The Big 12 Feels Wide Open

Things feel wide open in the Big 12 after a wild week. 

Iowa State firmly planted itself into the Big 12 contender discussion with one of the grittiest wins you’ll ever see in Iowa City, and they did it on a day when some of the contenders looked shaky. 

Oklahoma State somehow managed to pull one out of the fire at home against Arkansas, but the Pokes were out-gained 648-385 and lost one of their best players to a long-term injury. 

K-State had to hang on for dear life to survive at Tulane largely because the Green Wave abused the team's biggest strength (the defense) for much of the afternoon. 

And Utah was dominant at Baylor with star quarterback Cam Rising but went into a shell after losing him to injury. It looks like Rising won’t miss much time, but the Utes offense didn’t score without him, so he needs to stay healthy. 

Iowa State isn’t the only team thinking, “Why not us?” right now. 

What about UCF and TCU?

The Knights absolutely dominated New Hampshire and Sam Houston behind the best rushing attack in the country, and the Horned Frogs already have a Power Four road win under their belt. 

What about BYU?

The Cougars still need to get more from Jake Retzlaff at quarterback, but their defense completely stifled a typically high-powered SMU offense on Friday night to spring the upset and get to 2-0. 

What about Arizona State?

I hope you’re paying attention to the Sun Devils. After winning just three games last year, ASU pasted Wyoming last week and took care of Mississippi State on Saturday after building a 30-3 lead at one point. 

Get your popcorn ready because conference play is going to be a blast. 

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

The Good

Iowa State’s toughness 

The Cy-Hawk game delivered everything you could ask for from a Cy-Hawk game and more. 

• It was an absolute rock fight where the over didn’t hit until the final seconds.

• It featured a massive comeback – 13 points in a Cy-Hawk game are worth about 26 points in a regular football game.

• Iowa predictably built a lead and then parked the bus.

• We got to laugh at Cade McNamara trying to be Patrick Mahomes while throwing a game-changing interception. 

• Iowa State put together a thrilling final drive that started at its own 22 with 34 seconds to go. 

• It ended with a heroic 54-yard game-winning field goal in the final seconds.

Nobody in Ames is going to write home about the first half. ISU generally looked outclassed – but they were scrappy enough to stay within striking distance. 

Even when Iowa was controlling the game early, the Cyclones' defense forced field goals after the Hawkeyes had 1st and goal at the one and first and goal at the three. They also stood their ground on a two-point conversion attempt when Iowa tried to add to a 19-7 lead. Don’t chase the points, Kirk!

Iowa State is everything you’d expect from a Matt Campbell Iowa State team: tough, gritty, well-coached, and not loaded with flashy talent. With how wide-open the league looks right now, that could be enough to win it. 

The Cyclones have Arkansas State, Houston, and Baylor coming up next, so the momentum may really start to build before they hit the latter half of a back-loaded conference schedule. 

Cam Skattebo

Is Kenny Dillingham near the top of the way-too-early Big 12 Coach of the Year list? 

For a second straight week, Arizona State pounded an opponent that figured to give them a real challenge. Yes, the Sun Devils gave up 20 straight after building a 30-3 lead against Mississippi State, but it was still a wildly impressive performance for a team that won three games last year. 

ASU’s resurgence has been powered by a suffocating defense and a dynamic running game led by wildly entertaining running back Cam Skattebo. 

Skattebo’s 262 yards were the second-most in Arizona State school history. He spent most of the night running over SEC defenders to give the Sun Devils their first-ever win over an SEC opponent. 

Skattebo was the closer on Arizona State’s final drive, which took the last 5:27 off of the clock in a one-score game. He bulldozed his way to 69 yards rushing on the final drive when everybody in the stadium knew what was coming. 

Skattebo is a Big 12 player flying under the radar that is must-watch TV right now, and a bowl game is within reach if the Sun Devils keep this up.

UCF’s backfield

We haven’t seen UCF tested yet by anybody with a pulse, but the Knights’ backfield has been as advertised in easy wins over New Hampshire and Sam Houston.

UCF’s 419 yards per game on the ground leads the nation by nearly 30 yards, and they already have more 300+ yard rushing games than they did all of last season. 

RJ Harvey is the headliner, but Peny Boone and Myles Montgomery give the Knights a wildly talented three-headed monster. 

“Those running backs are different," Sam Houston coach K.C. Keeler said.

