“It’s a new year. I don’t get caught up in what happened last year or recent history or anything else. We’re going to go play a football game, and it’s the next game on the schedule, and that’s how we’ll treat it.”


-- Bo Pelini.



Comments on the 2009 Missouri game. Read more on Pelini on Missouri -- It's a New Year posted on Sept. 28, 2009.

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Husker Locker will be counting down and breaking down each of the teams in the conference. We hope you view this series as more interesting, comprehensive and definitive than what you may find elsewhere. Where we can make strong takes – we will.

We rank the teams 12 to 1 in overall strength. Then we’ll provide for you the North/South breakdown – and the preseason All Big 12 team, as well.

Enjoy!

Today: No.5 Missouri

Coach: Gary Pinkel
2008 Record: 10-4

What’s Changed Since 2008: Mizzou lost its best quarterback (Chase Daniel) and receiver (Jeremy Maclin) and second-best tight end (Chase Coffman) in history. The Tigers also lost their two coordinators, neither of whom we consider huge losses, especially defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, whose defensive schemes were too cute with a talented unit last year. The Tigers also have a greater sense of purpose in 2009 after being summarily dissed by most major publications in terms of the Big 12 North race.

2009 Non-Conference Schedule:Challenging enough, with the neutral site St. Louis tilt vs. Illinois, which some think is a top 20 team, and a game at defensively-challenged-yet-offensively-exciting Nevada. Bowling Green and Furman should be easy wins, but this non-conference schedule looks tougher than what Mizzou has planned in later years.

2009 Conference Schedule: Favorable. Toughest road game is at Oklahoma State, which is winnable. Mizzou hosts Texas, Nebraska and Baylor, plays Kansas in Kansas City and travels to Kansas State and Colorado.

Offense: Spread/Passing

Coordinator: David Yost – The quarterbacks coach at Mizzou for eight years, Yost knows the offense as well as anyone and helped install the no-huddle, wide-open attack upon Chase Daniel’s arrival (with some help from Daniel’s high school coach). At any rate, Yost is a unique guy – Missouri’s version of Mike Leach. If Andy Warhol had decided to be a football coach, he’d probably look like Yost. His demeanor will help the Tigers, who really seized up in key situations over the last two years.

Strength: We expect some drop-off from Missouri’s 2007 and 2008 production, but not much. That’s because MU sophomore quarterback Blaine Gabbert is as talented as Daniel was, only taller. It’ll take Gabbert time to settle in, but we expect him to be a top-flight guy by the end of the season, and certainly by 2010. Missouri’s offensive line is a little young, but it has size, depth, and good experience. Finally – Missouri’s offensive design is proven to work. Nebraska’s figured it out once in the last four years. Colorado’s been hapless against it. Kansas State, Iowa State and Kansas haven’t had much success, either. Only Texas and Oklahoma – and only one of those teams in on the regular season schedule.

Weakness: Derrick Washington is a big, plodding, overrated back who, yes, was hurt for some of 2008, but isn’t as good as his production (1,036 yards and 5.9 yards per carry) suggests. And there is no suitable replacement for Coffman, who was money on third down, and around the goal line.



Defense: 4-3/Attacking

Coordinator: Dave Steckel. Another new guy, replacing Eberflus. Last year, the Tigers had a ton of talent, but still gave up 412 yards and 27 points per game. Eberflus will now try to work some 3-4 magic at the Cleveland Browns. Steckel, meanwhile, is all ex-Marine in his approach, a bit of a throwback to the old Big Ten days of Bo and Woody, if you will. He’d fit in on a Bo Pelini coaching staff.

Strength: Solid linebacking corps led by the league’s best, Sean Weatherspoon, who turned down the NFL to return for his senior season. He’s a classic linebacker – everywhere, all the time – as his 155 tackles, five sacks and three interceptions suggest. Mizzou already seems to have found Weatherspoon's replacement, too, in true freshman Donavan Bonner.

Weakness: The defensive line lost Stryker Sulak and Ziggy Hood, two of the better linemen in the league last year. Their absence should hurt what was a fair run defense in 2008. The secondary should be OK, but safety William Moore (not as good in 2008 as his second round NFL draft status would suggest) has to be replaced.

Special Teams Mizzou takes a pretty good shot here. Maclin was invaluable as a kickoff and punt returner, accounting for 1280 return yards and two touchdowns. Then you had kicker Jeff Wolfert, arguably college football’s best in 2008 (we’ll take Nebraska’s Alex Henery, thanks) who needs to be replaced, too. Missouri has a ton of ground to cover here, and there’s just no way to do it in one year.

Intangibles: One week after a 52-17 win over Nebraska, Missouri hit a curious wall, of sorts, and fell backward, losing 4 of the last 9. So, in a sense, it was time to flush the system a little bit, and start over. And the Tigers do it with a chip on their shoulder, aiming to prove that the last three years weren’t a fluke. And Gabbert is as good of a guy to try it with as any.

Finally – Missouri really wants to beat Nebraska. No, it’s not the Border War. But it is personal, and borne out of a number of on-field incidents and off-the-field comments during the last six seasons. These two teams don’t like each other.

