After making the eight-hour drive back from Irving, Texas, I’m left with one philosophical question: Would you realize immediately that you were in the Flint Hills if the sign on the Turnpike didn’t tell you it was the Flint Hills?

While you’re pondering that, here are some of the videos I didn’t get to earlier in the week from Big 12 football media days. Each of these clips stood out to me for one reason or another.

Let’s start with KU receiver Kerry Meier, who told me that he was expecting to have an even better year this year than he did in 2008.

Remember, he had a school-record 97 catches for 1,045 yards and eight touchdowns in 2008.

In this clip, KU quarterback Todd Reesing talks about his favorite summertime activities.

Reesing also loosens up a bit in this quote, giving a funny line about coach Mark Mangino (who I’m sure had a few words for his players about how to answer certain questions they were going to get at Media Days).

For some background, earlier in the interview, Reesing had spoken like he didn’t know the exact date of the KU-Texas matchup. That game will be the first and only time Reesing will play collegiately in his hometown of Austin.

KU safety Darrell Stuckey talks here about the best part of the summer with his teammates. He also gives some details about how the Jayhawks have been training for the season.

I thought this was a really interesting quote from Stuckey about leadership. Take a look.

While he doesn’t single anyone out, it sure seems like Stuckey might not have been happy with some of the KU leaders of the past. It sounds like the safety might have been around some people that were anointed leaders rather than ones who led by example.

And maybe that’s another reason for optimism for these 2009 Jayhawks. The four captains — Stuckey, Meier, Reesing and running back Jake Sharp — also appear to be some of the hardest workers on the team.

Let’s move on to some K-State quotes about the KU rivalry.

Current (and former, if you will) KSU coach Bill Snyder talks about the significance of the KU game each year for his team.

Snyder gave long, thought-out answers to most questions at media day, but you could tell from the video above he was trying extra hard to not say anything that might be brought back up to his attention at a later date*.

* — Though I do think that he might referring to Ron Prince some in the middle part of this clip when he talks about teams getting in trouble when they focus too much on one game. Didn’t K-State have clocks counting down the days to the KU game under Prince last year?

KSU linebacker Alex Hrebec talks about the significance of the KU rivalry in this clip.

And KSU quarterback Carson Coffman talks about KU here.

I wanted to end with one of the most interesting things I heard at media days. This video also is from Carson* Coffman, talking about he ended up playing for Snyder.

* — My fingers keep wanting to type “Chase” before “Coffman”.

So, really, how many different things had to go right for Carson Coffman to play for Snyder?

Think about it. Snyder did not recruit Coffman (who grew up a Kansas State football fan), as he wasn’t the type of mobile QB that Snyder loves. But then Snyder retires, and quickly, new coach Ron Prince swoops in to sign both Coffman and Josh Freeman.

Prince is fired last year, and Snyder comes back as coach. Not only that, Freeman bolts for the NFL, leaving the starting QB position open.

With another year, Snyder probably brings in his own quarterback. But this season, he is forced to use what he has, and Coffman is the best signal-caller on the roster.

So, in a strange turn of events, Coffman is playing for the man that he always wanted to play for.

And Snyder has a hands-down starter at quarterback that he refused to even recruit.

Interesting situation, indeed.