Texas and Big 12 Capsules: Pass-happy Big 12 boasts nation's top 3 rushers
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — The Big 12 is ready to run again.
The pass-happy league that's been known in recent years for producing Heisman Trophy finalists at quarterback is now home to the nation's top three rushers.
Oklahoma State's Kendall Hunter, Kansas State's Daniel Thomas and Oklahoma's DeMarco Murray pulled off a rare trifecta in the opening weekend of the season, becoming only the fifth trio in conference history to rush for 200 yards apiece on the same day.
That hadn't happened in a dozen years in a conference that has lately become so passionate about passing. In fact, there had been only three 200-yard rushing performances total over the past two years — much less in the same day.
Texas' Ricky Williams, Oklahoma's De'Mond Parker and Kansas' David Winbush were the last Big 12 trio of 200-yard rushers, back on Oct. 24, 1998. It also happened three times in 1996, with Texas Tech's Byron Hanspard, Kansas' June Henley, Iowa State's Troy Davis and Nebraska's Ahman Green among those contributing.
It took until a group of top-notch quarterbacks including 2008 Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy, Chase Daniel and Graham Harrell cycled through the league for it to happen again.
"That's natural," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. "I think you play to your strengths, and when you have guys like that, you play to them."
And the Big 12's running resurgence isn't just the senior trio with the gaudy numbers. Freshman Taylor Martinez had 127 yards in a revival of the running quarterback at Nebraska, and Texas has committed to being more of a run-oriented team although Week 1 didn't produce any big numbers.
At Oklahoma State, the hiring of new offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, a former Mike Leach assistant who created the nation's top passing offense last season at Houston, created visions of a four-receiver spread.
That all changed this summer when Holgorsen approached offensive line coach Joe Wickline with the idea of testing out a full house backfield. The Cowboys designed a new offensive formation with three running backs to feature Hunter, a third-team All-American in 2008 who missed most of last season with an ankle injury.
"We experimented with it, didn't really know how it was going to turn out," Holgorsen said. "It turned out all right, I guess."
The formation, with quarterback Brandon Weeden operating out of the pistol, was conceived as a way to get Jeremy Smith and Joseph Randle onto the field with Hunter, and to use the depth at running back that the Cowboys lack at receiver. Fullbacks Bryant Ward and David Paulsen also line up on either side of Weeden and Hunter, who ran for a career-high 257 yards and four TDs in just over one half against Washington State.
Holgorsen said he'd never before used a similar formation and joked that "in one of my previous lives when the wishbone was around, maybe I was tinkering with it then."
Oklahoma, almost exclusively a shotgun team during Bradford's career, also went with a pistol-based offense to improve on its sagging run production from last season. The Sooners averaged just 3.6 yards per carry last season, their lowest mark since 2001 and the second-lowest in the past 25 years.
"It just gives you a chance to maybe hide some of your tendencies of where your back is and what's going on, but you also get your running back more north and south instead of east and west," offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said.
Murray benefited from his first game as the lone featured back, after splitting time the previous three years with Chris Brown, and also Wilson's desire to re-establish the run game that disappeared last year after injuries to several offensive linemen and tight ends.
Murray carried 35 times for a career-best 218 yards and two touchdowns.
"I truly believe you snowball and you build toughness and physical-ness in a running game as you go through the season, so I did want to start early," Wilson said. "Maybe I was trying to force it, but I wasn't going to get away from it."
It was business as usual for Thomas, the Big 12's rushing leader last season, but with some bigger numbers as his entire family attended a K-State game together for the first time. He ran for a career-high 234 yards and two scores against UCLA.
"I would guess that the people that are running the ball well feel pretty good about their offensive line and feel pretty good about whoever it is to that's carrying the football," said coach Bill Snyder, whose Wildcats attempted three times as many runs as passes.
"I don't think you get the opportunity to have that kind of yardage if they weren't pretty capable people."
Gill picks QB Webb to start for Kansas
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — One of the most embarrassing losses in team history has persuaded Kansas to change quarterbacks.
Coach Turner Gill announced Wednesday that redshirt freshman Jordan Webb will start on Saturday against No. 15 Georgia Tech instead of sophomore Kale Pick. Pick had beat out Webb after a long and close competition between the two during spring practice and early fall.
Webb came off the bench and played the last 10 minutes of Kansas' opener Saturday against North Dakota State. A 6-3 loss was one of the most humiliating defeats in decades for the program that won the 2008 Orange Bowl, and ruined Gill's debut as Kansas coach.
"It's not just necessarily what Kale didn't do, because there were multiple things that were happening," Gill said. "A lot of it wasn't just because of the quarterback. There were things that were going on with the offensive line, receivers and penalties and dropped ball and all those kinds of things."
Gill also said the offense's lack of production with Pick behind center was a factor in his decision. Pick had 13 completions in 22 passes for 138 yards and one interception. Webb was 6 for 11 for 59 yards in the last two drives of the game.
In August, Gill cited Pick's intangibles and demeanor in practice and his ball security as reasons for giving him the job.
Webb said losing the competition for the quarterback job at the beginning of the season motivated him to work harder and earn the top spot.
