Texas Christian should make some noise in the Big 12 this year with the return of seven starters on offense and 10 on defense. Head coach Gary Patterson has become one of the best coaches in the country, and TCU’s second year in the Big 12 should be better than finishing seventh in the conference (4-5 record) and 7-6 overall.

The Horned Frogs lost their last two games a year ago by a combined eight points. Oklahoma’s defense broke up a last-ditch pass in the end zone to escape with a 24-17 victory. Michigan State kicked a field goal to beat TCU with a minute left in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl.

Offense

Bob Stoops has had an eventful offseason in 2013. His latest comments about the depth of the SEC has given the punditry about a week's worth of material. Braden Gall of Athlon Sports and Sirius/XM College Sports joins Homerism for a podcast to chop up what Stoops said and why.

Braden and I touch on:

*The validity of Stoops' argument about the SEC's depth.

*Why we should expect coaches to start politicking even more.

*And more.

(Subscribe to Blatant Homerism's Podcast through iTunes. Please rate and review the show if you get the chance, too. Thanks.)

There's some kind of conventional wisdom in Big 12 country that the pace of teams' no-huddle offenses hurt the effectiveness of their own defenses. Simply put, teams score faster, which puts the D back on the field sooner. Eventually, the defenses stay out on the field longer and wear out, or so the theory goes.

I think there's more to it than that – like poor coaching in plenty of cases, yanno. Even so, we are talking about a lot of snaps. That can take a particularly tough toll on the guys in trenches.

In fact, a study by Pete Roussel of CoachingSearch.com paints a pretty clear picture of how much of a strain the no-huddle offenses put on Big 12 defensive linemen. Nearly half of the 15 defenses that have played the most defensive snaps in the last four years are or were members of the Big 12.

Imagine a scenario in which Bob Stoops is asked the following question: “What can the Big 12 do to overcome the gap with the SEC?”

Here’s how he responds, verbatim:

Perhaps the greatest linebacker to ever slip on a crimson uniform has finally been voted into the College Football Hall of Fame—Class of 2013. Rod Shoate was voted into the hall this week after being bypassed several times before. A three-time All-American (1972-74), he certainly would have won the Butkus Award at least twice if the award was around then.

Shoate, a product of Spiro, Okla., recorded 426 tackles in his career, including 155 during his senior season, which helped OU win a national championship in 1974. He was the Big Eight Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 1973-74 and he finished seventh in the Heisman balloting in ’74. During his three years as one of the Sooners’ defensive leaders, Oklahoma had a record of 32-1-1.

OU allowed only 8.8 points per game during that stretch. OU gave up an average of 227 total yards per game, or 3.5 yards per play. The defense allowed only 111 rushing yards per game, or 2.6 yards per play. Much of the D's success was attributed to Shoate’s quick pursuit of the ball carrier, who had no escape when in his sights.

Head coach Brian Kelly (16-10 overall at Notre Dame) took the Fighting Irish to the 2012 national championship game in his second year at the helm – where his team got drubbed, 42-14. If the Irish are going to make noise on the national level again this year, they’ll have to do it with a rebuilt offense that is replacing eight starters.

Junior quarterback Everett Golson (6-0, 185) will be the offense’s leader. He completed 59 percent of his pass attempts last year for 2,405 yards with 12 TDs and 6 INTs. Everett also ran for 298 yards and scored six times on the ground.

Right tackle Christian Lombard (6-5, 309, Sr.) is the only returnee up front to protect his quarterback.

Last year, Tulsa began and ended with the same opponent — Iowa State. The Golden Hurricane lost the first contest at Ames, Iowa, but got revenge with a 31-17 Liberty Bowl victory. After that loss in the opener, the Hurricane won seven straight and then went 3-2 down the stretch, including a win in the Conference USA championship game.

Head coach Bill Blankenship brings a 19-8 record into this third year at TU. He improved from 8-5 in 2012 to 11-3 a year ago.

Eight starters return to TU’s lineup this year with senior quarterback Cody Green (6-4, 247) leading the pack. He completed 54.4 percent of his passes last year for 2,592 yards with 17 TDs and 11 INTs. Green also ran for 284 yards and four scores.

Once thought to be a sure first-round NFL draft pick, Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones passed on the money for an extra year in school. The gamble didn’t pay off. After an up-and-down season in 2012, Jones waited until the fourth round to hear his name called.

In the analysis surrounding the quarterback’s draft status, the focus actually seemed to move away from Jones’ play to his coaches. It started with his appearance on ESPN analyst Jon Gruden’s annual televised skull sessions, when the Super Bowl-winning ex-coach pinned Jones’ struggles on “boredom” and poor scheming ($).

Saturday afternoon, pro football’s most notable game manager, Trent Dilfer, was far more blunt in his criticism. It was a variation on the same theme as Gruden, though: The Sooners pass-heavy offensive is gimmicky; all sizzle, no steak.

I recently came across a post from our buddy Dave Bartoo at cfbmatrix.com about drafting quarterbacks that might raise the interest of Sooner fans.

With the NFL draft quickly approaching, Bartoo found an intriguing relationship between his "Coaching Effect" statistic and quarterback play in the NFL. (A team’s Coaching Effect reflects the difference between the number of games it wins and the numbers of games that it should win based on talent and schedule – positive means the team won more games than it should, negative means fewer.)

Essentially, using data dating back to 2004, he found that quarterbacks who played for programs with a negative Coaching Effect tend to crap out in the pros at a disproportionately high rate (80 percent versus an average miss rate of 66 percent, based on Bartoo's subjective analysis of QB busts). To illustrate the relationship, consider Charlie Weis, owner of a decidedly negative Coaching Effect score. Despite learning at the hand of the man who purportedly molded Tom Brady into one of the best NFL QBs ever, Weis' two college protégés, Brady Quinn and Jimmy Clausen, have flamed out in the big leagues.

Did you ever have to make up your mind? Pick up on one and leave the other behind.

Those are the lyrics to a Lovin’ Spoonful classic song released in 1966. It reminds me of Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy.

A couple of weeks ago, Gundy declared that Clint Chelf would be his starting quarterback this season.