Curse, what curse? Collin Klein appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week
Kansas State is experiencing a lot of firsts these days.
On Sunday, it was ranked No. 1 in the BCS standings for the first time in school history and Tuesday, Sports Illustrated debuted quarterback Collin Klein on its cover. Klein becomes the first-ever Kansas State football player to grace the magazine's cover.
And the attention is deserved if not overdue.
Klein has been the Heisman frontrunner for several weeks because of his dual-threat ability. Klein has 2,020 passing yards with 12 touchdowns and just three interceptions. He also has 748 rushing yards and 19 scores on the ground.
Should his team stay undefeated — and his numbers stay high — Klein should walk away with the bronze statue. But he's getting some stiff competition from Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, Oregon running back Kenjon Barner and Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o.
And, of course, there's the SI cover curse to worry about. While the curse is well-known throughout sports history, we can point to the last college football player who had a solo cover for SI — Oregon's DeAnthony Thomas. On Sept. 19, Thomas was heralded as the nation's fastest college football player. Through his first three games, he was averaging 17.53 yards per carry and had seven total touchdowns and was a Heisman candidate. Since the cover, things haven't been the same. In the last seven games, he had just four total touchdowns and has averaged double-digit yards per carry just once.
But don't worry Kansas State fans, we're sure that curse won't apply to Klein.
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