IRVING, Texas — Leftover notes and literary darts from last week’s Big 12 football media days:
• The perception around the league is receiver Josh Smith’s transfer leaves Colorado void of playmakers. One scribe asked me, “Why is Colorado trying to be a running team in a passing league?”
It may not. Watch out for sophomore receiver Markques Simas. Former Buff George Hypolite recently told me Simas “will break some kind of record in the Big 12.”
• Think Oklahoma-Texas is a heated rivalry? Wait until October. Texas’ players may have forgotten about losing the South Division to OU on last year’s tiebreaker, but I don’t think Texas coach Mack Brown has. Neither has OU’s Bob Stoops. “You want to throw out our win over Tech?” he said. “Fine. Then throw out Texas’ win over us.”
• I could listen all day to Bill Snyder and Stoops talk about taking over Kansas State in 1989 after it had gone 3-40-1.
“We had four total D-linemen,” Stoops said. “Two were nonscholarship. We had four guys for four positions. We’d be practicing team sessions, and we’d have to stop and take a five-minute break to hose them off.”
• Cowboys Stadium will shoehorn more people into the Big 12 championship game, but I prefer the SEC championship at the Georgia Dome. Two groups of partying boosters rub Budweisers in downtown Atlanta. Cowboys Stadium is in Arlington, Texas. Arlington is in the middle of nowhere.
• Either Nebraska coach Bo Pelini has learned how to lie or he is way too optimistic about his quarterback situation. Behind junior Zac Lee, who has thrown two passes in college games, is redshirt freshman Kody Spano, who’s back after injuring his ACL; true freshman Cody Green, also hurt in the spring; and junior Latravis Washington, a converted linebacker.
“We feel good about the quarterback position,” Pelini said. Colorado fans do too, Bo.
• The weirdest player in the league might be Texas Tech guard Brandon Carter. He’s 6-feet-7, 354 pounds, wears black war paint, is covered in tattoos and has the spiked hair of a London punk rocker. He asked coach Mike Leach where his tattoo was. “On my scalp,” Leach said. “I just grew hair over it.”
• Final thought: Texas A&M could be really pitiful.