"It's what I've wanted all along," he said. "It's what everybody wants; everyone wants to be the starter. So it's something that I hope that I can make the most of."
Georgia Tech is coming off a 41-10 victory against South Carolina State last week.
"It's an awesome opportunity," Webb said. "People are going to be looking down on us after last week, so we want to come out here and make some noise and get some people talking."
Gill also announced that junior Jeremiah Hatch would return to start at center after missing the first week for undisclosed medical reasons. Senior Sal Capra started against North Dakota State, and he will move to left guard this Saturday.
Texas to pay tribute to Wyoming player killed
AUSTIN (AP) — Texas will have a pregame tribute for Wyoming freshman linebacker Ruben Narcisse, who was killed this week in a traffic accident.
The No. 5 Longhorns hosts the Cowboys on Saturday in Austin.
Texas coach Mack Brown says the tribute will include a moment of silence and Narcisse's photograph on Texas' massive scoreboard video screen. The Texas band will also play a song for the Wyoming team.
Narcisse, who was from Miami, died Monday night in Colorado. Three other Wyoming players were injured in the accident.
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Mountain West bolsters status after opening week
DENVER (AP) — If you can beat 'em, maybe you can join 'em.
While the rest of the country debates the merits of TCU and Boise State as potential BCS busters, Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson is simply relishing the early season successes of the Horned Frogs and Broncos as they pick off teams from power conferences.
TCU, the defending league champion, is ranked fourth after defeating Oregon State in the opener, one spot behind Boise State, which buoyed its national title hopes by rallying past Virginia Tech, 33-30, on Monday night in Landover, Md.
Although Boise State doesn't join the league until next season, the Broncos' record this year and last — when they were 14-0 — will be factored into the formula as the Mountain West Conference vies to land an automatic BCS berth like the six major football conferences already enjoy.
Halfway through a four-year evaluation process, Thompson likes the direction the conference is heading, even as traditional power BYU moves to independent status next season and Utah bolts for the Pac-10. Fresno State and Nevada have agreed to join the MWC and more expansion hasn't been ruled out as Thompson's preference is to eventually field a 10-team league.
These days, the buzz around college football centers around Boise State and TCU and whether they'll be able to hang around long enough to be serious contenders for the national title.
That would provide more evidence of what Thompson has been saying for years: his league deserves more respect.
"It's incumbent upon us to continue to perform at a high level and arguably put ourselves in a position that, in the next cycle of BCS bowl negotiations, we can commandeer, if you will, and negotiate an automatic place," Thompson told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I think the Mountain West Conference deserves an equal access point with the other six conferences."
For now, it remains a slippery slope for those schools outside the BCS domain. An early loss certainly spells doom for a BCS bowl bid.
That's the harsh reality for a nonautomatic qualifying conference, something that Thompson hopes will change.
"Maybe one day we'll see an 11-1 Mountain West team play in a BCS bowl game. I don't think it's too far from that," Thompson said. "But for the most part, our seasons are based on September. In this case, the first week of September, the first game of the season. There's not a lot of wiggle room."
Thompson was in attendance for TCU's 30-21 win over a ranked Oregon State team in Arlington, Texas. Later, he watched Boise State's comeback against Virginia Tech, No. 10 at the time, on television with keen interest.
Rarely has he rooted so hard for a Western Athletic Conference school.
"I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed that performance," Thompson said, laughing. "You could go on about any dot-com (site) right now and find dozens of debates and stories about whether Boise State is deserving of the BCS championship game. Or about TCU lurking around.
"People now are starting to take notice of and appreciate the performances by the TCUs, Utahs, BYUs and, in future years, the Boise States."
The Horned Frogs and TCU coach Gary Patterson have a tricky road ahead, facing a nonconference docket that includes Baylor and SMU, along with a trip to Utah on Nov. 6.
For Boise State and coach Chris Petersen, the schedule doesn't appear as dicey, with a home game against Oregon State on Sept. 25 more than likely providing the biggest roadblock.
Then again, the danger may lie in casting an eye too far down the road.
"When you start looking ahead, and say, 'OK, now we're 7-0 or 8-0 or 9-0,' that's when you get in trouble," Thompson said. "These coaches, they're just looking at this as, 'Who do we have Saturday?' Gary Patterson — people may scoff and say he's going from Oregon State to Tennessee Tech. But he's not worried about anybody except Tennessee Tech right now."
The allure of the looming rivalry between Boise State and TCU is quite tantalizing to Thompson. The two powers have met in back-to-back bowl games — the Horned Frogs beating Boise State, 17-16, in the Poinsettia Bowl following the 2008 season and the Broncos winning last year on an even grander scale, 17-10, in the Fiesta Bowl.
"I salivate over the matchup in the future," Thompson said. "Two really well-coached teams, very exciting teams to watch. Tremendous skill players. I'm excited about that future game under the Mountain West umbrella."
To raise the conference's profile, though, it's going to take more than just two elite teams, especially with the departures of Utah and BYU. That's another component of the evaluation process — how well each individual squad stacks up.
"Our top is very solid. It is on par with most all of these automatic qualifying conferences from a performance standard," Thompson said. "Every performance counts. Every win is calculated. We need to have each and every member perform better."
-- Pat Graham
