FanHouse Chykie Brown

With less than 90 days to go until the start of the 2007 college football season, the FanHouse is exploring the impact players in each conference. Although Vince Young no longer dominates the headlines, the Big 12 still has its share of stars worthy of celebration.

What follows are one man's picks for Big 12 impact players on offense, defense and newcomers.

Offense

Colt McCoy - Texas: He got banged around quite a bit at the end of last year, but in response McCoy beefed up and returns as one of the nation's most efficient passers. Kid is legit, completing 68% of his passes for an NCAA freshman record 29 touchdowns.

Chase Daniel - Missouri: Daniel's a bit of a wild one, but he has full command of a potent Missouri offense. The Tigers are darkhorse league title contenders thanks to Daniel's heroics as both a passer (63% completions, 3,527 yards and 28 touchdowns) and runner (379 yards, 4 touchdowns).

Stephen McGee - Texas A&M: The Aggies are always going to pound the ball on the ground, but McGee's versatile enough to contribute as both a runner and passer. He famously scored the winning touchdown against Texas last year, driving his team down the field. McGee rushed for 666 yards and 4 touchdowns last year to go with 2,295 passing yards, 12 touchdowns and a fine .620 completion percentage.

Last Year: 10-3 (6-2), # 13 AP, # 13 Coaches

Fans Are: Delusional, as always. God didn't create Texas, Texas created him don't you know?

There would be more noise made about last year's somewhat disappointing effort but the national championship afterglow is still in effect. People tend to savor something that takes 35 years to happen, especially people who talk like it happens every year.

Expectations: Another typical Mack Brown season: 12-2 or so, beat Oklahoma, play in the Big 12 Championship game, contend for a BCS bowl and maybe even a national championship.

Questions:

1. Jamaal Charles' sophomore slump was cute. Not. That's over with and he will go back to being Mr. 7 yards-a-carry again, right?

One would hope. He's apparently worked with the weights in the offseason and is finally running over teammates at practice. Thing is, he also ditched track and has two full seasons of football on his body, chances are he's lost a fraction of a step (or two) in exchange. So maybe he doesn't break away as many big runs but he'll become a more consistent inside runner.

2. The secondary was not very Texas-like last year. Any chance for improvement this time around?

Hard to tell. It's very rare to have that kind of talent assembled as happened last year with All American Aaron Ross, veteran Tarell Brown and the Griffin brothers at safety. They should have been outstanding. Oops. I guess they miss Michael Huff more than they thought they would.

The experience and overall talent will definitely be down this year in the Texas secondary, but sometimes overshadowed guys end up doing alright. Look at Ohio State last year, they lost nearly their entire secondary yet a cast of nobodies went out and throttled an increasingly pass-happy Big Ten. Mind you Chris Leak picked them apart underneath in the national championship game but they were good enough to stabilize that defense to get to that game in the first place in spite of all the personnel changes. Maybe that happens with this year's Longhorn secondary. Linebacker Drew Kelson's making a run at one of the safety jobs, if that means anything.

Chykie Brown and Deon Beasley are the names to know at cornerback this spring.

3. Will Sergio Kindle earn himself a starting job?

There's a shot. Coaches hate to bump established starters and Texas' three linebackers from last year all return. However, there's nobody special like Kindle in that group and it'll just plain look bad if he's still logging backup minutes two years into his Longhorn career.