Kansas State’s Collin Klein and the Tim Tebow comparisons

The comparisons between Kansas State’s Collin Klein, a Heisman Trophy candidate, and former Florida star Tim Tebow, who won the Heisman in 2007, are not lost on people.

Both are big, physical, run-first quarterbacks who aren’t the prettiest of passers. They are also humble, strait-laced Christian fellows who are known as fierce competitors.

Their statistics may end up similar too.

In 13 games during his Heisman-winning season, Tebow passed for 3,286 yards and 32 touchdowns with six interceptions, completing 66.9% of his throws. He also ran for 895 yards and 23 touchdowns.

These are Klein’s 13-game projections: 2.708 yards passing with 17 touchdowns and three interceptions; 1,008 yards and 13 touchdowns rushing.

Of course, Klein’s most important number is his team’s 9-0 record. Tebow’s was 9-4.

All Klein needs now is a signature move like Tebowing.

We suggest that it not be re-Kleining.

Poetry in motion

Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o may or may not win the Heisman Trophy, but in some places he embodies something bigger.

Wrote Joseph Goodman in the Miami Herald: “Te’o isn’t just the most outstanding player in the country this season, he’s the heart and soul of everything we want the sport to be, a glimmer of hope amid the scrap yard of moral and educational decay that is college football.”

Home sick

Was Notre Dame’s three-overtime squeaker over unheralded Pittsburgh that much of a surprise?

OK, yes, it was. But consider: The Fighting Irish have won their five games at Notre Dame Stadium by a total of 23 points. Away from Notre Dame Stadium, their average margin of victory is 28 points.

Stand-up guy

Maryland didn’t get a win against Georgia Tech, but it accomplished one goal: The Terrapins’ quarterback was upright at the end of the game.

Shawn Petty, a freshman linebacker pressed into duty because each of the team’s four scholarship quarterbacks sustained season-ending injuries, completed nine of 18 passes for 115 yards and a touchdown with one interception, and ran for 24 yards in 17 carries, fumbling twice. Petty, who is 6 feet 1, 230 pounds, was an option quarterback at Roosevelt (Md.) High.

Maryland’s string of injuries at the position went like this: C.J. Brown sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in August; Perry Hills suffered a similar injury Oct. 20 in a game against North Carolina State; Devin Burns sustained a broken foot in the same game; then, last week, yet another ACL injury took out Caleb Rowe.

Tinted loss

Minnesota’s Golden Gophers broke out some purple accents — various wristbands, socks, sleeves, towels, ribbons and stickers — to their maroon and gold uniforms in recognition of national epilepsy month, a nod to Coach Jerry Kill, who is among 2.2 million people nationwide who suffer from seizures.

Unfortunately for Minnesota, it was also left with a few purple bruises by Michigan, which won the game, 35-13, even without quarterback Denard Robinson, who was sidelined by an elbow injury.

Animal instinct

Stanford played at Colorado’s Folsom Field on Saturday for the first time since 1990, when Cardinal Coach David Shaw was a Stanford player. He remembers the experience well: “I was the first guy out of the locker room,” he told reporters last week, “and the first thing I saw was Ralphie coming full speed with those people barely hanging on.”

Ralphie, you probably know, is Colorado’s mascot — a massive buffalo who charges onto the field before games. “The rest of the team is trying to come out,” Shaw recalled, “and I’m trying to go back in.”

One-liners

Texas’ 31-22 win over No. 20 Texas Tech ended a string of nine consecutive losses by the Longhorns to teams ranked in the Associated Press top 25.... Army quarterback Trent Steelman ran for 101 yards — moving past Glenn Davis into third place on West Point’s career rushing list — and passed for 100 yards as the Black Knights ended a 13-game losing streak against other service academies with a 41-21 win over Air Force.... Tulsa had won seven straight after an opening loss this season before losing to Arkansas, 19-15, extending what is now an 18-game losing streak against the Razorbacks.

mike.hiserman@latimes.com

Times wire services contributed to this report.