Texas A&M quarterback Mark Farris took a three-step drop, quickly read the defense, and fired a strike directly into the hands of Torrance Marshall. If you were born in Texas, you already know the rest of the story. Unfortunately for Farris, Marshall played for the #1 Oklahoma, racing down the sideline for the game winning touchdown. Final score 35-31. It was the most painful experience I have ever encountered as a football fan. I have often looked back on that game as the ultimate What-If scenario. The Big XII South Championship so close to being back in College Station, only to slip away. However, over the past year or two, something else has begun to creep into the picture. Something else has started slipping away. The quality of teams put forth by the Big XII is noticeably dwindling. The powerful run game of Colorado, the Wrecking Crew of Texas A&M, the speed of Kansas State, the All-American defense of Oklahoma, the bruising runners of Texas, and more recently, the quick strike offenses of Missouri and Texas Tech, have all but disappeared. Though there may not be one definitive answer, and though it may be a culmination of a series of events, this article attempts to pinpoint what is killing the Big XII and how eventually, every empire crumbles.
To find out where the Big XII went awry, one does not need to go back past 2000. I would argue that the team Oklahoma fielded in 2000 was the best we saw last decade. But let’s not stray from the course. I will argue that the wide advent of the “spread” offense and its many forms began the death of the Big XII. In its beginnings, the spread was just a fad. It was brought to the Big XII when a transfer from Weber State and Snow Junior College, Josh Huepel, burst onto the scene in 1999. Huepel led an explosive offense and an All-American defense led by Rocky Calmus, Torrence Marshall, Brandon Everage, and Roy Williams, who easily dispatched nearly everyone on their schedule, including a 1-loss Florida State team in the National Championship. For years after, Oklahoma ruled the Big XII South with an iron fist, while Colorado duked it out with Nebraska and Kansas State each year in the North. It was so promising. It was so fun to watch. High scoring offenses became the norm. It wasn’t uncommon, and still isn’t to see teams rack up insane amounts of yards and points. Teams began to play for offense, instead of playing for defense. We should have seen the writing on the wall.
Before that, let’s take a step back. What were some of the most exciting college football games over the past two years? Most people will remember Jordan Shipley’s dramatic kickoff return TD at the Cotton Bowl or Michael Crabtree’s last second touchdown to defeat Texas. It must be conceded that the most exciting games usually come from the Big XII. In the past (emphasis on past), the Big XII has had four of the most explosive offenses in the nation (Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Kansas/Missouri/Texas A&M) and in 2008 had (and the stats back this up) seven of the top 20 quarterbacks in America: Robert Griffith (Baylor), Todd Reesing (Kansas), Chase Daniel (Missouri), Sam Bradford (Oklahoma), Zac Robinson (Oklahoma State), Colt McCoy (Texas) and Graham Harrell (Texas Tech). This seems all hunky dory. Who can beat that? The receivers and running backs are quick, sure handed, and possess incredible skill. The coaching is second to none.
So now let’s examine the defenses (silence with tumbleweed rolling across road). The reason the offenses are sooo great (we’re speaking strictly of 2003 and on) is because the defenses absolutely suck. There is no way around it. The conference scores more points than any other conference each year by a mile. You know what the effect of this is? Lack of competition. It sometimes feels as if you are watching a glorified flag football game. When will teams realize that’s it’s not enough to put up 60+ points each week? That eventually, you have to play defense. In years past, Texas Tech and their spread attack threw the ball over 55 times per game. Everyone knew Tech was going to pass on every down and still no one in the Big XII could stop it. At Texas, everyone knew that Texas was going to run the option-read and still no one in the Big XII could stop it. You’ve got a team like Kansas had in 2008, a perennially loser who earned bowl bids as often as I get laid, who plugs in a 5’10” quarterback and a couple studs at skill positions and they’ve got an Orange Bowl victory. For the layman, Big 12 teams are victims of their own devices. So now, put yourself in the shoes of my buddy Coleman, adamant fan of the Big 10, who is accustomed to the bruising brand of football mentality and imagine what he might think Michigan gave up 40+ each week? I don’t know if he’d make it through the season.
In 2004, Oklahoma averaged 36.1 PPG, much higher than the 16.7 they averaged only five years before. They were back in the National Championship. They had Adrian Peterson and Jason White. They were seemingly invincible. They hadn’t played a truly great team. It looks good when you can beat a bunch of teams within, what we now realize as a mediocre conference. When all of those mediocre teams play each other, they all look good, right? Oklahoma was slaughtered by USC 55-19 in the National Championship. This coming a year after having their “unstoppable offense” was stymied by a two loss LSU team. The balance had started to shift. The big names were disappearing in Big XII. The next year, the Big XII received a final moment of glory as Vince Young singlehandedly out-dueled the entire USC defense enroute to a stunning victory.
