As grandiose, bombastic and histrionic as the SEC Football Media Days are, the Big XII just can’t match the swagger, nor does it try. The hotel lobby in Dallas isn’t flooded with the coaches’ groupies. Secret service-level security is not required for anyone in particular. The room for the assembled media is about half the size of the SEC media room. The guy getting the most attention is actually the West Virginia mascot, because even in Texas, a guy in a coon skin cap with a musket is going to get attention. Still, the expectations are for more of a serene event. For those old enough to remember these legacy game shows, the SEC is “Let’s Make A Deal,” and the Big XII Media Days are more of the staid “What’s My Line.” Here are some “production notes” for your review:
With that having been said, SEC Commissioner Bob Bowlsby opened the two-day event discussing the critical issues facing the conference; How will the Big XII ever get a team in the college football playoffs if it doesn’t get 12 teams and have a conference championship game? When will the expansion come? What teams do you expect to come? And what about all the movement to protect the health of players in light of concussion awareness in the sport? What about these exceptional issues at stake? Bowlsby said there is not critical mass within the conference to support expansion plans and the majority of the presidents, “believe 10 is the right number for us.” Yes, the Big XII will continue to be a conference of 10.
Big XII Football Media Days; Keep It Short and To The Point
Bowlsby announced that the conference will now limit the number of full contact days to two per week, including game day. No more full contact two-a-days, no more back-to-back full pad practices on game weeks. This is huge right? Time to crank out the “LWOS Breaking News” headlines. It turns out, that once you get through the serene press conferences with the coaches, not a single one of them even used their three full contact day allocation last year. In other words, the conference has implemented a new policy that the entirety of its membership was already doing on its own. Groundbreaking stuff at the Big XII conference.
As for the topic of expansion, TCU head coach Gary Patterson still has had a bitter taste in his mouth after his 11-1 Horned Frogs got left out of the playoffs, seemingly a punishment for the conference not having an officially crowned champion. “After last year, I don’t feel better about anything.” Baylor’s Art Briles, (who will appear on Tuesday), was in a similar situation as Patterson last year, but unlike Patterson, he went public with his criticisms of the system. Monday, Patterson didn’t name Briles directly, but certainly made his point clear. “I’m always going to be a team player. I handled it the way I handled it because that’s what was best for college football. I know if I handled it differently, they (the team), wouldn’t have played the way they did in the bowl game.” In case you need a reminder, TCU hammered Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl, while Baylor lost to Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl.
Patterson expects to use last year’s 8-0 conference record as a jumping off point for this season. He has QB Trevone Boykin back and after throwing for nearly 4,000 yards and 33 touchdowns last season, he will be in the Heisman talk as the season starts. Patterson addressed the issue of expectations. “A year ago we had to prove everyone wrong. This year we have to prove everyone right.”
David Beaty has to prove everything from scratch, as he takes over the helm at Kansas in his first ever college coaching job. The Jayhawks were 3-9 overall last year and 1-8 in conference. His motto for the team will be, “We are going to earn everything we get.” Solid enough. And then Beaty gets a little more philosophical. “We don’t control what makes us different. We only control what we make different and the way we approach it is everything. The landscape is ever changing and we only control what we control.” Yeah, take some to mull that over for a while. Beaty took great strains whenever possible to remind people that he had been a high school football coach in Texas for several years and mentioned his devotion to that fraternity of professionals. Translation: Gonna need some help, old friends, getting those four star recruits to Lawrence, Kansas.
West Virginia’s Dana Holgersen had his expectations for the day. He checked his watch multiple times during the media Q&A. Holgersen said the defense will carry the Mountaineers in 2015. He called the unit, “…probably the best defense in my 27 years of coaching.” The defense will need to come up big because the offense was way too loose with the football last year. Holgersen said WVA will try to fix that by opening up the offense more. “If you go to the spread offense and you do it soft, you are going to get your butt kicked.” And the big hand on his watch told him it was time to go.
The dean of Big XII coaches, Kansas State’s Bill Snyder says he has always endorsed the conference having two divisions, with six teams each, and a conference championship as it used to be. Still, he said, “I understand not everyone wants to do it that because of what it means to their program.” Snyder is in his 24th total year, over two stints, as the Wildcats head coach. His 187 wins is the second most in the country among active coaches. This year may be one of the most challenging. Not because the schedule is tough, not with OOC games against South Dakota, University of Texas-San Antonio and Louisiana Tech. No the challenge will be to remember the names of all of his quarterbacks, because he has seven of them on the roster this year. “Probably four of them, in my eyes, should be competitive for the starting spot.” Man, that’s like asking Snyder to choose his four favorite great grandkids.
Just how perfunctory is this event for coaches? Texas Tech’s Kliff Kingsbury didn’t even bother with an opening statement. He didn’t prepare anything. Can you imagine Steve Spurrier or Les Miles with nothing to say? When you were 4-8 overall and 2-7 in conference last season, maybe you shouldn’t be in such a hurry to get to the media questions. Kingsbury had a plan for that also. Not one answer was more than one sentence long. The second youngest coach in the country says the keys to the season are simple; he is going to name a starting QB early in camp for the sake of building team chemistry and it will be crucial to eliminate negative plays at the QB position. “We are looking for the guy who will be good at expanding plays.” Sure. Just don’t ask him to expand his answers or talking points.
Tuesday we get the “What’s My Line” corwds from Baylor, Oklahoma, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Texas.
