All the Big 12-2 Conference news that is and isn't fit to read...
And some other stuff.
Texas is just too touchy-feely. [Yahoo Sports]
Forget that " 'T' is for Texas" this fall. For the Longhorns, the "T" better be for toughness.
Coach Mack Brown was blunt when talking during the Big 12 Media Day event earlier this week: "I want us to get so we are a more physical football team from top to bottom."
Really? No. 5? [FoxSports]
The Texas D will be very, very busy this season. [CBS Sports]
Once again, the QB question looms. [Ft. Worth Star-Telegram]
Even though senior offensive lineman Mason Walters concedes that "it’s not like one guy has pulled away," he said most players hope the Longhorns will settle on one quarterback before the season starts.
"You don’t want to go back and forth," Walters said. "You don’t want to have a divided team in that regard." [Houston Chronicle]
Is Case McCoy the second coming of Major Applewhite? [AAS]
In a similar situation in 2001, I trumpeted a strong-armed Chris Simms over some freckle-faced guy named Major Applewhite, who was coming off a severe knee injury. Even staff insiders didn't think Applewhite would make it through an entire season, so Simms got the job and failed miserably in the biggest game of his career. Applewhite, in a relief role, couldn't quite pull off a fantastic comeback in the Big 12 title game against Colorado.
Applewhite's pluck and leadership were wasted on the bench that season. In a huge mistake by Brown, Applewhite didn't see the field at all in a 14-3 loss to Oklahoma, and Applewhite called me the Monday afterward, despondent and grasping for answers. I told him his coach had made his choice, and Major would remain second string.
I'm not suggesting the Second McCoy could be a Second Major, but it's worth exhausting the possibility.
The Big 12 is a stable Conference. [Houston Chronicle]
The grant-of-rights agreement, combined with about $20 million per school in TV revenues and a lucrative partnership with the SEC on the Champions Bowl, gave Bowlsby's claims of a long, bright Big 12 future some genuine credibility.
"I came into this conference skeptical," said Bowlsby, who left his job as Stanford's athletic director to take over for interim commissioner Chuck Neinas. "(But) I think we have a stability that is far better than the public perception."
There are some new rules in college football. [Tulsa World]
Yes, Kansas is just like Notre Dame. [Tulsa World]
Keep your couch safe. West Virginia QB Geno Smith has some advice for visiting fans: [NewsOK]
"We’ve got some rabid fans in Morgantown," Smith said. "I would suggest ... be friendly with them. If you get on their bad side, there’s no telling what they’ll do."
There is life without Brandon Weedon and Justin Blackmon. [CBS Sports]
Art Briles sees a bright future for the Bears. [FoxSports]
But are the recruits ever coming for a visit? [ESPN]
"When I talk to recruits, they're not asking, 'Coach, how are you doing, boy, sure would like to come visit,'" Briles said. "They're saying, 'Coach, tell me about RG3, let me know me how's he doing, how's he going to be, how's he going to do in the NFL?'"
There is a familiar last name on Baylor's roster. [San Antonio Express-News]
Randy Shannon is the Frogs new linebackers coach. [TCU Sports]
The Sooner defense just wasn't the same without Mike Stoops. [CBS Sports]
The world revolves around Sooner coach Bob Stoops. [Tulsa World]
The eight years I was on the Oklahoma beat from 2004-2011, Stoops and his handlers reeled in media access a little more each year, from no personal phone calls to doing away with the Sunday afternoon conference call to closing training camp and scrimmages to shuttling media into a post-practice waiting room during the season.
Each year, media got reduced access to the players, fewer interviews with the assistants, and less time with the $5 million man himself.
Nothing fazes Bob Stoops anymore, not even a player in a purple dress. [Tulsa World]
The Bears and the Frogs are playing nice in the Big 12 sandbox. [Frogs O War]
TCU should be renamed Texas Construction University. [Grantland]
Hi from TCU. Or “Texas Construction University,” to use the too-cute name circulating through the athletic department. By the time the Horned Frogs become a full-fledged Big 12 team this fall, their stadium will have been rebuilt. More important, their entire je ne sais quoi will have been rebooted. Today in our advanced college football studies, we look at the means by which a BCS-busting small school morphs into a $15 million-per-suite school. “One of the mottoes we have is not to do anything gaudy,” says Mark Cohen, TCU’s director of media relations. Well, of course not. We’re talking about college football here.
This the year of the married QB narrative. [NewsOK]
The Dallas Morning News polled readers on the all-time best football players in the Big 12. [Dallas Morning News]
Weltschmerz
We're Not Texas. A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin reminded everyone that the Aggies have separated from Texas. [FoxSports]
Former Aggie head coach RC Slocum was voted into college football's Hall of Fame. [FoxSports]
Texas A&M's school newspaper wants the Aggie athletic department to heed the lessons of the Penn State scandal. [The Batt]
New athletic director Eric Hyman and new head coach Kevin Sumlin must guide Texas A&M to restore its football glory but should know never to sacrifice the innocence of life nor the values of people over wins and loses.
Here at A&M, we live by the values of the Aggie Code of Honor. From the first day that a freshman walks on campus, it is instilled in our social fabric to never "Lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do." If a situation would ever come to cross at Texas A&M, I believe everyone would agree that our administration, our athletics department would stand by the code as we do and take action against victims and place human life over the value of a sporting program.
Get used to it, especially in the second half. Kevin Sumlin wants a new attitude. [Bryan-College Station Eagle]
Aggies win! [The Onion]
Everyone has something on Nick Saban. [Dr. Saturday]
Lane Kiffin isn't the man you think he is. [CBS Sports]
A four-team playoff is all you get. [Yahoo Sports]
Is there a correlation between the money spent on recruiting and recruiting rank? [Business of College Sports]
Big Brother Your coach is watching. Seminoles can't tweet. [College Sports Business News] And Cornhuskers can't, either. [FoxSports]
The PAC-12 leads the way in innovative offenses. [SI]
Thanks to its recent coaching additions, the Pac-12 now boasts the most diverse set of offenses of any conference in the country. Between Washington State's Mike Leach, architect of the unique Air Raid passing attack; Arizona's Rich Rodriguez, pioneer of the run-first spread offense; and Oregon's Chip Kelly, the reigning hurry-up and spread guru, the West Coast is now home to three of the sport's most innovative offensive minds of the past decade.
The Good, The Bad, The Sanctioned
PSU is prepared for the coming civil suits. [Deadspin]
Barry Switzer weighs in on the PSU sanctions. [Deadspin]
Was the penalty about justice or vengeance? [College Sports Business News]
Penn State University will most likely have to give the athletic department a loan to pay the NCAA fine. [USA Today]
What comes around, goes around. [Dr. Saturday]
Use any adage you want — "What goes around, comes around;" "Eye for an eye;" "Karma is a bitch;" "Do unto others…" — but there's an undeniable fact that when you do something undesirable to someone, something bad will eventually probably happen to you. (This is why I never laugh when people slip on ice no matter how hilarious it might be).
So when a New York Times story from 1987 started to make its rounds on the Internet (thanks to a tweet from @IllinoisLoyalty) regarding coaches poaching players off the SMU campus after the football program was hit with the NCAA's death penalty, it wasn't a huge surprise that Penn State was prominently mentioned as one of the schools doing the poaching.
And the really stupid
Here is your laugh for the day. Enjoy. [Bleacher Report]
And finally...
BDR doesn't endorse any of the rubbish out there in the interwebs, we just link to it. For a lot more daily rubbish on a somewhat timely basis, follow me on Twitter.com/dimecoverage.