More photos » by Charlie Riedel - AP

And you may ask yourself How do I work this? And you may ask yourself Where is that large automobile? And you may tell yourself This is not my beautiful house! And you may tell yourself This is not my beautiful wife! And then you may say to yourself My God! What have I done?

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If you're looking for information on the Kansas State Wildcats, go no further than the site Bring on the Cats where TB is in charge. Mike came up with some reasonable football questions for him, while I asked him more existential questions about the state of things at Kansas State. 

Mike: When did you realize that Kansas State realistically could contend for a Big XII North title this season?

TB: After the Colorado game.  The results of the Texas Tech and Texas A&M games were too wild to really predict what was going on, and the win over Iowa State was so close that it wasn't particularly uplifting.  But after we shut down Colorado and won even without a very good offensive effort, moving the conference record to 3-1 on the same day Nebraska lost to Iowa State, Mizzou lost to Texas, and KU lost to whomever it was they were playing, it started to click that hey, maybe we actually do have a shot at this thing.

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More photos » by DAVE WEAVER - AP

Expect greatness to shine through Suh as he plays his last home game in front of Nebraska's sell-out crowd.

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- Strength vs Strength

Kansas State's primary offensive strength in their running game. They lead the nation in time of possession and they're accustomed to slugging it out, sustaining drives and maintaining ball possession.  25 of their 42 scoring drives this season have gone for over 50 yards, and 12 of those consisted of ten or more plays.

Running back Daniel Thomas is of the big bruiser variety, at 6'2", 227 pounds. He's complemented by Keithen Valentine who has more speed and moves than Thomas, but at 5'8" and 193 pounds, doesn't have his size. Bill Snyder will pound Thomas at the Husker defense repeatedly, hoping that something will break. Thomas has had five 100-yard games this season, his high of 185 yards coming against in-state rival Kansas when he averaged 7.71 yards per carry. Thomas is a receiving threat as well, with 21 receptions for 206 yards.

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More photos » by Charlie Riedel - AP

Is that a legal tackle? Arrrghhh!!!

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It's safe to say that the game against Kansas State is being viewed with cautious optimism. The cautious part comes from still not having a real solid handle on what's going to happen with our offense, while the defense, even after the defensive line disappeared against Kansas, should give Husker fans plenty of optimism no matter the opponent.

Statistics obviously don't tell the whole story about a team, but looking at them can give you a good idea about what they do well and don't do well. Most of that is after the jump. KSU went 2-2 in non-conference, then picked up wins against Iowa State, Texas A&M, Colorado, and a surprising rivalry win over Kansas, a team that's coming apart.

I don't feel bad about this game. There's nothing that says we shouldn't beat Kansas State by double digits. Their primary offensive strength, the running game, plays right into our primary defensive strength. Their defensive weakness doesn't necessarily align with our offensive strength, running, unless Zac Lee and Niles Paul can duplicate the big play display they put on against Kansas.

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Truth be told, while I didn't give Kansas State much chance of being in position to win the Big XII North this season,, I'm not sure I missed too badly.  Carson Coffman only lasted a few games at quarterback before being replaced by Grant Gregory.  Daniel Thomas turned out to be a top-notch running back for the Wildcats, and has become a "slash" type player in the "everybody runs it now" Wildcat formation.  The Wildcats disappointed the Big XII by losing to Louisiana in September, but then pulled off upsets of Iowa State and Texas A&M to position themselves to compete in the North.

Defensively, the Wildcats still generally rank in the bottom half of the conference except in one key statistic: the Wildcats are +8 in turnover margin this season, good for 2nd in the Big XII.  In a division where it seems everybody seems to be trying to lose at times, the Wildcats have been able to make their move by simply not making the mistakes everybody else is.

So just for giggles, here's my preview of the Wildcats from this summer.

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More photos » by Nati Harnik - AP

He's just beautiful when he's happy, isn't he?

