Kansas City, Mo. ? Call Texas coach Mack Brown optimistic to a fault. But even after Vince Young dazzled the college football world in a heroic Rose Bowl effort, Brown thought it wasn’t the last he’d see of his prodigy quarterback.

“I thought Vince would come back, very honestly,” Brown said Tuesday at Big 12 Conference media days. “I might have been the only one in America that did. And until a week after the game, I really felt like he would come back for his senior year because those were his plans.”

Young, of course, saw his stock explode after 267 yards passing, 200 yards rushing and a national championship-winning drive orchestrated as the clock was ticking down in the Rose Bowl against Southern California. He elected to skip his senior season at Texas and was picked third overall by the Tennessee Titans in April’s NFL Draft.

“I think he made the right decision, as you look back at it,” Brown said. “He’ll make a tremendous amount of money.”

Brown has to look ahead now, and he is counting on two inexperienced quarterbacks – Colt McCoy and Jevan Snead – to replace the mighty Young.

Stop laughing. That’s really what Brown has to try and do.

“After Vince left, it changed our position nationally,” Brown admits. “If he had returned, people would have thought that we would have had a great chance to repeat and now we’re not even picked to win our division.”

Brown said McCoy is a slight favorite to be named starter, but both McCoy and Snead have one problem – experience. Neither has taken a snap on the college field.

“Both of those young guys exceeded our expectations in the spring,” Brown said. “They’ve shown great leadership.”

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New kid: Joining Kansas State’s Ron Prince as a new head coach in the Big 12 is Colorado coach Dan Hawkins, who met the press Tuesday.

Hawkins coached Boise State to great success before taking the Colorado job. He now inherits a team with some experience returning, but several question marks as well.

For now, he’s trying to get adjusted to the conference opponents he’ll be matching up against every year. It’s not quite the same as in Boise.

“Somebody asked me yesterday, ‘How does it feel to know you’re going to play Texas and Oklahoma and Nebraska, some of those teams, and is there a little bit of you that’s a small kid and a little bit of a fan?'” Hawkins said. “And, yeah, there is.”

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Rebuilding: Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy realizes improvement needs to be made from last season’s 4-7 team that won just one Big 12 game. Problem is, the Cowboys play in a division alongside Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech. Rebuilding oftentimes goes slower alongside such powers.

“I think there are schools in the Big 12 South that have been very tradition-rich for the last 30 years,” Gundy said. “We play in the toughest division in football.”

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UT loses playmaker: Troubled Texas receiver/running back Ramonce Taylor announced his plans to transfer Tuesday.

Taylor, who sat out spring ball with academic issues and later was arrested on marijuana drug possession charges, did not indicate where he might go.

“Yes, Ramonce has decided to transfer,” Brown said, “and we first want to thank him for all he’s done at the University of Texas and wish him good luck.”

Taylor had 15 touchdowns split between the backfield and wide receiver.

Texas, like many positions, remains loaded despite Taylor’s transfer. Selvin Young and Jamaal Charles look to get the bulk of UT’s carries.

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Quote of the day: “We probably won’t have the third-down-and-30 scrambles that we had for first downs. I called those on a regular basis and they were really exciting.” – Texas coach Mack Brown, sarcastically taking credit for quarterback Vince Young’s ability to improvise when in trouble.