what about Vaea Fifita? Ive watched that kid for a long time. Hes Liaki Molis cousin and I first came across him in the IRANZ

All of the preliminaries are over, and its time for Big 12 coaches to focus on trying to win a conference title.Thats the fun part about conference. It doesnt matter what you do those first three games, Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said Monday. Its all about what you do moving forward.With all the non-conference games completed, there will be only head-to-head matchups in the Big 12 over the last 10 weekends of the regular season.Six teams -- No. 22 Texas, West Virginia, Kansas State, Texas Tech, Kansas and Oklahoma -- will play their conference openers this week. While the league is already in a precarious position in trying to get back into four-team College Football Playoff for the second year in a row, there could still be a wide-open race to the Big 12 title.Oklahoma (1-2), which made it into the CFP last season, already has losses to top-10 teams Houston and Ohio State, and is one of four league teams coming off an open date. But the Sooners are 0-0 in the quest to repeat as Big 12 champions and win the league for the 10th time under coach Bob Stoops.Thats a big deal to us, and weve done it a fair amount, Stoops said during the weekly Big 12 coaches teleconference. Thats been the frustration for me is I dont feel weve played up to what were capable of. And we may not still have won, I get that, but you want to be able to at least play the way youre capable of. Were only three games into it and weve got to be able to do that here this week, and start doing that going through the Big 12.The first full week of Big 12 play gets an early start with Kansas (1-2) playing at Texas Tech (2-1) on Thursday night.Then on Saturday, No. 13 Baylor (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) goes to Iowa State (1-3, 0-1); No. 21 TCU (3-1, 1-0) hosts Oklahoma; No. 22 Texas (2-1) is at Oklahoma State (2-2, 0-1); and Kansas State (2-1) plays at West Virginia (3-0).With Baylor the leagues highest-ranked team and the only one with four wins so far, acting head coach Jim Grobe was asked if he felt like the Bears were the early conference favorite.Oh no, not at all, Grobe said. I dont think anybody really feels comfortable or knows how their teams going to be in the next two or three games. I think once you get about a little over halfway through the season, things start to sort out a little bit. But its way too early to have any sense of where you stand in the league.Some other notes from the weekly Big 12 call:- Oklahoma States Justice Hill ran for 122 yards and a touchdown in his first career start; it was the most yards for an Oklahoma State true freshman against a Big 12 opponent since the league was formed in 1996. But the leagues newcomer of the week also had two fumbles Saturday that led to Baylor touchdowns. The last one came at the end of a 12-yard run in the fourth quarter when the Cowboys were down only 28-24. The Bears recovered at their 1, drove the length of the field and won 35-24 .Hes a young talent, Cowboys coach Mike Gundy said. Youve got to let him play because he has the ability to turn a short gain into a big gain.- Texas coach Charlie Strong said adjustments made on defense during the open date, after giving up 50 points at California, were not with personnel. Its about tweaking it and making sure we put guys in position where they can be successful, he said.- Coach Matt Campbell said Iowa State got into a rhythm using quarterbacks Joel Lanning and Jacob Park in a 44-10 home win over San Jose State, after both also played in the Big 12 opener at TCU. Campbell said he felt it might be in our best interest to give both of those guys the opportunity to play after both progressed late in fall camp and early in the season. Cheap Air Max 720 Wholesale . -- Jakob Silfverberg is making himself right at home with the Anaheim Ducks, scoring four goals in his first four games. Air Max Tn Clearance . -- Nate Robinson has played for seven teams, so beating one of them is no longer a rare occurrence. http://www.airmaxwholesaleforsale.com/discount-air-max-95.html . Clarkson had been dealing with an elbow injury in early January and will be out of action for at least one week. He has three goals and five assists through 36 games with the Leafs this season. Air Max 90 Wholesale . The Clippers were angry about blowing a big lead; the Kings didnt like being in that kind of hole and nearly digging themselves out only to lose. Air Max 97 Clearance . Jason Zucker and Matt Cooke also scored for Minnesota, which has won five of six. Kuemper made five saves in the first, nine in the second, and nine in the third. The rookies best save came with 2:17 left in the third period when he denied former Wild forward Matt Cullen from just outside of the crease on the right side. It has been interesting to hear the talk of late advocating a place in Super Rugby in the future for the Pacific Islands.I have always been an advocate for their cause. Unless they can have a competition offering them some financial benefit they are never going to progress and nor will their national sides.If they are included there will be issues around sponsorship and there needs to be a business model behind it; these competitions are about drawing money out of the public to go and watch and if you cant draw that money it is going to be