A Rough Weekend in the Big 12
What a weekend in the Big 12.
After months of uncertainty for the 2020 college football season, the first weekend of football being played in the Big 12 lived up to the entertainment factor, and the addition of a non-conference game to the nine-game conference schedule caused more problems then it seemed to solve on the opening weekend.
Conference favorites No. 3 Oklahoma and No. 9 Texas looked up to par against inferior Missouri State and UTEP respectively, behind strong debuts from redshirt freshman Spencer Rattler (14-17 290 yards and four touchdowns) and redshirt senior Sam Ehlinger (25-33 426 yards and five touchdowns). Neither team seemed to break a sweat as they cruised to easy victories.
There will be eyes on Rattler all season to see if he can uphold the impossibly high expectations that come with being the starting quarterback at Oklahoma under Lincoln Riley, but if he can keep making throws like this, I think he’ll do just fine.
Both Ehlinger and Rattler will be pushed a little bit harder in the coming weeks as conference play starts, well at least we hope. The rest of the conference this past weekend didn't give any indication that it was ready to push the two blue bloods away from the conference title.
To start off, three teams (Oklahoma State, Baylor, and TCU) didn’t even play due to COVID-19 concerns. Baylor at least salvaged another non-conference game next weekend (Sept 19.) vs Houston. Oklahoma State will now play Tulsa on that day as well, and TCU will jump right into conference play vs Iowa State on Sept. 26.
Speaking of Iowa State……. yikes.
That performance against Louisiana-Lafayette left a lot to be desired for the then 23rd-ranked Cyclones, falling 31-14 at home. The special teams allowed two return touchdowns, Brock Purdy looked out-of-sorts all day (16-35 145 yards and one interception), and it all reflected on the scoreboard.
It won’t be a problem for the Cyclones trying to reach the Big 12 title game, they have the whole conference schedule to prove that they deserved their preseason ranking. Lucky for them and the rest of the Big 12, they don’t have to play another game against the Sun Belt in 2020!
Kansas State and Kansas each had their own struggles against the Sun Belt. K-State falling to Arkansas State and Kansas getting throttled by Coastal Carolina.
Each team was missing a considerable amount of players to quarantine, but that doesn’t make the loss sting any less.
It was especially embarrassing for Kansas, who fell behind 28-0 to Coastal and clawed back to make the score look a little bit more respectable, 38-23. The Chanticleers had never won a power five football game until scheduling Kansas, now they have beaten the Jayhawks in back to back years.
Hiring Les Miles before the 2019 season sure looked like a splashy hire at the time, but a year-plus in and Kansas continues to look like it doesn’t belong in a power five conference. Miles is now 3-10 at Kansas with two losses to Coastal Carolina, and it won’t get any easier entering conference play.
Texas Tech didn’t look ready to go either, barely scooting by FCS Houston Baptist 35-33 while surrendering 600 yards.
In Summary:
After one week, it looks like nothing has really changed in the Big 12. Judging how the October 10th Red River game in Dallas goes, we should know if Texas is for real or not. Besides that, Oklahoma looks like it should cruise through this conference and win it for the sixth straight year.
And maybe not get blown out in the playoff this time.
Writer
-By: TJ Mathewson