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. 3 Oklahoma State

Coach: Mike Gundy
2008 Record: 9-4

What’s Changed Since 2008: OSU opened its new Xanadu football facility, among the swankiest in college football. The Cowboys also went out and bought A Winston Wolf, so to speak, in defensive coordinator Bill Young, who’s supposed to come in and fix a defense that gave up 56, 61 and 42 points in three of its last four games. And the expectations changed. Super booster T. Boone Pickens projects a calm, friendly exterior, but he didn’t bankroll an overhaul of the program just so the Cowboys could guard a Taco Bell.

2009 Non-Conference Schedule: Every game is at home, but the first two are challenging: Georgia and Houston. OSU is better than both, but it must clear the mental hurdle of Georgia’s name in week one and avoid a letdown in week two vs. the Cougars. The non-conference slate finishes with a rebuilding Rice team and Grambling.

2009 Conference Schedule: Manageable, with road games at Texas A&M, Baylor and Iowa State before Bedlam at Oklahoma to end the season. Texas in Boone Pickens Stadium on Halloween. You won’t get a crazier night in Stillwater than that.

Offense: Balanced Spread

Coordinator: Mike Gundy – He calls the plays during drives, and gameplans - by himself, with his back turned to the field – while the defense is on the field. Gunter Brewer has the title, but it’s nominal. At any rate, Gundy is an excellent coordinator. He mixes spread and West Coast principles together for the league’s sturdiest offensive design; OSU can run downhill with two tight ends, or spread out with four wide receivers. Last year, the Cowboys rushed for an average of 245 and passed for an average of 242. Can’t beat that.

Strength: Exceptional skill players. Seriously – exceptional. Kendall Hunter and Dez Bryant are the nation’s best running back and wide receiver, respectively. Hunter is quick-footed, instinctive runner – think Carolina’s DeAngelo Williams – with a nose for the end zone and the patience to wait for blocking. Bryant, meanwhile, is a cross of Steve Smith and Lee Evans who’s deadly effective in the slot. A possession receiver blessed with good separation skills and takeoff speed. At quarterback, Zac Robinson benefits from the excellence around him, but his feet make him a dangerous dual weapon. Robinson gets a little… too courageous at times, and needs to avoid injury. Russell Okung is the nation’s best pass-blocking left tackle, too.

Weakness:Not much, frankly. Bryant and Robinson can’t get hurt.



Defense: 4-3 or 4-2-5

Coordinator: Bill Young – Architect of Kansas’s one-year defensive renaissance in 2007. Worked with Miami last year. He’s a bit of a gun for hire, frankly. He’s here to win a Big 12 Championship.

Strength: The linebackers. Andre Sexton moves from strong safety to a hybrid safety/linebacker role, and he’s the most active, disruptive player on the defense. Orie Lemon and Patrick Levine are complete players who handle pass coverage pretty well. Perrish Cox is a top-shelf cornerback and kick returner. Defensive end Ugo Chinasa could be ready to make the leap to all-conference caliber in 2009.

Weakness: OSU couldn’t pressure the quarterback last year (only 15 sacks all season) and gave up 4.3 yards per carry. If a team had a good offensive line, the Cowboys were pretty sunk. OSU was badly exposed – beaten up, really – in the Holiday Bowl vs. Oregon, which amassed 565 total yards, 307 on the ground. OSU has to start with the front four, and go from there. Too often in recent years, the front just hasn’t been very good.

Special TeamsExcellent. Dez Bryant and Perrish Cox are the best punt/kick return combo in America. Dan Bailey made 15-19 field goals. Joe DeForest was hired to solely focus on special teams, and it shows.

Intangibles: OSU hasn’t beaten Texas or Oklahoma in five years, despite many chances, especially vs. the Longhorns. Gundy’s teams, in general, struggle in big games. For a couple years, that was related to talent, but that’s not the case now. The other intangible is Gundy himself. He’s part of pop culture thanks to his rant two years ago, and that both works for and against him. No matter what OSU becomes this year – national title contender or disappointing flop – he’ll be the story.

Best-Case Scenario: 11-0 heading the Norman. It’s absolutely possible.

Worst-Case Scenario: Dumping the first two games and struggling from there. It’s absolutely possible.

Our Take: So much hinges on the first game vs. Georgia. We like OSU there, and vs. Houston (whom we’re picking to upset Texas Tech) but we still want to see the Cowboys beat Texas and Oklahoma when it counts. Until then, we must predict 10-2, with an outside shot at the BCS, depending on how OU fares with its difficult schedule. Otherwise, a Cotton Bowl tilt with old friend Les Miles and LSU.

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Mike Gundy breezed into the Big 12 Media Days Monday looking like a lawyer out of a Sydney Pollack movie or something. Light grey suit, purple tie, a little pocket blush to match.