Best-Case Scenario: A third-straight Big 12 North title.

Worst-Case Scenario: Phil Steele’s prediction of 5-7.

Our Take: Phil’s often right, but here he’s wrong. Missouri finishes 8-4 or 9-3, depending on the non-conference schedule and the Nebraska game, which we predict will be, in essence, for the Big 12 North title.

See other Big 12 Breakdowns: No. 12 ISU, No. 11 A&M, No. 10 CU, No. 9 BU, No. 8 KU, No. 7 KSU, No. 6 Texas Tech
Agree? Disagree? Tell us about it.

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So it's been a long day's journey into, oh, 1:25 in the morning here, and it seems like a perfect time to pop on my DVR and watch the first episode of HBO's "Hard Knocks" program.

Basically the best NFL show on TV for its combination of theater, false bravado, staged antics, canned heat and yet compelling storylines, it follows one professional team through training camp. This year it's the the WKRP Bengals, which have those gems of the Callahan era, Mo Purify and Marlon Lucky fighting for roster spots. (We kid because we love, guys).

So, while watching for them (Mo makes an appearance stuffing former Cowboys' safety Roy Williams in a toughness drill; somewhere in Lincoln, Ted Gilmore sets down his meal and wonders where that was for two years) we get another appreciable nugget regarding Missouri tight end Chase Coffman, an excellent pass-catcher who apparently needs to get a little more physical.

His position coach's words?

"They didn't have you doing any of this stuff at Missouri, but now you're gonna learn how to play man's football."

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Grim and a little frustrated, Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel hustled up to the podium Tuesday at the Big 12 Media Days and immediately apologized for a delay at the Dallas airport that left him tardy for his appointed engagement.

Not long after Pinkel settled in, he was quickly peppered with queries about the immense talent – especially on offense – that he lost in the offseason to the NFL. Chase Daniel. Chase Coffman. Jeremy Maclin.

First, replacing Daniel, that love him/hate him quarterback that put Mizzou in the national spotlight and won two straight Big 12 North titles.

Pinkel shot straight: Former prep phenom (and Nebraska commit) Blaine Gabbert is the guy.

“Any time you have a transition quarterback,” Pinkel said, “everybody sits back and goes, ‘Wow, what's going to happen?’ When you lose a high level guy like that, hopefully, we can replace him with a high-level guy.”

Pinkel said he’ll bring along Gabbert, a sophomore, much as he did Daniel in his corresponding season. Daniel was inconsistent in 2006, alternating between excellent and average. He made “the leap” in 2007. Pinkel’s hoping the same for Gabbert.

He’s not so sure Maclin, the receiving and return whiz, can be replaced. But, he added, this version of the Tigers was his fastest.

On replacing two coordinators, Pinkel referenced the “Bill Belichick approach” of training and promoting from within. Pinkel the admitted he hasn’t lost two coaches, much less coordinators, in nine years at Mizzou.

***

Baylor’s Art Briles delighted the media with clever lines and quick answers. Briles kept referring to “turning hope into happen” throughout his interviews, because, at this point, that the Bears’ next step.

Briles talked a lot of about his quarterback, Robert Griffin, the fast, gifted sophomore quarterback. Griffin has helped with TV exposure, with recruiting, with fan recognition, with everything.

But Griffin, and his Bear teammates, won’t be sneaking up on anyone in 2008. Teams that narrowly escaped with wins – like Missouri, Nebraska and Texas Tech – learned their lesson.

“People are going to approach us differently on the other side, in other staff rooms and on other practice fields because they're going to come into Baylor with a different mindset than they did a year ago,” Briles said. “We understand that. We understand we're going to have to rise up and be better in all facets
of the game, not only physically, to deal with the charges that are going to come our way.”


Briles drew laughs for his stories about accompanying Jason Smith to the NFL Draft, and his comments on the wardrobe of some of his questioners. Briles is going to make an interesting push in the Big 12 South. He’s the first with the raw charm to recruit head-to-head with Mack Brown. His program doesn’t have the facilities, it doesn’t have the tradition, and it doesn’t have any recent success. But Baylor does have Briles.


***


There’s a curious, gentlemanly quality to the way Kansas Coach Mark Mangino handles himself in front of media. You tend to see a lot of different sides of the guy. You see the pride, the attention to detail, the self-made aspect. Just about every coach brings that to the table. But with Mangino it’s something a little more – a vulnerability, perhaps? A love for the little guy?


The coach talked with great care about recruiting quarterback Todd Reesing to KU several years ago, about how Reesing, tiny as he was, just had a confidence, a style, a belief that belied his looks. You could see why that might impress a guy like Mangino, who gets more comments about his appearance than he did his coaching.


Yes, Reesing runs around a little too much – and sometimes gets himself in trouble for doing it.


“But that's what makes him unique, you know, the idea that he believes in himself and that
he can make plays when there's not one,” Mangino said. “Kind of really reflects his personality; that he always thinks he can overcome. He always wants to prove the opposition wrong. Those traits have served him well.”


Good coaches tend to know – what’s best for each player is to fulfill their potential…through their own personality.


