1. The league’s top defenses still have a lot to prove. Texas and Oklahoma were wholly unimpressive in their debuts, although Texas’ mistakes weren’t nearly as costly. Of the three supposedly elite defenses in the Big 12, Oklahoma looked the worst, giving up 341 yards and two touchdowns through the air to Utah State’s Diondre Borel . Meanwhile, Nebraska gave up 179 yards on the ground to Western Kentucky in a performance coach Bo Pelini called “an absolute embarrassment.” Texas wasn’t gashed as badly against Rice, and gave up just 219 total yards, but the Longhorns defensive backs missed a handful of big plays. All three have to get a lot better to equal either of their 2009 editions. 2. The most impressive team in Week 1: Oklahoma State. Dana Holgorsen’s Air Raid went nuts on Saturday night, racing all over the field at Boone Pickens Stadium for 544 yards and 65 points — 38 in the first half. Kendall Hunter ran for four touchdowns and the Cowboys won the turnover battle 2-0. The Cowboys made fans a little nervous after letting Washington State inch to within 17-10 from an early 17-0 deficit, but Oklahoma State answered with the game’s next five touchdowns to put the game … uh … out of reach. 3. Hes baaa-aack. Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin once again showcased his big-play capability, rushing for a 30-yard touchdown and throwing for two more — a 68-yarder to Brad Taylor and a 23-yarder to Terrance Williams . He completed 19 of 36 passes for 242 yards and ran for 59 yards on six carries, a 9.8 yard average. 4. Kansas? Well, they’re just not very good. Hard to envision a worse start for Turner Gill at Kansas. At least Ole Miss’ 49-48 loss to an FCS team in double overtime was fun to watch. The Jayhawks 6-3 debacle had to be painful for fans watching at home and even more so for those in attendance. It’s hard to find many positives from a mistake-laden performance at home against the Bison, who went 3-8 last season. I’ll try: My preseason prediction of the Jayhawks as the Big 12’s most improved team at season’s end is looking pretty good. There’s nowhere to go but up, but it’s still hard to believe how far Kansas has fallen since a BCS bowl win in 2007. I got a few complaints after I pegged the Jayhawks at No. 12 in my preseason power rankings . I doubt I’ll get any when they’re right back there again on Tuesday morning. When Kansas suits up next weekend against No. 19 Georgia Tech, it will have been over 11 months (Oct. 10, 2009 vs. Iowa State) since the program has recorded a win. 5. I was 100 percent wrong about Kendall Hunter. It’s easy to forget how good a guy can be when he struggles for so long like he did last year. The ankle injury must have affected him longer and more than anyone thought. You heard all spring and preseason about how Holgorsen thought Hunter was even better than he had been told, and Hunter validated all of that on Saturday night. Dominant, unstoppable, whatever. Use all the hyperbolic terms you want.
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What we learned in the Big 12
Filed under Football by on Sep 5th, 2010. Comment. 
Preseason camps are about half gone. Opening weekend is less than two weeks away, and it’s just over a week away for teams like Iowa State. But plenty has been resolved in camps so far. Here’s the best of what we know: 1. Three quarterback battles have been won. Two (Kansas State and Nebraska) have yet to be decided, but Tyler Hansen won the job over Cody Hawkins at Colorado. Kale Pick beat out Jordan Webb at Kansas. Taylor Potts beat out Steven Sheffield in an epic duel at Texas Tech between two seniors who could start for about anyone in the conference. 2. Nebraska and Kansas have been hit hardest by injury. Nebraska lost linebacker Sean Fisher and utility lineman Mike Smith for the season, each with a broken leg. Backup cornerback Anthony Blue will also miss the season with a torn ACL. Tight end Dreu Young also required back surgery and may miss up to the entire season. None figured to be game-changers, but without them, the Huskers depth suffers, leaving them more reliant on less experienced players. That’s not the case in Lawrence, where Turner Gill will coach his first season without Huldon Tharp, one of the conference’s best linebackers and one of his most exciting young talents. Backup running back Rell Lewis will miss the season with a knee injury, as will offensive lineman Jeff Spikes, who had a chance to start. 3. Gill: What have you done for me lately? Turner Gill cares not about your recruiting stars, Jayhawks. Toben Opurum was the Jayhawks leading rusher as a freshman, with 554 yards. As one of the nation’s best fullbacks, he came to Kansas because Mark Mangino planned to let the 6-foot-1, 240-pounder play running back. He was injured in the spring, but returned to full strength by preseason camp. Unable to crack the depth chart at running back, he’s been moved to linebacker to help solve the Jayhawks’ depth problems at the position. Meanwhile, two-year starter at center Jeremiah Hatch was sent to the bench in favor of senior captain Sal Capra, who played both guard positions last year. 4. Iowa State is even more huggable. The team rallied behind rookie head coach Paul Rhoads in 2009 and raced to a seven-win season after just five wins in the previous two seasons combined. This fall, one of the teams practices was canceled so the players could sandbag the athletic facility to prevent damage from a major flood in Central Iowa. To do the team’s laundry, team managers had to travel nearly 20 miles to the nearest source of fresh water. 5. Robert Griffin’s arm isn’t rusty. The Bears sophomore quarterback has strung together two masterful scrimmages through the air, completing 33 of his 44 passes for three touchdowns and one interception. He has yet to prove he can run with the same explosiveness he showed as a freshman, but coach Art Briles isn’t going to be getting Griffin hit many more times than is necessary. 6. Texas is talking up its defense. Coach Mack Brown isn’t keeping quiet about his expectations for his defense in 2010. “”I do think this could be our best defense,” Brown told the Dallas Morning News last week , noting health and depth as variables. “We should be really, really good on defense.” The Longhorns already ranked No. 3 nationally in total defense last year, but bring back one of the nation’s best secondaries and perhaps the best and deepest group of defensive ends anywhere.
