By Chris Williams, CycloneFanatic.com Publisher Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisMWilliams
CycloneFanatic.com’s coverage of the 2011 Big 12 football media days in Dallas is proudly brought to you by the Iowa Clinic’s Urology Department.
DALLAS – Day two in Dallas featured a lot less chatter about the Longhorn Network and a lot more actual discussion about the sport of football.
This was boring for some but refreshing for others. Mark me down for the latter.
By now, you’ve seen and read a lot about what Paul Rhoads and Iowa State’s representatives had to say. I can promise you that you’ll read plenty more her at CycloneFanatic.com over the coming days.
What else happened on Tuesday in the "Big D?" Here’s a Big 12 roundup.
Tuberville’s key to success
I might have enjoyed Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tuberville’s press conference the most on Tuesday. Tuberville reminds me a lot of Paul Rhoads, which makes since considering Iowa State’s head coach worked under Tuberville at Auburn in 2008.
Tuberville said that in his first year as a Big 12 head coach, he learned about the two things that any program needs to be successful in this league.
"You have to have a very good pass rusher coming from the outside, and you have to have two good corners," Tuberville said. "And if you have those, you’ve got a chance in this league to keep somebody under 21 points, which is still a lot of points. If you don’t, you’ve got no chance. You better outscore them.”
Tuberville made some changes to his program defensively in the offseason. He hired longtime TCU secondary coach Chad Glasgow to run his defense, where you’ll see Tech be more prepared to run thier 4-2-5 in 2011.
"It’s all about depth and speed on defense. You don’t really have to worry about size. You worry about quickness and speed. I’ve always believed in that anyway," Tuberville said. "The thing I like about the 4-2-5 pretty much we ran a lot of it last year, it forces you in this league with the type of players that you play against and the formations, you have to run a lot of nickel defenses, and that’s pretty much what a 4-2-5 is, is four-man front, two linebackers and five defensive backs. We ran that 95 percent of the time last year."
More depth at KU
They might not win more games (the Jayhawks were picked to finish last in the league), but Kansas will have more depth in 2011 than they did a season ago.
Kansas redshirted 16 players last season on a depleted team that could have used them. Head coach Turner Gill was thinking long term.
"I thought there would be a better situation as far as the following year and two or three years down the road they would be bigger, faster, stronger, and I thought that would benefit our program definitely in the long term," Gill said. "So this year, we’ve got competition. That’s what we didn’t have last year at positions. In some positions we just didn’t have competition. And I think if you talked to most of us as coaches, when you’ve got competition at just about every position, you’re going to improve your play of your football team."
MEMORABLE QUOTES FROM TUESDAY
Bob Stoops on the Longhorn Network/recruiting:
"The lifeblood of every program is recruiting. And so we either all recruit by the same rules or we don’t. So I’ve got total trust in our administrations and leadership of the league and the NCAA that we’ll all play under the same rules. And if not, then let’s change the rules so that we can all do it the same way."
Tommy Tuberville on being in Lubbock a second year: "It takes a good year to get everything settled, get all your coaches moved in, get their wives off your back."
Bill Snyder on new celebration penalties: "The best way for it not to be an issue is to make sure that your youngsters don’t do anything that would threaten the letter of the rule itself. And that’s a matter of discipline. And it’s hard sometimes because every football coach in the country will tell you and you would feel the same way that if you were coaching that you would want young people to be passionate about the game and play with great spirit and emotion because it is that kind of a game. And when you do that, you know, sometimes you just show your joy, and it’s strictly that."
LINKS GALORE
— The Des Moines Register’s Andrew Logue compares Iowa State to Baylor of the past.
— “If Texas can have their own network, I want mine." That’s a quote from Oklahoma linebacker Travis Lewis on Tuesday. For more on the controversy that surrounds the Longhorn Network, here’s a column from Yahoo’s Jason King.
— Here’s a Big 12 notebook that is similar to the one that you’re currently reading from the folks at the Daily Oklahoman.
— Dennis Dodd from CBS Sportstakes an interesting look at the Bob Stoops era at Oklahoma.
— The Daily Oklahoman’s Jenni Carlson discusses how Sooner quarterback Landry Jones was changed in the offseason.
— Bill Snyder gets personal with Austin Meek of the Topeka Capital Journal in a piece about summer conditioning.
— The Wichita Eagleinvestigates the expectations of the Kansas Jayhawks heading into 2011.
