Seneca who?

Kansas coach Mark Mangino isn’t too worried about Iowa State quarterback and Heisman hopeful Seneca Wallace. He simply won’t let the senior play.

Florida State's Kendyll Pope, left, and Jerel Hudson, right, converge on Iowa State quarterback Seneca Wallace. Though stopped on this play, Wallace threw for 313 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for another TD in the Cyclones' 38-31 season-opening loss to FSU on Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium.

“We thought about welding the locker room door shut before the game and seeing if we could keep him in there,” Mangino said with a chuckle Tuesday at his weekly news conference. “I don’t think they’d allow us to do that.”

It’s easy to understand Mangino’s reluctance about starting his head coaching career in Ames, Iowa, on the opposite side of Wallace, the chaos-creating Cyclones quarterback.

Wallace was just a yard away from pulling out the biggest comeback in ISU history last weekend against then-third-ranked Florida State when he was stopped outside the goal line on the game’s final play at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.

“Contain Seneca Wallace. Man, that’s what you got to do,” said KU linebacker Greg Cole, who had a first-hand look at the quarterback while attending last weekend’s game. “The key to stopping Iowa State will be to contain Seneca Wallace.”

Easier said than done. Just ask the Seminoles.

A perennial defensive powerhouse, FSU managed to keep Wallace in check for the most part in the first half. But by the time the night was through, the former junior college All-American had amassed 313 yards on a 22-of-33 performance with two touchdowns and had rushed for another score.

“He’s a special guy,” said KU offensive coordinator Nick Quartaro, who was an assistant coach at Iowa State the previous four seasons. “You’ve certainly got to respect his abilities running and throwing. He’s underrated as a passer, but he can throw with the best of them.”

Kansas was the only team last season to see Wallace, a Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award candidate this season, when he wasn’t at the top of his game.

Iowa State quarterback Seneca Wallace, left, dives for the end zone as Florida State's Jerome Carter knocks Wallace out of bounds short of the goal line. Wallace was ruled out of bounds on the one-yard line on the penultimate play of Saturday's 38-31 loss to Florida State at Arrowhead Stadium.

In the Jayhawks’ next-to-last game, the crafty quarterback had his worst offensive outing of the season.

Wallace completed just five passes for 89 yards with one touchdown and an interception. He added 39 more yards rushing.

Of course, if Wallace who completed 167-of-269 passes for 2,044 yards and 11 touchdowns as a junior when he was the Big 12 Conference newcomer of the year never took a snap that day, the Jayhawks still would have been overmatched by Ennis Haywood’s career day.

Haywood rushed for 185 yards on 35 carries and stuck the ball in the end zone a personal-best four times making Wallace’s job as simple as not fumbling the handoff.

But ISU coach Dan McCarney isn’t ready to hype Wallace for the Heisman after his season-opening performance.

“I don’t believe in that,” McCarney said. “You go out and play. You earn respect and honor and credibility from people around the country with what you do, not by what you talk about.”

What Wallace has done, and what he’s capable of doing, makes the Jayhawks more than a little wary.

“When you have somebody out there like that, it can happen,” said cornerback Johnny McCoy. “He has a good arm and real good feet, so it’s hard to simulate him.”

“I don’t think anybody can stop him,” Mangino added. “We have to be able to keep him at bay. We have to play smart, assignment football.”