Sign of the times: Big
12 is nation's best conference
By: Tom Dienhart, The Sporting News
November
14, 2000
Such is life as a quarterback -- and why Beasley was crying in the locker
room Saturday after Kansas State's 29-28 victory over Nebraska. Beasley had
exorcised his Big Red demon. He was a pretty good quarterback after all.
"I'm proud of Jonathan," says K-State coach Bill Snyder, who
improved to 2-19 against top 10 teams. "He has lived with this for a year.
He was injured last year, but no one wanted to admit that (he was playing hurt).
They just wanted to criticize him.
"He took responsibility for the loss (to Nebraska) last year. He
shouldn't have."
Statistically, Beasley's winning effort wasn't one for the fire safe. He
completed only 12 of 36 passes with an interception, but his passes covered 234
yards and accounted for two touchdowns. This is one of those performances that
will look a lot better later in life, when Beasley's waist is expanding.
Time and again, Beasley threw deep, trying to expose the most vulnerable part
of the Nebraska defense: its secondary. The naked truth was, it worked.
"We knew that it was part of our game plan," says Beasley, who
hooked up with Quincy Morgan seven times for 199 yards and two touchdowns.
"We were going to have to be able to pass and run. It worked for us in the
first half, being able to pass like we did. The second half, we got away from
things a bit. When push came to shove, we were able to come out and get
it."
As for Nebraska, these aren't your father's Cornhuskers. Heck, they aren't
even Tom Osborne's Cornhuskers. Frank Solich has to claim them. Nebraska, which
entered the game with the best rushing average in the nation at 371.8 yards per
game, ran 45 times for 200 yards. That effort looked good compared to
quarterback Eric Crouch's performance. He hit 2 of 13 passes for 39 yards with
an interception.
Nebraska, TSN's preseason No. 1, can forget about the national title. The
only thing the Huskers have to look forward to is a Cotton Bowl bid,
snowmobiling and recruiting season.
"Late in the game when the snow covered the field, we were almost
ineffective in getting anything done," Solich says. "Kansas State
played well."
For Kansas State, the season is just beginning. The Wildcats' victory was the
culmination of the biggest day ever in the Big 12. Earlier, Oklahoma won at
Texas A&M and remained the only unbeaten team in the nation, retaining its
No. 1 ranking. People who live by the oceans love to poke at the gut of the
heartland. But on this day, the second Saturday of November, the nation's
breadbasket was rock solid. Indeed, the Big 12 served as ground zero of the
college football universe. Beef was best. Flat was fabulous.
Oklahoma and its blitz-defying, I-can-make-that-throw-off-my-back-foot
quarterback Josh Heupel were the stars in the earlier game. Texas A&M's
strategy to drop as many as eight men in coverage worked for the most part. The
Aggies forced Heupel to be patient and make decisions.
When teams have blitzed Heupel this season, he has had success. Against Texas
A&M, Heupel showed he could inch the Sooners down the field. He knew he
wasn't going to get the big play, so he took what was given him: 5 yards here, 8
yards there.
Hitting 28 of 42 passes for 263 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions,
Heupel secured his position as the No. 1 Heisman contender. Sorry, Chris Weinke.
No quarterback has done as much as Heupel, even though his stats didn't glow
against A&M. Victories over Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas A&M are
Heupel's free pass to the Downtown Athletic Club. Never has a quarterback thrown
the ball so ugly, yet so effectively.
Heupel and the Sooners are why the Big 12 is the land's best conference.
Being the best always was the idea behind the Big 12 -- it has just taken
awhile. The Big 12 football story began in 1996, when Heupel was a skinny
redshirt freshman throwing wobbly passes for Weber State. Back then, when
schools from the Big Eight and the Southwest Conferences were joined, no one
knew what to expect. Now, the league has matured.
The Oklahoma-Texas A&M and Nebraska-Kansas State games commanded the
nation's attention because they figured to shape the BCS picture as much -- if
not more -- than any two games in any league during the first two years of the
Bowl Championship Series. This is what the powerbrokers in Dallas and Kansas
City envisioned when they dreamed up the Big 12.
The only bad idea was to stage a title game between the champs of the North
and South Divisions. Sure, the game is good theater and a great way to grab a
wad of money, but it's an unnecessary season-ending hurdle that the conference's
best teams must clear. The SEC is the only other power league that stages such
an event.
Two of the first four Big 12 championship games have been car wrecks. In
1996, Texas stunned Nebraska when the Cornhuskers were gunning for their third
consecutive national championship. In 1998, Kansas State was defeated in two
overtimes by Texas A&M. The Wildcats entered the game perfect and poised to
win it all. At least Nebraska got it right in 1997, when the Huskers won the
league title game on their way to a share of the conference's only national
championship.
This season, it looks like 9-0 Oklahoma and 9-2 Kansas State will meet
December 12 in Kansas City, Mo., in the Big 12 title game. That'll be Big 12
commish Kevin Weiberg holding his breath in the press box. For that matchup to
happen, it's just a matter of both teams winning out. The Wildcats finish
Saturday at Missouri, and the Sooners play host to Texas Tech the same day
before finishing November 25 at Oklahoma State.
Oklahoma-Kansas State II would be a reprise of the Sooners' 41-31 win October
14 that really wasn't that close. The Wildcats hope the sequel is better than
Caddyshack II.
Aside from the Big 12 championship game, the Florida at Florida State game
Saturday has the most BCS implications of any remaining game. If Oklahoma and
Florida State win out, they figure to meet January 3 for the national
championship in the Orange Bowl. The other BCS bowls likely will shape up like
this: Rose, Purdue-Oregon; Fiesta, Notre Dame-Washington; Sugar, Florida-Miami.
But BCS matchups weren't on the minds of Manhattanites on this cold Saturday
night. Instead, Kansas State was more interested in knowing what others thought
of its win over Nebraska. The Wildcats are a program that begs for approval.
Please, evaluate us. Please, rate us. Please, grade us.
On this night, K-State was OK. No, it was good, especially on defense. But
the Big 12 looked even better -- and the best likely is still to come.
It hung right there in red numerals above Jonathan Beasley's locker: 41-15. The
score of Kansas State's loss at Nebraska last season. For almost a year, the
handmade sign had been there for all to see. Teammates, coaches, trainers,
managers, janitors. Beasley, the Wildcats' senior quarterback, didn't want to
let himself forget it. The loss wasn't his fault, but Beasley didn't feel that
way.
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