The Morning Fade – 1.18.11

Sittler with a somewhat-hyperbolic article on everyone coming back – “And fans might not be able to control themselves if the game at Boone Pickens Stadium is delayed a week. Big 12 Conference officials are giving serious consideration to moving what could be an epic Bedlam battle to the first Saturday in December to counter the TV time other conferences will be hogging that weekend with their championship games.”

The legend of Weeden continues – “On the Monday after the Washington State game, Weeden was presented with two options – surgery (which would have resulted in missing as many as eight games) or pain tolerance. Weeden chose the latter, and for the first few days after the injury, the pain was “unbearable,” he says. Explaining his decision to choose playing over the surgery, Weeden said, ‘You only get so many opportunities to play college football. … I can live with a crooked thumb for the rest of my life.'”

Haisten has OSU 7th in his Big 12 power poll – I can’t really argue with that. I really think KU, A&M, Mizzou, and Texas are going to finish 1-2-3-4 in some order but it’s going to be interesting to see how the K-State, Colorado, Iowa St., Baylor, Nebraska, OSU crowd shakes out.

Stewart Mandel weighs in on Weeden and Blackmon – “It wasn’t entirely surprising that 27-year-old quarterback Brandon Weeden (4,277 yards, 34 TDs, 13 INTs) elected to stay, but the return of Biletnikoff winner Justin Blackmon (111 catches, 1,782 yards, 20 TDs) was downright stunning. The Cowboys do lose renowned offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen and star running back Kendall Hunter, but the presence of such an accomplished passing tandem will make the next coordinator’s job easy.” Mandel also notes OSU as one of the biggest winners of decision time for underclassmen along with OU, Stanford, Ohio St., and Notre Dame. Not bad company…

CU fans chanted “we want Kansas” on Saturday after beating OSU – Don’t worry all you espresso-drinking snowboarding hippies, you’re going to get all the Kansas you can handle in 7 days.