IRVING – Big 12 Media Days drew to a close Wednesday with the media’s favorites to win the Big 12 South and two North team with plenty of work to do.

First up was Turner Gill, who like Tommy Tuberville is new to the conference and took the podium for his first media day this year. Also like Tuberville Gill is taking command of a program in which the former coach left after a considerable amount of turmoil. The former Nebraska quarterback talked about several things he has done to foster building relationships with his players and within the team.

“I believe in getting our players and our coaches to talk to each other in deeper details, more than just the Xs and Os of football,” Gill said. “Obviously, we get into the football stuff, but we’ve really gotten into building relationships.”

One thing that will work in the Jayhawks’ favor this year is a lighter group of Big 12 South teams on their schedule than in the past two years. Cornerback Chris Harris said playing Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech every year practically guaranteed losses for KU.

Bob Stoops hopes everybody sees Oklahoma as a guaranteed loss this year, but knows that being tipped as the Big 12 South champion by the media doesn’t guarantee results on the field. Stoops also had a highly-touted team last year, but quarterback Sam Bradford went down against BYU and Landry Jones stepped into the position. The bright side of that for the Sooners is that-barring another injury-they’ll have Jones returning. Stoops compared him to previous Oklahoma quarterbacks.
“We’ve won championships, six of them, with five different quarterbacks. That says a lot. And he’s in the mold of all those guys,” he said.

The Sooners are one of the few teams without questions regarding the quarterback position. At Colorado, the next team up at the event, quarterback battles have become so engrained in the offseason wide receiver Scotty McKnight said his chi would be thrown off without one.

Dan Hawkins wasn’t quite as jovial about another position battle, but said he feels comfortable with his quarterback situation.

“We’ve got two really good kids. They really want to win and they understand that concept,” he said. “Really on any given day, you could probably split them with a razor hair.

Hawkins’ seat is the hottest of any Big 12 coach, and with the school preparing to head into the newly-named Pac-12 this might not only be his last season in the conference, but at the school as well.

One coach whose job is certainly safe for quite some time is Texas’ Mack Brown who was the last coach to speak. The Longhorns’ quarterback will be Garrett Gilbert, a sophomore who got a forced introduction to the nation last year when he had to fill in for an injured Colt McCoy during the national championship game. Brown said he believes that experience will give Gilbert a leg up as the starter this season.

“I do think his presence in the national championship game gave him instant credibility with the older kids,” he said, “and unlike Colt, who hadn’t taken a snap when he stepped in that huddle, Garrett has.”

It will be against Brown and his Longhorns that Texas Tech opens conference play. The Red Raiders summer practice begins next weekend and their first game is September 5 against SMU. For coverage of all these events check back to www.dailytoreador.com.