If all Big 12 games this year look like the first 2024 conference game between UCF and TCU, my friends, we are in for a wild ride!

Today, I have the good, the bad, and the ugly from week three, plus the debut of my Big 12 Power Rankings. 

Let’s not waste any time. 

Week Three: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

UCF’s Program

You can’t understate how massive UCF’s come-from-behind 35-34 win in Ft. Worth was for the Knights program. 

Down 28-7, it was easy to see the narrative continuing that UCF still wasn’t quite Big 12 ready. The recruiting numbers look good, but it will still take time for the Knights to build enough Big 12 quality depth and toughness. 

So much for that. 

Gus Malzahn’s squad showed incredible poise and grittiness that we hadn’t seen since they joined the league a season ago. 

Overlooked by Ollie Gordon II and others in the preseason, UCF’s RJ Harvey looks like the class of the league at running back – just ask the Horned Frogs. Harvey punished them for 180 yards on 29 carries to give him a Big 12-leading 448 yards and eight touchdowns. 

“I think we kind of wore down on defense,” TCU head coach Sonny Dykes said.

That should be framed on the wall of the football complex in Orlando. It’s precisely what the UCF doubters didn’t think the Knights could do to legitimate Big 12 competition. 

Speaking of poise, UCF quarterback KJ Jefferson played like a guy who has experienced road games in the SEC. He was unflappable down the stretch and capped off a three-touchdown day with a clutch TD pass to Kobe Hudson with 36 seconds left. 

The Knights did all this despite getting three kicks blocked on special teams. That needs to get cleaned up, but to survive on the road when your special teams are a disaster is an impressive feather in the cap. 

Welcome to the Big 12 contender club until further notice, UCF. 

K-State’s Well Roundedness 

K-State also took a significant step forward this week. 

A narrow escape at Tulane had everybody wondering what, exactly, happened to the Wildcats’ defense that was supposed to shoulder the load while the offense found its stride with a new offensive coordinator, starting quarterback, and offensive line. 

After holding Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan to only seven points, including shutting them out after a scripted opening drive, K-State fans can be at ease. 

Defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman’s defense almost flawlessly executed a plan to take away everything except McMillain from the Wildcats offense. McMillan had 138 yards, but Arizona was held to 56 yards rushing and couldn’t muster many explosive plays outside of one 38-yard jump ball to their star. 

Meanwhile, the offense continued to evolve. 

Quarterback Avery Johnson's arm is still a work in progress, but he was more consistent Friday and continues to take care of the football, as evidenced by a six-to-one touchdown to interception ratio this season. 

He also truly unleashed his legs for the first time this season and gashed Arizona for 110 yards on the ground. The Wildcats rolled up 237 yards on nearly six yards per carry as a team. 

And we can’t forget special teams. All-purpose weapon Dylan Edwards took a 71-yard punt return to the house in what turned out to be the decisive score in the game. 

K-State frankly out-classed Arizona and looked every bit the part of a legitimate Big 12 title contender. 

Now they’ll have to back it up under the bright lights at LaVell Edwards Stadium when they take on 3-0 BYU this week. 

Texas Tech’s Bounce Back

Don’t write off Joey McGuire and Texas Tech just yet. 

After a dreadful start to the season that included a three-touchdown loss at Washington State and too many injuries, the Red Raiders completely unloaded on 2-0 North Texas. 

At one point, Tech scored seven touchdowns in 13 minutes. 

“We’ve got to do a lot of soul searching,” North Texas head coach Eric Morris said. 

They may be searching, but Texas Tech seemingly found its soul again on Saturday. 

As bad as things felt just seven days ago in Lubbock, the Red Raiders are still 2-1 with everything in front of them, and the Washington State loss feels more excusable after the Cougars took out arch-rival Washington on Saturday.

Last year’s team let a sluggish start spiral into a 1-3 record, but the 2024 Red Raiders have a golden opportunity to start 4-1 with home games against Arizona State and Cincinnati on deck.

Kudos to Tech offensive coordinator Zach Kittley, who earned Big 12 co-coordinator of the week honors from 247 Sports after carving up Jon Heacock-disciple Matt Caponi’s defense. 

It certainly helps to have star running back Tahj Brooks back in the lineup, but Red Raiders fans had to love how quarterback Behren Morton attacked the Mean Green secondary early and often. 

Utah and Oklahoma State Take Care of Business

This is undoubtedly Brett Yormark and the Big 12 office’s favorite section of today’s Open For Business. 

The league desperately needed Utah and Oklahoma State to take care of business against overmatched group of five opponents to set up a huge top-15 showdown in Stillwater. 

