The Big 12 title race took an unexpected turn on Saturday. Arizona State handed unbeaten Texas Tech its first loss, sending the Red Raiders tumbling to No. 14 in the AP poll.

BYU also won the Holy War, leaving the Cougars and Cincinnati as the league’s only undefeated teams in conference play.

Here are my five biggest takeaways from the weekend:

Texas Tech is Mortal and Arizona State is Back

So much for all of that talk about Texas Tech winning a national title and backup QB Will Hammond leading the Red Raiders to the promised land. Who could’ve possibly told you that?

Sorry, guys. My bad. 

Texas Tech can still win playoff games. Don’t sell all of your Tech stock just because of a four-point road loss to the defending conference champs with a backup quarterback. They’re still the mathematical favorite to win the Big 12 and three of the Red Raiders’ final five games are against the bottom three teams in the league.

But Arizona State’s 26-22 win over Texas Tech was eye-opening. 

Just like the Kansas game, Hammond again struggled to get going. Tech punted or turned it over on nine of its first ten drives and needed two big special-teams returns to finally wake up in the fourth quarter.

And it was still almost enough. If not for a head-scratching 4th and 6 short side option call, Tech probably steals this game. 

The unfortunate reality for Texas Tech is that while the roster is loaded with talent, injuries are taking a toll. All-American candidate DT Skyler Gill-Howard is out for the rest of the regular season, receiving touchdowns leader Terrance Carter Jr. left the stadium on crutches, and starting QB Behren Morton is still listed as day-to-day. 

Offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich needs to figure out a way to help Hammond get some lay-ups early in games. Scheme receivers open on short routes. Do a better job establishing the running game (Tech running backs only had 12 carries a week after they had 30 against Kansas.) Something. 

Morton’s durability is still a concern. He’s been hurt three times this year, and it’s safe to assume we’ll see Hammond again at some point.

On the flip side, give Arizona State’s defense credit for completely shutting down the Texas Tech quarterback run game. 

Just a week after the Sun Devils were gashed for 120 yards and three rushing touchdowns by Utah quarterback Devon Dampier, they held Hammond to a mere 47 yards on 15 carries. 

Head coach Kenny Dillingham upped the physicality level in practice, and it worked like a charm. 

It’s perfectly reasonable to give the Sun Devils’ offense a mulligan for the Utah game because they didn’t have QB Sam Leavitt. 

Nobody plays harder that him. He took monster hits while delivering huge throws down the field time and again against Tech. The offense wasn’t always pretty, but it was enough against the league’s most-talented defense. 

WR Jordyn Tyson also deserves a shoutout for being a total warrior. He was clearly hampered by what appeared to be a hamstring injury, but still recovered a crucial fumble and made the biggest play of the game–a 33-yard reception on 4th and 2 to set up the game-winning score. 

Arizona State has won 11 straight Big 12 games that Leavitt starts. Somebody will have to come pry the Big 12 championship trophy out of his hands. It won’t be handed over. 

Stop Doubting BYU

For the first time in program history, BYU is 7-0 for a second straight season. The Cougars are legit. 

Saturday’s 24-21 win over rival Utah was a statement. Plenty (myself included) had reservations about the level of competition in BYU’s 6-0 start, but there’s now no doubt that they belong in the conversation for the Big 12’s best. 

True freshman QB Bear Bachmeier grossly out-shined Utah QB Devon Dampier. Bachmeier’s performance was about so much more than a fairly modest line in the box score. 

He showed poise beyond his years and delivered two legendary highlights that you’ll see on the Lavell Edwards Stadium jumbotrons for decades. 

It’s clear that Bachmeier is a special talent. His best days are in front of him and what we’re seeing right now is already very good. 

If teams take on the personality of their coach and quarterback, Bachmeier is a perfect fit for Kalani Sitake. He’s steady, humble, tough, and physical. The perfect engine to make the most reliable team in the Big 12 go. 

It was the Utes who committed the key turnovers in the game, while the Cougars, with a true freshman under center, didn’t cough it up once.

I’m not entirely sure where Utah goes from here. The Utes are still alive for the conference championship game, but it seems clear this program isn’t at the same level that it was in the final Pac-12 years. They’re 4-9 in Big 12 games since joining the league. 

Back-to-back Rose Bowls are getting further and further in the rearview mirror, and questions about Kyle Whittingham’s timeline aren’t going away.

Meanwhile, BYU is now the sexier brand with resources to thrive in the revenue-sharing era. 

