Kansas State's Bye Week Comes at a Good Time; Volleyball invades Lawrence

The staff put together a guide to butt-kicking, Bret Bielema-style; your benevolent despot Unboxed the Week Four polls and mused on how Stanford's win over USC impacted three teams, and the first half of this week's FEPO, which you should definitely read and even more definitely not use as a betting guide. Also, K-State released their new men's basketball uniforms, Jack Cantele was named the weekly Lou Groza Award Star of the Week, and Forbes released their list of the best universities to work for. BYU was #1, but K-State came in second.

The fortuitous timing of and opportunity for improvement during the bye week was the theme of all yesterday's local coverage. Kellis Robinett (via the Wichita Eagle), Ken Corbitt of the Capital-Journal, and Liz Heath at the Collegian all focused on the topic yesterday, largely because it was a key talking point during the weekly press conference.

Via the Hays Post: Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at K-State, writes about Joe Hubener and Kody Cook. Wilson places the two in the context of their backgrounds.

Sean Isabella at the Monroe News-Star reports on Skip Holtz's feelings about Tech's offensive game plan against K-State, describing it as "brilliant". Hard to argue.

ESPN's Chris Low riffs on the Bielema-Kingsbury feud, listing five other college coach feuds. There's no Bo Pelini/Bill Snyder in there, but Snyder/Mora is included alongside such classics as Fulmer/Spurrier, Meyer/Kiffin, Royal/Switzer, and Carroll/Harbaugh. Woof.

Josh Freeman has signed with the Brooklyn Bolts of the Fall Experimental Football League.

Just a reminder that today, airing on ESPN3, is the Big 12 opener for the Wildcats as they travel to Lawrence for a 6:30 pm match against the 15th-ranked Jayhawks. Kelly McHugh-Stewart talks about the match in today's Sports Extra.

A fourth suspect, 16-year-old Carson Buckley, was arrested in connection with the robberies that shut down campus three weeks ago.

And finally, your giggle for the day: a police chase in Barton County, near and around Ellinwood, resulted in the arrest of an unnamed driver. Barton deputies and Ellinwood police chased down and eventually disabled the driver's vehicle, which was, um, a stolen combine.