Lubbock, Texas ? Texas Tech quarterback B.J. Symons, the nation’s leading passer who slightly twisted his knee last week after celebrating a touchdown pass, vowed he would be 100 percent for Saturday’s game at Oklahoma State.

Symons said he “landed a little funny” after jumping to give a high five to Wes Welker after a TD pass in Tech’s 52-21 win over Iowa State. But he returned to the game on the next series after trainers placed a brace on it.

“B.J.’s going to play. B.J. feels great,” Symons said this week. “I don’t expect it to be any problem.”

Symons, who has passed for 2,954 yards and 27 touchdowns, sat out Sunday’s practice. His leg appeared to be bothering him on the team’s off day Monday; he walked gingerly at the weekly news conference. But he returned to practice Tuesday.

“I had a little bit of soreness (Sunday) when I woke up but that’s natural,” he said.

The Red Raiders (5-1, 2-0 Big 12 Conference) are averaging 47 points a game, and they’ll need Symons against Oklahoma State (5-1, 1-1), which is scoring 41 points per game. Symons has passed for more than 400 yards in five games, and he has gone over 500 yards three times.

“Of course he’s going to play,” coach Mike Leach said. “We’re having a game; B.J. plays in games.”

Symons said there was no discussion with Leach about whether he’d return to last week’s game after the injury.

“It wasn’t a question,” Symons said. “The brace was more of a precautionary thing. They just wanted to be safe and threw that on me. I could have gone out there without it, I felt like.”

Texas Tech quarterback B.J. Symons puts weight on his left leg during Saturday's game in Lubbock, Texas. Symons, the nation's leading passer with 2,954 yards and 27 touchdowns, says he'll be 100 percent Saturday against Oklahoma State.

No one would say whether Symons would wear a brace Saturday.

• Symons or system?: Leach bristles at the suggestion that Symons’ big passing numbers are the result of the quarterback playing in a pass-happy system as opposed to his talent.

“If B.J. is a product of the system, then he’s not getting any of those touchdown passes and all those yards. That means our coaching staff is,” Leach said. “That would also mean we could go down to 7-Eleven and get the clerk behind the counter and let him play quarterback.”

Symons is completing 67 percent of his passes for a nation-leading 492.3 yards a game and 27 touchdowns.

Symons said he was used to people doubting his ability.

“You want to look at the points and yards and say ‘Well, it’s the system that they’re doing.’ If it were that easy, everybody would do it,” Symons said.

• Offensive outburst: More freshmen than ever are playing. Tackling is a lost art. Spread offenses have taken over.

Those are the three reasons Colorado coach Gary Barnett gives for the dominance shown by Big 12 offenses so far this season.

“I see this as a wide-open grass basketball kind of sport, the way it’s going now,” Barnett said.

Six of the nation’s top 15 teams in scoring are from the Big 12. Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Texas are averaging 40 points or more. Last year only one team in the league, Kansas State, averaged more than 40 a game.

Texas Tech, at 621.8 yards a game, leads the nation in offense and six other conference teams are averaging more than 400. Last year only three Big 12 teams generated more than 400 yards a game.

Tech, at a nation-leading 519.8 passing yards, is among three Big 12 teams throwing for at least 319 yards a game. Last year Tech was the only conference team passing for more than 300 yards a game.

“The skill is just fantastic,” Iowa State’s Dan McCarney said. “Good luck trying to pick out who the all-conference players are based on what we’ve seen.”

• North free-for-all: There’s a strong possibility that the North Division representative at the Big 12 championship game will have two conference losses.

Kansas State went to the title game with two losses in 2000, but that was the only time a North team has done so since the league started play in 1996. The South champion has had two losses on four occasions.

Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado each are 1-1 in the league; K-State and Iowa State are 0-2.

“If anybody can find a way to beat some of the teams in the South, those are the ones who have the best chance of winning the North now,” Barnett said.

Losing two straight to open conference play usually knocks a team out of contention. Not this year, K-State’s Bill Snyder said.

“Sometimes second chances are hard to come by,” he said. “And it’s virtually impossible to get a third chance. At least we have that opportunity. Our destiny is in our own hands.”

Separation may begin this week with Colorado at Kansas State, Missouri at Oklahoma and Texas A&M at Nebraska.

“It will thin itself out pretty quick,” Snyder said.

• MU fan could face charge: The man punched by a Nebraska football player after Missouri beat the Cornhuskers in Columbia, Mo., could face a first-degree trespassing charge, the University of Missouri-Columbia police chief said.

“That is part of the investigation,” Chief Jack Watring said Wednesday.

Near the end of the game Saturday night, fans were told by the public-address announcer to not go onto Faurot Field. Despite the warning, fans stormed the field. Among them was Matthew Scott, 21, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., who was punched in the face by Nebraska place-kick holder Kellen Huston.

Scott has been told by investigators that he could be charged with trespassing if he pursued an assault charge against Huston, Watring said. That warning has not dissuaded Scott from seeking action against the Husker player, Watring said.