Day 3 recap: Watch Video
The Lead
IRVING, Texas — It’s just like saving the best film
award for last at the Oscars.
Sure, the Academy might tease the supporting actor and
actress at the beginning of the awards show and slowly work through the people
we may have never heard but appear to be all so important. Then we meet those
who are considered the biggest awards of all.
Best actor, best actress, best director, best movie … catch
my drift?
You would know what I mean if you were a media member at Big
12 Media Days on Wednesday with the Big 12 using the Oscars script as a
blueprint for helping keep everyone around in the TV interview room just a
little longer.
And everyone waited for Mack Brown and the Longhorns to
arrive.
Let’s face it – if we really did learn anything from
the two-week debacle and “save” of the conference, it’s that this is Texas’
conference to win or lose.
And they are still the defending Big 12 Champions.
Just like a king taking his throne, Brown began addressing
the print media members first, doing the formal quotes and thanking every loyal
subject in the Big 12 office for helping the Longhorns keep this league
together one last season or more. We shall see.
As the horde of reporters gathered around Brown on his
raised podium, questions about anything and everything were thrown at him.
“Are you a true national power?”
“What do you expect out of Garrett Gilbert?”
“Will you miss this Nebraska-Texas rivalry?”
“Is Texas going to continue its dominance over Bob Stoops
and Oklahoma?”
“What do you think of Tuberville?”
Ah-ha! A suitable question for the king.
Especially since many have started to realize that Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tuberville might be one of the better recruiters around the
country and definitely just as entertaining and smooth with the media —
as many found out on Tuesday.
But Brown doesn’t appear to be bothered by anything that was
asked of him or about Texas. In fact, he just kept welcoming the questions by
the media. He even pointed over the group surrounding his table on the podium
to see if there were any others in the back trying to get in a question.
A good king always recognizes every subject in his court.
Humbled, Brown went on to talk about how much longer he may
be able to sit on the throne — or should we say stand on his pedestal
— before the prince in waiting Will Muschamp
becomes to impatient.
He admitted that there was a moment when he felt like taking
the crown off his head and handing it over three or four years ago, when knee
problems made coaching more painful than fun.
But the king remains in the same chair, hungry, hungry to
conquer another land.
A new Louisiana Purchase? That’s
the bit of land Brown wants his army to conquer once the final full Big 12
season is over with and done.
But he wasn’t showing any signs of greed. Instead, the king
just appeared to keep asking the same thing — What can
Brown do for you?
No Cold Feet, No Hot Seat
I would rate Wednesday as another entertaining day at the
Westin Hotel with the last four Big 12 coaches.
Well, at least three of them.
As usual, “Big Game Bob” Stoops appeared guarded about
questions of knocking off Texas, and if Landry Jones is the right guy to get
the job done. To answer the first part, it didn’t take him long to mention
Oklahoma’s six Big 12 titles and four national championship appearances —
plus the one win.
The more entertaining bit was from Kansas’ Turner Gill and
Colorado’s Dan Hawkins.
Hawkins smiled and laughed with the media. He detailed the
weeks of how he kept in contact with the Colorado administration and relaying
the news back to his players. He made it known that he does not have a starting
quarterback and definitely gave no indication of favoritism toward his son,
Cody.
With only 16 wins in four years and no bowl games, Hawkins
acted as if he was not on a hot seat.
“At least it’s a seat,” he said.
Gill is feeling mutual about it. His former home, Nebraska,
appeared to have cold feet years ago when they interviewed Gill along with Bo Pelini and others. Pelini, of
course, got the job, brought back tough defense and the rest is history —
Big 12 history that is.
Gill was hired by KU in the offseason to replace fired Mark Mangino, who took Kansas to a BCS bowl game and won. Gill
said there’s no hard feelings toward the Cornhuskers and that he wants Kansas
to be considered a football school.
“It wasn’t the right fit,” Gill said of the Nebraska job.
“If it was, I’d be there right now. This is the right fit at the right time.”
Talented Prankster
Colorado wide receiver Scotty McKnight is not someone you
want to get too close to you if you don’t know him well. Especially if he is
with his good friend and fellow prankster, Jets quarterback and So-Cal buddy
Mark Sanchez.
McKnight told the story of how he and Sanchez were able to
get his sister and her fiancé just before their wedding that week.
“We were at the reception and Mark and I kept trying to
think of something,” he said. “We saw that she left her cell phone sitting on
the railing overlooking the beach outside where she was earlier. So we snagged
it and texted him ‘I think I’m getting cold feet.’ We looked over at him and he
looked like he had seen a ghost. Then he figured it out when he saw us looking
over at him.”
McKnight aspires to be in the NFL as well, and he is not
kidding about that.
Even though he is only 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, he said he
sees himself at a slot position somewhere in the NFL, taking a lot from the
things that guys like former Wes Welker have been able to do without the more
“physical” gifts.
“That’s someone I really try to emulate on the field,”
McKnight said. “He’s really good at how he plays the game. Hopefully, I can
continue to get better this season and prove to someone that I might be worth
the risk.”
Hopefully, I never leave my cell phone around him.
Travis Cram is the Managing Editor for RaiderPower.com. Follow his
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