Big quarterback questions abound in Big 12

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Quarterbacks: How to protect them? How to replace them? Who starts?

The position raised some of the biggest question marks Wednesday during the first of the Big 12 Conference's two preseason media days.

Texas A&M, for one, has an unsettled depth chart at quarterback -- not that first-year coach Dennis Franchione is complaining.

Dustin Long, a junior, started nine games last year and threw for 2,509 yards. His 399 yards passing against Kansas and seven touchdown passes against Texas Tech were both school records.

Reggie McNeal, a sophomore, led the Aggies to a win over Oklahoma and set a freshman record with four touchdown passes on the season.

Both will play this year, Franchione said. To underscore the point, he brought both quarterbacks to the media day.

"We're going to do whatever it takes to win football games," Franchione said. "If we have to play Dustin on first down, Reggie on second down and the most productive of the two on the next two downs, we'll do that."

The competition can only make each quarterback sharper, Long said.

"Overall, we've done a good job of going out there and working together and pushing each other," he said. "If you're 'the guy,' you can get lackadaisical."

Iowa State's situation is equally unsettled -- but where the Aggies have two proven players, the Cyclones are still searching for someone to fill the vacuum created by the departure of star Seneca Wallace.

The candidates are Cris Love, Waye Terry and Austin Flynn.

"I think that each brings a little something different to the table," wide receiver Lane Danielsen said. "Hopefully, we'll have a good enough offense surrounding the quarterback where he doesn't have to make every play."

Texas must also replace a star quarterback in Chris Simms, but coach Mack Brown has already named junior Chance Mock as his starter. Mock played in just six games last year, completing 5-of-8 passes for 44 yards.

"There is a difference between Chris Simms and his expectations and Chance Mock with his," Brown said, "but people forget Chance was the No. 1 quarterback in the state when he came here."

At Oklahoma, the question is how well Jason White, who began the 2002 season as the Sooners' starter but was injured in their opening game, can come back from his second torn ACL -- one in each knee -- in as many years.

"I feel as good as I did before the surgery," White said. "I'm in as good shape as I've ever been."

The difference, White said, is that he worked harder to stay in shape after his 2002 injury.

"I think I learned a lot after my first surgery," he said. "I have spent a lot of time in the weight room ... and tried to stay fit during the rehab process so that it would be easier to come back."

Kansas quarterback Bill Whittemore, the conference's Offensive Newcomer of the Year in 2002, is also coming off a season-ending injury. Whittemore, who transferred from Fort Scott Community College, threw for 1,666 yards and 11 touchdowns and ran for 549 yards and 11 more TDs before injuring his left knee against Missouri in Kansas' ninth game.

"We would like for him not to carry the ball as much as he did last year," second-year coach Mark Mangino said. "The reason for that last year was that we were inexperienced at tailback, and our offensive line was not able to create running lanes for the tailback -- so we used our tailback as a blocker to open lanes for Bill."

The Jayhawks have retooled their offensive line this year in an effort to give Whittemore -- who spent much of last season scrambling out of broken-down pockets -- more protection.

"I'm excited about this year's offensive line," Whittemore said. "There are some juco guys I haven't seen in pads yet, but I'm expecting good things."

Nebraska quarterback Jammal Lord also had a solid junior season in 2002, rushing for 1,412 yards after taking over for graduated Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch.

This year, though, he'll be asked to diversify more under new offensive coordinator Barney Cotton.

"I'm not sure how much more he's going to be throwing it," head coach Frank Solich said. "If we're only completing 47 percent of our passes, then we won't be doing much passing. What we want to do is balance out our offense as much as we can to make it harder for other teams to stop us."