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Take yourself back to August. You'd been reading the sticky-sweet gooeyness that is offseason Husker football coverage for several months, and the 2009 team had yet to play a game. You were sure Nebraska would win the Big 12 North. Maybe you thought the team was capable of more than that, maybe not. But I can almost guarantee you that if I had told you we'd be playing Kansas State for the Big 12 North title and that they'd have a better offense than the Huskers, you'd have thought my credibility was zero and never visited this site again unless you were looking for a good laugh. 

Yet here we are with a questionable offense. And so is Kansas State. 

The Husker offense has struggled much more than even the grumblers predicted. With two regular season games left, we're still not sure what might show up this Saturday. Given Kansas State's pass defense, you'd hope that Zac Lee can find Niles Paul on deep routes like he did against the Jayhawks.  Consistency is what we'll be looking for this week - more offensive production, as Shawn Watson mentioned last week. 

A win against the Wildcats is not a given. KSU has been one of the weirder teams in the nation this season, losing to Louisiana-Lafayette in September, and then in consecutive weeks giving up 66 points in a loss to Texas Tech while coming back to destroy Texas A&M, scoring 62 points in the process. 

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Apparently Kansas Athletic Director Lew Perkins had a meeting with a group of KU players regarding Mark Mangino's behavior. One rumor is that Mangino got into an altercation with one of his players earlier this season, only to be balanced by another rumor than said he ate one.

Funny what a five-game losing streak can do to your career.

It's nasty news for Mark Mangino and the KU faithful. But it gets worse. Former players' parents are organizing against him.

The source said there is an organized group of former players' parents ready to air their concerns about Mangino as well.

No one can help him now. Remember the line - "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". Well, these days you can toss the "woman" part, replace it with "mommy" and you'll get a small taste of what's going to happen next.

In the long run it won't matter. If Kansas runs a program so full of weiner boys that their parents have to get involved, what difference does the head coach make?

More photos » by Orlin Wagner - AP

Kansas made themselves bigger in the middle with the influence of head coach Mark Mangino.

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Nebraska's defensive line has been incredible most of the season, but against Kansas they looked somewhat pedestrian. Nebraska managed only one sack, that on a corner blitz where Prince Amukmara chased down Todd Reesing who was rolling to the opposite side of the field. The defensive line unit managed only 3.5 tackles for loss, with five total for the team. 

Strategically, Kansas did a couple things very well to neutralize Nebraska's defensive line. They double and triple-teamed the best defensive lineman in the nation for most of the game. They also ran a fair number of misdirection plays, having Reesing roll in the opposite direction of the offensive line blocking. On those plays the defensive line doesn't have much choice but to go in the direction of the offense, as that's the point of misdirection - to disguise the play by moving the offense in one direction while the ball goes in another. 

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More photos » by Dave Weaver - AP

Menelik Holt and Curenski Gilleylen played themselves out of the Husker lineup. Is this a failure of coaching, talent, or development?(AP Photo/Dave Weaver)

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For the second year in a row, Nebraska offensive coordinator Shawn Watson has had to go back to the drawing board and revamp the Husker offense at midseason.  Last year, it was to implement a spread offense around a ball-control offense.  This year, that spread look was abandoned in recent weeks to implement a power formation with multiple tight ends and (gasp!) a fullback.  In recent weeks, Tom Osborne has been advising Watson as Watson and longtime Husker assistant Ron Brown have dug into old Husker playbooks to find alternatives to an unproductive offense.

There are two ways to look at this situation; it's a variant of the old "glass half-full/glass half-empty" discussion.  On one hand, you have to admire the ability to recognize what's not working and adjust.  Last spring, I dug into Watson's background as an offensive coordinator for an article in "Cornhusker Kickoff" and came away more impressed with Watson.  Throughout his career, he's seemingly always played to his strengths.  Some years, it was the running backs, others, it was the quarterback's arm.  Sometimes it was a mix of the two.  Sometimes he even found the need to switch quarterbacks.  But I don't think Watson ever has had a situation like he's faced at Nebraska.

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