PAGE 6
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2012
FOOTBALL
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
BIG 12 POWER RANKINGS
FARZIN VOUSOUGHIAN
fvousougian@kansan.com
1. Kansas State (4-0)
Coach Bill Snyder and his players earned a well deserved bye week after a huge win on the road against Oklahoma. Kansas State knocked off the Sooners and are sitting on top of the conference. Their upcoming game against Kansas can only add to their successful season.
2. West Virginia (4-0)
Teams in the top 25 shouldn't be giving up 63 points. But West Virginia was fortunate that they had senior quarterback Geno Smith. Smith's eight touchdown passes lifted the Mountaineers to victory in the wild shootout. Coach Dana Holgorsen knows his defense has to do better when they go on the road to Texas.
3. Texas (4-0)
Texas was challenged by Oklahoma State in a tough environment. However, the Longhorns remained focused. Sophomore running back Joe Bergeron pushed his way through for the game-winning touchdown with 29 seconds left to keep their status as one of the top tier teams in the conference.
4. Texas Christian (4-0)
Texas Christian's offense has not been hot when it comes to scoring. But their defense has been the key reason for their 4-0 start so far. They've given up 29 points this season and are second in the nation in points allowed. After a weekend of high-scoring Big 12 games, TCU's defense will be tested in a couple of conference encounters this season.
5. Oklahoma (2-1)
Oklahoma wished that they could have played this week to get their mind off last week's loss to Kansas State. But the bye week did give coach Bob Stoops a chance to work with his teams on areas where they can improve before visiting in-state rivals Texas Tech and hosting Texas the following week.
6. Baylor (3-1)
Senior quarterback Nick Florence proved to the rest of the conference that Baylor's offense is as good as any in the Big 12. Even though they burned the scoreboard with 63 points, their defense will have a hard time competing in the Big 12 and staying in the top 25 after giving up 70 points to West Virginia.
7. Oklahoma State (2-2)
Oklahoma State's top-ranked scoring offense is not enough to earn a spot in the top 25. Their inconsistency has hurt them immensely. They've gone 0-2 against ranked opponents this season and will use this bye week to regroup before visiting Kansas.
8. Texas Tech (4-0)
Texas Tech was not held to high standards before the season. But now that they are 4-0, the Red Raiders are trying to show that they can play in the conference. While they picked up a win against Iowa State, they still have a lot to prove before being labeled as one of the competitive teams in the Big 12. They will have that opportunity as their next five opponents are currently ranked in the top 25.
9. Iowa State (3-1)
Iowa State suffered their first loss of the season at home to Texas Tech. Iowa State wants to rebound, but have to forget last week's loss when they visit Texas Christian.
10. Kansas (1-3)
Kansas struggled twice to finish games where they held a two-possession lead in the fourth quarter. Their inability to finish games against mediocre teams during their non-conference schedule has hurt them going into the conference season. Fans can only hope that coach Charlie Weis used this bye week to work on their holes before visiting Kansas State.
Edited by Andrew Ruszczyk
BIG.12
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas State coach Bill Snyder walks along the sidelines in the first quarter of an NCAA college football game against Oklahoma in Norman, Okla. Snyder gave people a reason to find Manhattan, Kan. two decades ago.
Snyder keeps Wildcats on top
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MANHATTAN, Kan. — There has to be a reason to seek out the sleepy college town that's home to Kansas State University.
It's two hours by car from Kansas City, out in the heart of the Flint Hills, tucked away in a picturesque valley well off Interstate 70. It's off Exit 313, for those who have time for the drive, past flowing fields of golden wheat and the natural tall grass acreages of the Konza Prairie.
Two decades ago, Bill Snyder gave people a reason to find it.
The nondescript offensive coordinator from Iowa showed up one day and took over a program that had been winless in 27 games, proclaiming that the "opportunity for the greatest turnaround in college football history exists here today." It wasn't hyperbole, either. Snyder actually believed it, and then made
it work, taking the downtrodden program to previously unthinkable heights.