Also appreciated that Mangino admitted he likes to recruit “tough” players – read, guys a little rough around the edges – and that “sometimes we fail in that area, but we like kids that love to play this
game.”


***


Mr. Heisman and Big Game Bob was last to appear Tuesday, as Oklahoma took the podium.


The big questions for OU, of course, revolved around its offensive line. Everything else about the Sooners – QB Sam Bradford, the running backs, the extraordinary defense – is in place. But the line, which must replace three starters, remains a weakness.


“Mistakes they were making on day one, day two, they weren’t making on day 14 and day 15,” Bradford said. “I think we still need that progress once we’re in camp.”


Bradford also touched upon the “frustration” of never having won a bowl game. Especially when reporters, who have to find something negative about the kid, ask so often.


“It’s not something we like to do – “oh, we had a good season, let’s lose the last game,’” he said. “It’s starting to really to get to everyone.”



At one time, Bradford didn’t much care for the no-huddle offense, either.


“When we first switched to it, I didn’t it like it,” Bradford said. “It just seemed like chaos, it seemed like no one was on the same page. It sucked. If you would have seen us trying to run it the first couple days, you would have thought it was just a disaster.


“But the more time we spent on it, and the better we got, the more I fell love with it.”

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The season may not bear it out – water has, after all, been turned into wine a couple times – but one should expect the Big 12 Media Days, starting Monday in Dallas, to be a three-day tour and discussion of the Great Divide between the dominant South Division and relatively bedraggled North.

For it’s no longer just a question of Texas and Oklahoma rising above the other ten teams of the Big 12. It is, now, Texas Tech doing so in 2008. And Oklahoma State, poised to do so in 2009. And Baylor, the permanent member of the Big 12 basement, the Gregor Samsa of the bunch, hiring the right coach in Art Briles, who recruited the right quarterback in Robert Griffin, and has the right Texas high school connections. Suddenly, when you check offer lists and comments from the best players in Texas, some of them have Baylor right at the top. That’s how quickly lightning can strike.

Now, it’s not just Mack and “Big Game Bob,” but that West Texas pirate, Mike Leach, getting headlines. Childish or not, OSU coach Mike Gundy’s rant two years ago about a newspaper column won his team attention, and, somewhat surprisingly, praise from other corners of the media. Even Texas A&M, which stunk last year, is putting together a Callahan-style monster class for 2010 – already 18 verbal commitments, many of them top-line players.

The South has the money, the organization, the commitment, and the Mojo.

The North isn’t exactly floundering – Missouri and Kansas have gained a foothold of success, while Nebraska seems to have returned back to its core values, if not that classic option style.

But it is still recovering from its Dark Ages, that period between 2002-2006 when only one Big 12 North team – that 2003 Kansas State squad with Darren Sproles and Ell Roberson – could even manage to compete with the South. Colorado – a team rocked by recruiting allegations and the Katie Hnida scandal – still managed to win three league titles in that span. It then lost its three Big 12 title games by a combined score 141-13. Iowa State blew two North titles on the last day of the regular season, in overtime. Nebraska mostly played Humpty Dumpty during that time, while Missouri couldn’t shake its inconsistency, and KU was in the earliest, ugliest years of what’s become the quite successful Mark Mangino era.

Nebraska had moderate success during this period, but know this: That was more attributable the mediocrity of the competition than the excellence of the Cornhuskers.

Since that awful era, CU hasn’t really moved out of the fog, Kansas State went back to the old master, Bill Snyder, and Missouri and KU gamely filled the vacuum. But the Jayhawks were thumped thrice last year by UT, OU and Tech, while Missouri took its lumps from OSU, Texas and Oklahoma. A game that symbolized the chasm the best was probably Mizzou’s trip to Baylor, a game won, just barely, by the Tigers, 31-28. Here was the most potent team in Missouri history, playing the basement boys in their half-empty stadium. Baylor only had a handful of really good players – maybe eight – and that was nearly enough to win. The best team in the North. The second-worst in the South. Nearly even.

Telling.

So was this: On the Big 12 media’s all-conference squad, just five of the 26 members were from the Big 12 North. Not even 20 percent.

And for good reason: The South has most of the big-name talent in 2009. Certainly four of the five best quarterbacks in Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford, Robert Griffin and Zac Robinson. Certainly the best offensive linemen. Certainly the best running backs (although I’d take Roy Helu over any one of them except Kendall Hunter).

This divide of talent and experience is big enough as to inform which team will win the Big 12 North. Kansas, presumably the strongest club with a crucial home game vs. Nebraska, has to face OU, Texas and Texas Tech in the same year. That alone may take the Jayhawks out of the race. Missouri probably has the best go of it, getting Texas and Baylor at home. Meanwhile, Iowa State harbors realistic hopes of a bowl season simply by avoiding UT, OU and Tech.

Do you see any pundits piecing together the Big 12 North games for Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State?

So. How to fix it? We’ll look at both solutions both socialist – stuff the Big 12 can do to level the playing field - and free market-based – stuff the North teams can do to help themselves.

