QB Klein is the reason Wildcats can make magic

[Harry]

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Collin Klein stood near a wall, a young man at ease and perhaps unaware of his own abilities. Not at the point in which Klein, the Kansas State quarterback, could understand the magnitude of his effect — on a game, a season, on people.

Then again, who could truly digest words like this:

“Collin makes everything possible,” Wildcats linebacker Tre Walker said.

Indeed, Klein was so good in Saturday’s 52-13 whooping of the University of Miami — 71 yards rushing, 210 yards passing and four total touchdowns — that it occasionally defied words. So it’s perfectly normal, after watching a performance like that, to do what Klein did: scoff, roll your eyes and just savor the moment.

The thing is, though, with Klein and a promising defense and coach Bill Snyder’s usual magic, anything truly is possible. The Wildcats are far better than their No. 21 ranking, and after Saturday it will be neither unpopular nor inappropriate to ponder the heights K-State might reach in 2012. Miami isn’t the Miami of a dozen years ago, but it hung 41 points on Boston College a week earlier and remains a magnet for some of the nation’s best recruits. The Hurricanes are young and flawed, and K-State did what good teams are supposed to do to young and flawed teams.

The true heights of this season will ride with Klein’s ability to do what he did Saturday — and, of course, to stay healthy. He takes big hits and doesn’t slide. That doesn’t appear to be a consideration, and every crashing blow he absorbs could, in theory, turn the tide of K-State’s season. But this is the Wildcats’ offense, and a change isn’t in consideration, either.

But Klein is a senior who seemingly can be counted out of nothing. This is a young man who didn’t even play football until he was in ninth grade, and probably faced better odds of being an impact basketball player when he was deciding on a college than being a contributor in football.

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