Daniel Thomas spent his junior college career playing quarterback. Yet, when Bill Snyder watched film of the Kansas State running back, he didn't have much knowledge as to what he could do at the position.

"When they brought me tape I think they had him playing wide receiver," said the K-State coach. "I didn't see him playing quarterback. I just knew that everybody was extremely high on him.

"I did see him play a few snaps — there wasn't enough there to really advance an opinion on how good of a quarterback he would have been."

It defined Thomas' career. In high school, he spent the first three years of his career trapped at receiver, where he was unable to showcase his talents because his team ran the Wing-T offense. He was always an athlete without a defined position. During his senior season, he was moved to quarterback, where he excelled, especially as a runner.

But when Thomas arrived at K-State, Snyder wasn't exactly sure what to do with him.

"When he came, we had him do some things in order to kind of identify whether we thought he could or couldn't play (quarterback)," Snyder said Tuesday. "I think I felt more strongly about him being a quarterback than he did.

"I heard somebody say this on a couple occasions — that he came here wanting to play quarterback and I'm not convinced that's the case. I haven't asked him, but I think he wanted to be a running back."

It'd be difficult to debate the decision to play him in the backfield. Thomas is coming off his best game in a Wildcat uniform, after rushing for 185 yards on 24 carries to help lead his team past in-state rival Kansas Saturday. He has 1,087 rushing yards on the season, ranking eighth in school history for rushing yards in a single season and became the fourth fastest in school history to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark.

He leads the conference in rushing yards, touchdowns, yards per game and 100-yard games. His 108.70 yards per contest rank 17th nationally among running backs.

"I like that he is a pretty physical running back," Snyder said. "He has reasonably good size but as he demonstrated this weekend, he's got a major motor that can keep things going. He stays on his feet well.

"He's gotten better as the season has progressed. Some of that comes from understanding the system a little bit better, some of it comes from just the experience. Some of it from the daily practice routine. But his development has been very good. He's playing well."

Snyder admits there is still progress to be made for his star back, but don't look for the K-State coach to change anything at the moment. As the adage goes, if it's not broke, don't fix it.

"I'm not gonna mess with him," he said. "Nobody else is either."