Close the Divide: An interesting argument, put forward most recently here, is to dissolve divisions and just go at it, much like the Big Ten and Pac 10 do. But, then, determining the contenders for a conference championship game becomes iffy, and some teams (you can bet it’ll be NU, OU and UT) will be penalized for being popular, and thus playing each other year in, year out. In turn some team – think Wisconsin in the Big Ten – will benefit from avoiding one or more of those teams. We’ll pass.

Better Revenue Sharing: The SEC recognized several years ago that in order to promote competition within the league – to spur schools to stay motivated – it had to make sure they all shared equally in the TV money pot, which, as many of you know, is getting sweeter for the SEC all the time. The Big 12’s structure effectively helps the stronger, more popular teams more.

Some capitalist-types cringe at this kind of socialism, but think of it more as a significant tax break to the Big 12’s smaller businesses, Iowa State, Colorado and Baylor. ISU, in particular, is inching toward morphing into the Big 12’s first MAC school. It doesn’t have the local fanfare in Iowa or the advertising opportunities to realistically get its name out there.

Do Something about Holding: Big 12 fans were confused when the high-powered offenses of Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas Tech suddenly looked “less than” in their bowl games. With the refs no longer jamming their hands in their pockets, like they did during the Big 12 season, it suddenly became a lot harder to stave off blitzes. Holding isn’t called nearly enough, but it was an epidemic in 2008. And all it does is help the better team.

Build at Home: There’s nothing wrong with hiring an assistant coach with great ties in Texas. But, sooner or later, all you’re doing eating the leftovers Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and, yes, Baylor don’t want. The Texas pipeline will never be closed. But the entrance is a little narrower than it used to be.

Which is why Big 12 North programs have to do a better job of reaching into the high school levels to begin integrating their style of play and telling the coaches specifically: This is the kind of guy we want. And not just preferred walk-ons. Guys who are worth giving a scholarship to.

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Even though some writers in Missouri find it absolutely nuts to do so, the media went ahead and did it anyway, picking Nebraska’s football team to win the Big 12 North in a preseason poll released Thursday.

NU got 17 of 32 first place votes and 172 points overall. Kansas was picked second with 12 first place votes and 164 total points. Two-time defending North champion Missouri, Colorado, Kansas State and Iowa State rounded out the North side.

In the South, Texas and Oklahoma technically tied for first with 174 total points, but UT got two more first-place votes. That means some voter placed the Longhorns third, presumably behind Oklahoma State. OSU finished third in the South poll, followed by Texas Tech, Baylor and Texas A&M.

The votes:

North Division
1. Nebraska (17) 172
2. Kansas (12) 164
3. Missouri (3) 124
4. Colorado 100
5. Kansas State 81
6. Iowa State 33

South Division
1. Texas (17) 174
1. Oklahoma (15) 174
3. Oklahoma State 130
4. Texas Tech 89
5. Baylor 75
6. Texas A&M 33


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This time, it's Kansas City Star's Missouri beat writer Mike DeArmond, who declares, in his first official blog:

"Those people picking Nebraska to win the Big 12 North are abso-tooting-lutely nuts."

and

"The only reason I can see anyone picking Nebraska to win the North over either Kansas or Missouri this fall is they think Tom Osborne is recruiting and coaching the Cornhuskers instead of recruiting and being the athletic director and boss to Bo Pelini."

and

Here’s where I shake my head in wonder at anyone picking Nebraska over Missouri but over Kansas as well.

The Cornhuskers have an inexperienced quarterback, lost just as much as Missouri on offense, don’t have a running back of the caliber of MU’s Derrick Washington. Shouting The Blackshirts Are Back! seems based more on t he hope that Bo Pelini is a defensive genius rather than a first-year college head coach that was simply better than Bill Callahan.

He goes on to make fun of some Nebraska from London.

His rationale for picking Kansas tends to be the same rationale used by many: The return of Todd Reesing, Kerry Meier and Dez Briscoe.

Reesing we get. Great QB. Better leader.

But two wide receivers, however talented they might be, have never, not ever won a championship by themselves. They are, after all, receivers. Someone has to throw the ball to them. And that someone, Reesing, has to have enough time to do it.

In other words, pooh-poohing a weak offensive line that gave up 31 sacks as it was last year doesn't reflect well on your analytical abilities.

As for Nebraska v. Missouri, we'll see. But Mizzou has an awful lot to replace on both sides of the ball, plus the best kicker in school history, plus their return guy.

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Baylor at Wake Forest, Sept 5: Here’s an upset in favor of Baylor that, by the end of the year, won’t be an upset. The Demon Deacons are ripe for a fall in 2009, having to replace six of the back seven with a ton of unproven talent while an offense that’s never been all that good continues to sputter along. Baylor will have the better quarterback, the better defense and the better special teams.

Kansas at UTEP, Sept. 12: KU’s non-conference slate of Northern Colorado, Duke, UTEP and Southern Mississippi doesn’t seem tougher – but it is. Specifically, the game in El Paso against Mike Price’s best team should be a tough win to get. The Sun Bowl is at a higher elevation, UTEP has potent offense and 15 total returning starters. Good thing the Jayhawks will have one of the Big 12’s best secondaries.

