Few Big 12 gridiron topics to get your minds thinking football before the start of the season, which is less than two months away from kickoff (not too bad, is it?):

1. Anyone catch Kansas on College Football Live’s 50 states tour the other week? The ESPN show caught up with KU coach Mark Mangino and K-State coach Bill Snyder. If you missed the Mangino appearance, it can be viewed here.

The YouTube clip didn’t show it, but the show went on to offer its opinion on the greatest college football player from the state of Kansas. The more intriguing question to me would be, who is second after Gale Sayers?

2. Preseason All-Big 12 Conference ballots were due for media members last Friday. My ballot looked like this:

Offense
WR: Dez Bryant, Oklahoma State
TE: Jermaine Gresham, Oklahoma
OL: Adam Ulatoski, Texas
OL: Russell Okung, Oklahoma State
C: Chris Hall, Texas
OL: Trent Williams, Oklahoma
OL: Brandon Carter, Texas Tech
WR: Dezmon Briscoe, Kansas
QB: Sam Bradford, Oklahoma
RB: Kendall Hunter, Oklahoma State
RB: Chris Brown, Oklahoma
PK: Alex Henery, Nebraska
PR: Dez Bryant, Oklahoma State

Defense
DL: Gerald McCoy, Oklahoma
DL: Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska
DL: Sergio Kindle, Texas
DL: Jeremy Beal, Oklahoma
LB: Sean Weatherspoon, Missouri
LB: Joe Pawelek, Baylor
LB: Travis Lewis, Oklahoma
DB: Perrish Cox, Oklahoma State
DB: Dominique Franks, Oklahoma
DB: Darrell Stuckey, Kansas
DB: Earl Thomas, Texas
KR: Perrish Cox, Oklahoma State

Offensive Player of the Year: Colt McCoy, Texas
Defensive Player of the Year: Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska
Newcomer of the Year: Phil Taylor, Baylor

Putting McCoy or Bradford on an all-conference second team is painful, but someone has to draw the short straw. Texas vs. Oklahoma is set for an 11 a.m. kickoff on Oct. 17 in Dallas. Hopefully, the KU at Colorado game that day has a later kickoff so Jayhawk fans can watch the Red River Rivalry. Easily the biggest regular season game in the country for the 2009 season.

3. Last item’s a bit random, but don’t you love a good locker room speech that fires you up about football? I was thinking about this the other day. What are some of the most memorable locker room speeches you guys can remember? I came up with a random list to get it started:

I’ve searched YouTube tirelessly and this is the best speech I found. No idea how this is on there, but Mack Brown gave the Longhorns a fascinating speech after winning the 2005 BCS Championship against USC. This is well worth a look:

My favorite part: “And the last thing, and I said this at the first of the week,” Brown said. “I don’t want this to be the best thing that’s ever happened in your life. When you’re 54, I don’t want you to say winning a football game is the best thing that’s ever happened in my life. You’ll have it and you’ll be a champion for the rest of your life. You make sure that’s one of the best sports things in your life. But you promise me you got enough about you to win a national championship, you got enough about you to be a great citizen and a great role model, a great father and a great leader in your family. And that’s what we’re looking for when you get outta here. That’s what we want.”

Amen, Mack.

Also, how random was Vince Young at the 5:00 mark of this video? It’s pretty hilarious.

Another one I found was from former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer. This was incredibly classic in the way he paced about the locker room with confidence before the Sooners’ next game. He said some awesome stuff.

Of course, cinema has provided some memorable coaches speeches from the locker room as well. A few that came to my mind were Friday Night Lights, Remember the Titans and Rudy.

Any others?

That should be all for now, friends. As always, discuss. Football season’s not too far off.