Let his 15 minutes begin.

It’s Gundy’s Oklahoma State crew who goes on the clock in 2009 as the hot upstart team in the Big 12, and it was OSU that got the most attention – just slightly more than Nebraska and Texas A&M - on day one.

The Cowboys have arguably their biggest non-conference game in history on opening weekend, hosting Georgia. Gundy, whose spiky hair can sometimes match his demeanor, was all smiles and business on Monday.

“Oklahoma State is better off now as a football than we’ve ever been,” Gundy said. “Because of where we’re at, the continuity we have and the new facility we have and the direction we’re going. But we’ve got to earn it.”

Gundy fielded questions of all kinds, but two subjects came up the most: Zac Robinson and that last richly-paid assistant that’s supposed to put OSU over the top, defensive coordinator Bill Young.

“He’s mature, confident,” Gundy said. “He’s been great for us in the staff room. He’s a great hire for us. The players like him. They’ll adapt to the system.”

Gundy added Young’s defense will fit his talented trio of linebackers “to a T.”

***

Best story of the day had to go to A&M Coach Mike Sherman, who was watching football games on Thanksgiving weekend – depressed, since his Aggies had just finished a losing season by getting hammered by Colt McCoy and Texas – when his 9-year-old daughter plopped down in his lap, sensing her daddy’s sadness.

Sherman expected to hear those three magic words.

He heard three words, all right.

“She said ‘Daddy, get over it,’” Sherman said to a media room of laughter.

And so Sherman has tried. Sounding a great deal like former Nebraska coach Bill Callahan, Sherman, an offensive line guru and former NFL coach, too, said the Aggies struggled in 2008 in large part because of…wait for it…the transition to a West Coast Style offense.

“You have to put it on me, the transition part of it,” Sherman said. “It didn’t go as well as we had hoped.”

But the adversity of a 4-8 season, Sherman said, “brought the team closer together.” In the spring, A&M finally started acting like a “a team that competed in practice every day.”

As if this didn’t happen under Dennis Franchione, apparently. Isn’t that always the way?

In a Callahanesque manner, Sherman pointed to his most recent recruiting class “as a stimulus package of our own, so to speak,” especially along the offensive line, where the Aggies played hurt and hobbled throughout 2008.

***

Iowa State Coach Paul Rhoads was practically jumping out of his skin with passion at his first Media Days as head coach. Rhoads, a native Iowan whose “mom and dad live 20 minutes” from Jack Trice Stadium, is trying to resurrect, once again, an ISU program from the ashes of an awful season. In 2008, it was an ugly 2-10 campaign that saw the Cyclones lose their last ten games of the year.

Rhoads previously worked under Dan McCarney at ISU in the late 1990s, so he’s seen one coach do it. And Iowa State, in terms of facilities and player development, is well ahead of where it was back then.

“We used have every practice outside in some awful weather,” Rhoads said, and he’s probably not complaining. Trice is set up like a wind tunnel, and, past October, the practice conditions are somewhere close to frigid.

As far as expectations, Rhoads won’t put a win total on it. Good idea. He may want to forego that next year, too, when Oklahoma and Texas move onto the schedule.

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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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Periodically throughout the summer, we'll be offering some insights on the national college football scene, both through our burning questions, and through top and bottom five lists.

You can access the entire archive right here, or by the NCFB tag at the bottom of this blog.

Today, we consider five teams that will take a step back – and maybe a dramatic one – in 2009.

South Carolina: Steve Spurrier has a date with irrelevancy, and it’s been coming for two years. In 2009, it finally arrives, as the Gamecocks face a brutal schedule. Three out of their four best opponents – Florida, Mississippi, Clemson – are at home, while pick em games vs. Tennessee, NC State and Arkansas are all on the road. Throw in a game at Alabama, and it’s a slate that USC’s uncertain offense just can’t handle. Five wins – maybe. Home games vs. Kentucky and Vanderbilt won’t be gimmes.

As for Spurrier – one has to wonder whether he’s got the patience or the stomach for the turf war the SEC East is about to become. Lane Kiffin resembles a more reckless, younger version of Spurrier. Urban Meyer could win awards for his insolence. The SEC’s revenue-sharing plan has given Vandy and Kentucky a real shot at competing. Georgia is still Georgia. Recruiting down there is a nightmare, and Clemson’s on the way back up now that Tommy Bowden’s out of picture. We suspect a retirement, soon.

Southern California: Blasphemy? Nope – just reality. The Trojans will boast one of the nation’s sturdiest running games, and Aaron Corp/Matt Barkley should capably fill shoes previously worn by Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, John David Booty and Mark Sanchez.