Arkansas transfer quarterback KJ Jefferson also contributed 50 rushing yards to the cause on Saturday in a bounce-back game where he looked much more comfortable than in week one.

We’ll learn a lot more about Gus Malzahn’s squad over the next three weeks when they play TCU, Colorado, and Florida. 

BYU’s defensive improvement

BYU’s 18-15 win at SMU on Friday night was anything but a beauty aesthetically, but the defensive performance had to look like the Mona Lisa to BYU head coach Kalani Sitake. 

SMU came into the game averaging 53 points per game during a nine-game home winning streak. They left the game with no touchdowns and no more streak. It was the first time they were held without a touchdown in eight years. 

The Cougars' defense did all of it while watching the BYU offense turn it over three times, including one that set up the Mustangs inside the Cougars’ five yard line. It’s not easy to keep the intensity up when you aren’t getting much help. 

Give a ton of credit to BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill, who called the defensive plays from the press box just eight days after suffering a heart attack. 

His unit looks plenty good enough to buy some time for Sitake and company to figure out the offense. 

The Cougars should be 3-0 going into a home showdown with K-State next week. 

Willie freaking Fritz

It honestly should surprise no one that Houston looked much tougher in week two at Oklahoma than they did in a season-opening 27-7 loss to UNLV. 

Head coach Willie Fritz is a grizzled veteran who has won at virtually every single level of football, and he had his squad ready to go in Norman. 

The Houston defense suffocated the Sooners, holding them to 249 yards of offense and zero second-half points. Quarterback Donovan Smith also outdueled much-hyped Oklahoma signal-caller Jackson Arnold, providing some optimism for the offense. 

And in the end, a bad break on a muffed punt was likely the difference in the game. Wide receiver Mekhi Mews and Willie Fritz believed Mews didn’t actually touch the ball, but replay disagreed and set the Sooners up for their first touchdown. 

Houston needs to back up this performance with a win over Rice next week, but it certainly appears that Fritz isn’t as far away in year one as it appeared after the loss to UNLV.

The Bad

Colorado’s program building

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m not a Coach Prime hater. He’s good for the Big 12 because he brings eyeballs to the Big 12. 

But the issues the Buffaloes continued to have while getting pushed around by Nebraska were entirely foreseeable. 

Colorado simply isn’t good enough in the trenches. 

Quarterback Shedeur Sanders was running for his life all night and was sacked five times. After averaging less than 70 yards rushing per game last year, Colorado managed a paltry 22 yards on 18 carries in Lincoln. 

And Shedeur wasn’t shy to single out his offensive line after the game. 

Building quality depth on the offensive and defensive lines takes more than plugging in a handful of transfers, Louis or not. Continuity up front is a massive advantage, and it’s impossible to build it while shuffling players and coaches in and out of Boulder the way Coach Prime has.

Colorado defensive players pointed to the unit's second-half shutout as a sign that they’re turning a corner early in the season. We’ll see. 

Right now, I’m not seeing much that moves me beyond thinking this is close to a carbon copy of last year’s Buffaloes. 

The Oklahoma State defense

Let’s get this out of the way first – that was a heck of a comeback by Oklahoma State. 

Arkansas completely controlled the first half, but the Cowboys did precisely what you’d expect from a program with the longevity and consistency of Oklahoma State. 

But there are plenty of reasons for concern with the defense…starting with the fact that they gave up 648 yards of offense to the Razorbacks. 

The Cowboys are supposed to be the team with the dynamic ground game, but the Hogs out-rushed Ollie Gordon II and company 232-59. 

Things got worse after the game when head coach Mike Gundy revealed that star pass rusher Collin Oliver, who was on track to leave Stillwater as the all-time leading sacker in Cowboys history, is out for at least a month. 

OSU should handle Tulsa this week, but a showdown with Utah looms. The Utes have their own injury concerns with quarterback Cam Rising, but if he plays, the Cowboys will have to be much, much better to stake their claim as the Big 12 favorite. 

The K-State defense

K-State escaped New Orleans with a 34-27 win over Tulane, but it didn’t feel comfortable for the Wildcats until the final snap. 

Credit the K-State defense for creating the biggest play of the game, a scoop-and-score from safety Jack Fabris, but for three of four quarters, the Wildcats were gashed by a redshirt freshman quarterback. 