Things got off to a rocky start for the Utes. Without injured quarterback Cam Rising, Utah State jumped out to an early 14-3 lead. 

But true freshman quarterback Issac Wilson got more comfortable as the game wore on. He threw for 239 yards and three touchdowns to lead his team to a comfortable 38-21 win. 

Reports from last week indicated that Rising is expected to play at OSU, but Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham has not officially confirmed this. 

Most expected Oklahoma State to ride the star power of its best offensive player to a 3-0 start this year, but nobody thought that star would be quarterback Alan Bowman. 

Bowman has picked up the slack with Doak Walker Award winner Ollie Gordon II averaging only 3.5 yards per carry and 72 yards per game. The Cowboys signal caller lit Tulsa up for 396 yards and five touchdowns in a 45-10 win, connecting early and often with receiver De’Zhaun Stribling.  

OSU will likely need more from Gordon in a season-defining two-game stretch to end September. After hosting Utah, Mike Gundy’s squad will travel to Manhattan to play K-State, where they lost 48-0 two years ago. 

In a sign of the times, Fox’s Big Noon Saturday chose to go to Ohio State for the Buckeyes game against Marshall instead of going to Stillwater for a game that will be televised on Fox. 

That’s life in a Power Two world, unfortunately. But it won’t make this matchup any less meaningful and exciting to Big 12 fans. 

The Bottom of the League Continues to Win

And understand, when I say the bottom of the league, I’m referencing the preseason poll. 

The bottom five teams have started the season a combined 11-4, with BYU and Arizona State off to undefeated starts. 

Arizona State cemented its spot as the league’s most pleasant surprise during non-conference play by rallying twice to beat Texas State on the road. 

Don’t brush this one off. The Bobcats are one of the best group of five teams in the country, and they were fired up for a statement win at home on national TV. 

The Sun Devils have already matched their win total from last year. Their trip to Lubbock next week makes for a sneaky good Big 12 game. 

BYU’s stout defense led the way again en route to a 34-14 win at Wyoming, but the Cougars also got more explosiveness from their offense. 

BYU had nine plays of 20+ yards, which matched their season total through the first two games. There’s certainly a lot to like about quarterback Jake Retzlaff if he can keep the turnover numbers down. 

I loved seeing Cincinnati bounce back from blowing a three-score lead against Pitt in week two. The Bearcats won a rivalry game at Miami (OH) against the defending MAC champions. 

Do we have a quarterback controversy in Waco? Sawyer Robinson filled in admirably for the injured Daquan Finn to help Baylor pull away from Air Force in the second half of a 31-3 win. 

His 248 yards and two total touchdowns ended Baylor’s nine-game home losing streak to FBS teams. 

Last but certainly not least, what a way for Houston head coach Willie Fritz to get his first win with the Cougars.

Houston demolished crosstown rival Rice 33-7 to avenge last year’s double-overtime road loss to the Owls. The win legitimizes the progress we saw from week one to week two when the Cougars put a huge scare into Oklahoma in Norman.The Bad

The Bad

Ollie Gordon II’s Heisman Campaign

Keeping Ollie Gordon II around after winning the Doak Walker Award was an accomplishment worth celebrating for Oklahoma State in today's transfer portal world. 

But Gordon isn’t coming close to matching the pace he set during a record-breaking 2023 campaign. He’s been held under 50 yards each of the last two weeks and was kept out of the end zone for the first time all season at Tulsa. 

Head coach Mike Gundy attributes the slow start to opponents consistently keeping an extra defender in the box.

“It’s been that way pretty much (all season) — at least half a guy,” Gundy said, “so it looks like that’s the leading candidate for other teams’ ways to defend us.”

Gundy said that Tulsa continued to stubbornly load the box even after Bowman torched them down the field. It’ll be fascinating to see how defensive mastermind Kyle Whittingham defends the Cowboys on Saturday. 

Piling on Sheduer Sanders 

Colorado is an easy target for criticism from all corners of the college football world and beyond. In many cases, the Buffaloes do it to themselves. 

But people are taking it a step too far after the Buffs rolled Colorado State 28-9 in Fort Collins. 

This video of a fiery Sheduer Sanders chirping at CSU quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi after the game had the typical CU haters getting their takes off and slamming Sanders' attitude. 

It’s unwarranted and unfair because most aren’t telling the whole story. 

Fowler-Nicolosi had that kind of interaction coming to him after saying this leading up to the in-state showdown. 

“I think it goes to show the hype, the media train, it only gets so far. At the end of the day, you have to line up 11 guys against our 11 guys, and we’ll find out who wants it more. We’ll see how far Instagram followers get them.”

