Fun night last night...70 mph winds came out of nowhere...good times...anyhoo...now that we've got a pretty good idea of what's going on in Columbia, let's look around the Big 12 North.
- So in 1995, Nebraska had to replace three DL starters, and those replacements ended up being named Wistrom and Peter, and the Huskers won another national title. Apparently 2007 will be just like that. Good to know. In other news, Marlon Lucky (mild concussion) and Cody Glenn (tight hamstring) both missed out on some scrimmaging over the weekend. See, Jeffrey? Every team has injuries. And finally, Sam Keller drops jaws. No comment.
- One of KSU's major question marks, wide receiver, has gotten a boost from the emergence of JUCO transfer Deon Beasley. Another boost could come from remembering that Jordy Nelson is pretty good. In all, I think Josh Freeman is pretty overrated (and apparently not in the best of shape), but I also think that there are enough unknowns involved with K-State that they are pretty much the North wildcard.
- Another weak WR corps--Colorado's--might get a boost from a freshman or two, though that's rarely an optimal solution. Even less optimal: freshmen on the O-line. Dan Hawkins really doesn't have much of a choice--he barely has enough scholarship OL's to fill out a 2-deep. I do figure that line play (on both sides of the ball, really) will hold CU back more than playing a RSFr QB. They do have one thing going for them, though: here's a feature on one of the conference's most underrated RB's, Hugh Charles.
- Here's a new candidate for Best Nickname in the Conference: Tang "Hostile" Bacheyle. He could provide a nice physical presence in the Jayhawk defensive backfield...though physicality wasn't the main problem for the KU DB's last year--it was speed. And with no Jon Cornish in the backfield, it's time to "open up the offense." Not a bad thing per say, though when your QB's are Todd Reesing and Kerry Meier, it's not necessarily a good thing either.
- So the ISU offense has Bret Meyer and Todd Blythe. Great. It appears that the other 9 starting positions on offense are still up for grabs, including RB (Jason Scales, J.J. Cass, Cameron Bell, Alexander Robinson, Michael Atchison, The Beef) and Other WR (R.J. Sumrall, Wallace Franklin, Euseph "Awesome Name" Messiah, Doug, The Boy, Bill C.). Also, Meyer is getting a bit of competition from RSFr Austen Arnaud. Meanwhile, the 'Clones have one less LB in the mix, as veteran Adam Carper is out for the season.
- Finally, back to Mizzou...DE was my main concern heading into this year, and a resurgent Stryker Sulak could be a positively huge boost for the Mizzou defense. Meanwhile, Mike Dearmond looks into the Mizzou punter battle (or lack thereof), and Graham Watson talks about the true freshman emerging in the defensive backfield.
- And Mizzou's Roger Wehrli sits down for the Trib's Sunday Q&A...
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