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Big 12: What we know with two weeks to go
Filed under Football, News by on Aug 23rd, 2010. Comment.
Markelle Martin sees a lot of good from 2009. So do his coaches. His career day to close the season, a nine-tackle, one pass break-up crescendo from an impressive sophomore campaign, tops the list. But Martin sees a lot of missed opportunity in his 11 pass break-ups on the year. Oklahoma State obviously never led in its 27-0 Bedlam loss to Oklahoma, but Martin thinks they should have. Trailing 3-0 in the second quarter, quarterback Landry Jones ‘ pass to the flats was tipped and Martin stepped in. But what should have been seven points and a 7-3 Cowboys lead in Norman resulted in just a wasted down. Martin went on to finish the season without an interception. “That could have changed the game — the momentum from that play,” Martin said. Instead, Oklahoma finished that drive with a touchdown to take a 10-0 lead. This year, he wants to turn those pass break-ups into turnovers, make those plays and snatch that momentum. “I focused a lot over the summer on ball drills and my hand-eye coordination,” Martin said. “We do a lot of ball drills now with [safeties] coach [Joe] DeForest, just attacking the ball.” Having a more complete knowledge of the Cowboys defense is helping Martin chase the coveted tag of “ballhawk.” He has defensive coordinator Bill Young to thank for that. Young, an Oklahoma State alum, brought his feared defense to Stillwater before the 2009 season. In 2007, Young helped Kansas win the Orange Bowl and the Jayhawks finished the year with the fourth best defense in the country. “I’ve made a lot of strides with coach Young. You have to be patient and you have to actually learn the defense from the outside in,” Martin said. “I know the responsibilities of the corners, the linebackers, the D-line. It made mature a lot more and make me more responsible for the players around me.” The Cowboys jumped from eighth to fourth in total defense under Young in Year 1. Martin was one of the reasons why. They’ll try to climb higher, past top defenses from Texas, Nebraska and Oklahoma in Year 2. If they do, Martin should once again earn plenty of credit. “We think he’s going to be a really special player,” Young said. “We’ve got two or three guys like him, and in the secondary, he’s really the ringleader of that group.” Martin’s already one of the team’s hardest hitters. He’ll try to become one of its biggest playmakers in his second time around as starter. “We’ve only had one scrimmage, but certainly in the time we’ve seen him this fall, he looks like an improved player,” Young said. “He looks bigger, he looks stronger, he looks faster, and certainly more experienced.”
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Missed chances motivate Markelle Martin
Filed under Football by on Aug 18th, 2010. Comment.
