Cheap Seats Mega Football Preview 2005: Big XII in the NFL

R.I.P. Thomas Herrion, December 15, 1981-August 20, 2005

The Pro Section of Cheap Seats' Mega Football Preview is dedicated to his memory.

I can only hope my determination to put out a quality football preview is a fraction of his determination to fulfill his dream of playing on Sunday.

- R.D.
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Sunday, I gave you my Top 25 College football teams plus my bowl picks

Monday, I had 2 job interviews, so there was no blog as planned

Today, I'm going to transition from college to pro by giving you an overview of how some of the alumni of the Big XII are doing.

Here's a brief rundown of the training camp highlights:

• I'm sure the Ricky Williams(Texas Tech) story has been beaten to death, so I'm not going to repeat it. Suffice to say Longhorn fans will be happy to see him back.
• Nathan Vasher(Texas) is playing his way into an expanded role with the Bears
• Wes Welker(Texas Tech) is wowing Nick Saban and the Dolphins staff
• A report from Miami of all places says that Kliff Kingsbury(Texas Tech) has apparently beaten out Adrian McPherson for the #3 QB spot with the Saints.
• Norm Chow plans to use Colorado's Chris Brown more in the passing game. Brown's backup? Missouri's Damien Nash is the frontrunner for that job, which is a decent backup job to get given that Brown's not exactly durable.
• Texas' Cedric Benson is still holding out and may not even get the starting job once he gets there .
• Mitch Berger and Tom Rouen, both from Colorado, are still kicking
• Seneca Wallace(Iowa State) has a stranglehold on the Seahawks' backup job.
• Terence Newman(Kansas State) should have a better year statistically with veteran Aaron Glenn (Texas A&M) at the other corner.
• The battle for the Lions' fullback job is an all-Big XII affair as Cory Schlesinger(Nebraska) is trying to hold off Will Matthews(Texas)
• Dan Cody(Oklahoma) suffered an ACL sprain and will be out indefinitely
• Past injuries have cost another former Sooner, as Jason White was cut by the Titans because White's knees wouldn't allow him to play
• Dat Nguyen(Texas A&M) and Zach Thomas(Texas Tech) are both making the transition to the 3-4 defense on their respective teams.
• UPDATE! Matt from My Opinion on Sports points out that former OU recievers Mark Clayton, Brandon Jones, and Mark Bradley are all looking at significant playing time for the Raiders, Titans, and Bears respectively. (Can't believe I forgot about Mark Clayton. Sorry about that.)

There's your rundown. If you want to know anything else, ask in the comment box

Next: Part 8: AFC North, AFC East, AFC West
Back: Part 6: Top 25 + Bowl projections