Fort Worth, Texas ? The eyes of Texas’ college football fans are focused on College Station, awaiting today’s big game on the Big 12 schedule.
But to fans in 49 other states, the Texas A&M-Texas rivalry is dwarfed by this week’s truly Big Game in the Big 12.
Saturday in Kansas City, Mo., No. 2 Kansas and No. 3 Missouri square off to settle the North Division title. The ironic twist is that the Jayhawks (11-0, 7-0 Big 12) and Tigers (10-1, 6-1) are led by quarterbacks from Texas who grew up wanting to play for the Longhorns.
Both were deemed too short to blossom into major-college playmakers by coach Mack Brown’s staff at Texas. That opinion was shared by coaches at other high-profile programs in the Lone Star State.
So, guys, what do you think now about Chase Daniel and Todd Reesing?
One will be playing for a Big 12 championship on Dec. 1 in San Antonio, with a berth in the BCS title game on the line when his team gets to the Alamodome. The only way a college football team from Texas winds up in this year’s BCS championship game is if it buys tickets.
Iowa State coach Gene Chizik, a member of Brown’s staff when the Longhorns did not recruit Reesing (5-10, 200 pounds), credits the Austin native with altering recruiters’ mind-sets – locally and nationally – with his development at Kansas.
Chizik said the same premise applies to Missouri’s Daniel (6-0, 225), a Southlake Carroll graduate who received more major-college offers than Reesing. But Daniel was left in the lurch by the Longhorns, who favored the larger Colt McCoy (6-3, 205) in that signing class.
“Both of those guys will change the bar on what people think when they go to recruit a quarterback and he’s not 6-foot-2,” Chizik said. “Without a doubt, those guys have shattered that myth.”
Kansas State coach Ron Prince said: “Instead of becoming bigger and bigger, our game is becoming faster and faster. At that position, there’s more opportunities for all shapes and sizes.”
Daniel, a junior, is one of three finalists for the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award. A 69.3 percent passer, he ranks fourth nationally in total offense (349.3 yards per game). Missouri coach Gary Pinkel called Daniel “the best natural leader I’ve ever been around.”
Reesing, a sophomore, has thrown for 30 touchdowns with only four interceptions in his first season as Kansas’ starter. Saturday’s game projects as a Reesing-Daniel shootout for first-team quarterback honors in the Big 12, as well as Offensive Player of the Year.
Yet, Reesing, a 63.3 percent passer, admits he’d probably be rotting on Texas’ bench if given a chance to sign with the ‘Horns in February 2006. When Texas did not offer him a scholarship, Reesing said: “It did not hurt my feelings. I got a chance here and I’m glad that I ended up here.”
Brown, the coach who passed on both, plans to be watching Saturday when two teams left out of the preseason Top 25 polls collide to settle the North Division title and alter the BCS landscape.
“Like everyone else, I was not bought in at the start of the season,” Brown said, reflecting on the teams’ under-the-radar seasons. “I am now. Those teams … both have great quarterbacks.”
Unfortunately for college football fans in Texas, it took leaving the Lone Star State for Daniel and Reesing to convince Brown and his peers of that fact.
