2008 KANSAS JAYHAWKS FOOTBALL
The Big 12 is loaded with top guns
This season might just be the year of the quarterback in the Big 12; at least seven of them could be candidates for all-conference honors
Zac Robinson sat in the corner of a crowded hotel ballroom in late July, arms folded, eyes politely focused on the microphones in front of him.
BY RUSTIN DODD by dodd@kansan.com
His 6-foot-3, 210-pound frame and orange shirt were a dead giveaway. Robinson looks like a starting quarterback. But if you saw the boyish, brown-haired Oklahoma State quarterback on the street, you'd probably need a Cowboy football program to recognize him.
Doesn't matter that Robinson was one of just three quarterbacks in the country to pass for 2,800 yards and rush for 800 yards last season. Doesn't matter that one of those other guys was named Tim Tebow, Florida's sophomore Heisman Trophy winner.
If Robinson played in any other conference, he'd probably be a household name. But Robinson plays in the Big 12, a conference where nearly every team owns a quarterback with prodigious talents and video game stats.
Most Big 12 coaches can't remember a time
when their conference - or any conference - was stocked with so many A-list quarterbacks. That may be because the Big 12 is treading into uncharted territory.
"There's at least eight in our conference that are very confirmed on the national level as far as their ability and have the resume to back it up," said Kansas State coach Ron Prince.
That was partly because Missouri's Chase Daniel and Kansas' Todd Reesing ignited a dual football renaissance among two of the nation's oldest rivals. Daniel was named First Team All-Big 12 by the Associated Press and was a Heisman Trophy finalist, and he's back for his senior season, attempting to top the 4,306 yards and 33 touchdowns he tossed in 2007.
Prince believes his own quarterback, junior Josh Freeman, is one of those eight. But like Robinson, Freeman was shut out of any postseason awards last season.
And it's not just a Big 12 north phenomenon. Texas Tech's Graham Harrell led the Red Raiders' explosive spread offense and finished first in the country with 48 touchdown passes in 2007. And all Oklahoma's Sam Bradford did during his freshman season was lead the
Reeing returns as well, of course, and Kansas' resident funslinger will try to duplicate a season where he earned Second Team All-Big 12 honors, while throwing for 33 touchdown passes and just seven interceptions.
country in quarterback rating, while tossing 36 touchdown passes.
Throw in Texas' Colt McCoy, Colorado's Cody Hawkins, Texas A&M's Stephen McGee and Nebraska's Joe Ganz and the Big 12 has 10 returning quarterbacks who started games in 2007.
--similar spread offenses, while Oklahoma, Texas, and Oklahoma State - among others all use elements of the spread.
Pelini, who was an assistant coach at Nebraska in 2003 and Oklahoma in 2004, remembered the black and blue ground offenses that ruled the league in the late 90s and early 2000s, when running backs such as Ahman Green, Ricky Williams, Cedric Benson and Adrian Peterson reigned over the conference.
But then in 1999, an assistant from Kentucky named Mike Leach took over the offensive coordinator position at Oklahoma and installed his pass-happy spread offense. Leach used as many as five wide receivers, attempting to stretch defenses all across the field.
"It's changed," Pelini said. "It's gone from option football to zone read and spreading the field and fast-break type offenses."
Bo Pelini hardly recognized the Big 12 when he took over the reins at Nebraska last winter.
One year later, Leach became the head coach at Texas Tech and took his offense with him. While it seemed a novelty at the time, eight years later Missouri and Kansas both employ
"The bottom line is every spread offense is different. And there's not one—there's very few that are the same," Pelini said.
"It's not just the Big 12, but it's college football in general," Pelini said.
Cartoonish offensive numbers have come with the spread, and those numbers have brought attention back to the quarterbacks.
And perhaps no quarterback in the Big 12 is grabbing more headlines than Missouri's Daniel. After being propelled into the national spotlight with a flurry of huge games last November, Daniel's mug was splashed on the cover of Sports Illustrated earlier this month, and the coaches named him preseason First-Team All-Big 12.
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So for now, Robinson will start the season in relative anonymity, another Big 12 quarterback with strong arms and dangerous legs in a conference loaded with them.
Robinson can scramble around the pocket, he can throw the deep ball and he's ready to get noticed. But as Robinson says, "You see a lot of guys around the conference like that."
Thursday,August-28,2008 www.kansan.com
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