Long before his team defeated Texas for the first time and then again a year later, second-year Kansas State football coach Ron Prince scored a head-turning victory. He charmed quarterback Josh Freeman of Kansas City, Mo., into de-committing from Nebraska and signing on with the Wildcats.

Instantly, Prince gained respect as a recruiting force. The victories over Texas made him a respected coach of a team ranked 24th in the nation.

Meanwhile, Freeman has come a long way from the confused quarterback who threw three interceptions, was sacked four times and fumbled three times in last November’s 39-20 loss to Kansas University at Memorial Stadium. He hasn’t thrown an interception the past two weeks. He threw 19 in his first 12 games.

“It was just one of those nights,” Freeman said of the KU game. “It’s not like I felt off. Stuff was going on left and right. I didn’t know what happened, where it was coming from. There was just stuff going on.”

How would Freeman explain his improvement?

“Just feeling more comfortable on the field, being more patient,” Freeman said.

Asked to explain his role in the Kansas State offense, Freeman said, “I just manage the game. I just get the plays called, get the ball to the playmakers and watch them score.”

Doesn’t he consider himself a playmaker?

“Not really,” he said. “I just throw it to them, throw it to Jordy (Nelson), throw it to Deon (Murphy), let them do what they do.”

Freeman knows his role, and it’s a limited one.

Kansas sophomore quarterback Todd Reesing plays a far bigger role in his offense for a good reason. He’s more advanced at this point in his career than the much bigger Freeman. Reesing has more ways to hurt an opponent, is a better improviser and at this point is a better quarterback than Freeman.

Both passers have strong arms, but Reesing’s long ball is more accurate, which is why he throws downfield more often than Freeman. Reesing, blessed with such an uncanny pocket presence that enables him repeatedly to side-step a rush in the nick of time, forever keeps his eyes downfield, doesn’t give up on the home run ball until it becomes too risky. Quarterbacks with more mobile feet often think more quickly as well. A 6-foot-6, 250 pound muscular quarterback, Freeman calls to mind Drew Bledsoe, whereas the 5-foot-11, 200-pound Reesing falls from the Doug Flutie tree. It took Flutie far longer to get a shot at the NFL because of size-bias, but anyone with a brain choosing sides would take Flutie over Bledsoe to win a big game.

Comparing Freeman and Reesing statistically wouldn’t be fair to Freeman because he has faced far better competition than Reesing, whose relief efforts in 2006 came against Colorado, Iowa State and a solid Missouri team.

Still, it is interesting to note that Reesing has an average gain of 9.4 yards per attempt in his career, Freeman 6.3 yards. Even more telling, Reesing has thrown 14 touchdown passes and four interceptions, compared to nine touchdowns and 19 picks for Freeman.

The touchdown/interception numbers suggest that those lucky enough to watch the game in high-definition (Sunflower Broadband Channel 236) might notice beads of sweat on Freeman where goose bumps grow on Reesing.