Darian Mensah threw for 342 yards and two touchdowns. He consistently found receivers who were high school wide-open as the K-State secondary endured coverage bust after coverage bust. 

K-State’s offense is still finding its rhythm early in the season with a new starting quarterback, offensive coordinator, and offensive line, but that was to be expected. 

The plan was to lean on the defense while the offense figured it out. Was it just a blip on the radar screen after a dominant week one performance against UT-Martin?

We’ll learn much more this Friday when Tetairoa McMillan and Arizona come to town. 

Kansas without Andy Kotelnicki and Jason Bean

Kansas fans spent the better part of the last two years pining for the return of September 2022 Jalon Daniels, who shot up Heisman watch lists after a dazzling start to the season. 

Health has been the obvious issue, and the assumption was that Daniels would return to form with a clean bill of health. 

In the words of Lee Corso: “Not so fast, my friend.”

Daniels struggled mightily in a shocking (to me, at least) loss at Illinois on Saturday. After tossing three interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, he now has the worst QBR in the entire conference through two games. 

There is a potential easy fix here. If offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes simply feeds superstar running back Devin Neal the ball more on a night when he was averaging a whopping 7.2 yards per carry, the Jayhawks likely win, and we aren’t having this conversation. 

But I can’t help but wonder how much of Daniels and the offense’s struggles are due to the Jayhawks missing former offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, who left for Penn State during the offseason. 

Not only was Kotelnicki good enough to put together an elite offense with both Jalon Daniels and Jason Bean, but he had K-State dead to rights last year in Lawrence with third-string walk-on Cole Ballard under center.

There’s far too much talent on this offense to bail after one September loss. A Big 12 title and College Football Playoff berth are still within reach for the Jayhawks if they can turn the corner.

But they need to be better right away this Saturday to beat a surging UNLV program that drilled Houston 27-7 on the road in week one. 

The Ugly

Injuries piling up in general

There’s a laundry list of injured Big 12 stars through the first two weeks of the season. 

Utah quarterback Cam Rising is the headliner this week. He left the Utes’ 23-12 win over Baylor on Saturday in the second quarter with a hand injury, and the offense didn’t score a single point without him. 

Luckily, head coach Kyle Whittingham says the injury is “not real serious,” but Rising’s status for Saturday’s game at Utah State is unknown. 

The news isn’t so good for Oklahoma State pass rush extraordinaire Collin Oliver. He’ll be out a least a month, but likely longer, according to head coach Mike Gundy. Gundy initially said he thought Oliver could miss the rest of the season. 

Texas Tech running back Tahj Brooks wasn’t able to play in the Red Radiers’ disappointing loss at Washington State, and he continues to be listed as questionable by Joey McGuire. Unfortunately for Tech fans, that’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding their injury report.

Colorado had plenty of problems in Lincoln on Saturday, but it didn’t help that they lost safety Shiloh Sanders to an arm injury early in the game. 

That’s a lot of star power. Here’s to hoping everybody makes it back sooner rather than later. 

Cincinnati’s ability to close

This one killed me. 

Cincinnati had a 21-point lead into the final minute of the third quarter but allowed three straight touchdown drives and a game-winning field goal to give Pitt its biggest comeback win since 1971. 

Just when I was beginning to rethink my position on Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield, he pulled an anti-Lloyd Christmas move and totally un-redeemed himself.  

A crucial delay of game penalty on the Cincy defense during Pitt’s game-winning drive added insult to injury for the Bearcats. 

I still think there’s more reason for optimism than with last year’s Bearcat squad, mainly because of a manageable schedule and better quarterback play from Brendan Sorsby, but this is the kind of loss that will leave a mark. 

How his team responds this week at Miami (OH) will reveal a lot about Satterfield. 

Texas Tech’s…everything

I’m not sure you could have dreamed up a worse start for the Red Raiders. 

Sure, they survived with a win over Abilene Christian in week one, but that’s a win that nobody was happy with. Pair it with a three-touchdown loss to a team from a two-school conference and a laundry list of key injuries, and it feels like a season on the brink already. 

All you need to know about the Red Raiders’ trip to Washington State is that Tech had four traditional turnovers, turned it over on downs four times, and allowed Wazzu quarterback John Mateer to run for 197 yards. 

Plenty of winnable games are left on the schedule, but Joey McGuire’s crew needs to get its act together before they can start thinking about winning conference games.

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