All three are money in the bank. You know – just know – they’re an inevitability before too much longer.

This is a reputation Talib worked hard for, and Kansas University’s standout cornerback is making no apologies for all the smack.

“That’s my game,” he said. “I really can’t play corner and keep it quiet.”

Take last year’s Fort Worth Bowl. It started with a pregame gathering at a honky-tonk bar, where Talib was captured by a photographer jawing back and forth with a Houston player.

It then peaked during the actual game. After Charlton Keith returned an interception for a casket-closing KU touchdown, Talib was seen prancing down the Houston sideline, his helmet bobbing up and down and his jaw probably doing the same.

Yellow flags flew. A 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Kansas.

At that moment, a star in the making sealed his reputation as officially having it all – size, speed, footwork, instincts, aggression : and quite a mouth to complement it all.

“If I make a good play, I’m probably going to say something,” Talib deadpanned, almost proudly. “That’s just how I play football.”

Showing up

Talib has arrived with a bang – usually a tad bit tardy – at almost every football stop along the way. He grew up in Trenton, N.J., where basketball and baseball were the sports of choice and hardly anybody touched a pigskin in the neighborhood.

Until he was a young teenager, Talib was largely unaware of the sport that would become his true love. But then an eight-grade move to Texas – where football is king – changed his life forever.

“I came in eighth grade, and had eight touchdowns in my eighth grade year,” Talib said. “All screens and kick returns. I got the hang of it pretty quick.”

Talib moved between his aunt’s house in Dallas and his mother’s house in Richardson, just north of the metroplex. The good thing was, in Texas, a craze for football followed him to each stop.

Talib was an awesome high school player at Berkner High, doing pretty much whatever he wanted to. Teams threw away from him. As a part-time receiver, Berkner’s quarterback couldn’t throw ahead of Talib’s speed. On special teams, Talib was ferocious.

Berkner coach Jim Ledford recalled a game Talib’s senior year, when the other team scored a late touchdown to tie the game at 16-all. The ensuing extra point would give Berkner a loss and deny the Rams a state playoff berth.

“(Talib) told us not to worry. He’d get it,” Ledford recalled.

Talib broke through the middle, and made a gravity-defying leap to block the extra point.

“His feet were at everybody else’s waist,” Ledford said.

The game went to overtime, and Berkner won to secure a playoff spot.

“The kid was really special,” Ledford said. “I’ve had eight players go pro. I’ve put over 100 in college, and I’ve never had a defensive back like him.”

Still, recruiting interest seemed more thin than it should be for a 6-foot-2 cornerback with aggression, athleticism and undeniable talent. His offers were from Kansas, Wyoming, Arizona, Tulsa and Baylor. He visited just Kansas and Wyoming.

“There weren’t a lot of balls thrown his way, and on tape we were a little unsure,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “But geez, when we brought him on his visit, and looked at him physically and checked him out and went back and watched the tape, we said, ‘Boy, we really like this guy.'”

Talib credits cornerbacks coach Earnest Collins with luring him to Lawrence in 2004. Still, he had a long road ahead of him to even see the field – and for a while, no one was sure where he’d even play.

Finding his niche

Talib will snatch a controller and dive in to an NCAA Football 2007 video game now and then. Hey, another avenue to let the smack-talking out is always welcome.

Without using names, the EA Sports video game accurately matches up uniform numbers, height and weight and attributes with most real-life college football players on all 119 Division I-A teams, Talib included. Usually, one player on offense and one on defense is designated as the “impact player.”

“I can run man on there,” Talib said of his character. “My dude is pretty good at guarding short routes and stuff.”

Still, Talib’s confident side bursts out when asked who is better – video-game Talib or flesh-and-blood Talib?

“I think real life,” Talib said with a grin. “In the game, they didn’t have me with an impact circle, and I feel like I’m an impact player.”

The young reporters chuckle at that. The 2006 Talib certainly is different toward the media than last year – more talkative, more outgoing and more sure of himself in every which way.

That just might reflect his position in the program. Up until a year ago, Talib was unsure potential. With KU’s secondary featuring Charles Gordon, Theo Baines, Rodney Harris, Rodney Fowler and Tony Stubbs, Talib wasn’t needed as a true freshman. He redshirted in 2004 and spent the season on the scout team.

“He came in, and we knew that he was one of those guys that had something about him,” Collins said. “But I think that red-shirt year was probably the best thing for him.”

Word started to slowly leak out of KU’s camp at the end of 2004 that Talib could be a future star. But at a legit 6-2 and with a bit of a mean streak, KU’s coaches pondered the possibility of Talib replacing Stubbs at strong safety.

Talib was moved there in the spring of 2005. He ended up losing the starting job to Jerome Kemp, but played as a reserve for the first few games of the ’05 season.

He never could deny it, though: Cornerback was where Talib felt he fit in best.

“I’ve been doing it since about eighth grade when I started playing football,” Talib said. “It’s less stuff to remember (than strong safety). I’d rather have less stuff to remember and just play the game.”

Surprisingly to outsiders who thought he was still at safety, Talib started the fifth game of the season against Kansas State game at cornerback. It was hard to ignore his talent.

“We did start him out at safety,” Mangino said, “but he’s just so pure in terms of his coverage ability, we moved him to corner. He’s come along nicely.”

Talib, wearing No. 28, compiled 54 tackles, eight pass breakups and two interceptions in ’05. He also forced two fumbles, one being the sensational snatch of an errant Brad Smith option pitch against Missouri last year – Talib’s defining play to this point.

Suddenly, the questions shifted from “Where will he fit in?” to “Why did anybody pass on Aqib Talib?”

“The Texas’s and Oklahoma’s and A&M’s would come by, and I kept telling them ‘You’re going to miss on this kid,” Berkner coach Ledford said. “I’ve had a couple come back and tell me, ‘You were right about him.'”

What’s next

Once Charles Gordon declared for the NFL Draft in January, Talib swooped in and took the No. 3 jersey that Gordon previously owned. It was the number Talib wore in high school, he said, back when he didn’t muff any interception opportunities like he felt he may have done a few times in ’05.

A number change won’t hide him. The secret now is out on Aqib Talib, at long last. He was selected to the preseason All-Big 12 team by media members this summer, and is on the preseason watch list for the Bronko Nagurski award, given to the nation’s top defensive player.

“It’s an honor that they voted me, but preseason don’t really mean nothing,” Talib said. “Preseason is just what they think you’re going to do. I still have to go out and do it.”

He thinks he will, of course, because the confidence he has in his own play is unwavering. And if he does break out as expected, the questions will start to pop up, even moreso than they ever did with Gordon, who did leave school early.

Will Talib listen to the lure of the NFL before his time is up?

“He’s not ready for that yet,” Mangino said, “but he might be someday.”

Added Talib: “I have dreams about it. But as far as me thinking about going? I haven’t really thought about it. We’re trying to win the North and compete for the Big 12 championship and try to get to a BCS bowl. : I feel like it’s not complete. My time here’s not done yet.”

So by Talib’s many words, there’s no listening to the pros just yet, which means opposing wide receivers in the Big 12 will have to listen to Talib talk in the mean time. Not to mention the reporters, who have full notebooks by this point from quickly scribbling every word Talib chirps.

“If I play Nintendo, I’m going to talk. If I’m playing cards, I’m going to talk,” Talib says, without stopping to catch his breath. “I guess I’m just a talkative person.”