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cision
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plagues the Big 12
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By Jay Saunders
Staff reporter
Nebraska Coach Frank Solich said
deciding between his top two quarter
backs was the toughest decision he had
to make in nearly 30 years of coaching
football.
Solich might find some consolation
in the fact that in the Big 12
Conference, he is not alone.
Going into fall practice, half of the
teams in the Big 12 had not yet named a
starting signal caller. And similar to
Nebraska’s case, several teams are fac
ing the possibility of playing two quar
terbacks in the same game.
“What is most important is having
the best (quarterback) out there,”
Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops said.
“But there should always be competi
tion.”
With so many starting spots up for
grabs this season, there is a lot of room
for controversy.
Two bowl teams from a year ago
find themselves having to replace
Heisman Trophy candidates.
Kansas State’s Michael Bishop con
fused defenses last year with his ability
to run and throw. But now Bishop is
gone, leaving junior Jonathan Beasley
and senior Adam Helm to take over.
There has been no clear-cut starter
named, but KSU Coach Bill Snyder
said he would name a starter by the
team’s opener against Temple on Sept.
11.
“We are not in a two-quarterback
system,” Snyder said. “We have gone as
late as the week prior to the first ball
game to name a starter.”
Missouri is in a similar situation.
Corby Jones also pushed record num
bers for the Tigers over the last two sea
sons.
In line to take Jones'job is a pair of
quarterbacks with very little experi
ence.
Sophomore Jim Dougherty and
freshman Kirk Farmer are both candi
As a coach you want experienced players.
And if there is a position you want
experience at the most, it is quarterback”
Larry Smith
Missouri head coach
dates for the No. 1 signal caller role this
year for the Tigers. But instead of nam
ing an outright starter, Missouri coach
Larry Smith is using a different
approach.
“We are working on a quarterback
system,” Smith said. “We don’t have a
one and a two, but a 1A and IB.”
And then there is Iowa State.
Despite having a 2-9 record a year ago,
ISU Coach Dan McCarney has to
worry about replacing Todd Bandhauer,
who is the most successful quarterback
in the team’s history.
Replacing top quarterbacks is not
something any coach wants to do.
Smith said it was particularly difficult
to lose players that had taken a lot of
snaps.
“As a coach you want experienced
players,” Smith said. “And if there is a
position you want experience at the
most, it is quarterback.”
Several teams have that experience
coming back. Sophomore Major
Applewhite returns for a second season
as a starter at Texas. Senior Zac Wegner
will also be back behind center at
Kansas.
Texas A&M will aiso have an expe
rienced signal caller. But even though
he is returning, senior Randy McCown
can sympathize with the players bat
tling for position. Last year, McCown
found himself playing behind Brandon
Stewart.
This year, McCown has control of
the Aggies’ reins. And although
McCown knows he can be replaced, he
said it is nice not to have to deal with a
controversy.
“It’s nice to know that I’m the guy,”
McCown said. “But I know that I can be
replaced.”
Texas A&M is part of an elite group
in the conference that had a clear-cut
starter at the beginning of fall practice.
Colorado is also in that situation with
senior Mike Moschetti.
But teams have had success with a
two-quarterback system in recent years.
Nebraska and Colorado have both used
a pair of quarterbacks in the past with
positive results.
So are two heads better than one?
Texas A&M Coach R.C. Slocum
said he would love to have a talented
backup in case of an injury to McCown
this year.
“We’ve clearly got a starter, and that
makes it easier for a team to rally
around a guy,” Slocum said. “But I
would feel comfortable if we had a
backup with experience.”
Experience is something all of the
Big 12 coaches Said they wanted in a
quarterback.
Former Nebraska Coach Tom
Osborne would not play in one of the
“preseason” games unless he had a
returning starter at quarterback.
But that isn’t always the case.
Baylor Coach Kevin Steele, who
has a quarterback controversy of his
own, said choosing between two play
ers for an important position was one of
the toughest things to do.
“A quarterback decision is always a
problem,” Steel said. “To have a return
ing quarterback is a blessing.”
Inexperience widespread
problem for Big 12 teams
Hi IT 11 1 ii « . . _____ _.
■ vuneyuaii squaas
throughout the conference
have freshmen and
sophomores on their
starting rosters.
By Adam J. Klinker
and John Gaskins
Staff writers
-i
'A wealth of youthful talent and
inexperience seems to be the shared
fate of several volleyball teams around
the Big 12 Conference this season.
While 10 of the 11 teams return at
least three starters, some schools are
faced with the prospect of starting
freshmen and sophomores in posi
tions held last year by seniors.
But the prospect of nearly every
one of the league’s top seven teams
from last season losing such high
quality talent means only that the con
ference will be wide open for 1999.
“There’s a lot of parity m the
league this year,” Texas Coach Jim
Moore said. “We’re not the experi
enced conference we were last year,
but we’ve got a lot of new talent.”
Kansas Coach Ray Bechard
agreed.
“The conference will be amazing,”
Bechard said. “I sense we could be the
best conference in the country.”