Kansas State at UCLA, Sept. 19: Here’s one that goes in the Big 12’s favor. Most expect KSU to limp out to Pasadena, take its two-touchdown beating, and limp back home. Eh – don’t plan on it. For as much as Bill Snyder liked avoiding tough teams, his teams performed OK in the actual games against them. Beyond that, there’s no evidence that proves UCLA has resolved its quarterbacking issues. The Bruins have more flash, but we won’t be shocked if KSU comes away with a win.

Wyoming at Colorado, Sept. 19: At first glance, this seems like the easiest of CU’s four non-conference games. Maybe it will be. But Wyoming recently hired Missouri offensive coordinator Dave Christensen, who thoroughly humiliated the Buffaloes each of the last three seasons. And Wyoming should have a pretty good run defense with five of the front seven returning that gave up just 3.7 yards per carry last year. Just a hunch here, but we think the Cowboys put a big scare into the Buffaloes in Boulder.

Missouri at Nevada, Sept. 25: This game sets up nicely for the Wolf Pack; it’s on a Friday night, national TV, and the crowd in Reno should be jacked up. UNR has one of the nation’s better quarterbacks in dual threat Colin Kaepernick and, when it’s working, one of the nation’s toughest offenses to stop in the Pistol. But Missouri’s stronger and bigger, and should post at least 35 points on an awful Nevada defense, and probably more. If Mizzou’s offensive line comes to play, the Tigers should win.

Texas Tech at Houston, Sept. 26: Get ready for a track meet. Houston averaged 563 yards per game last year, and have all pertinent offensive pieces back, including quarterback Case Keenum, who threw for – wait for it – 5,020 yards and 44 touchdowns last year. The Cougars will have two weeks to prepare and Tech will still be breaking in two new safeties. Plus, the Red Raiders will be reeling from what we expect to be a pounding on Sept. 19 at the hands of Texas.

Southern Miss at Kansas, Sept. 26: The Jayhawks make a second entrance on this list in facing a Golden Eagle team that has 19 returning starters, a rising star of a head coach in Larry Fedora, and one of the nation’s better running backs in Damion Fletcher. USM is no stranger to giant killing, either. Expect this one to go down to the last minute.

Oklahoma at Miami (Fla), Oct. 3: On paper, OU is the better squad by two touchdowns. But the game is in Miami, where the Hurricanes are 8-1 vs. major non-conference foes in recent years. And this is the best Cane crop since 2005. In front of a full, hostile house at LandShark Stadium, this will be one of Sam Bradford’s toughest tests.


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If a fan of Nebraska athletics was already fearful that the Big 12 conference had tilted permanently in favor of Texas, consider this column a long, unpleasant spelunk into the cave of more proof.

According to data compiled by the NCAA’s Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, the Longhorns’ athletic department brought $120.3 million in revenue in 2007-2008. That’s $32 million more than the second-place school in the Big 12 (the identity of which might surprise you, more on that in a minute).

That whopping dollar amount is the GDP of some third-world countries, and tops in college sports – just slightly ahead of Ohio State, which culls a major wad of cash from the Big Ten Network and runs two Jack Nicklaus-endorsed golf courses.

As for football revenue, UT was the nation’s No. 1 there, too, bringing in $72.9 million.

Yeah, in the Big 12, Nebraska was second. At $49 million. That’s close to the national top ten.

But the gap between NU and UT – almost $24 million - is larger the entire football revenue of six Big 12 teams. Texas earned five times what Kansas reported – although KU had $50 million of revenue in the “not allocated” category - and nearly doubled the $40.9 million taken in by Oklahoma, a program that’s had more success than its rival over the last decade (one more reason to respect Bob Stoops, eh?).

UT recorded more than $52 million in profit. That alone is more than the reported football revenues of any Big 12 team. And while Texas also spends more money on football, it only spends a fraction more - $20 million vs. the $19 million spent by Texas A&M, the $18.8 million spent by OU and the $18.7 spent by Nebraska.

Why? Because the Longhorns merely have to drive a couple hours to many of the nation’s best football recruits who reside in cities surrounding Austin – Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, San Antonio. How hard is it to recruit when you’ve got most of your class figured out before Memorial Day?

Is Texas the lone “have” in the conference? Of course not. OU holds its own. Kansas leads the way in basketball revenue. Oklahoma State, behind the donor dollars of billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens, is actually second in total revenue at $88 million. And Texas A&M, with Bill Byrne as the athletic director, will make a serious push at UT in all the pertinent Olympic, smaller sports. The Aggies already have, in fact, winning national titles in men’s golf and track.

Nebraska is stuck in a tougher spot. The Huskers have always hung their hat on football, and have a former football coach as the athletic director. Sans Texas (and Pickens, I suppose), nobody runs a better fundraising show in the Big 12, and Tom Osborne has brought needed stability back to North Stadium.

NU had the upper hand for more than 30 years, 1970-2001, winning five national titles to Texas’ zero, playing in countless more title games (UT played in one and lost to Notre Dame) winning one more Heisman Trophy, more O’Brien Awards, more Lombardis, more Outlands, you name it. But UT, right now, simply does football better, and has since 2002.