If there’s an exodus of five more Big 12 schools, the five remaining would be wise to remain together, according to a conference commissioner with experience dealing with expansion. The reason is simple: The five remaining schools — Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Baylor and Iowa State — would be due a huge payday and ultimately could salvage automatic berths to the NCAA tournament and possibly the BCS through expansion themselves. The commissioner, who didn’t want to be identified because he’s involved in the ongoing realignment of college athletics, said it would be critical for the leftover schools to maintain the Big 12 as an entity or corporation. “The assets, the amount of money that they would be due by exit fees back to the corporation would be huge,’’ said the commissioner. “Rather than dissolve the Big 12, they are better off as a Big 12 entity then moving to the Mountain West.’’ Colorado was the first to bolt the Big 12 last week, becoming the Pac-10’s 11th member. Nebraska followed later in the week to become the Big Ten’s 12th member. Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M are all mulling a potential offer to join the Pac-10 to form the Pac-16. A&M is also contemplating applying to become the SEC’s 13th member. But all of them aren’t ruling out staying in the Big 12 with the aforementioned five schools for a 10-team league. According to industry and network sources, that 10-team league would have more television value then a Pac-11 or Pac-12 (with Utah as the 12th). Regardless, the commissioner said the most likely remaining Big 12 schools could be due millions from each departing member, depending on how the legal side of each school works out the exit fees. The fee percentages change if the school gives a two-year notice or a one-year notice. Nebraska and Colorado are expected to join their new conferences for the fall of 2011. NCAA tournament appearance shares are paid going forward but stay with the conference if there is a change of membership. Schools don’t depart with that money, as was the case when three Big East schools left for the ACC several years ago. Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Iowa State and Baylor have so far appear to be ready to stay together. But that’s still a fluid situation and each member institution will still look for its best alternative if the other five depart — especially Kansas, which would be the most marketable to a power conference. A Kansas official told ESPN.com it has no plans on going to the Mountain West Conference and men’s basketball coach Bill Self has gone on record that the Jayhawks will be in a BCS conference. Meanwhile, the commissioner said that new Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott is taking a gamble if he doesn’t come back with Texas in an expansion model. If Scott is rebuffed by the Longhorns and thus by the rest of the Big 12 South schools and is forced to then just take Utah for the 12th member, it would be a major disappointment. Industry sources say that a Pac-12 that just adds Colorado and Utah doesn’t increase the value that much for the league in a traditional model of seeking a new television deal. The best-case scenario for the Pac-10 is to come home with Texas, a Pac-16 and a new television network that would rival the Big Ten Network. By the way, all 31 conference commissioners — including Scott, the Big Ten’s Jim Delany and the Big 12’s Dan Beebe — are scheduled to be in Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Monday night for the start of the Collegiate Commissioners Association’s annual meetings. The three-day meetings are sure to be interesting if the conference expansion moves are made mid-week in the middle of the meetings.
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Commish: Big 12 should exist regardless
Filed under Basketball by on Jun 14th, 2010. Comment.
What’s the matter with Kansas? Nothing, as far as the Big East is concerned. The expected breakup of the Big 12 offers the Big East a rare and valuable opportunity. For the past couple of years, league officials have known they needed to expand in football. Yet there weren’t any obvious candidates out there who would have made the conference stronger right away. Now, assuming Texas and most of the rest of the Big 12 South bolt for the Pac-10 (or Pac-16 or whatever it will be called), such teams as Kansas, Missouri, Kansas State and Iowa State will be left as BCS orphans. And the Big East would be wise to adopt them as quickly as possible. The geography, of course, is a problem. But not that big of a problem for a league that’s already in Chicago and Milwaukee. Here are some distances to consider: Lawrence, Kan., to Louisville: 560 miles Lawrence to Cincinnati: 632 miles Columbia, Mo., to Morgantown: 738 miles Ames, Iowa to Pittsburgh: 802 miles Tampa to Syracuse: 1,304 miles Louisville to East Hartford, Conn.: 876 miles So, really, the travel is not all that different than it is now, and the former Big 12 teams form natural rivals with each other. The Big East could form East and West Divisions, stage a championship game and have a legitimate 12-team conference that would keep its BCS tie-in. A Pittsburgh-Kansas State title game might not capture the nation’s imagination, but it’s a start. The league should act fast, because the Mountain West is eyeing these same teams, which is a major reason why that conference delayed a vote on adding Boise State earlier this week. Maybe the Big 12 leftovers fit well with teams like TCU and Colorado State, but the geography becomes even more troublesome when you start talking about the far western teams in that league like San Diego State and New Mexico. And while we know basketball is taking a backseat in expansion — actually, hoops is in locked in the trunk right now — we also realize that Kansas is a basketball school that takes great pride in its hardwood tradition. Do you think the Jayhawks would rather play basketball against the likes of Wyoming and Air Force or go toe to toe every week against Connecticut, Georgetown, Louisville, Syracuse, etc.? The Big East can’t yet offer the dollars that the Big 12 was paying out. But the league is exploring its own TV network, and think about the raised interest level in basketball games alone with the Big 12 schools on board. The Big East could also add St. Louis and Kansas City to its list of major metropolitan markets.
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Big East should look West
Filed under Basketball, Football by on Jun 11th, 2010. Comment.
