Big 12 Media Days: Quarterback remains in spotlight

The leaguewide move to spread offenses puts more of a premium — and pressure — on the quarterbacks, who are more and more tied to producing points and winning games with ball control and dominant defense a think of the past.

“There's just been an evolution of the position the past few years,” said Oklahoma's Landry Jones, one of five Big 12 quarterbacks on both the Davey O'Brien and Manning Award watch lists. “It's become a pass-heavy league and a pass-heavy sport. And there's a lot more pressure on that guy to lead your team and to put your team in the right spot.

“So it's a great time to be a quarterback in this league. It's exciting and it's a huge honor for me to be a part of this time period.”

TCU's Casey Pachall is new to the Big 12, but not to recognizing its signal callers.

“The Big 12 has always had a lot of good quarterbacks,” said Pachall, one of the conference's five early award candidates at the position.

Last season, the Big 12 produced four of the nation's top seven passers and a fifth among the top 13, including Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III of Baylor. Another, Kansas State's Collin Klein, ran for 1,141 yards — third among all QBs — and set an FBS record with 27 quarterback rushing touchdowns. Klein also passed for 1,918 yards and 13 scores, leading the Wildcats to a surprising second-place finish in the conference.

And don't peg Klein as a throwback, he insists he can fling the football, too.

“Actually, I was a pro-style quarterback in high school,” Klein said. “And we threw more than we ran. That's what I was originally recruited to Kansas State to do.

“Last year took on a little bit of a shape of its own to where, ‘I'll do whatever I have to do to win.' I ended up running the ball, a lot. But whatever I need to do, I'll do it.”

Like its quarterbacks from series to series and snap to snap, the Big 12 just seems to reload at quarterback.

Griffin III, Texas A&M's Ryan Tannehill and Oklahoma State's Brandon Weeden have moved on, first-round draft picks all. Still, the Big 12 returns three from the top six of the NCAA passing rankings, with the addition of West Virginia's Geno Smith, the Preseason All-Conference pick at quarterback.

Smith, Jones and Klein are involved in the early 2012 Heisman buzz, while Pachall and Doege join them on the other watch lists.