A Closer Look: #2 Kansas State Wildcats

They’ve been brilliant all year, scoring an average of 44.3 points per game, and winning games by almost 26 points per game.

They went to Norman and beat Oklahoma. They went to Morgantown and beat West Virginia like a red-headed stepchild.

Now, they head to Fort Worth with their sights set on TCU.

Pray for us.

Collin Klein is having a Heisman-worthy year, and is more efficient than ever. He’s just 43 passing yards and 2 passing touchdowns away from surpassing his throwing output from all of last season. Meanwhile, his completion percentage is sitting at 71.1%, up from 57.3% last year.

On the ground, he’s a fierce as ever, rushing for a team-leading 17 touchdowns, to go with 698 yards. He’s averaging 5 yards a carry as he continues to be a threat on the ground.

His ground game cohort, John Hubert, is no slouch either. Hubert leads the team with 760 rushing yards, and has 12 touchdowns on the year.

As the K-State Mask puts it, “[Hubert] runs like someone stole his cookies.”

I have no idea what the hell that means, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GIVE HIM BACK HIS COOKIES.

Sorry.

Panicked for a moment there.

It’s hard not to panic though, when you look at K-State’s overall body of work this season.

On defense, they’re second in the Big 12 in points allowed per game (18.6) and second in the Big 12 in rushing yards allowed (99.7 yards per game). That’s pretty stout, and plays well into what TCU tries to do on offense. If the Frogs can’t get a running game going, it might be a long day.

Where KSU concedes a little on defense though is in the passing game. They’re allowing about 260 passing yards a game. If Boykin can get into a rhythm, and start hitting receivers, things may open up a little bit.

We saw Oklahoma State do that to some extent this past weekend, although they weren’t consistently successful.

Boykin needs to be leery of the K-State secondary though, because they’ve picked off 13 passes on the season. Defensive backs Ty Zimmerman and Allen Chapman lead the way for the Cats, with four interceptions apiece.

Linebacker Arthur Brown is the team’s leading tackler, and he’s also an emotional leader for this defense.

Brown has 67 tackles on the season, 6 for loss, to go with one sack, two interceptions and a fumble recovery. As Chris Carter would say, “He’s a BEAST.”

However the Wildcats have a huge, huge question mark coming into this game. Will Collin Klein play?

He appeared to suffer a concussion on Saturday against Oklahoma State, and after being evaluated, had his helmet taken from him so he could not return to the game.

Bill Snyder, as all sly coaches will do, is not letting anyone know whether or not Klein will play on Saturday, but I'm assuming he will. If he doesn't, it could mean the end of Kansas State's perfect season.

Regardless of Klein's status though, the Frogs have their work cut out for them on Saturday, which is a blackout by the way, so if you’re going, wear something black.

I’ll talk more to blackouts in my Midweek Musings, but for now, that’s all folks!

Go Frogs.