1. Texas The defending champs will have one of the nation’s best defenses again, and perhaps its best secondary. Garrett Gilbert spent the spring validating his performance in the national title game, showing some of his near-limitless potential. The Longhorns won’t be easy to unseat in 2010, especially if they finally discover a running game. 2. Oklahoma Here’s why the Sooners are here: The gap between Oklahoma’s offense and Nebraska’s offense is wider than the one between the Sooners’ defense and the Huskers’ defense. If Oklahoma’s offensive line can show improvement next season, the Sooners won’t have trouble scoring with the amount of talent they have at the skill positions, talent that’s much better than Nebraska’s. 3. Nebraska The Huskers get Missouri and Texas in Lincoln and don’t see the Sooners, which has Big Red looking for a big season, but don’t count on another 10-win season if the offense doesn’t improve. The offense previewed it’s fall re-opening in the 33-0 bowl win over Arizona, but if the quarterback play isn’t solid, the re-opening could be a bad thing. With what could be the best defense in football again, and two solid backs in Roy Helu Jr. and Rex Burkhead , the Huskers’ floor is pretty high and the ceiling is even higher. 4. Missouri Home losses to Nebraska and Baylor ended any chance the Tigers had of winning the North in 2009, but they bring back a lot from last year’s eight-win team and have a lot of experienced talent at linebacker and receiver ready to replace the big names — Sean Weatherspoon and Danario Alexander — they lost from last year’s team. Blaine Gabbert has to show he’s ready to become a household name, and if he does, the Tigers could make a serious run at the North. 5. Texas A&M The Aggies kept almost the entire core from last year’s team, but remember, A&M still only won six games last season. It’ll be replacing three offensive linemen who could stop the Aggies’ skill position players — cumulatively the best in the conference — from being as productive as they could be. One of those replacements should be true freshman Luke Joeckel, but if the defense improves and the line re-establishes itself, the Aggies are South contenders. If not, they won’t be much better than a seven-win team. 6. Kansas State The Wildcats aren’t built to win 10 games just yet, but if Nebraska and Missouri stumble, they’ll be there to slip into the North conversation just like last season, when they were one upset win over the Huskers from a trip to Arlington. Carson Coffman took hold of the starting quarterback job in the spring, but he’ll need to keep it in the fall and be productive with his three new receivers to lighten the load on running back Daniel Thomas . If that happens, there’ll be more happy Saturdays than sad ones in Aggieville. 7. Texas Tech Injuries kept the Sticks vs. Potts debate from really heating up this spring, but the switch to a higher risk/reward strategy with an aggressive defense could be fun to watch next season. The Red Raiders are deep at running back and receiver, but look for the former to get more touches this fall than they have in over a decade. 8. Oklahoma State The Cowboys grabbed hold of Dana Holgorsen’s offense this spring, and Brandon Weeden grabbed hold of the starting role. Oklahoma State should have an impact player at each level of the defense in defensive end Ugo Chinasa, safety Markelle Martin and linebacker Orie Lemon, but they’ll need the rest of the D to solidify for the Cowboys to climb to a higher rung of the South ladder. 9. Iowa State Iowa State is getting better, but the tough schedule and young defense will make it difficult for the Cyclones to improve on their 7-6 record in 2009.
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Post-spring Big 12 power rankings
Filed under Football by on May 3rd, 2010. Comment.
The smart money here says that the Jayhawks are in the driver’s seat, with Texas sitting second and remaining a strong possibility. If the Longhorns miss on Peters, Isaiah Austin becomes the top target on the interior for the ‘Horns, in desperate need… Source: Burnt Orange Nation :: A Texas Longhorns Blog
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2012 Hoops Target Peters to Announce Wednesday
Filed under News by on Apr 19th, 2010. Comment.
Texas Texas veterans Kevin Lusson and Kevin Keyes both homered Sunday as the sixth-ranked Longhorns swept the three-game Big 12 series with Kansas University with a 10-4 victory over the Jayhawks at Disch-Falk Field. The Jayhawks were swept in a… Source: Lawrence Journal World
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UT baseball rips KU
Filed under Baseball, News by on Apr 12th, 2010. Comment.
3-point range. He averaged 10 points per game. Texas 10, Kansas 4: Kevin Lusson hit a grand slam and knocked in five runs in helping the Longhorns (26-7, 10-2 Big 12 ) complete a sweep of the visiting Jayhawks (19-13-1, 3-5-1). The Longhorns hold a… Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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TCU baseball sweeps Houston
Filed under Baseball, News by on Apr 12th, 2010. Comment.
The No. 6 Longhorns look to continue their five-game win streak with a three game series against the Jayhawks. First pitches are slated for 6:05 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
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Baseball series preview: Kansas
Filed under Basketball by on Apr 8th, 2010. Comment.