tough.Theres also the case of where would they be based? Do you take them on the road or do they find a location where they can draw money out of people? If they are talking about a future for such a side they will no doubt be looking at those sorts of issues.You could base a team in Hawaii at Aloha Stadium, which would appeal to the Island nations while also catering for interest in the United States. You could base a team in Auckland or Sydney but, really, all that does is dilute the public and the same dollar is there to be spent on the Blues or Waratahs, or the Pacific Nations team.There has been a long time to study how it could best work and hopefully that would provide the correct business model.Just how that would affect New Zealand, Australian and now Japanese, sides who include Fijians, Tongans and Samoans in their teams, remains to be seen. But New Zealand has always had a policy of picking New Zealand players first with the option of including two Pacific Island players. The first option of Pacific Island players should be playing for their team and that should be their pathway.In the final analysis, New Zealand has to look at developing All Blacks. And if the Pacific nations have their own team their core responsibility is to develop their own players and the only reason they havent done it is that they havent had a competition to be part of to do so.It would give them the vehicle to get stronger and if they get the chance to do it imagine what could result. The combinations they could build inside a Super Rugby competition could be truly amazing.They are the perfect athletes for the game of rugby.It is something that needs to be done from a rugby purists perspective to help the second tier nations. It has to happen and the headache is on the financial side and how it all works.In my mind, if Super Rugby is looking to tap into the U.S. then Hawaii and Aloha Stadium is the perfect place to situate it.The exercise of taking a game to Fiji was a good one, in spite of the wet weather. The Chiefs, whose home game it was, did well once again demonstrating that it is still possible to beat top sides when decimated by injury.Inside that camp there is a lot of self-belief in who they are as a team and as a squad, and that is a really good sign. It says a lot for the management team that obviously runs it. Theyve got a culture of self-belief that the Crusaders have had and that game on Friday showed who had surpassed who.Dave Rennies tenure at the Chiefs has just been fanttastic.dddddddddddd. From where that franchise has been to where it is now, he has taken it to a whole new level. They didnt get there last year, but you would have to say they are contenders again and it will be interesting to see where Liam Messam fits in when he comes back now following his Olympic Games omission.I guess it is a little sad for him for not making the squad for Rio, but that is just the nature of professional sport. Hes probably got one eye on Ardie Savea and saying: You b-----d, I wish I had made that call a few months back.The Highlanders arent entirely safe either, especially having to meet the Jaguares away this weekend and then hosting the Chiefs in Dunedin in the last round. The Jaguares at home are a dangerous side, as they proved against the Bulls last Sunday.I thought the Blues might have got a win watching that first half against the Hurricanes; there were a couple of pretty angry loose forwards in Jerome Kaino and Steven Luatua who proved something on Saturday night. Theyre at different ends of their careers but they both sent out a dont forget about us message.Kaino was clearly unhappy about being put on the bench for the third Test against Wales and made an appropriate statement while Luatua saw Elliot Dixon and Liam Squire run out there when 16 months ago that was probably him.The encouraging thing about that is that Luatua hasnt given up. And when you combined his efforts with Kara Pryors game you could see how much it spurred on the rest of the pack. They had some real grit and hunger about them which, for a Blues fan, is great to see as its been a long time between drinks.The positive and abrasive nature in how they went about their game against the Hurricanes was a step up from what they showed before the break against the Crusaders. Take nothing away from the Hurricanes, they weathered the storm in the first half and came back from behind to put on a pretty convincing performance.And talking about blindside flankers/locks; what about Vaea Fifita? Ive watched that kid for a long time. Hes Liaki Molis cousin and I first came across him in the IRANZ Academy as a 16-year-old -- hes really got some talent. I noted Chris Boyds comments that he had a bit of work to do on defence, but that is fairly typical of young guys who are still developing.A lot of it is confidence. Its something you can work on, develop and coach and just because at one stage of their career they are not the most devastating tackler, it doesnt mean they cant get better.The Hurricanes have got a tough finish to the competition against the Waratahs and Crusaders, but even the seven-time champions hit a bit of a speed bump at the weekend.Its the time of the year when all the calculators come out. But the nature of the competition is that you have just got to keep winning. Everyone wants to have momentum going into the play-offs. And if you get to the final, youve still got to win it. ' ' '