To quote my guy Ron Weaver, the tide has turned. 

Two Big 12 Playoff Teams is Becoming Highly Unlikely

This college football season has been chaotic. We had four top-10 losses this week alone, and somehow Vandy, Georgia Tech, and Indiana are all ranked in the top 10.

What’s ironic is that the entire college football landscape looks a lot like what the Big 12 was derisvely labeled as a couple of years ago. There’s a ton of parity, lots of good teams, but no truly great, dominant teams. That creates a wild, unpredictable season. 

I do think that’s generally a good thing for the Big 12. Competing with Vandy, Georgia Tech, and Indiana in the playoff sounds a lot better than a quintessential Nick Saban Alabama or Kirby Smart Georgia team from the late 2010s. 

But this week’s AP poll does give us a dose of reality about the road ahead to get multiple Big 12 teams into the playoff. 

Texas Tech dropped seven spots after a four-point loss with a backup quarterback on the road to a team who is now ranked. That’s harsh. 

If Tech continues to win, they’ll be back in the top ten, but for the Red Raiders to be an at-large team and a second Big 12 team in the field, they would have to lose again. If the playoff committee is anything like the AP voters, it seems like a long shot that Texas Tech would stay in the top 12 if that happens. 

Look at BYU right now. The Cougars are up to #11, but they’re only one spot in front of two-loss Notre Dame. You and I both know the Cougs will drop like a rock if they lose. We saw how they were treated last year. 

We can always hope the committee will have more respect for the league than the AP voters, but I’m not counting on it. Especially after all of the extra pressure SEC commissioner Greg Sankey applied on the committee this offseason.

Nine-Win Houston?

It’s time we had a serious conversation. You need to warn your children about the threat of a nine-win Houston Cougars team immediately. 

Houston outlasted Arizona 31-28 on a 41-yard Ethan Sanchez field goal as time expired to get to 6-1. 

Quarterback Conner Weigman continues to be a difference-maker. He had four total touchdowns and rushed for 98 yards. The Cougars racked up 232 yards on the ground as a team against one of the league’s best run defenses. 

The Cougars will be heavy favorites against West Virginia and UCF in November. If they take care of business there it only takes one against Arizona State, Baylor, and TCU to get to nine. 

I still think it’s a longshot for Houston to play in the Big 12 championship game, but a nine-win season is very much in play and would represent an incredible step forward in year two of the Willie Fritz era. 

The flip side is another absolutely heart-breaking loss for Arizona. The Wildcats are that close to a 6-1 start themselves, but they dug too big of a hole in the middle of Saturday’s game and choked away the BYU game in double overtime. 

Fan frustration with head coach Brent Brennan is building once again after a brief respite during a promising 4-1 start. 

TCU Found a Running Game

TCU and Baylor have played some wild games over the years, and this one wasn’t any different. 

The Frogs led 42-21 and had the ball with under four minutes left—and Baylor somehow got the ball back with a chance to win in the final 30 seconds after a defensive touchdown, a 79-second scoring drive, and an onside kick. All of this happened in a fourth quarter that was delayed over two hours by lightning. 

That kind of chaos, combined with earlier collapses against K-State and Arizona State, makes it hard to fully trust TCU. But they’re still alive in the title hunt. 

And as head coach Sonny Dykes pointed out in the post game press conference, they are the winningest program in the Big 12 over the last four seasons. TCU has also won 11 of its last 14 games.

They’ll win plenty more if they can run the ball like they did against Baylor. The Frogs racked up 197 yards on the ground, led by 106 yards from RB Kevorian Barnes. Barnes got 25 carries, a sign that Dykes learned from the mistake of not feeding Barnes enough in the loss at K-State. 

We all know what TCU QB Josh Hoover can do. If he gets a steady running game behind him, the Horned Frogs can become a more consistent team than they currently are. 

What You Need to Know

• Is Texas Tech still the best team in the Big 12? Or have BYU and Cincinnati surpassed them? Check out my latest Big 12 power rankings. 

• Texas Tech’s tradition of throwing tortillas is officially dead. AD Kirby Hocutt delivered the news right before head coach Joey McGuire’s Monday press conference. 

• Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark was asked if he thinks its disrespectful that BYU isn’t considered a top ten team right now. Here was his response. 

• Utah may be without starting quarterback Devon Dampier this week against Arizona State. That would mean true freshman Byrd Ficklin would get the start. Here’s the latest. 

• Will K-State get star running back Dylan Edwards back this week against Kansas? Here’s the latest.

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