The top candidate for the Heisman trophy this year may have fallen out of the running this past Saturday -- and it had nothing to do with his play on the field.
Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein, who leads the nation in quarterback rating, was forced to leave the Wildcats 44-30 win against Oregon State in the third quarter after suffering an apparent head injury.
According to Dan Wetzel at Yahoo Sports, Klein suffered a concussion on a scoring drive in the third quarter in which he scored a touchdown. Following the score, Klein "could not recall the details of the drive, including the fact he scored. His helmet was immediately taken away and he did not return to the game. Kansas State led 38-17 at the time."
On Monday head coach Bill Snyder didn't say anything outright about the injury or if Klein would play next week against TCU.
"Hope so," Kansas State's coach said on the Big 12 coaches conference call, according to CBSSports.com. "I hope they all play."
Klein finished Saturday's game with 245 yards passing, 64 yards rushing and a touchdown. He was injured on a rushing play after getting tackled by Oregon State's Alex Elkins.
"In today's environment there is an awful lot of attention paid to (head injuries)," Snyder said. "There is certain verbal testing that they do, also they do some precondition testing."
Backup quarterback and redshirt freshman Daniel Sams entered the game for Klein and finished with 45 yards passing and seven rushes for 20 yards.
''Daniel did a great job,'' offensive lineman B.J. Finney said. ''He stepped right in and he knew what he needed to do. He was calling plays and checks, which were great checks. They were the same that Collin would have made.''
Klein entered the game as the front-runner for the Heisman trophy award. He has put up exceptional stats this year, passing for 1,875 yards and 12 touchdowns while completing over 71 percent of his passes.
''He obviously was injured or we wouldn't have taken him out,'' Snyder said.
Klein leads the nation with a 174.4 quarterback rating and has also rushed for nearly 700 yards and 17 touchdowns. Klein has only thrown two interceptions all season.
''Nobody knows what's going to happen. We're going to have to prepare like we do every week,'' said wide receiver Tyler Lockett to the Associated Press. ''I think he's going to be able to play, we just don't know.''
Kansas State is in the middle of its best season in over 10 years and is ranked No. 2 in the BCS standings behind Alabama. The Wildcats are 9-0 and 6-0 in the Big 12. Klein has been a big part of that success, accounting for over 60 percent of the team's offense this year.
''Collin was still a leader. He was on the sideline getting us going, especially when things weren't going our way,'' Lockett said. ''That's what I like about him, on and off the field. He's always a leader. Collin is someone you can always look up to.''
Kansas State has played well on offense and defense this year, scoring over 44 pints per game (5th in the nation) and allowing only 18 points per game (21st in the nation). Klein has contributed to the running game, which averages a staggering 224 yards per game.
The Wildcats have three games left this season, including back-to-back road games the next two weeks at TCU and Baylor. The team finishes the season against Texas at home.