But the defense, awe-inspiring in 2008, needs a year to retool after losing nine of the top 12 tacklers. We suspect, for the first time in five years, that opposing teams might really gain some traction running the ball on USC. The September-October schedule is really tough – games at Ohio State, California, Notre Dame and Oregon – and we could see a trap set in one of the two final home games vs. UCLA and Arizona. The Trojans could still win 10 games. If not, don’t be surprised.

Utah: No undefeated season this year. The Utes lose quarterback Brian Johnson, their top four receivers and one of the nation’s best punter/kickers Louie Sakoda, who a consensus first-team All American. Throw in games at Oregon and the three best teams in Mountain West – BYU, TCU and UNLV – and you get the picture. A rebuilding job in Salt Lake City.

Wake Forest: The smoke and mirrors are going to run out for Jim Grobe’s crew. The non-conference schedule, with games at Navy and vs. Baylor and Stanford, is sneaky hard, especially for a team that lost all of its starting linebackers. And while the conference schedule seems manageable from afar, we see take Wake taking a hard dive with home games vs. Miami, Florida State and NC State and road games at Clemson and Georgia Tech. Something’s gotta give in the ACC, and this year, it’s the Deacs. Seven losses. Maybe more.

Oklahoma State: We make risky calls sometimes around here, and this is our riskiest. While many predict a breakout season for the Cowboys this year similar to the one Texas Tech (sorta) experienced last year, we go in the opposite direction.

Part of it is a matter of pressure and expectations. At Tech, Mike Leach crafts his teams to his liking, toils away from the state’s major newspapers, and keeps perspective and occasionally gets a pass from the media because of it. Not Mike Gundy, for obvious reasons: The watchful eye of T. Boone Pickens, and, well, this little moment.

The Cowboys also host Georgia to open the season, the most significant season-opener since, oh, whenever. OSU buckled in Athens back in 2007, and its fan base can taste a win here. If the Pokes can’t beat a Dawg team that’s replacing its top quarterback, running back and receiver, well, you can imagine the pressure that goes on the team, and Gundy, after that.

Thirdly, Oklahoma State couldn’t stop the pass in last year, and, with replacing three starters in the secondary, we don’t forsee it this year. Couple that with a front seven that gave up at least 110 yards in nine of 13 games, and you’ve got a defense poised for a major meltdown in 2009. Gundy seems to know as much, which is why he signed up coordinator-for-hire Bill Young to do something – anything – with the defense.

Finally, well, we just don’t trust the HC. Don’t trust a guy so involved in the offense that he turns his back on an awful defense to go draw up plays. Worked like a real peach in the last quarter of the season, when OSU went 1-3 and gave up more than 500 yards per game, didn’t it? We see too many similarities in Stillwater – meddlesome administration, aloof coaching, mercenary, cerebral guys on defense – to what happened at Nebraska in 2007.

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Early odds from Bodog are out on next year's BCS national championship games. They favor Florida and Oklahoma (and USC, which has the same odds as OU).

Hoo-ray. Not.

Remember that some of these are sucker bets anyway. Notre Dame has pretty good odds, 30-1 which is meaningless. The Irish won't be within ten miles of a national title in 2009. Even if the schedule is pretty friendly.

Nebraska goes off at 55/1. Behind OU (5/1), UT (8/1) and Oklahoma State(50/1). Ahead of everybody else in the Big 12.

Want a good bet? Try that Virginia Tech at 20-1. If Tech gets past Alabama and Nebraska, the ACC is highly manageable.

And, yeah, we like Florida, too.

The whole odds. We credit The Wiz of Odds for finding it but repost them here because they're a little hard to read on that site:

Alabama 22/1
Arizona 100/1
Arizona State 150/1
Arkansas 150/1
Auburn 150/1
Boise State 100/1
Boston College 100/1
California 60/1
Cincinnati 90/1
Clemson 60/1
Colorado 100/1
Florida 7/4
Florida State 30/1
Georgia 50/1
Georgia Tech 50/1
Illinois 80/1
Iowa 75/1
Kansas 75/1
Kansas State 175/1
Kentucky 125/1
Louisville 150/1
LSU 20/1
Maryland 200/1
Miami Florida 35/1
Michigan 120/1
Michigan State 100/1
Missouri 90/1
Nebraska 55/1
North Carolina 45/1
North Carolina State 100/1
Notre Dame 30/1
Ohio State 17/2
Oklahoma 5/1
Oklahoma State 50/1
Oregon 20/1
Oregon State 100/1
Penn State 35/1
Pittsburgh 60/1
Rutgers 125/1
South Carolina 100/1
South Florida 80/1
Tennessee 100/1
Texas 8/1
Texas A&M 150/1
Texas Tech 60/1
UCLA 150/1
Utah 125/1
USC 5/1
Virginia 100/1
Virginia Tech 20/1
Wake Forest 80/1
Washington 200/1
West Virginia 75/1
Wisconsin 100/1
Field (Any Other Team) 20/1

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