The Big 12 boasts five teams
ranked in the preseason AVC A Top 25
CU Sports Information
COLORADO SENIOR SETTER Kelly Campbell, a 1999
national Player-of-the-Year candidate, will look to
help the Buffaloes improve on their 22-8 record.
nistory. lne Huskers
will be going after
their 21st conference
title in Pettit’s 23
seasons as head
coach.
A big reason for
this is what Terry
Pettit said could
very well be his
best-ever freshman
class, which was
ranked third-best in
the nation by
Volleyball
Magazine.
The freshmen
should complement
an already deep
squad, led by junior
outside hitter Nancy
Meendering, who
was voted as the pre
season favorite for
player-of-the-year
honors. Laura
Pilakowski, a 6-1
outside hitter and
middle blocker from
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10. Nebraska leads the group with a
No. 3 ranking, followed by No.
Texas, No. 16 Texas A&M, No. 19
Colorado and No. 23 Kansas State.
Despite the fact that they lost three
starters, two of which were All
Americans, Nebraska is picked by the
league coaches to win the Big 12 for
the third time in the league's four-year
voted as preseason Big 12 Freshman
of the Year.
Nebraska will also see firepower
from freshman Greichaly Cepero, a
Puerto Rican junior team member
who was recruited as a setter but will
see lots of time at attacker in NU’s new
Please see VOLLEY on 14
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field propels
young program
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By Brock Wendlandt
Staff writer
The intense rivalry between soccer
foes Nebraska and Texas A&M has
encompassed the Big 12 Conference
in its three-year existence.
Both teams captured their own Big
12 crown in the first two years - with
NU taking the conference and toumaf
ment titles in 1996 and A&M doing the
same in 1997. But lost in the shuffle
was the fact Baylor nudged out both
teams for the Big 12 regular season
crown in 1998.
While NU and A&M are still con
sidered the cream of the crop in the
conference this year, some of the Big
12 coaches see the conference as
strong from top to bottom - and aren’t
ruling out another surprise champion.
“Nebraska is definitely the favorite
and the one to beat,” said Missouri
Head Coach Bryan Blitz, whose team
finished 5-5 in conference play and
was in a three-way tie with Iowa State
and Texas. “But behind them it’s a toss
up - and Missouri, Texas A&M,
Baylor and Iowa State will all make a
big push.”
uiuanoma aiaie neaa L.oacn
Karen Hancock said Nebraska and
Texas A&M will be closely followed
by Baylor but hinted that the Bears’
new head coach and loss of forward
Molly Cameron to a season-ending
anterior cruciate ligament injury are
the reasons most people are ruling out
a repeat championship.
She echoed that the conference
title race will be as close as it has ever
been.
Blitz used Nebraska’s narrow 1-0
victory over Texas Tech last week as an
example of the conference’s overall
strength.
Although many teams will have to
play their best soccer to beat Nebraska,
he said, it will be possible.
“The growth of our conference
doesn’t allow for a bad day,” Blitz said.
“I think we are becoming talked about
on the same level with the ACC and the
Pac 10.”
He added that his own team is
gaining respect and hoping to chal
lenge for the top spot in the conference.
Missouri has all 11 of its starters
back, Blitz said, and has made great
efforts in the off season to fill some
holes.
“We felt like we were three players
away from Nebraska as far as talent
was concerned last year,” he said. “And
we think that we have added that talent
with our new players, but whether or
not our new players will mesh is yet to
be determined”
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Klein agreed that the Big 12 is shaping
up to be very strong and much more
competitive this year but felt that NU
and A&M will still come out on top.
“The Big 12 has enough talent and
commitment and is clearly one of the
top conferences in the country,” she
said. “But there is a definite top two,
and the rest of the conference will be a
ease of survival of the fittest and of
who wants to slug it out to the end.”
Texas A&M and Nebraska, she
said, are very gifted teams that are to be
feared because of the way they per
form in the clutch.
The ability of her own team to per
form in pressure situations, Klein said,
will be a key factor in Iowa State’s sea
son.
“We are starting six freshman, and
any time you have that many new
faces, there will be peaks and valleys in
the season,” she said.
Oklahoma State had its fair share
of pressure situations last year.
The Cowgirls went 1-2-3 in con
ference overtime games with a very
inexperienced team, Hancock said.
“In this conference,” she said, “all
the teams are going to get their
chances. It’s just a matter of who can
get it done.”
Klein complimented all 11 institu
tions in the conference for their efforts
to improve the conference as a whole.
“The Big 12, because of the finan
cial support it has, is developing its
programs quicker than the rest of the
country,” she said. “This year is our
strongest year, and the competition is
only getting better.”
Oklahoma, who finished 10th in
the conference last year, is hoping its
presence will soon be felt.
“Right now,” Head Coach Randy
Evans said, “we can compete with
most teams. It would have to be a spe
cial day to knock off Nebraska or
A&M at this point, but we have all
expectations of being right with them
in the next few years.
“The big advantage of this confer
ence is that every school has the poten
tial to excel and that is the driving force
behind this conference.”
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