LAWRENCE, Kan. — Last week in Dallas, with Big 12 Football Media Days at their apex, Charlie Weis happened to catch two Texas players muttering bitterly among themselves. He recalled the pair being cheesed off by the fact that Weis' Kansas charges were dressed to the nines while the Longhorns were rolling fives.
Then, with the ears of Weis still upon them, the two Texas dudes started sizing up Dayne Crist. All 6-foot-4 of him.
"THAT'S the quarterback?" one of the Longhorns apparently exclaimed.
Todd Reesing, bless him, checked in at 5-11. Jordan Webb was 6 feet and change. The Big 12 isn't used to Kansas signal-callers who can post up small forwards in a pinch.
"You know, he's trimmed down from 237 to 233," Weis chortled as he recounted the tale. "But you know, he looks like a linebacker. Because you look at some of the other 'big-name' quarterbacks and you see him — I mean, he looks like what they're supposed to be looking like."
He looks like a major upgrade. There's no debating that. He just doesn't look like a savior.
Like Russell Wilson last fall, Crist is playing out his final season of eligibility on a new campus — a free-agent year created because of a loophole in the NCAA's eligibility rules for student-athletes who've already graduated. Some have already penciled Crist in as this year's Wilson, who moved from North Carolina State to Wisconsin before the 2011 campaign and immediately steered the Badgers to a Big Ten title. Even longtime NFL talent evaluator Gil Brandt recently made a point to tap Crist as one of his sleeper players to watch in the Big 12 this year.
Hold on there, cowboy. Same loophole. Different situations.
Wisconsin? Reloading. Kansas? Rebuilding.
Madison? Beer barrels. Lawrence? Orange construction barrels.
The Badgers were coming off a Rose Bowl berth. The Jayhawks are coming off a 10-loss campaign that made locals want to get up and leave the tilts at halftime.
Wisconsin totes one of the best offensive lines on the planet. The Badgers gave up 62 sacks, combined, over the past three seasons. Since 2009, Kansas has surrendered 100.
Because of injuries and coaching turnover at Notre Dame, his old stomping grounds, Crist has one 2,000-yard passing season under his belt. Wilson had two in Raleigh before he high-tailed it to Madison, and was 45 yards away from a third.
In three seasons with the Irish, Crist netted 74 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground. In three seasons with the Wolfpack, Wilson racked up 1,089 and 17.
Same loophole. Different guys. Different games.
"Fair or unfair, I understand that there will probably be some comparisons that (are) made throughout the year," Crist said of Wilson, who's now plying his trade with the Seattle Seahawks. "But again, I'm focusing on the things that I can control.
"I'm internally motivated. I don't really worry about those other things — the press clippings. I have such a clear vision of where we want to go as a team what I need to do to get better. That's really the primary focus for me."
And that's what Crist has most in common with Wilson, that shining set of intangibles: They're both team-first guys, natural leaders.
The kind of fellas you'd follow to Gibraltar and back. The kind you root for.
"I mean, he's pretty much acclimated pretty well on his own," left tackle Tanner Hawkinson said of Crist, who was named as one of three team captains during spring ball.
Weis is a master of molding passers — from Tom Brady to Brady Quinn to Matt Cassel — but that wasn't what ultimately swung the young signal-caller to cast his final lot on Massachusetts Avenue. When Crist was visiting Lawrence last December, Hawkinson and two other senior-offensive-linemen-to-be got together to meet with the California native and make a pitch for his services. They ended up talking, the four of them, for more than two hours straight. Something clicked.
"He's been great for us," Hawkinson continued. "Not only being a team leader, but he's helped us learn the offense. Being the quarterback, obviously, and he was with Coach Weis at Notre Dame, knew the offense there, so he's probably helped us acclimate (as well)."
And to think, if it wasn't for bad luck, as the old song goes, Crist wouldn't have had any luck at all in South Bend. He weathered two knee surgeries, the wrath of Irish coach Brian Kelly, and a junior season that wound up flying off the rails.
He's also a sharp cookie with a business degree. Crist could've hung up the spikes and gotten on with the rest of his life. He decided he didn't want the last football chapter to be such a downer.
"For me, I knew that I wasn't going to stop playing until I didn't love it anymore," Crist said. "And I still love it. I'll do everything I can to keep playing for as long as I can."
Yeah, but two knee surgeries? Sometimes, even love gets seriously tested.
"Love always gets tested," Crist countered. "That's how you know it's love."
The kicker? Crist actually consulted Wilson, ironically enough, last winter — during a visit to Wisconsin, back when the former Irish standout considered becoming a 1-year replacement to a 1-year replacement.
"(He said) it comes down to being yourself," Crist said. "You can't be someone that you're not. Because as a player, you recognize that in other people. And you see through guys very quickly."
Kansas players saw what they had in Crist. They elected to hitch their collective wagons to the kid, for better or worse. One last ride.
"That he could be here for a couple months and be named a captain of this team," defensive end Toben Opurum allowed, "says a lot about his character and what people think of him."
That's how you know it's love. That's how you know it fits.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter @seankeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com
