It’s good to be back after a week away. Thanks to Tony for filling in for me while I was off. Let’s kick things off this week:

LINKS
– Collin Klein is starting to gain serious attention as a Heisman candidate.

HeismanPundit, perhaps the most respected website dedicated to analyzing the Heisman Trophy race currently ranks Klein sixth with West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith as the favorite.

HeismanPundit likes the fact that Klein has considerably increased his completion percentage, but says he will need to increase his offensive production in future games if he wants to move up the Heisman list.

A hard-nosed leader on an underdog team, Klein has a chance to become the sentimental favorite for the award as the season wears on.

Klein will get the chance to impress a wide audience with a big game against Oklahoma on Saturday.

Sports Illustrated writer Cory McCartney also currently ranks Klein sixth in the Heisman race. He is looking forward to seeing what Klein can do against the Sooners.

He’ll get a chance to build his national profile with a trip to Norman on Saturday. A year ago, the Sooners held Klein to a season-low 58 passing yards and sacked him seven times.

– The K-State volleyball team, fresh off an impressive tournament victory in Tulsa, is all the way up to No. 11 in the latest top 25 poll. That’s the team’s highest ranking since 2007.

– Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops is pleading with OU fans to come early, stay late and be loud during Saturday’s game against K-State. That surprises me a little. The Sooners are practically invincible at home. Didn’t know they sometimes had a problem with enthusiastic fans. Anyhow, here’s what Stoops said: “You’d like to see them like that every Saturday, but if you can’t be that way every Saturday, be that way this Saturday.”

– The Oklahoman gives us five reasons why K-State will win on Saturday. Followed by five reasons the Sooners will win on Saturday.

– Bob Stoops says Bill Snyder used to swim back in the day. Who knew?

PICTURE OF THE DAY

It’s never a good sign for a ball-carrier when you’ve got one defender hitting you high and another defender hitting you low. Nothing better from a K-State perspective, though.

DAILY TAKE
K-State had a little trouble with North Texas and didn’t blowout the Mean Green (I’ve always found it interesting that their mascot is an Eagle and they don’t call themselves the Green Eagles) like some expected, but a 14-point victory is still a 14-point victory. Good enough. Given the circumstances, I think the Wildcats did pretty well.

They were coming off one of the bigger games on the schedule (Miami) and are about to play the biggest game on the schedule (Oklahoma). A letdown was to be expected for that sandwich game.

Of course, Bill Snyder did the right thing as a coach by downplaying the win and pointing out how his team could have performed better. K-State will certainly need to get off to a better start against Oklahoma if it has any chance of beating the Sooners.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

The day will come when I stop sharing every K-State Mask video, but today is not that day.