Gaining turnovers is one of the key components to winning in the Big 12, and it has shown week after week.

Looking at Kansas State, its turnover ratio is four turnovers lost to 24 turnovers gained, tied for the best ratio in the country (+20). And its record: 9-0, 6-0 Big 12 with the No. 2 ranking in the BCS polls.

“They just asked me on the Big 12 teleconference ‘what’s going to be the secret to beating Kansas State?’: winning the turnover margin, which nobody seems to do,” said coach Paul Rhoads. “They’re crushing it. They’ve only given away four balls on the year. The Oklahoma game was the first game in two years where we’ve won the turnover margin and lost the game — it’s critically important.”

When speaking of such a “critically important” object to winning a game, players’ names begin to surface. Who are those players who come to mind?

ISU defensive back Durrell Givens is one of the first to be mentioned.

On the season so far, Givens has the most takeaways in the nation with eight, obtaining five fumble recoveries and three interceptions — two of which came on back-to-back drives against Oklahoma. Prior to their game against the Cyclones, the Sooners had only committed nine turnovers.

Givens also has as many turnovers to his name as five teams in the FBS — New Mexico State, South Florida, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt (all with eight each) and Buffalo (six).

Givens said there isn’t anything special about what he does in order to create chaos for opposing quarterbacks. “I do my assignment,” Givens said. “I get to the ball: I’m really ball-hungry. The offense doesn’t like that, when somebody’s trying to get the ball from them.”

Givens described himself as a ball hog. And as a defensive back, most players of that position don’t get their hands on the ball much and start running the other direction with it.

Yet Givens has been able make himself known in the defensive football world. He holds the lone nation’s top position in fumble recoveries.

Rhoads said Givens takes advantage of being in the right place at the right time and makes sensational plays on the ball. When push comes to shove in the Big 12, turnovers are the key to winning games, which Rhoads has preached since the season opener against Tulsa (when Givens had his first interception of the season).

“We got the six first-half points off of turnovers,” Rhoads said, speaking of the loss to Oklahoma on Nov. 3. “But the negative of that is it was only six points. But without them, we probably wouldn’t have any points.”

Rhoads very well could be right. Not only in the Oklahoma game alone, but in others as well. The Cyclones have scored a season total 37 points off of interceptions and fumbles the defense has created.

As the Cyclones enter the final three games of their regular season, the defense can’t back down. With two teams with winning records (Texas and West Virginia) ahead, a turnover-creating team will be essential for the Cyclones to get to six wins.