He's the seventh-fastest player in Kansas State history to reach 1,000 career rushing yards and his 5.37 yards per attempt ranks seventh as well. At a time when junior running back Joe Jackson is eager to flourish even more for the Wildcats, new head coach Collin Klein and his dangerous offensive attack that features a strong running game seems to have arrived just in time.

The attention is everywhere as Avery Johnson in his bright suit and lavender tie journeys underneath the lights from radio station to podcast to radio station to podcast, station to station, slapping on headphones and moments peeling them off his head, at Big 12 Football Media Days at the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas.

It's 7:18 a.m. and a large steel overhang blocks the sunlight from a 78-degree Wednesday morning, as a black, 10-passenger van steers toward the elaborate front glass doors to the Omni Frisco Hotel at The Star. Less than one football field away, inside the multi-purpose, 12,000-seat Ford Center, which is connected to the World Corporate Headquarters of the Dallas Cowboys, the school colors and banners of Big 12 Conference schools sway to either the side of "the big stage," elevated on a large platform, where today eight Big 12 head coaches, one by one, will take turns sitting behind a table, flanked by his team's football helmets, surrounded by large screens displaying the school logo, and he'll discuss anything and everything regarding the state of his team, the state of the Big 12, and at times, the state of college football.

Eric Wolford is the longest-tenured active offensive line coach in the Southeastern Conference. The son of a steel mill plant supervisor in Youngstown, Ohio, Wolford grew up strong, tough and gritty. He played offensive guard at Kansas State under Bill Snyder. Along his professional journey, Wolford served as head coach at Youngstown State, and he coached offensive lines at South Florida, Houston, North Texas, Arizona, Illinois, South Carolina, San Francisco 49ers, Kentucky, Alabama and now LSU. He played or coached under head coaches such as Bill Snyder, Steve Spurrier, Mark Stoops, Nick Saban and now Lane Kiffin.