Now, after stepping away for a brief retirement, the maestro of Manhattan is doing it again.
Relying on the same principles and instilling the same beliefs in a new generation of players, Snyder has the No. 7 Wildcats off to another 4-0 start. The ranking is their highest since the 2003 season, when Kansas State won its first conference title since FDR was in office, and represents yet another benchmark for a coach who keeps moving his team ever higher.
"People asked me what I thought of him coming back, and I said, 'What he's doing is proving to everyone that it wasn't luck the first time around,' said former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer, who once labeled Snyder not merely coach of the year or decade but "coach of the century."
Perhaps now, he's coach of the millennium.
Kansas State is coming off a dramatic 24-19 victory over theno. 6 Oklahoma, the highestranked victory in a true road game in school history, and its first in Norman since 1997.
The price of gas is four times what it was in 1988, when he first drove into town. Perestroika is a distant memory, George Michael and Gloria Estefan no longer top the charts, and the chic style popularized by television shows such as "Magnum, P.I." is considered garish at best.
"He hasn't changed a bit," added offensive lineman Ryan Lilja, now a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. "Watching how his teams play, how his players react to him, the guy hasn't changed a bit."
Just about everything else has changed, though.
The game has changed, too. The wishbone offense run by Switzer has been replaced by pass-happy attacks predicated on spreading the field.
The Wildcats have a throwback Heisman Trophy contender in quarterback Collin Klein, a Darren Sproles-like dynamo in running back John Hubert, and a bend-but-dont-dare-break defense that made life miserable for Sooners quarterback Landry Jones, expected to be a first-round NFL draft pick.
mer wide receiver Kevin Lockett, who was part of the program's foundation in the 1990s and whose son, Tyler Lockett, is now a sophomore on the team.
Some of the game's greatest minds, such as the late Joe Paterno at Penn State, have had their reputations sullied by scandal. The pursuit of big TV contracts has caused seismic shifts in the game, and old rivalries have gone by the wayside through unsettling waves of conference realignment.
In short, they have all the ingredients to make an improbable run at a national championship.
The senior is the quintessential "yes sir, no sir" player of yester-year, espousing the same values as Snyder: hard work, commitment, unselfishness. Along the way, Klein has emerged as one of the nation's most dynamic playmakers, piling up touchdowns at a record-breaking pace.
As if anything is improbable with Snyder stalking the sideline.
Klein may be the perfect example.
"I think society has changed a great deal. We all recognize that," Snyder said during an interview this week. "Our children are a product of today's society, so consequently, yes, they've changed. But when I say they've changed, it's an all-encompassing statement. Everybody has."
"His value system has not changed. It's the same value system that was in place 20 years ago," said Snyder, pausing to sip from his steaming cup of drip coffee (no Starbucks here).
"Bill's been described in a number of ways, but there's nothing he does that surprises me," said for-
"We have a lot of young people like that," Snyder said. "We have a lot of young guys who have a very intact value system that might be a little antagonistic to today's society, collectively, overall. There are some changes, but it doesn't embrace every person you have in your program."
remains the animated Disney classic "Pinocchio" for the values it represents.
Indeed, in a world that moves at an increasingly rapid pace, Kansas State's program is in many ways a time capsule. Inside the football complex, the expansive room overlooking the stadium that bears Snyder's name is still called the "Big 8 Room," and logos still adorn the walls for Nebraska, Missouri and Colorado — schools no longer part of the Big 12 Conference.
And while Snyder believes that most kids have changed, those he recruits have not.
"I don't know that I've changed a great deal, other than what age does to you," said Snyder, who will turn 73 on Oct. 7, the day after Kansas State plays Kansas for the Governor's Cup.
Nearly everybody, at least.
Snyder still wears the same Nike Cortez shoes in vogue last century. He still wears the same antiquated eye glasses, pulls out old windbreakers from bygone bowl games, and his favorite film
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