Big 12 preview

The Big 12 season opens with an oddity this week. Oklahoma plays the first college game in the new Cowboys Stadium in Dallas against BYU. You’re telling me they couldn’t get a Texas school to genuflect to Jerry Jones for all that money?

The Sooners return with Heisman trophy winner Sam Bradford at quarterback and another shot at a national title, but most people think they’ll have to get by Texas to get there. At this moment it’s a coin toss to say who will be standing when the conference race ends. With Colt McCoy at the helm and a defense that will be stout, Texas may have one or two less question marks, but they’ll need to watch out for Halloween in Stillwater and not just the Red River Shootout in Dallas. That’s when the Longhorns visit the Cowboys of Okie State, who are primed to give everyone a run for their money with Zac Robinson running coach Mike Gundy’s offensive fireworks. The Cowboys get a test right out of the box as they play host to Georgia this Saturday.

The rest of the south should have Tech sliding back down a couple of notches and Baylor inching up. The real question is how could Texas A&M mess up what was once a 10 win a season program? Answer, they worked real hard at it.

In the north, Kansas and Nebraska should battle for the division title and the Jayhawks should win it on the strength of a veteran QB and explosive offense and they get the Cornhuskers in Lawrence. At Mizzou, Chase Daniel is gone and Blaine Gabbert is in. But the Tigers have a lot of holes to fill and coach Gary Pinkel said last week, “We have to get better fast”.

Colorado may be better, but I’m not convinced. Iowa State, under new coach Paul Rhoads should be improved, but the mystery team in the north is K-State. Bill Snyder is back in the saddle after a disastrous three seasons under Ron Prince, but can Snyder bring back the magic to a field now named after him or will his teams look like the last couple of years before he retired the first time. No one knows, but it’ll be fun watching. The hard part for Snyder is there’s already been a Miracle in Manhattan, so fans actually expect one this time around.