NCAA Football oklahoma state Cowboys

Leave it to Texas Tech coach Mike Leach to come up with a brutal assessment of the issues surrounding Kansas coach Mark Mangino and the allegations last week he has been both physically and mentally abusing his players.

Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins has launched an investigation into Mangino's actions after one of his players reported that the head coach poked him during a walk-through practice a couple weeks ago. Since then, several former players have come forth to discuss Mangino's alleged abusive behavior and sometimes mean-spirited verbal attacks.

Leach has never been guilty of playing the politically correct game and he certainly didn't disappoint during this week's Big 12 football coaches call when the subject turned to the storm Mangino is facing.

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy says he expects senior quarterback Zac Robinson to return to the starting lineup for the 11th-ranked Cowboys during Saturday's critical regular-season finale against rival Oklahoma.

Robinson missed Thursday night's win over Colorado after sustaining injuries to his head and shoulder in a victory over Texas Tech the previous week. But Gundy said during Monday's Big 12 football coaches teleconference that Robinson began throwing over the weekend and that he would return to practice Monday afternoon. Gundy normally does not discuss injuries which means Robinson could or could not play.

The Big 12 North remains a ways from returning to the prominence it enjoyed when the conference first formed in the late 1990s, but if Saturday's matchup between Kansas State and Nebraska for the division title is any indication then better days are certainly on the horizon.

After years of struggles by the Kansas State Wildcats and the Nebraska Cornhuskers, which have coincided with a dip in the North's strength, the two meet Saturday in Lincoln for a winner-take-all showdown. Neither team has had quite the season it anticipated but each has won enough for the right to play for the Big 12 championship, likely against No. 2 Texas, Dec. 5.

"Certainly we've been in this position before, probably in different ways," said veteran Wildcats coach Bill Snyder, who broke out of a three-year retirement to return to the sidelines this season. "By the same token, I can't remember other than the very early years that playing against the Nebraska teams was not a great challenge and certainly key ball games were after those initial years after they beat us so soundly."

The Oklahoma State Cowboys rallied in the second half to defeat Colorado, 31-28, on Thursday night at Boone Pickens Stadium to remain in contention for their first BCS bowl.

With Zac Robinson sitting out the game due to a shoulder injury, the 12th-ranked Cowboys (9-2, 6-1 Big 12) turned to junior Alex Cate but it was third-string sophomore Brandon Weeden who rallied them from a 21-10 deficit against the struggling Buffaloes.

Weeden completed 10 of 15 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns. His 28-yard touchdown pass to Justin Blackmon while rolling right gave the Oklahoma State Cowboys the lead for good with 8:11 remaining in the game. Weeden also had a 47-yard touchdown throw to running back Keith Toston earlier in the second half.

The comparisons between the Texas Longhorns 2005 team and this season's team are inevitable.

At this point in the 2005 season, the Vince Young-led Longhorns looked pretty invincible. After a tough early season game against Ohio State , they romped over opponents with relative ease on the way to the BCS national title. These Colt McCoy-led Longhorns are doing the same with only their annual rivalry game against Oklahoma serving as the lone close challenge in putting together a perfect 9-0 record and a No. 2 national ranking.

It's just the second time since 1983 that the Longhorns have been 9-0. The other time, of course, was in 2005 when they put together an undefeated campaign that ended with a dramatic national championship victory over USC.

Let the Dez Bryant/NCAA debate begin.

Just or unjust? Excessive or just plain over the top?

Whatever side you fall on, the NCAA has made it's decision where Oklahoma State All-American receiver Dez Bryant is concerned. The governing body turned down the final appeal on the junior's one-year suspension for lying, likely ending his college career.

STILLWATER, Okla. --- Texas coach Mack Brown normally demands his teams stay in the moment.

But in the week leading up to Saturday night's game against 13th-ranked Oklahoma State, Brown wanted to make certain the third-ranked Longhorns remembered where they were at this point last season and what they lost against Texas Tech.

They were different opponents, but presented a strikingly similar scenario a year apart.

STILLWATER, Okla. -- So much for the down-to-the-wire games between Texas and Oklahoma State and the chance for the Cowboys to finally break through.

Texas forced OSU quarterback Zac Robinson into four interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns and the third was converted into a touchdown as the third-ranked Longhorns cruised to a 41-14 victory in front of 58,516 at Boone Pickens Stadium on Saturday night.

This was a meeting of the Big 12 South's two top teams, but it was clear from the outset the Longhorns are by far supreme as they took a major step in locking up the division title while staying in step for the coveted BCS championship bid. Texas (8-0, 4-0) just needs to run the table against Baylor, Kansas and Texas A&M after next week's non-conference game against Central Florida to be in position for the opportunities it was denied last season after one lapsed moment against Texas Tech.

STILLWATER, Okla. -- It almost seems uncanny, the parallels between tonight's Texas-Oklahoma State Halloween showdown and last season's matchup between the Longhorns and Texas Tech.

A hostile road environment that will be filled with rowdy fans. Night game. National TV audience. The fourth game of an unforgiving four-game stretch that includes Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri before this one.

A bid for the Big 12 South title and a shot at the BCS national championship game also hang in the balance.

There is nothing new about Bob Stoops matching coaching wits with old mentor and boss Bill Snyder. They've done plenty of that over the years in Big 12 cross-divisional play.

But that doesn't mean Stoops isn't a little surprised to see Snyder, 70, back on the Wildcats sideline. The longtime Kansas State coach retired four years ago to pursue opportunities outside coaching, but was lured out of retirement last winter.

Stoops, whose 22nd-ranked Sooners host the Wildcats on Saturday, admits it's a little unexpected to be going up against his old boss again, but he was stunned when Snyder was no longer there, too.