It will be a tamer Big 12 football conference this season.
Don’t expect all those shootouts that punctuated the 2008 and 2009 seasons, games that featured point-a-minute offenses and defenses that were literally panting by the fourth quarter.
There’s a general feeling that the spread is about to become dead. After a few years where defenders literally ran into themselves -- and 400- and 500-yard passing games became the norm -- defensive coordinators are finally getting a handle on how to defend it. Like other fads -- the wishbone and the option to name two -- the spread is starting to cycle out and you’ll probably see more teams returning to a traditional brand of football.
It’s a year of transition for the Big 12 and we’re not talking about the upcoming realignment. The conference will be considerably weaker, simply because of its exodus of players to the NFL.
The Big 12 North could produce just one team with a winning conference record. Nebraska would appear to be the only team capable of winning six or seven conference games. The Cornhuskers, who should go 5-0 against the North, get Texas at home, and also play rebuilding Oklahoma State and unpredictable Texas A & M for its Big 12 South games. Nebraska’s top North rival, Missouri, has to play in Lincoln and the Tigers have been potentially weakened by the indefinite suspension of running back Derek Washington.
The rest of the Big 12 North has that mediocre look. After Nebraska and Missouri, Kansas State appears to be the best of the rest, but a lot of that is predicated on Daniel Thomas. He’ll be as important to the Wildcat this year as Todd Reesing was to the Kansas Jayhawks last year. If Thomas would happen to go down, he’ll take the Wildcats’ hopes for a bowl game with him.
We actually like Iowa State to finish ahead of Colorado and Kansas. Th Cyclones are coming off a bowl season and have some nice skill players. Colorado will be bothered by the never-ending status of Dan Hawkins, who is probably coaching his final year. The Buffs have perhaps the toughest non-conference schedule in the Big 12 and most of its winnable games are on the road.
Then there’s KU, which just hopes to survive. The Jayhawks already have lost eight players to injuries or the criminal justice system. We really hope everything we hear about Turner Gill being a star recruiter is true, because KU needs its talent level restocked. There’s simply not many players here who would start for other Big 12 teams.
In the South, it’s still Oklahoma and Texas, with little separating the teams. But they have separated themselves from the rest of the conference, as Oklahoma State is down, Texas Tech is in transition, Texas A & M is an enigma and Baylor is still Baylor.
Look for a lot of competitive games from the middle-of-the-road teams, but the excitement level simply won’t approach past years.
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It will be a tamer Big 12 football conference this season.
Don’t expect all those shootouts that punctuated the 2008 and 2009 seasons, games that featured point-a-minute offenses and defenses that were literally panting by the fourth quarter.
There’s a general feeling that the spread is about to become dead. After a few years where defenders literally ran into themselves -- and 400- and 500-yard passing games became the norm -- defensive coordinators are finally getting a handle on how to defend it. Like other fads -- the wishbone and the option to name two -- the spread is starting to cycle out and you’ll probably see more teams returning to a traditional brand of football.
It’s a year of transition for the Big 12 and we’re not talking about the upcoming realignment. The conference will be considerably weaker, simply because of its exodus of players to the NFL.
The Big 12 North could produce just one team with a winning conference record. Nebraska would appear to be the only team capable of winning six or seven conference games. The Cornhuskers, who should go 5-0 against the North, get Texas at home, and also play rebuilding Oklahoma State and unpredictable Texas A & M for its Big 12 South games. Nebraska’s top North rival, Missouri, has to play in Lincoln and the Tigers have been potentially weakened by the indefinite suspension of running back Derek Washington.
The rest of the Big 12 North has that mediocre look. After Nebraska and Missouri, Kansas State appears to be the best of the rest, but a lot of that is predicated on Daniel Thomas. He’ll be as important to the Wildcat this year as Todd Reesing was to the Kansas Jayhawks last year. If Thomas would happen to go down, he’ll take the Wildcats’ hopes for a bowl game with him.
We actually like Iowa State to finish ahead of Colorado and Kansas. Th Cyclones are coming off a bowl season and have some nice skill players. Colorado will be bothered by the never-ending status of Dan Hawkins, who is probably coaching his final year. The Buffs have perhaps the toughest non-conference schedule in the Big 12 and most of its winnable games are on the road.
Then there’s KU, which just hopes to survive. The Jayhawks already have lost eight players to injuries or the criminal justice system. We really hope everything we hear about Turner Gill being a star recruiter is true, because KU needs its talent level restocked. There’s simply not many players here who would start for other Big 12 teams.
In the South, it’s still Oklahoma and Texas, with little separating the teams. But they have separated themselves from the rest of the conference, as Oklahoma State is down, Texas Tech is in transition, Texas A & M is an enigma and Baylor is still Baylor.
Look for a lot of competitive games from the middle-of-the-road teams, but the excitement level simply won’t approach past years.