The Big XII has become reliant on high scoring offenses. Texas Tech emerged last decade as an offensive force, due to Mike Leach. Now that Leach has left, Tech struggles to get past the SMU’s of the world. Taylor Potts might be the most ineffective quarterback the state of Texas has seen in the past 15 years. That’s not the only thing that has left. Besides the defensive meltdown that has become the Big XII, it is reasonable to look at the athletes; for they are not what they used to be. In a conference where Jerrod Johnson may very well be the best quarterback, times have changed. Where are the James Brown’s, Major Applewhite’s, and Josh Huepel’s? Colt McCoy was good, but was 0-2 against Stephen McGee, considered one of the tougher field generals in recent memory. Toughness is a theme that has plagued the Big XII in recent years. Nobody is going to confuse Kendall Hunter with Vernand Morency or Tatum Bell. Remember when Colorado was a haven for the backfield? Names like Michael Westbrook, Kordell Stewart, Chris Brown, Hugh Charles, and Bobby Purify conjure up an image of glory that left Boulder a long time ago. Taylor Potts would never have seen the field 5 years ago. Remember the Ricky and Ricky tandem from that late nineties? The glory days of Dante Hall, Ricky Williams, Quentin Griffin, Ahman Green, and Darren Sproles are in the past. Kendall Hunter is supposed to replace that!? Say it ain’t so! I long for the feared defensive backfields of Roy Williams, Michael Huff, and Jon McGraw. Is Blake Gideon the best we have these days? I miss the days when Ja’mar Toombs and Joel Mackovicka would run people over. Someone, please tell me that Cody Johnson isn’t the best we have anymore. The Teddy Lehman’s and Dat Nguyen’s were gone long before most other positions, replaced by featherweights compared to the former. The question left in this wake is, where have all the athletes gone?
The SEC. While the spread was being thrown around in the Big XII, SEC teams either did not change or developed a much more strategic spread that involved faster, more physical athletes who could play more than one position on the field. Toughness is what the Big XII lacks. Colt McCoy couldn’t last one quarter against Alabama. Texas A&M was run off the field against Arkansas. Oklahoma limped to a 7-5 record, which included a loss to juggernaut BYU. Yet people still put Big XII teams high in rankings. As of this week, The University of Texas is ranked #7; ahead of the likes of South Carolina, Wisconsin, and Arkansas. Who would place money on Texas in a game against any of those teams? More recently, they struggled for a half at home against star-studded Wyoming in a 34-7 victory. The same Wyoming team that gave up 45 points in the first half against Boise State before Boise mercifully decided that they didn’t want to reach triple digits, the very next week. How can people ignore this disparity? Few would argue that Texas truly deserved to be in the NC against Alabama. They were nearly beaten by a Nebraska team who, while very physical and tough, might as well have not even tried playing offense. The toughness and physicality weren’t there for Texas. Viewers felt that the 37-21 shellacking, padded by late Texas touchdowns when the game was out of hand, was a predetermined outcome. Utah would have fared better against Florida in 2008 than Oklahoma. Instead, Utah dismantled #4 Alabama in front of a nationwide audience. That being said, there is still hope for the Big XII and it comes in the name of Taylor Martinez. Nebraska has the feel of that 2000 Oklahoma team, who started out ranked 19th. They are the most solid defensive team in the Big XII. The blackshirts have returned. They will face limited competition this year from the North, and should be able to run the gauntlet to the Big XII Championship. For the sake of the XII, we can only hope they do. Ironically, they ‘re leaving the conference.
What started off as a stunning upset over Nebraska in 1996, turned into Colt McCoy fleeing the National Championship. What was Sirr Parker being collared in the end zone, has turned into the Conference’s star quarterback throwing four interceptions against defensive powerhouse Florida International. What was once the defense of The Superman, now struggles sporadically with inferior opponents. The school that once had three top flight running backs, now is completely irrelevant; burning fires a metaphor for their failures in recent years. What was an offense boasting the nation’s #1 passer on an annual basis, can barely move the football these days. The Big XII does not have much of a defensive pulse left, and I’m afraid, we will soon see, it too, become irrelevant.
