Time for some football talk

I spent a week in the Cayman Islands, and it was lovely. But now that I’m back, Big 12 media days are in full swing, which means it’s time for some football talk (finally). A couple things to get out of my head:

Parking for the MU-Nebraska game may not be as much of a fiasco as I was afraid it was going to be. A friend who works for the Alumni Association tells me that student parking at Faurot/Hearnes will be moved to Trowbridge or elsewhere for the day. The major question is still whether I take a half-day that day or a full day off. It’s a Thursday night game for those not in the know.

Pinkel is feeling good about our QB transition, although he won’t name a starter just yet. I guess that’s fine for now, but you’d have to be nuts not to think it’s Blaine Gabbert. On a related note, I was glad to read this in Dave Matter’s story:

With junior tailback Derrick Washington and sophomore backup De’Vion Moore returning in the backfield, plus enticing freshman Kendial Lawrence, Pinkel promised a more balanced offense.

“Without question, we’ll run the football a lot more,” he said. “Without question.”

Please, please, please don’t ever let Mike Leach leave this conference. The man wants a 64-team playoff in college football.

“I’m not off the mark here. You’re off the mark,” he said, as people around the podium erupted in laughter. “Everybody else does it this way. Texas high school state champion? 16 games. Division II champion? 16 games. Division III? Depending, because some of those guys will fudge on a game, 15 or 16 games. The NFL, the old guys? Even more than that. Everybody thinks that I went into a cave and carved all of this out.”

And, finally, this was an interesting look at what sideline reporting has become from the original sideline reporter himself.

Lampley never had any illusions about the job. “I never thought for a second that what we did was vital,” he says. “What had been envisioned was that, several times during the telecast, they’d throw to the sideline, where a college-aged reporter would do something, within 24 seconds, on Herbie the mascot buffalo or the cheerleader who won homecoming queen or whatever.