There are plenty of things that Coach Prime and his team do that are more than worthy of criticism, but when you go overboard on the things that actually aren’t, the justified critiques lose credibility. 

I’ll put it this way: if the roles were reversed and Fowler-Nicolosi refused to shake Sanders’ hand after Sander made similar comments about the Rams, would you react the same way?

The Ugly

Neal Brown’s Job Security

A word of advice to West Virginia fans: don’t look at ESPN’s win probability graph from Saturday’s loss at Pitt. 

With less than five minutes to go, the Mountaineers had a 97% chance of winning. It’s the fourth time under head coach Neal Brown that WVU has lost a game in which they had a 90% or higher win probability at one point. 

That won’t cut it – especially when you do it against Pitt. 

The Penn State debacle was in some ways excusable because of the level of competition, but Pitt is a different story. West Virginia should be better than their middling ACC rival. 

Brown has a steep hill to climb to regain his fan base's trust. It’s the same fan base that went to bat for him over and over this offseason when opposing fans called the 2023 Mountaineers merely a product of their schedule. 

It’s also the same fan base that backed him when he called out ESPN for not including Garrett Greene or Wyatt Milum on its list of the top 100 college football players. 

The fans faithfully defended his honor at every turn and showed up in full force to start the season by creating a world-class atmosphere for the Penn State game. 

He’s repaid them by getting clocked by the Nittany Lions and coughing up a game against their most detested rival that was in the bag. 

A Big 12 championship game and College Football Playoff appearance are technically still within reach for West Virginia, but it might take one or both to fully earn back the fan’s trust. 

Jalon Daniels Turnovers

What on earth happened to Jalon Daniels?

That’s the question on every Kansas fan’s mind after the Jayhawks fell to 1-2 with a 23-20 loss to UNLV at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City. 

Once the Big 12 Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, Daniels looks like a shell of himself with six interceptions through three games. 

Daniels lit up the Rebels in the first half with his arms and legs and helped Kansas build a 14-3 lead. But a brutal interception right before halftime set UNLV up to capitalize on a KU coverage bust to pull within four at the half, and the Jayhawks could never pull away after that. 

Yes, there are plenty of places to throw blame around if you’re a Kansas fan. For instance, this happened on Friday. 

But the truth is Kansas isn’t going anywhere this year with Daniels playing like this. That’s why the popular fan rallying cry of “bench Jalon Daniels” is such a horrible take. 

Daniels is the only quarterback on the roster with upside worthy of a Big 12 title game at this stage of his career, so if you bench him, you’re waving the white flag on your season’s goals. 

Yes, Cole Ballard looked solid against K-State last year – with former offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki around to put together an outstanding scheme for Ballard to execute. 

It’s clear that Kotelnicki’s abilities elevated Daniels and Ballard, but Ballard doesn’t have near the talent that Daniels does. 

Do Kansas fans really want to see what a Jeff Grimes-fueled Cole Ballard looks like in Big 12 play?

Part of the issue here is that Kansas fans are used to winning without fail in basketball. That’s made them less patient with Lance Leipold’s football program once he pulled them out of the gutter. 

Booing Jalon Daniels in week three is a little over-the-top, but when you create unrealistic expectations as a fan base, that’s the result. 

Saturday’s game at West Virginia will be truly fascinating. Both teams are desperate to save their seasons, and the loser may see it all come crashing down in a hurry.

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Big 12 Power Rankings

Here are my week three Big 12 power rankings. Keep in mind that these are rankings, not power ratings. That means this is based on merit. What have you accomplished this season?

1. Utah
2. Oklahoma State
3. K-State
4. Iowa State
5. UCF
6. BYU
7. Arizona State
8. TCU
9. Colorado
10. Houston
11. Baylor
12. Texas Tech
13. Cincinnati 
14. Arizona
15. Kansas
16. West Virginia

My top three remain unchanged from the preseason. You can certainly argue that Utah’s win over Baylor doesn’t match Oklahoma State beating Arkansas or K-State drubbing Arizona, but it’s close enough for me to keep them in the top spot. 

Iowa State’s win at Iowa is the best individual win the league has in non-conference play, putting the Cyclones into the top four, but UCF isn’t far behind after their heroics in Ft. Worth. 

BYU and Arizona State round out the unbeatens, and I give the Cougars a slight edge here on the strength of a road win at SMU. 

The bottom of the league gets tough to sort through, and if these were power ratings instead of rankings, I would have Arizona, Kansas, and West Virginia higher. But the best win out of that bunch so far is…New Mexico? For now, they have to stay in the basement. 

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