I’m a big fan of Baylor’s big defensive end Shawn Oakman. He’s a freak. He’s a problem. He’s a damn wrecking ball on the end and he’s probably only now coming into his own … which is frightening.

But he also happens to be the proprietor of the best quotes from the first day of our Big 12 media days.

I was watching his show Monday and I noted his reverence for teammate Bryce Petty, but also the plethora of questions about the star quarterback. I had a hunch he was bristling, albeit politely, beneath the surface.

“Shawn,” I asked, “have you ever gotten your hands on Petty? Practice? Scrimmage?”

His eyes opened as wide as his wingspan. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

“I’ll show you this,” he said. “This is the best picture ever.”

Who among us is going to argue with the man? Because that’s Oakman in spring practice and he’s fixing to swallow Petty whole.

I pointed out Petty is wearing a red jersey, which means no contact for the player wearing one and especially if he’s your Heisman Trophy candidate and you’re a freak, a problem and a damn wrecking ball.

“That’s ‘hands,’ ” he said. “That’s as close as I’m allowed to get.”

Uh, that looks like a lot more than hands.

“Probably just a little bit, but, yeah,” he said.

If you’ve never been to a college practice, understand that the red or green or gold or whatever-color jersey thing is occasionally forgotten. Most often, a defender can’t help himself, if not physically, then vindictively.

Different coaches and different sets of teammates receive the violations differently except when it involves the quarterback. If you’ve seen a defensive player hit the quarterback, you’ve seen the offense go off. Just completely lose it. Offensive linemen blow their tops and usually start a fight with the offending defender.

And almost without fail, the defender gets punished and the coach makes nothing of the offensive linemen backing up their quarterback.

That’s football, so you wonder what happens when someone hits he star quarterback wearing red at Baylor.

“(The offensive linemen) go crazy,” Oakman said. “”The whole offensive side goes crazy. But at the end of the day, we’re a family. There might be a battle between the offense and the defense during practice, but we’re still a family. And stuff may happen during practice that they might not like, but it’s just football at the end of the day.”

And maybe you just have to start a riot that one day?

“There might be four riots during practice, but we’re going to be a family,” he said.

Other Oakman highlights:

What the native of just-outside-Philadelphia thought of Baylor when he arrived from Penn State in 2012: “Being from the city, I was an RG3 hater. He wasn’t as good as people said he was. To me, he was just another QB. He could run. I was an RG3 hater. That wasn’t really big for me coming here. It was more about me having a fresh start.”

What he thought of Texas linebacker Steve Edmond trashing the Baylor program: “It’s his personal opinion. You know, a lot of people don’t like to lose. You step to Floyd Casey Stadium, that’s what was going to happen to him. He was going to lose. He probably feels some type of way about that, but he chose to go to Texas.”

What he thinks about Baylor’s Big 12 peers: “I really don’t like anybody. If you’re not from Baylor, you’re against Baylor. Being here with the other teams, I’m not comfortable.”

What to make of coach Art Briles having a pro wrestling championship belt: “He’s a bad man. He’s a bad man. You want to play for a guy like that. You don’t want a hesitant coach. You want a confident coach. We believe in everything he says.”

What we should think of Baylor’s relentless and unapologetic swagger: “Confidence is a choice. You can’t make somebody more than what he sees himself as. As long as you see yourself as the highest light, you should play that way.”

What it’s like seeing Baylor’s rise: “It’s amazing. It’s definitely a story to be written down and made into a movie. You don’t see that often. You definitely don’t see that often, from where they were to where they are today and everything that went in between. You definitely don’t see that every day, just like you don’t see second chances every day.”