The orderly Big 12 reinvigorated Texas, which suffered in the lawless, hate-fueled Southwestern Conference. Like a defeated corporate giant suddenly tabbed to run another company, UT threw around far more bluster and weight upon its entrance into the league than its athletic portfolio suggested it could.

Too willing to topple the Big Red Machine in football – and upon the inception of the Big 12, there was no college football program more powerful and intimidating than Nebraska - Big 12 South members unwisely followed the Longhorns’ lead on a number of issues, whether it was partial academic qualifiers, television contracts or the facilities arms race. It all favored Texas.

You think Iowa State wouldn’t mind some partial qualifiers? Colorado? Kansas State? Oklahoma State? You think these same schools enjoy building perk after perk for 19-year-olds, only to see Texas, its stadium not even full for every game, roll out every red carpet known to man?

Not to say that UT has ill in mind for the rest of the league, but the numbers simply don’t lie: The Longhorns, financially, has the Big 12 wrapped around its burnt orange finger.

Once upon a time, the most loathed man in the history of NU athletics, Steve Pederson, vowed not to surrender the Big 12 to Texas (and Oklahoma). It was a cocky statement then, an affront to some Husker fans who believed Nebraska ruled the Big 12 roost for many years, and weren’t far, at the time, from ruling it again.

But it’s time get honest. This isn’t 1996 anymore, and Texas made three terrific hires – Mack Brown, Rick Barnes and Augie Garrido – when it counted. Brown and Garrido won national titles, and Barnes took the Horns to a Final Four. Since those hires, Nebraska’s on its third football coach, its third basketball coach, and currently slumping in baseball.

At $75.4 million, NU is now fifth in total revenue, behind Texas, Oklahoma State, Kansas (a surprising $86 million) and Oklahoma ($77 million). And Texas A&M, which was so bad off four years ago that the university actually loaned the athletic department $16 million, is not far behind at $74.7 million. Missouri doesn’t currently compete in terms of revenue, but the sleeping giant has finally woken up, as the Tigers won Big 12 titles in men’s basketball, softball, and women’s soccer, reaching the conference title games in baseball and football.

While Pederson, Bill Callahan and Co. dithered around with a culture change, Mizzou and KU caught up, Byrne started working from the ground up in College Station and OU and Texas broke further away from the pack.

So now is not the time for NU administrators or fans to get distracted by the sheer, stunning misery of two Big 12 North schools – Iowa State and Colorado – and the tumult engulfing Kansas State. They’re the jokes of the league, and Nebraska better plan on beating them consistently in just about everything.

It’s also not the time to get overly wistful for the old days of 2000, when the Huskers’ athletic program was the envy of the every school not named Stanford. It’s time to work smarter and harder.

Here's how.

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Poor Zou-Zou. Phil Steele laid out his predictions for the Big 12 North not long ago, and the Tigers were stuck in that fifth slot.

Since Steele is seen as some kind of oracle in college football, the KC Star naturally chatted with the Missouri’s braintrust – Pinkel Factor, and his two new coordinators – about it.

They play at brushing it off, but you can tell they’re not pleased.

“There are people out there that still, apparently, they kind of view us as a program where consistency of winning at a high level is a question mark,” Pinkel said. “Obviously, there’s a lack of respect.”

Well, uh, yeah. Melting down in two consecutive Big 12 title games – not to mention a game at Texas – with your most talented team in history tends to raise an eyebrow or two. Especially when Mizzou has to replace a varyag of talent on offense and some of the best players – Ziggy Hood, Stryker Sulak and William Moore – on defense.

It might help, too, if the Tigers scheduled someone, anyone in the non-conference slate other than Illinois. So Mizzou goes out and gets...wait for it...Indiana.

Now that is how you get respect. You take your two best seasons in the last 30 and all the TV exposure that goes along with it, you march confidently out into the scheduling world, and sign a Big Ten team that hasn't won a bowl game in 17 years and just two in the last 30 years.

Zou Zou, we know Northwestern gave you all kinds of fits in the Alamo Bowl, but it doesn't mean you have to schedule the only Big Ten team that's consistently worse than Northwestern. Other than Illinois, we mean.

At any rate, a revealing article, because the two coordinators, Yost and Steckel, talk at length about the team’s overall strategy in 2009. You’ll notice it fits much of what we talked about in our 2009 spring opponent report on the Tigers.

Missouri will run the ball more. Maybe a lot more, with new quarterback Blaine Gabbert calling the plays. Not that Gabbert isn’t immensely gifted, but he is not going to go a whole week in practice without an incomplete pass, as Chase Daniel often claimed he did. Daniel was indeed an accurate passer, and built perfectly for the offense, which was, after all, built for him.

On defense, the Tigers will gamble and blitz more. They’ll need to, frankly, because the front four just won’t be able to generate as strong of a pass rush as it did in 2008. That’ll put the Tigers’ young secondary on a major island at times, and we’ll see how well they survive.

What do you think of Pinkel and his crew and team? Let us know in the comments section.

