IRVING — Most Big 12 Media Days come and go without too much fanfare. But this year, after an offseason during the demise of the conference seemed imminent, the first day of the event in Irving was expected to resemble a forced family reunion of sorts. In reality, there were a few tense moments and plenty of forced smiles, but for the most part it was business as usual.
The first coach to face the print media contingent was Bo Pelini , whose Nebraska squad is bound for the Big Ten after this season. Pelini made clear before taking questions from reporters that he would not be addressing anything relating to the school’s move to the Big Ten. Still, the issue invariably came up.
“We really haven’t talked much about it,” Pelini said of the school’s conference switch. “We’re looking forward to the fall, and we’ve been doing our homework on the opponents.”
The Huskers nearly took the Big 12 Championship last year, losing the game on a last-second field goal by Texas. The field goal was attempted after a controversial review added time back on the game clock after an incompletion. Nebraska’s motto this offseason has been the word “finish.”
Next was Baylor’s Art Briles. Baylor played a far less significant role in the realignment madness, much to the chagrin of the Bears’ fans and apparently Texas lawmakers. They were one of the schools that reportedly would be left out of any sort of conference switch. This added to an offseason during which Briles was a top candidate for the coaching job at Texas Tech vacated after the firing of Mike Leach.
Briles seemed to channel Leach, who was notorious for his quirky press conferences, when he spent time asking reporters and offering different hypotheses about the spelling of the word successes after he used the word in one of his answers.
He expressed optimism for his team, which will return star quarterback Robert Griffin. Griffin lost the vast majority of last season to a right knee injury. Briles said he believes Griffin is as healthy and ready as he needs to be. Griffin was absent from today’s event, and Briles said he left Griffin at home in order to bring more attention to other great players on his roster.
During his time on the dias last year Paul Rhoads was very open about Iowa State’s need to improve after coming off a 2-win season the year before. This year, after a 7-6 season Rhoads said his team would be better than last year’s incarnation. That might be true, but they’ll face a much tougher schedule than they did last year with Texas Tech coming to Ames and trips to Norman and Austin on back-to-back weeks.
“We’ll be an improved football team in 2010, and we’ll need to be,” he said. “We face a very challenging schedule that some rate as the toughest in the country.”
Rounding out the day was Texas A&M and Mike Sherman. A&M has high hopes that this year will be their best season in recent memory. Quarterback Jerrod Johnson is the confrence’s pre-season offensive player of the year and Linebacker Von Miller, who led the country in sacks last season, took the co-defensive award.
Coach Mike Sherman spoke about his desire to take the program to the heights it saw in the mid-‘80’s and ‘90s and said this season is about taking that next step.
“I think we’re getting closer to that point, that vision that I had when I took the job,” Sherman said. “This season for us is about taking that next step, and the next step for us is to be in games in the fourth quarter with two minutes left where you’re in position to win the football game.”
Missouri, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Texas Tech will be the four teams featured today.