I'm not saying you guys are "also-rans"... but, well, I guess they're saying it:
Athlon Sports
Published: June 14th, 2006
Bob Stoops found himself in a role reversal last fall, sounding off about “next year,” after Texas toppled his Sooners 45–12, ending five years of Oklahoma dominance in the Red River Rivalry.
One game, Stoops called it. One year. Nothing more.
“We’re going to be a lot better next season,” Stoops said. “No question.”
And the Sooners should be, with Adrian Peterson again healthy and one of 14 players who started at least five games a year ago. But good enough?
Texas turned that October triumph into a springboard to the national championship. Confidence soars. “Our guys did not come out of the national championship game complacent,” says UT coach Mack Brown, who finally shook a tiresome tag of super recruiter/sub-par coach.
OU-Texas is a series significant for its streaks. Over the last 75 years, the series features 13 winning streaks of three games or longer. The Horns own two eight-game runs. OU’s won six straight once and five in a row two other times.
So there’s history. But back to the here and now. The Sooners seem superior, on paper, over Texas and the rest of the Big 12.
Rhett Bomar led OU to wins in six of its final seven games as a redshirt freshman and appears capable of seizing the title of the league’s top quarterback. Behind Bomar and Peterson and a revamped defense, the Sooners could surge back into national title contention.
Still, don’t dismiss Texas or Brown or his famed recruiting classes. The Longhorns will trot out talent, some of it proven, like running back Jamaal Charles and defensive linemen Tim Crowder and Frank Okam.
And don’t completely dismiss the North, where Nebraska looks ready to return pride to its program and its division. The Cornhuskers, who return quarterback in Zac Taylor, are finally putting the pieces in place to fully employ Bill Callahan’s offense.
The rest of the North is shaky, with Iowa State rebuilding on defense and Colorado, Kansas State, Kansas and Missouri in transition at quarterback. Colorado and Kansas State are also transitioning to new coaches.
Behind the South’s Big Two, Texas Tech remains a factor under Mike Leach, the only coach in the conference with wins over both OU and Texas. Leach is grooming a new quarterback for his system, but what’s new? Can Texas A&M get it going under Dennis Franchione? Can Oklahoma State under Mike Gundy? And what about Baylor, which made a move up — albeit modestly, to fifth place in the South?
Who’s Under Center?
The roll call of veteran Big 12 quarterbacks is brief. Nebraska’s Zac Taylor. Oklahoma’s Rhett Bomar. Iowa State’s Bret Meyer. Baylor’s Shawn Bell. Oklahoma State’s Bobby Reid. End of roll. And in many of the league’s seven remaining locales, the starting quarterbacks are undecided.
The high-profile position battle carries on at Texas, where a replacement for Vince Young is needed. Redshirt freshman Colt McCoy and true freshman Jevan Snead are the candidates, with both expected to play, at least early.
Change is nothing new at Texas Tech, where the Red Raiders will send out a new quarterback for the fifth straight year. Who’s next, however, is the question in Lubbock. Sophomore Graham Harrell and freshman Chris Todd both played well in the spring, completing a combined 44-of-50 passes for 390 yards in one spring scrimmage. Harrell is the favorite to win the job. Competition also rages at Colorado and Kansas State.
Texas A&M, with sophomore Stephen McGee; Missouri, with sophomore Chase Daniel; and Kansas, with redshirt freshman Kerry Meier, appear set with their new starters.
Spring Fever
Offseason? What offseason? Spring games across the Big 12 played to throngs of fans, highlighted by the 57,415 who showed up at Nebraska’s annual Red-White affair. “No place in the country has this,” Nebraska linebacker Steve Octavien said. “It’s a game atmosphere to us.”
The Huskers indeed led the league in spring game attendance, but crowds were heavy across the conference. Texas drew 41,000 and Texas A&M had 31,000.
ESPN showed up in Norman, where Oklahoma entertained 30,000 of their own, as well as a national television audience. Kansas State also drew 30,000 to its game, which capped a weekend that included a golf tournament, auction, barbecue challenge, carnival, fan festival and battle of the bands. “The focus is to bring everybody to town and make this a destination weekend,” says Kansas State associate athletic director Laura Tietjen. “If you’re a K-Stater, we want you to put this on your calendar every year.”
Oklahoma State, emphasizing its game as a welcome-back weekend for former players, played before a record 15,000. And attendance was up elsewhere, with 9,400 at Missouri and 5,200 at Kansas.
The football wasn’t all for the fans. Don’t think coaches recognize opportunity? Some 80 recruits were among the massive crowd at Nebraska.
Now In Charge
The league’s two new coaches, Ron Prince at Kansas State and Dan Hawkins at Colorado, will operate under contrasting expectations. Prince faces a daunting task: following local legend Bill Snyder, architect of the “Manhattan Miracle.”
Most Buffs fans, however, probably welcome change after all the controversy and scandal that accompanied the Gary Barnett era in Boulder. Hawkins arrived with a pristine reputation and a promise of exciting offense, after his Boise State teams lit up scoreboards. The latter may take a while, with Colorado seeking playmakers at quarterback and wide receiver and lacking speed.
But Hawkins is creative, witnessed by the first play of the spring game — a reverse.
“I’m used to scoring a lot of points,” Hawkins says. “The learning curve has been steep ... but the buy-in was great. The kids worked hard at it.”
Prince has players to work with, as the Wildcats return 41 lettermen and 16 starters from last year’s team. Of course, that team finished 5–6.
Extra Points
Oklahoma State’s hopes to take off in the spread offense might revolve around transfer wide receiver Adarius Bowman. A former U.S. Army All-American who started his career at North Carolina, Bowman should take pressure off fellow wideout D’Juan Woods...
A crowded backfield didn’t bother Mack Brown in the spring. The Longhorns worked a herd of running backs — Selvin Young, Jamaal Charles and Henry Melton — and split reps between two quarterbacks, Jevan Snead and Colt McCoy. Brown suggests he’ll make the most of the overflowing talent and play everybody. We’ll see...
Oklahoma has hit on many position switches under Bob Stoops. Now the Sooners seem to have a home run with Reggie Smith shifting from safety to cornerback, offering the a shutdown defender who will allow the overall unit to be more aggressive...
Baylor is going radical on offense, adopting a spread passing attack comparable to Mike Leach’s in Lubbock. Bears coach Guy Morriss, continuing his effort to turn around a struggling program, might need to take some chances to advance in the rugged South Division. “With a little more production out of our offense, we could have gone to a bowl,” Morriss says.