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This photo was taken by GoHuskers prior to the Missouri game in Lincoln at Memorial Stadium. The album is titled "Missouri Tailgates." Please post your photo!

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This photo was taken for the Missouri Tailgates album of GoHuskers. Please post your photo!

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This is from Missouri Tailgates, the album from GoHuskers. Please post your pictures!

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This comes from the Locker of GoHusker. Nancy and Tom were on their way to the Missouri game. The album is called Missouri Tailgates. Enjoy and upload your own photos today!

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This photo comes from GoHusker and her album Missouri Tailgates from the 2008 Bo Pelini season. Enjoy and upload your own photos today!

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This photo is from the album Missouri Tailgates by our Locker Pass friend, GoHuskers. Nancy photographed this shot a few moments before the game began in Memorial Stadium where the fans enjoyed the best of Nebraska "football" weather. Tailgate fare was not bad either!

Please post your photos on the Fan Photo of the Day!

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This time it comes from one of our fine friends from the south, Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune columnist Dave Matter, who selects Nebraska third in the Big 12 North – behind Missouri, of course – for a curious reason:

“But there are big shoes to fill for an offense that wasn’t all that explosive anyway.”

We understand that Matter lives in Zou-Zou (that’s pronounced zhoo-zhoo, as spoken by Amelie) where the touchdowns flow like boxed wine at a ladies’ candle party, but 12th nationally in total offense – and 17th nationally scoring offense – that’s the top ten percent of “explosion.” Maybe Matter was considering that extra half-yard per play the Tigers averaged.

We like for Missouri for third because of the Pinkel Factor.

How that's for random and poorly researched?

We’ve got our eye on you, Matter. Our eye.

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This photo comes from the Missouri game tailgate before the Memorial Stadium contest. The weather was great for football on that Saturday, and these fans were excited and hopeful. The album's called Missoui Tailgating.

Enjoy and upload photos of your own.

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At least when it comes to scheduling BCS opponents in non-conference games.

Prop-a-la-drops to the Daily Oklahoman's Berry Tramel for doing the research that shows Big 12 teams scheduled only 23 percent (11 of 48) of its non-league games against BCS foes from the ACC, Big East, SEC, Pac 10 and Big Ten conferences. Compare that to:

50 percent in the Pac 10
41 percent in the ACC
40 percent in the Big East
32 percent in the Big Ten
29 percent in the SEC

Texas and Texas Tech don't play any BCS schools. UT's platter of Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, Central Florida and UTEP is particularly indefensible.

Nebraska, still operating under the old Steve Pederson scheduling standard, plays three Sun Belt teams - Florida Atlantic, Louisiana-Lafayette and Arkansas State - along with a game at Virginia Tech. It gets worse in 2010 with games vs. Idaho, Western Kentucky and, God help us, South Dakota State. Hopefully, Bo Pelini tries to get out of that game, even though he's said, in the past, he wouldn't. NU has no business hosting SDSU. None.

But credit where it's due: Pelini and Director of Football Operation Jeff Jamrog have been pretty aggressive in the last year, notching deals with Wyoming, Southern Mississippi and Fresno State, along with a tentative deal with Miami (Fla.), which still isn't officially on the schedule yet. While Fresno and USM aren't BCS schools, they could compete consistently in one. Wyoming, while no one's idea of a powerhouse, is at least a regional opponent with solid standing in Division I for many years.

At any rate, NU, even under Pederson, always maintained some integrity. The 2007 schedule - road game at Wake Forest, home with USC, Ball State and Nevada - involved four bowl teams. Even if a year like 1986 never comes around again - the Huskers faced Florida State and Oregon at home and Illinois and South Carolina on the road that season - Nebraska can hold its head up. Ditto for Colorado, which doesn't shy away BCS teams, and Oklahoma, which schedules one pastry per year, but balances it with two solid games (in 2009 it's BYU and Miami).

But can one really, at this point, excuse Texas Tech and Missouri?

The Red Raiders actively avoid tough non-conference games season after season. They haven't played a non-league BCS foe since 2003. Why? Mike Leach's bunch carries itself like a Mountain West or WAC program. There are currently, through 2011 no BCS opponents at all on Tech's schedule. Surely the Red Raiders have had offers. Is New Mexico and Houston the best Leach can do?

The Tigers, meanwhile, tout themselves as a national program that's apparently "arrived."

OK then - when will they start scheduling like it?

Here are the teams Mizzou has scheduled from 2010 until 2015:

Illinois
McNeese State
Toledo (head coach Gary Pinkel's former school)
Wyoming
Southern Illinois

Now, here are the teams Nebraska has scheduled thus far in that same time:

Washington
UCLA
Miami (Fla.)
Fresno State
Wyoming
Southern Mississippi
Idaho
South Dakota State
Western Kentucky

You tell us: Which one looks like the team that just won two consecutive Big 12 North titles?

Mizzou likes to hide behind its neutral game with Illinois and call that a sufficient challenge. The Illini aren't bad - they went to the Rose Bowl after the 2007 season - but if St. Louis is as far as Pinkel's boys are willing to go...

