TCU beat the hapless Houston Cougars 36-13 last week to kick off conference play. This week-end.. we in Big 12 country begin the process of seeing who ends up in Jerry’s World in December.
Let’s go.
1 Texas: As in easily with their best in the nation road win at Alabama. Ewers, Mitchell, Worthy, Sanders, and Whittington give the Horns legit offensive explosion ‘almost’ as good of some of those offenses Sark coordinated under Pete Carroll at USC.
2 OU: The Sooners have played absolutely no one of consequence to date. But the physicality and tackling on the defensive side of the ball appear to be better. WRs Nic Anderson and A Anthony could make this Sooner offense elite if Jeff Lebby doesn’t go into a shell like he did in the SMU game. Sooners’ edge pass rush needs to improve. Colin Oliver….come be a Sooner…. There’s Only One Oklahoma, baby.
3 BYU: Cougars tough 38-31 win at Arkansas is easily the Big 12’s second best win in non-conference play. Nothing flashy about BYU, but with Duece Vaughn no longer a K State Wildcat…. these Cats appear tamer.
4 Kansas State: Wildcats’ road loss at Missouri was a downer for the Big 12. Chris Klieman is a heckuva coach, but can Will Howard carry the load without Duece Vaughn?
5 Kansas: It’s all about QB play in football in any league at any level. Kansas has an almost elite QB in the Daniels kid, plus a smart coach. As a Sooner fan …I will admit the Sooner date in Lawrence is circled on my worry list.
6 UCF: Head coach Gus Malzahn is clearly a nationally elite offensive guru…too bad there isn’t one on the O State payroll. I would think Malzahn in Year 1 in the once ping pong video Big 12 will have some moments when his team turns heads.
7 TCU: The defending national runner-up Frogs are not what they were a year ago without Max Duggan. But Sonny Dykes is clearly a coach former TCU alum Dan Jenkins from Semi-Tough legend would be proud of. Look for the Frogs to be a spoiler at some point in all of this.
8 Cincy: With former Florida Gator QB Emory Jones these Bearcats could be sneaky at times if he’s on. His feet should be a concern to the Sooners. We’ll see if Cincy’s legit this week-end and if they can handle OU’s question mark defense.
9 Texas Tech: The Red Raiders were over-hyped in my view. The QB play with Tyler Shough is nothing special. When you don’t have special QB play in Lubbock…you usually don’t have all that much. It’s all about QB play…if you doubt me…ask Nick Saban….or Mike Gundy.
10 Baylor: Other than O State…the biggest yawn in the conference to date. Two years ago…the futures seemed to be burning bright in both Waco and Stillwater…not so much circa 2023. The QB play in Waco is almost as bad as that in Stillwater. I’ll put this in caps..IF YOU DON”T AT THE LEAST HAVE SEMI-ELITE QB PLAY IN THE AGE OF NIL AND THE PORTAL YOU ARE BASICALLY SCREWED.
11 West Virginia: The Mountaineers beat Pitt, while O State got manhandled by a Sun Belt team. O State and WV both suck, but for now… the Mountaineers by not as much.
12 Oklahoma State: Maybe what Mike Gundy and his $25 million buyout should do is this…play the Rangel kid on first downs, the Bowman kid on second downs, the pride of Mike Gundy’s loins on third downs, and ask Gunnar Gundy’s mother who should be on the field on fourth and short yardage situations. In closing, O State is a three point Vegas road dog this week-end at Ames to the worst offense in the Power 5 category. The fact I wouldn’t touch this game either way says what I think about the entirety of this OSU squad so far.
13 Iowa State: Not that long ago Matt Campbell seemed to be a young coaching flash headed upwards, but like with O State…if you’re weak at QB and living ten years behind the NIL-Portal curve and you have substandard QB play…you’re going nowhere but down. Truth hurts.
14 Houston: Fortunately the Cougars still have Kelvin and a Top 10 hoops program. It’s only 42 days till college basketball season.
That’s it for me today. I’m going to ride the bike and then do my basketball court up and backs. I think I’ll blog about that extremely dirty hit on the Hunter kid in the Golden Buffs win over rival Colorado State tomorrow.
Peace.
MJ