Here&#8217;s what you need to know about the inventory of Big 12 quarterbacks:</p><p>Last season&#8217;s national leader in passing yards and touchdowns, Texas Tech&#8217;s Graham Harrell, returns.</p><p>So does the 2007 leader in passing efficiency, Oklahoma&#8217;s Sam Bradford.</p><p>The quarterback with size and skills to be a first-round draft selection, Kansas State&#8217;s Josh Freeman, is back.</p><p>And none of them made the All-Big 12 team last season. Or the second team. And it might happen again this season.</p><p>That&#8217;s because Missouri&#8217;s Chase Daniel and Kansas&#8217; Todd Reesing, who helped their programs to record-setting seasons, also return.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve never seen anything like it,&#8221; Iowa State coach Gene Chizik said. &#8220;The talent in this conference is amazing.&#8221;</p><p>No league comes close to the Big 12 in terms of incumbent talent, at least statistically. Six quarterbacks passed for more than 3,100 yards. The folks at Nationalchamps.net did some digging and found that last season&#8217;s average passing yardage by Big 12 starting quarterbacks &#8212; 3,176 yards &#8212; was the greatest in any conference this decade.</p><p>And 10 quarterbacks are returning &#8212; with most wearing some badge of distinction.</p><p>In addition to the aforementioned, Texas junior Colt McCoy matched an NCAA record for scoring passes by a freshman two years ago. Nebraska&#8217;s Joe Ganz, in only his second start, flung a league-record seven touchdown passes in a game. Oklahoma State&#8217;s Zac Robinson established a school record for total offense, and Cody Hawkins set all of Colorado&#8217;s freshman passing and total-offense records.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like going to a Mercedes-Benz dealer and deciding what color you want,&#8221; Kansas coach Mark Mangino said.</p><p>Clearly, the trendy spread schemes and no-huddle offenses have accelerated the offensive pace. Once, it was just Mike Leach&#8217;s Texas Tech team flinging on nearly every snap. Last season, only Texas A&amp;M chalked up more rushing than passing yards.</p><p>Throw in wonderfully skilled receivers &#8212; like returning All-Americans Michael Crabtree of Texas Tech and Missouri&#8217;s Jeremy Maclin &#8212; and the reputation of the Big 12 as a smash-mouth conference of 2,000-yard rushers has faded to black.</p><p>Fast-break football made the Big 12 the nation&#8217;s highest-scoring conference last season and accounted for some freakish stats. But it wasn&#8217;t as if the Big 12 was a woefully imbalanced defensive league or found itself overmatched against nonconference foes in 2007. Three Big 12 defenders were named consensus All-America. Teams went 5-3 in bowl games.</p><p>The numbers were legit.</p><p>&#8220;I was really taken aback when I got to Nebraska and saw the numbers teams were putting up,&#8221; said new Cornhuskers coach Bo Pelini, who coordinated LSU&#8217;s national championship defense last season. &#8220;For a defensive guy like me, it woke me up a bit.&#8221;</p><p>He saw numbers like this: At Kansas &#8212; a program that produced longtime pro quarterbacks John Hadl and Bobby Douglas, plus a Heisman finalist in David Jaynes &#8212; Reesing blew up the passing record book, throwing for 3,468 yards and 33 touchdowns.</p><p>In his second college game for the Sooners, Bradford aired out five touchdown passes against Miami. Ganz became Nebraska&#8217;s starter when Sam Keller went down with a season-ending injury at Texas and proceeded to throw 14 touchdowns in his three outings. Freeman passed for school record yardage.</p><p>Best of all was Daniel. His numbers &#8212; 4,306 yards and 33 touchdowns &#8212; were spectacular, but it was more than that. He brought a winning drive to last year&#8217;s division championship team. Asked about being named the league&#8217;s preseason offensive player of the year, Daniel stifled a yawn &#8212; and not just because he had awakened at 4:30 a.m. to arrive at Big 12 Media Days last month.