Since former head coach Larry Smith left the building Mizzou has scheduled two non-league BCS opponents - Ole Miss and Illinois. That's it.

Folks, that's not arriving.

We save a special place for Bill Snyder, whose Kansas State teams will now actively pursue dogs and actively attempt to reverse the one good thing Ron Prince did, which was schedule better non-conference opponents.

The Big 12 administrative folks have brayed at league schools to schedule better teams. Certain coaches won't out of nothing more than fear of losing. Whether that's money or victories, what lesson does that send to the student-athletes? On the one hand, you tell them to compete at the highest level. On the other, you hide in an ivory tower and wait for October.

If the league really wanted to make an impact on this issue, it would build in number of BCS teams scheduled in the non-conference season, and the records of those teams, into the tiebreaker system.

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Bo Pelini had just taken the job at Nebraska, and one of his first messages to the team, NU linebacker Cody Glenn, remains one of his most important.

“First meeting, he said, ‘I’ve always got your back,’” Glenn said.

Most coaches say it, some mean it, and fewer take the time to show it. It was an issue on which former head coach Bill Callahan would often waffle until he rained on quarterback Joe Ganz’s seven-touchdown game and Zac Taylor’s Big 12 Player of the Year award with some “it’s the system” soliloquy on the Big 12 Coaches teleconference.

So maybe some Cornhusker players didn’t get the full measure of Pelini’s words until after a 52-17 loss to the Missouri. After the game had ended, Pelini took the blame in the locker room and did the same in front of the cameras.

“I just said what I believed,” Pelini said. “When it’s good, it’s them, it’s theirs. But when they don’t perform well, it should fall on me.”

Any players who hadn’t been converted to The Pelini Way – and Glenn said there were a few – were believers after that public display of self-responsibility. His angry demeanor that night seemed to be the mark of fury, but time has revealed it to mean a lot more to the players.

“I think we had 90, 95 percent buy in before that,” Glenn said, “but there were still people lingering that hadn’t quite bought in yet. We got those guys now. As a whole, as a team, everybody’s bought in. Everybody’s clicking. Everybody’s on the same page.”

So much so that Glenn couldn’t pick out one practice over the course of the last two weeks that was better than the others.

“All of them were really good,” Glenn said. “Usually your team take the identity of your head coach, and a lot of people are starting to take that.”

In recent weeks, Pelini had described it as a “us against the world” mentality, at least when it came to road games. Glenn used another analogy.

“It could be war now, tomorrow, anytime, he’s going to war with us, anytime.”


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It was never a question of effort, Bo Pelini said. Nebraska’s head coach had little doubt that his football team could or would put in the hard work.

The Cornhuskers’ execution was harder to lock in.

“The light was not coming on consistently,” Pelini said in his Tuesday press conference. “We were losing our focus in practice at times. Our attention to detail was not there on a consistent basis. That’s still the case at times. You can’t afford mental lapses.”

But Pelini has seen his team turn the corner in recent weeks following a 52-17 loss to Missouri Oct. 4. Mistakes are down. Tempo is better. Belief is real. And the results are in NU’s improved play in a 37-31 overtime loss to Texas Tech and a 35-7 win over Iowa State.

Pelini didn’t wave a wand, he said, and suddenly instill his confidence in his team. Rather, he kept his basic message of “be better when you walk off this practice field than when you walked on it” consistent during a tough stretch of three straight losses. Stick to the scheme. Stay mentally tough.

And his coaching staff clarified its approach, too. Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson simplified the attack, removed some of the heavy sets and placed quarterback Joe Ganz in the shotgun more. Pelini stuck with a core group of defensive backs on defense in both the Tech and ISU games.

In practice, the Huskers stopped fixating on the number of reps in a particular period, and instead pursued better reps.

“Bo’s about quality,” senior offensive lineman Matt Slauson said. “If we sacrifice quantity, all right. But we’re gonna get the best reps we possibly can.”

The defense has used those reps to reduce the kind of busts that hurt the Huskers in three losses. Iowa State only had one significant offensive play on Saturday – a 67-yard run for a touchdown – and that seemed as much the right play against NU’s defense as it was anything else.

“You have to be extremely disciplined,” Pelini said. “It’s the ultimate team game. One guy busts an assignment and it looks like no one out there knows what he’s doing. If you’re not all on the same page consistently, you have problems. That’s offense, defense, special teams. One guy not handling his responsibilities can really make it look ugly and that was happening pretty consistently.

“I’m seeing a lot more consistency, from front to back, in all aspects of our game. That has to be an every time, all-the-time thing…our guys have been doing that.”

Pelini related two stories he presumably used with the team to illustrate his point. The first involved the Tampa Bay Rays, the once-moribund baseball franchise that now plays in its first World Series on Wednesday.

“They thought they were a couple years away,” Pelini said. “But they believed in the process, they believed in themselves and what they were gonna do. They stuck with the process and playing, playing together and eventually it won out.

The second was about NFL Hall-of-Famer Howie Long, and Long telling Pelini he didn’t become a complete defensive player until he was well into his career.

“Most of these young men will never even approach their potential until later,” Pelini said.


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