While most people are moving on to preseason practice, rankings and key match-ups this football season, I Am The 12th Man has taken it upon themselves to suggest possible replacements for the Aggies when they bolt to become a middle of the pack team in the SEC. If the suggestions don't get any better than this then I gotta say that I'm really not interested.
While I pointed out that Air Force is the best expansion target for the Big 12 the other day after A&M leaves for the SEC (and I still believe that), I think conference realignment means you need to think outside the box. Adding a university from Nevada certainly qualifies as outside of the box thinking. While UNLV doesn't seem to offer much when looking at the traditional metrics for a realignment target (they aren't a football powerhouse, they lack a winning tradition, they don't attract a huge television audience, they aren't an academically elite institution), they offer a lot when you look beyond those metrics. - I Am The 12th Man
The Oklahoma State Cowboys ended their 2010 football season by playing the Arizona Wildcats. They'll face them again in their second game of the season.
Doesn't it seem like we just played these guys? If memory serves me, we kicked the crap out of them a mere 8 months ago. Either way, as part two of a three game series (we finish it up next year at Arizona) the Oklahoma State Cowboys welcome theArizona Wildcats to Boone Pickens Stadium for a Thursday night contest on September 8th. Am I the only one who enjoys the Thursday night ESPN games? I don't have any Friday classes this semester so I plan on drinking til I reach Aggie. - Cowboys Ride For Free
Iowa State has named a starting quarterback.
Junior College transfer Steele Jantz has been named as Iowa State's starting Quarterback for the upcoming season. Jantz emerged from a three man race that included last year's backup, Jerome Tiller, and redshirt freshman Jared Barnett. Tiller, who you probably remember as being "fairly competent" as a backup to an injured Arnaud during FUMBLEPALOOZA 2009, was ruled out for the season due to academic ineligibility. Coach Rhoads insisted that Jantz had already distinguished himself as the starter before news of Tiller's ineligibility had broken. This means that Barnett will be the backup signal caller for the Cyclones this season. - Clone Chronicles
The Kansas Jayhawks may be having a small problem with one of their biggest recruits.
Last week, several of us in the comments section noted a trend in some coaches' remarks regarding Brandon Bourbon. It would seem that, perhaps, the Kansas coaching staff has some concerns about Bourbon's toughness, and his ability to play through the everyday nicks and scratches that football players accumulate. Bourbon was a 4-star recruit, and viewed by many as the first "big get" of Turner Gill's Kansas career, so concerns of this nature before he's even played a game are noteworthy. - Rock Chalk Talk
The Longhorns aren't giving up on trying to get high school football recruits on their new network. Now their going for the rights to show "highlights" of some of the top prep stars in the nation.
Longhorn Network, ESPN, and University of Texas representatives participated in an NCAA summit on Monday expected to launch a review of the governing body's ruling that televising high school sporting events on school and conference networks violates NCAA bylaws.
Among the attendees were Dave Brown, the general manager of the Longhorn Network, Burke Magnus, the vice president of college sports programming for ESPN whose comments Friday sparked discussion of the possibility of showing high school football highlights on the Longhorn Network, Chris Plonsky, the women's athletic director and senior associate athletic director, as well as a Texas media consultant and the school's vice president for legal affairs. - Burnt Orange Nation
The meeting didn't go the way Texas had expected because the NCAA once again said, no. Look for a Longhorn temper tantrum any minute now.
They just keep trying and trying and trying. I'll definitely give them that. ESPiN and their UT propaganda machine were denied yet again in their never ending quest to feature
exclusively Longhorn recruitshigh school athletes on their soon to launch (and still yet to be picked up by any major cable provider even in the state of TX) Longhorn Network.Despite the first believed disappointing announcement, the news was quickly met with unexpected glee in Austin as this now means yet another replay of the 2005 championship game (Seriously, for your own sake, move on. It's been six years. Even you guys aren't this pathetic.) can now run in the place of any high school highlights. - Crimson And Cream Machine
The Texas Tech Red Raiders also have named a new starting quarterback.
In unsurprising news, QB Seth Doege was named as Texas Tech's starting quarterback (LAJ's Don Williams andRP.com's Travis Cram):
"Seth Doege, right now, is going to be our starter," Tuberville said. "Everybody pretty much knows that. That could change, depending on how he practices. We pretty much figured he'd be the guy that gets the reins early. But I want to keep the pressure on him and give the other guys a chance to throw their hat in the ring."
Williams article also states that QB Jacob Karam will run with the second team in Saturday's scrimmage. - Double T Nation
The Tigers are talking defensive tackles.
How important is a defensive tackle? Ask anybody who saw the last two Missouri-Nebraska games. Or, perhaps, ask anybody who saw Missouri play after Dominique Hamilton got injured last season. A good defensive tackle can eat up blockers, make a few plays, and open up the linebackers to be great. A great defensive tackle in a four-man line can almost serve as a one-man blitz, imploding the offensive line's interior and forcing quarterbacks and/or running backs to abandon the script without sending any more men toward the line of scrimmage. Strength at the defensive tackle position can make more of a difference than perhaps any other position on the defensive side of the ball. - Rock M Nation
Kansas State has to balance their offense after being run heavy the last few seasons. Bring on the Cats has a quick rundown of the offensive side of the ball.
There is nobody wearing No. 11 on the Kansas State roster, and there hasn't been a No. 11 in more than 25 years.
You see, the number was retired in honor of legendary Wildcat quarterbacks Lynn Dickey and Steve Grogan. It's the only retired number in K-State history.
So instead of profile an individual player today, I thought I'd take the opportunity to break down the Wildcat offense.
I'm starting with that unit because I think it's a little more well-defined than much of the defense.
I've spent the summer combing message board innuendo and the few credible articles that have been published in an attempt to develop a feel for what the K-State depth chart might look like when it's released next week. - Bring On The Cats