to frequently break down Saturday, causing Smith to often panic and give up on looking downfield.
Has West Virginia been "solved," as ESPN Radio host Ryen Russillo suggested to me on the sideline in the first half?
As intelligent an offensive mind as Dana Holgorsen has, you have to look at the cupboard for 2013 -- without Smith, Austin and Bailey -- and wonder how the offense will motor when it's stuck in neutral right now.
