CFN Analysis - Kansas State Clobbers WVU

Collin Klein and the Wildcats destroy and embarrass the Mountaineers.

Richard Cirminiello

And they play a nasty brand of defense as well.

There’s a misconception surrounding Kansas State that it’s a one-trick pony, essentially Collin Klein and a mess of slackers who are just lucky to be on the same field with the senior quarterback. Tonight’s slaughter in Morgantown was further proof that nothing could be further than the truth.

Klein was fantastic tonight, accounting for seven touchdowns, wresting control of the Heisman race from Geno Smith and guiding his Cats to another victory in this miraculous season. However, the big, yet rarely talked about, story has been the play of a vastly underrated defense that has yet to allow more than 21 points in a game.

Sure, West Virginia was perpetrating a fraud on all of us during the first half of the season, but keeping Geno Smith and the offense out of the end zone for the first 52 minutes still qualifies as refrigerator material. Kansas State was relentless on defense, consistently delivering the payload. It was DE Meshak Williams providing pressure, LB Arthur Brown making his presence felt everywhere and CB Nigel Malone showing why he’s one of the nation’s best cover guys. Smith began the night no interceptions on the season. Tonight he had two.

There are plenty of good teams in college football. Kansas State is on the verge of becoming a complete team, a cut above many of the pretenders. Klein is the cover boy, no doubt. But he has an outstanding supporting cast of talent … on both sides of the ball.

By Terry Johnson
Follow me @TPJCollFootball

There's no other to say it: tonight's throttling of West Virginia makes Kansas State a legitimate contender for the national championship.

This respect is long overdue.

All season long, people have doubted the Wildcats. When Bill Snyder's team blew out Miami, everyone talked about how horribly the Hurricanes played instead of praising K-State. A few weeks later, they beat Oklahoma in Norman, but didn't receive much credit for it. After narrowly escaping against Iowa State last week, people thought, "that's more like the 'Cats that we know".

Tonight's game should end this criticism. Kansas State annihilated a very good West Virginia team in Morgantown, and dominated every facet of the game.

Everyone knows that defense wins championships, and that's what sets the Wildcats apart from the rest of the Big 12. Sure, Texas Tech's defense made West Virginia look bad, but not to the degree that we saw tonight. The Kansas State defense took charge of the game from the opening whistle, holding the Mountaineers to just 244 yards, which is the worst showing since Holgorsen took over as head coach.

That's quite an accomplishment.

However, the real story tonight the Kansas State offense, which showed that there's to the attack than just the ground game. Collin Klein burned the WVU secondary all night long, completing 17-of-19 for 321 yards and 3 TDs. It's tough to compile those statistics against air, let alone a defense that faces the nation's best passing attack every day in practice.

After tonight's convincing win, the Wildcats have made a convincing argument that they belong in the national championship discussion. They may not overtake Florida and Oregon this week, but they should be in the thick of the race at the end of the season, especially if Oklahoma handles Notre Dame next weekend.

By Matt Zemek
E-mail Matt Zemek

Last week, it was reasonable to think that the West Virginia Mountaineers were ambushed by the simple fact that 19- and 20-year-olds are not supposed to handle professional-grade travel schedules. When West Virginia made its second trip to the state of Texas from its Morgantown home base in eight days and showed nothing in a dead-legged loss at Texas Tech, the most logical conclusion was that West Virginia was tired, ripe for the plucking against a Tech team that had played a home game the week before.

This week, West Virginia has no such excuse to fall back on. The Mountaineers didn’t play above their pay grade when they beat Baylor and Texas; just look at how tissue-thin Texas has turned out to be this season. It can now be said with considerable clarity and confidence that West Virginia just doesn't measure up… not against quality opponents.

That's what Kansas State is.

The Wildcats are guided by the best coach in the United States of America. It's true that Bill Snyder has not won a national championship or even reached a BCS title game, but the Master of Manhattan has turned in a career-long body of work that is as impressive as anything done by any other coach at any other place in any other era.

Kansas State might get outgunned on some occasions (as it was by Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Arkansas last season), but it simply doesn't beat itself. Against an opponent that has an estranged relationship with the very concept of defense, the Wildcats and their elite quarterback, Collin Klein, will feast at the banquet table. They have tightened their grip on the Big 12 lead, all while West Virginia – no longer given the Big East's convenient ticket to a BCS bowl – will play a late-December postseason game in 2012.

Kansas State: heavyweight. West Virginia: lightweight. A more complicated game summary is not necessary.

By Bart Doan
Follow me @Bart_cfn

If you’d have told me I’d be switching this game in the second half to Alabama-Tennessee...and then to an ACC tilt between Duke and North Carolina before it, I would have taken your keys and questioned your BAC. But Kansas State did to West Virginia what my lawnmower does to grass in what was easily the most thorough, impressive beat down 2012 has seen.


West Virginia’s stands were mostly cleared out, in spite of the fact that they actually do sell alcohol there to deal with the pain. What figured to be a showcase for Geno Smith and the Mountaineers to tell the rest of the nation to simmer down after they gagged at Texas Tech turned out to be a blood letting that let the nation know that Geno’s Heisman hype just got thrown to KSU QB Collin Klein, which was probably his best completion of the night.

Folks, Alabama might look better across the board. Oregon might look just as good. But no resume has the meat and potatoes resume of Kansas State, with wins on the road here tonight and in Norman versus a stout Oklahoma team. Smith slung his first two picks of the season, which matched the number of incompletions Klein had. Let that sink in.

Defense is what ends up netting respect nationally, and WVU was held to 243 total of them, even when the game was basically garbage time for half of it. The narrative from this is how good Kansas State is...and how Greg Robinson West Virginia turned out to be. Lesson learned constantly with all of the switching of conferences is that it’s a tough road to hoe acclimating to a new environment, especially when the nation’s best conference is there to greet you.