The early-in-his career play that portended greatness for former Kansas University linebacker Ben Heeney came against Kansas State at the end of the first half on Oct. 6, 2012. K-State couldn’t get a play off against KU, enabling the visitors to stay within a touchdown at halftime. The Wildcats went on to win 56-16, but the memory of Heeney’s play endures.

As a rule, Collin Klein had his way with the Jayhawks, which is one reason the play has such staying power. Klein, K-State’s 6-foot-5, 227-pound former Heisman Trophy candidate, started two games and appeared in reserve as a sophomore in the state rivalry game. He threw for three touchdown passes. No big deal. He destroyed the Jayhawks with his feet.

Klein rushed the ball 25 times for 268 yards with seven touchdowns vs. Kansas. He averaged 10.7 yards every time he ran the ball. Everything Kansas tried against Klein failed.

Three years later, K-State has another big running threat at quarterback, 6-4, 207-pound Joe Hubener. Nobody is comparing Hubener to Klein in any way, but his powerful running ability does give a defense a little something different to try to solve. Hubener has rushed for 501 yards and 11 touchdowns.

“All the things that they did with Klein in terms of the QB counters, I think that’s all pretty much identical,” Kansas defensive coordinator Clint Bowen said. “Where they’ve changed is the pass game is a little bit different with the two.”

Before starting for K-State this season, Hubener last had started a game at quarterback for the Cheney High junior varsity squad. He played mostly wide receiver and cornerback for the varsity and finished fifth in the state in the javelin.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that Hubener throws a better long ball than a short one. Javelin practitioners don’t spend time practicing putting just the right touch on short passes. They try to throw as far as possible every time.

Hubener has the arm to make teams pay for loading the box, but it seems worth the risk for Kansas to do so in this one. Even with extra attention paid to the run, it won’t be easy to stop the Wildcats.

Working for an offensive genius in head coach Bill Snyder, offensive coordinator Dana Dimel also has standout offensive line coach Charlie Dickey working under him.

“I will never go a year without giving their offensive line coach Charlie Dickey credit,” Bowen said. “If he’s not the best offensive line coach in America, he’s close. The way his offensive line has played year after year is really good and I think the guy deserves credit for it.”

An offensive line that carries out assignments with such precision is where it all begins for K-State, according to Bowen. An offensive attack so different from any other for which he prepares his defense complicates matters.

“Unless you have some sort of freak show who can play two gaps you need a body per gap,” Bowen said. “In a lot of their personnel groupings when you’ve got the tight end and the two fullbacks back there, there are nine potential gaps with the QB carrying the ball and he carries it well. So if you can’t find a way of eliminate gaps, which they make it very difficult to do because they do a good job of hitting both sides, running the counter one way, the power the other way, stretch, zone, all the run game with the QB, it makes it difficult.”

In a conference in which Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU and Texas Tech do such an effective job of spreading the field, facing K-State’s offense can require teaching some things from scratch.

“It’s a different world,” Bowen said. “I think this year we’ve seen one option play in a game and this Saturday we’ll see 10. It goes back to a lot of football we don’t really see a ton of until this week.”

Figuring out a way to stop Hubener from running wild while at the same time not burn the secondary with long passes would go a long way toward slowing down the offense of the Wildcats, who have had 50-plus scoring outputs in four of the past five Sunflower Showdown games.