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" Here are Athlon Sports' favorite, most important and most interesting Big&amp;nbsp;12&amp;nbsp;statistics you need to know about in 2014:&amp;nbsp;3: Players who declared early for the NFL DraftA record 98 underclassmen declared early for the 2014 NFL Draft &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;up from the previous high of 73 set in '13. The SEC had 28 early departures and the Pac-12 lost 25 underclassmen to the NFL. The Big 12, however, was last among all Big 5 conferences with just three early departures. The overall trend of diminishing elite talent in the Big 12 is a concern and the recruiting rankings don&amp;rsquo;t provide any comfort. The entire league signed seven Top 100 recruits in 2014 (247Sports). Alabama signed 13 and Texas A&amp;M almost matched the entire Big 12 on its own with five. To top it all, the Texas Longhorns went without a player taken in the NFL Draft for the first time since 1937.&amp;nbsp;0: Times Baylor has won in NormanBaylor and Oklahoma have played 24 times total in history and the Bears have only won twice. One of those was a 41-12 beatdown the Bears put on the Sooners last season in Waco. The other was a 48-38 win in Waco in 2011. But to defend their Big 12 championship in 2014, Baylor will have to beat Oklahoma (and Texas) on the road this season. Baylor is 0-11 in Norman all-time against the Sooners. So while the Bears have won two of the last three against Oklahoma (and three out of four against Texas), Baylor will most likely have to do something it has never done before in 2014 if it wants to have a chance of repeating as conference champs.&amp;nbsp;46 and 3: Bryce Petty total TDs and INTsRobert Griffin III won the Heisman Trophy. Nick Florence set multiple school records. But Bryce Petty took Art Briles' offense to a new level statistically. Petty accounted for 46 total touchdowns a year ago (32 pass, 14 rush) while throwing just three interceptions in 403 pass attempts. Baylor scored 70 points four times and scored at least 59 points seven different times en route to the team&amp;rsquo;s first-ever Big 12 title. Petty also helped Baylor set a single-game Big 12 record with 872 yards against West Virginia&amp;nbsp;&amp;mdash; which would be a record in every other conference in the nation except the Pac-12. Petty is back with a plethora of talented wide receivers and should find himself in New York as a Heisman finalist at season&amp;rsquo;s end.&amp;nbsp;5: Touchdowns thrown by Trevor Knight in the regular seasonMost fans only remember the remarkable Sugar Bowl performance from Oklahoma&amp;rsquo;s Trevor Knight in which he completed 32-of-44 passes for 348 yards and four touchdowns in a win over Alabama. No one really remembers the fact that he threw a grand total of five touchdowns during the entire regular season&amp;nbsp;&amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;three of which came against Louisiana-Monroe in Week 1. He missed five games due to injury and does a lot of damage with his legs, but he also was benched due to inconsistency at times. The Sooners' offense is now his alone in Norman and most believe he has the talent to develop into a superstar, but there could still be plenty of learning curves to navigate for the Oklahoma signal-caller.&amp;nbsp;11-4: Texas' record the last two years with David Ash starting at quarterbackOver the last two years, David Ash has been the starter in 15 games for the Longhorns. He missed 10 games a year ago and the Kansas State game in 2012. In those 15 games, the Longhorns went 11-4 and averaged 6.4 yards per play on offense. In the other 11 games, Texas went 6-5 and averaged just 4.9 yards per play. For perspective, 6.4 yards per play would have averaged 22nd in the nation last fall while 4.9 would have tied Akron for 108th nationally. Needless to say, Texas needs Ash to stay healthy for Charlie Strong to build a winner.&amp;nbsp;23-3: Charlie Strong&amp;rsquo;s record in 2012-13Texas has been ranked in the final AP poll just once since 2009 (19th in 2012) and the fall off from the BCS national title game in &amp;rsquo;09 led to the hiring of Charlie Strong. The no-nonsense defensive guru brings with him a sterling resume of success at Louisville. The Cardinals won 23 games over the last two years, including two top 15 finishes and a BCS bowl thumping of Florida two years ago. Strong won at least 11 games in each of the last two years, something Texas hasn&amp;rsquo;t done since 2009.&amp;nbsp;8.5: Average margin of defeat for TCUThe Horned Frogs suffered their first losing season since 2004 and lost as many games in Big 12 play last year (7) as it had during its entire seven-year tenure as a member of the Mountain West Conference. A big reason, however, why Athlon Sports likes TCU to bounce back in 2014 was how those losses took place. TCU lost eight games in 2014 by an average of just 8.5 points per game. Included in the Frogs' seven losses were just two by more than 10 points and four by a field goal or fewer points. With eight starters returning to a defense that ranked sixth in the nation in average yards allowed on first down (4.4), Gary Patterson should expect to be back in the postseason this fall.&amp;nbsp;32: Oklahoma State departing lettermenMike Gundy has his work cut out for him this fall and part of the reason the Pokes aren&amp;rsquo;t really considered in the mix for a Big 12 championship is roster turnover. Oklahoma State loses 32 of 70 players who earned a letter last year. That 54.3 percent rate of returning letterman is ranked dead last in the nation (128th), making the Cowboys the least experienced team in the entire country. Basically, it&amp;rsquo;s the worst possible time to face the defending national champions in the first week of the season.&amp;nbsp;48.6: Points allowed per game by Texas Tech in its last five gamesKliff Kingsbury began his career as the Red Raiders head coach with seven consecutive wins. But his team lost five straight games and allowed nearly 50 points per game along the way. Coach Skinny Jeans had a lot of work to do on his defense in his first full offseason in Lubbock after allowing 48.6 points per game over the final five games of regular season a year ago. The schedule isn&amp;rsquo;t that much different this time around either, as Tech will face the top three teams in the preseason rankings (Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas) in the final month of the season.&amp;nbsp;7.8: West Virginia's average yards to go on third downStaying ahead of the chains is a big deal in football. In fact, there are entirely new statistical measures of offensive efficiency dedicated to defining a &amp;ldquo;successful offensive play.&amp;rdquo; Basically, gaining at least 50 percent of necessary yards on first down, 70 percent on second down and 100 percent on third or fourth down would be considered successful. West Virginia, a team that averaged nearly 40 points per game just two seasons ago, was behind the chains constantly a year ago. The Mountaineers ranked 115th nationally by averaging 7.8 yards to go on third down a year ago and it led to West Virginia scoring just 26.3 points per game (79th).&amp;nbsp;4.29: Kansas' yards per playKansas averaged just 4.29 yards per play last year on 825 offensive snaps. That number ranked 122nd nationally and dead last among all Big 5 teams &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;worse than Florida, UConn, Purdue, Virginia and Wake Forest. The Jayhawks were also one of just eight teams in the nation to average less than 300 yards of total offense per game (294.7 ypg) and finished last in the Big 12 and 119th in the nation at finishing drives. Kansas scored just 3.27 points per trip inside the opponent's 40-yard line.&amp;nbsp;Basically, the KU offense was completely inept, something that should be totally unacceptable for a head coach who has made a serious living as an offensive guru. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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