By Eric SorrentinoJournal-World Copy Editor

While most of the Big 12 foot-ball teams have junior-collegetransfers sprinkled across theirrosters, Kansas State has starteda trend in the conference. Forgetthe traditional method of bring-ing in juco transfers to plug ahole or two. Coach Ron Princenow has enough juco players torevamp the entire team.

Prince used 19 of his 32 schol-arships on juco transfers forthis fall’s incoming recruitingclass. The Wildcats have 29juco transfers listed on theirroster, far and away the most inthe conference.

Why are they doing this?Desperation? Arguably. But thecombination of last year’s dis-appointing 5-7 finish and loftyManhattan expectations hadPrince making big-time rosterchanges.

Last year, the Wildcats didn’tmake a bowl game and lost fiveof their last six contests. To sayK-State’s defense was suspectwould be an understatement.The Wildcats gave up 34.75points per game in Big 12 play.

Prince’s focus to improve thedefense was evident: 11 of the 19juco signees play defense.

Prince, in his third year at K-State, is attempting a quick fixwith the already-experiencedtransfers. While the signingscould pay off, the outrageousjuco number likely makes K-State the biggest wild card in theconference for the 2008 season.

The rest of the Big 12 seemsto be bringing in juco recruitsto fit the traditional purpose of

plugging a few holes on offenseor defense.

Oklahoma State has the sec-ond-most roster spots in theconference dedicated to jucotransfers with 13. The Cowboyshave actually won their last twobowl games (IndependenceBowl in 2006 season, InsightBowl last season), but OSUcoach Mike Gundy ultimately

would like to give Texas, Okla-homa and Texas Tech an annu-al run for their money. It hasn’thappened lately (UT or OU haswon the South nine straightyears), in large part due to theCowboys lack of defense.

Counting its bowl game,Oklahoma State gave up justunder 30 points and 177 rushingyards per game last season.

The Cowboys’ two biggestplaymakers on defense nextseason could be juco transfers:Defensive tackle SwansonMiller and safety LucienAntoine, who has developed ahard-hitting reputation aroundStillwater.

Iowa State (10) and Kansas(nine) round out the top fourschools in the Big 12 with themost juco transfers.

Last year, the Jayhawksreceived boosts from jucotransfers Kendrick Harper inthe secondary and Chet Hart-ley on the offensive line. Bothshould start in the fall.

Kansas has 20 fewer jucotransfers than K-State listed onits roster, but if there’s one jucotransfer to track next season, it’sKU tailback Jocques Crawford.Kansas may have struck grid-iron gold in Crawford, whotransferred to KU from Cisco(Texas) Junior College, wherehe was the 2007 national junior-college offensive player of theyear.

Positive news for Crawford:He may not have to win a run-ning back battle against JakeSharp or Angus Quigley. Sure,the Jayhawks will name astarter, but Sharp “backed up”Brandon McAnderson (1,125rushing yards) and sti l lrushed for 821 yards andscored nine total touchdownslast season. There’s room formultiple running backs in KUcoach Mark Mangino’s offen-sive scheme.

Texas was the only school inthe conference to not have anyjuco transfers listed on its 2008roster.

BIG 12 SPOTLIGHTLAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD

A weekly look inside the conference 5B

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Setting the juco trend———

K-State reshaping roster with influx of transfers

Charlie Riedel/AP File Photo

KANSAS STATE COACH RON PRINCE WATCHES the finalmoments of K-State’s game against Missouri last year inManhattan. After a 5-7 season in 2007, Prince loaded up onjunior-college transfers — 19 new ones to be exact. TheWildcats’ 29 roster spots held down by jucos are by far themost in the Big 12.

The following is a list ofeach Big 12 school and thenumber of junior-collegetransfers listed on the2008 roster. The new jucotransfers for the 2008 sea-son follow in parentheses.Not all incoming jucos arelisted on the 2008 rostersyet.

1. Kansas State: 29 (19 new)2. Oklahoma State: 13 (8 new)3. Iowa State: 10 (1 new)4. Kansas: 9 (3 new)5. Oklahoma: 9 (3 new)6. Baylor: 8 (3 new)7. Missouri: 7 (0 new)8. Nebraska: 7 (2 new)9. Texas A&M: 6 (0 new)10. Texas Tech: 5 (4 new)11. Colorado: 2 (1 new)12. Texas: 0 (0 new)

JUCOBREAKDOWN

More on KUSports.com: Several Big 12 teamsrecruited junior-college transfers with lofty expec-tations for the 2008 football season. For a storyon some of the top juco transfers in the confer-ence to keep an eye on for the 2008 season, logonto KUSports.com.