I am going to move Manti Te’o and his case to the side for this. Notre Dame’s star linebacker is an absolutely tremendous story, especially the tragedy he overcame this year. Teo is extremely deserving, too. He is the leader of the undefeated team that sits #1 going into the national championship. He is the leader of a defense that has won many games for a team with an average offense.
I want to move forward to the “Johnny Football” and “Optimus Klein” comparisons. All of a sudden, a span of two weeks altered the course for these two men. First, Texas A&M’s redshirt freshman quarterback did what no one had been able to do for nearly a full year: beat Alabama. The 19 year old went from a great story propelling the Aggies to a competitive level in the SEC to the country’s number one player. Manziel did have a great day. He went into Tuscaloosa and completed 77% of his passes, passed for two touchdowns, and added 92 yards on the ground. Pretty incredible.
It was all capped off one week later by Collin Klein and Kansas State’s demise in Waco, Texas at the hands of a Baylor defense that many thought was the worst of any major conference. Klein, still dealing with a lingering injury from the Oklahoma State game, was off all night. He was errant with his passing, leading to three interceptions, and only rushed for 32 yards. In just three short hours, the Wildcats went from national championship front-runner to a great story that will wind up in a BCS bowl. Their star quarterback went from having the Heisman Trophy and having it be his to lose to a story we will remember from the beginning of the 2012 season. It took all of seven days…
Granted, the picture I have painted, makes it seem pretty clear that Johnny Football is the better candidate that Klein. However, it is no home run. Colin Klein matched up against NINE schools from BCS conferences who qualified for a bowl game (i.e. finished with at least a .500 record). Johnny Manziel played just five teams who qualified for the postseason. Before you start yelling at your computer that you cannot compare the SEC to the Big 12, can we at least take a second to look at something here? K-State played Baylor, the second worst defense in the country statistically, while Manziel had his second best passing day verse by far the worst defense in the country, Louisiana Tech. Now, there is no shortage of Big 12 teams that gave up huge amounts of yardage this year. However, I am willing to say that Auburn, Mississippi State, Arkansas, and Missouri (all ranked below the top 50 in defense) was not that much better than what the Big 12 had to offer.
Furthermore, Collin Klein may have seen a few more transparent defenses during conference games, but he did not miss out on big games. Against the nine, BCS school teams Klein faced with at least.500 record he threw a total of six interceptions. Manziel accumulated five interceptions in his five games. In Manziel’s bad game he had no touchdowns and three interceptions with just an 82.5 QB rating against LSU.
If you look at a pure statistic standpoint, Manziel has Klein beat by quite a bit. Texas A&M ran everything through Manziel who put up 4600 total yards of offense. Klein had 118 less plays and amassed 3,390 total yards. When you look at the attempts difference, Manziel averaged 7.88 yards to Klein’s 7.27. The numbers are a lot closer. Johnny Football padded his stats verse the lesser competition and in their two losses, both at home, accounted for just one touchdown.
The difference between the two is not the large margin that seems to persist throughout the country’s media. Collin Klein led Kansas State to the Fiesta Bowl and a Big 12 Championship during an 11-1 campaign. Manziel is headed to the Cotton Bowl with his 10-2 record. This argument is not saying Collin Klein is head and shoulders above Johnny Manziel, it is me urging everyone to not forget about Collin Klein’s case before it is too late. Unfortunately, it seems too late. Johnny Manziel and his story is hot. He is the freshman that is transforming how football is played in the SEC. He is a little wild and seems to transform the idea of a “model” quarterback. Collin Klein’s story was done already. Tim Tebow already did the power running, devout Christian story in 2007. Klein became old news the second the clock hit zero on November 17th in Waco, Texas. Can we at least bring that story back up?
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