Big 12 outlook: Young and the restless

By Darrell Laurant  |   Monday, February 20, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
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Football may be the ultimate team sport, but one player can make a big difference -- especially when he's an army of one like soon-to-be ex-Texas Longhorns quarterback Vince Young.

Had Young not decided to test the NFL draft, the Longhorns would have been heavy favorites to repeat as national champions. Now, Texas has a lot of offensive dynamite, but is missing the fuse.

It's too bad college teams can't trade players, because the Longhorns possess a glut of talented wide receivers -- Billy Pittman, Limas Sweed, Quan Cosby, Jermichael Finley, Nate Jones, Jordan Shipley -- and no experienced tight end, since David Thomas graduated. It's a complete switch from last year, when Texas had two experienced quarterbacks (Young and Matt Nordgren, also gone) and no proven receivers.

Redshirt freshman Colt McCoy will probably start in Young's place and either develop quickly or start looking over his shoulder at hotshot freshman Jevan Snead -- billed as a "Vince Young type".

The top four running backs also return -- Jamaal Charles, Selvin Young, Ramonce Taylor and Henry Melton -- and three-fifths of an immensely talented offensive line. The defense, however, took some hits (Aaron Harris, Michael Huff and several other All-Big 12 starters).

Yet it's not so much that Texas will be worse next year that makes the Big 12 so interesting, but that other teams will be better. Oklahoma and Nebraska, the traditional ogres of the old Big Eight, seem to have crawled out of their relative funks (Nebraska in '04 and '05, the Sooners slipping just a bit last year) to win their bowl games and reel in strong recruiting classes.

Adrian Peterson should be back with a vengeance for the Oklahoma Sooners, and sophomore QB Rhett Bomar got better as the 2005 season went along. Keep your eye, also, on juco QB Joey Halzle and freshman RB Demarcus Murray. The Nebraska Cornhuskers threw the ball a lot under Bill Callahan and behind Zac Taylor, but reverted to its old smash-mouth identity in upsetting Michigan, 32-28, in the Alamo Bowl.

Texas A&M loses Reggie McNeal but returns the majority of its starters on both sides of the ball, including star running back Courtney Lewis. Texas Tech probably recruited as well as anyone in the conference and offers another edition of Mike Leach's flying circus once again. True, 2005 Red Raiders' quarterback Cody Hodges graduated, but that's not really a loss -- the Red Raiders' quarterback graduates every year -- and All-Conference wide receivers Jarrett Hicks and Joel Pilani will be back to grab passes from the gunslinger to be named later.

Oklahoma State, Kansas and Baylor should all be better. Kansas State and Colorado have the excitement of new coaches. Missouri can never be counted out. And Iowa State's pitch-catch combination of Bret Meyer to Todd Blythe is one of the best in the nation (Meyer threw for 2,876 yards in 2005, Blythe had over 1,000 yards receiving).

So with Vince Young gone, maybe it's time to flip-flop that old refrain: In 2006, the eyes of the Big 12 will be upon Texas.
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