ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin

Happy Patriots' Day.

We don't normally have a morning marathon through Kenmore Square or a morning baseball game down here in South Texas like they do in Boston to remember the Battles of Lexington and Concord. 

Instead, one of the largest night parades in the country will be staged here tonight to help kick off Fiesta activities -- with a big NBA playoff game to boot that has a bunch of my neighbors worried about somebody named J.J. Barea.

But before all that, we've got delectable lunchtime links from all of those spring games that were played Saturday across the Big 12.

I'll crack a cascarone or two while compiling them to get me in the mood.

• The development of players like Sam Bradford, Todd Reesing and Josh Freeman help make the quarterback class of 2006 one of the best in history, Athlon Sports writer Braden Gall writes.
• New Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Bill Young embraces the high expectations that are booming for his retooled unit, the Oklahoman's Scott Wright reports.
• Missouri's defense appears to be ahead of the Tigers' offense after the first post-Chase Daniel spring game, Dave Matter of the Columbia Daily Tribune reports.
• A study by Tulsa World data editor Gavin Off indicates that Bob Stoops and Mike Gundy are the two highest-paid employees of any public college or university in the state of Oklahoma.
• After watching Nebraska's Red-White spring game, Tom Shatel expects that Cornhuskers will be able to challenge for the North Division title in 2009.
• Former Michigan receiver Toney Clemons raved to the Boulder Daily Camera's Kyle Ringo about his playing opportunities at Colorado.
• Baylor has picked up a commitment from tall, talented wide receiver Eddie Johnson of Midlothian (Texas) High School, John Werner of the Waco Tribune-Herald reports. Johnson is the Bears' second commitment in the Class of 2010.
• Wide receiver Chris Brooks made the most of his opportunity to play with a big performance in Nebraska's Red-White game, Curt McKeever of the Lincoln Journal-Star reports.
• Robert Cessna of the Bryan Eagle was impressed with strong efforts by Jeff Fuller and Von Miller at Texas A&M's spring game, but wonders if their dominance came because of A&M's weaknesses at other positions.