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Three early looks this week:

Kansas State -2 over Kansas

The Wildcats answered a lot of questions with their solid performance at Texas A&M last week. KSU was beaten soundly at home by Fresno State in the second week of September and were not very impressive in beating an overmatched UL-Lafayette team in following game either. First year starting QB Dylan Meier was just 4-of-10 with an interception in Fresno loss before being benched. His start at Texas A&M was his first ever on the road and first vs a Big 12 opponent. Meier finished the game completing 29-of-45 passes for 246 yards and threw to eight different receivers. Masterful head coach Bill Snyder definitely had a productive BYE week as it was by far his new QB's best career performance. In addition to good stats, Meier also exhibited toughness and leadership that had not been seen before. KSU lost the game but showed heart in coming back from multiple double digit deficits to get within as few as 5 in the 4th quarter. The Wildcats were their own worse enemy with three fumbles on their own 12, 5, and 2 yard line all of which led to Texas A&M touchdowns. One occurred with KSU up 7-0 in the first quarter and another in the second half shortly after KSU had narrowed the lead to 21-17. In both instances KSU had seized momentum of the game but gave it back and then some with the fumbles. KSU has owned this series winning and covering 10 straight. Snyder has shown little mercy for instate opponent outscoring the Jayhawks 146-to-12 in last three meetings. KU is starting to field a competitive program and it will be important that KSU continues its dominance for recruiting and bragging rights. I look for KSU to continue to move forward off last game while KU is battling confidence issues after three straight losses. KSU head coach Snyder is 7-3 ATS as a road favorite the past three seasons and is 27-15 ATS all time following a straight up loss.

Vanderbilt -6 over Rutgers

With 21 returning starters and an experienced QB, there were high expectations for this years Vandy team. They could have easily won 2 of their first 3 games but really could not catch any breaks. They had a key turnover, two key bad calls, and gave up a lead late at Ole Miss. They then fell just short at Navy who is now 5-0 despite two costly fumbles. Both games were lost by a combined 6 points. They finally exercised their demons last week with a convincing 31-13 win over Mississippi State. Vanderbilt will now look for their second straight win of the season against a banged up Rutgers team. The Scarlet Knights are 2-2 but have not won a game that they did not benefit from a defensive touchdown in. They upset Michigan State in season opener but then lost to I-AA opponent New Hampshire and followed that up with a narrow win over Kent State despite being outgained yardage wise. They came off a BYE week to face Syracuse in last game and gave up a whopping 501 yards to a Syracuse offense that had averaged only 270 yards per game coming in. Rutgers got very little push from their offensive line (3 yards per carry) and was only able to stay in the game thanks to a horrible, banged up Syracuse secondary that was leaving the same receivers and same plays open time after time. As of this writing, Rutgers has four offensive starters listed as questionable for this game: WR Daniels, RB Leonard, WR Tucker, and OL McDonald. I still do not think Vanderbilt has played their best football yet and finally getting a win might do wonders for their psyche.

UL Lafayette pick over New Mexico State

ULL head coach Rickey Bustle was offensive coordinator at Virginia Tech for six years before coming here. He is in his third season and has instituted his own version of "Beamer Ball." Like Virginia Tech, the Ragin Cajuns emphasize special teams and fundamentals. Dating back to last season, ULL has won 7 of their last 10 games with only losses coming at Southern Miss (last year), at Louisiana Tech by 4, and at Kansas State by 20. The performance at Louisiana Tech this year was impressive as they led the game in the 4th quarter. The Cajuns feature a confident sophomore QB in Jerry Babb who can beat teams with both his arm and feet. He is experienced with 9 starts as a redshirt freshman last year. He had his best game of the season last week at Florida International completing 30-of-42 passes in a 43-34 win. He has already passed for 1,116 yards and ran for 239 (6.1 average) this season. NSMU is coming off two consecutive beatings by bitter rivals New Mexico and UTEP. They have shown very little life in the two games losing 31-3 to the Lobos and 45-0 to the Miners last week. NMSU starting QB Buck Pierce (shoulder) played only sparingly in last game but UTEP starter Jordan Palmer left the game very early with a concussion after completing three of three passes and it was still a blowout. NMSU head coach Tony Samuel may be on his way out and the Aggies got more bad news on the injury front with both starting LB's Cotrell and Glover not finishing the game. Samuel called them the anchors of the defense and hoped to get at least one back in time for this game. ULL has covered four straight road games and look to stay undefeated in Sun Belt play.