Quality Over Quantity

What a week we have on tap in the Big 12. It may be lacking in quantity, but not quality. 

60% of this week’s conference games get a rating of four-Yormarks or higher, an early Open For Business record for those of you keeping track at home. 

Let’s start with some headlines before the week seven viewer’s guide!

Headlines

• SEC and Big Ten commissioners and athletic directors are meeting this week in Nashville to discuss automatic playoff bids and a non-conference scheduling agreement, but Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark tells Front Office Sports he’s not bothered at all. 

• Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reports that Utah quarterback Cam Rising will start on Friday against Arizona State. Head coach Kyle Whittingham sent more mixed messages about his status throughout the week (more on that below).  Rising hasn’t played since early in the Baylor game in week two.

• According to Wildcat Authority's Jason Scheer, Arizona’s defense is dealing with some significant injury issues. That’s bad news heading into a stretch of playing BYU, Colorado, and West Virginia. 

• Coach Prime had plenty of praise for K-State running back Dylan Ewards, who transferred to Manhattan from Colorado this spring. Edwards returns to Boulder on Saturday night. 

• Kansas AD Travis Goff cleared the air on some offseason coaching staff departures for KU football, including offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. Goff says the Jayhawks did everything they could to keep him around.

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Week Seven Primer

I’ll be previewing games every week based on a scale of one to five Yormarks. Five Yormarks is the most entertaining and enticing game possible, while one Yormark is a snooze-fest. 

Here’s your week seven primer!

Five Yormarks

#18 K-State (-4.5) at Colorado – 9:15 ESPN

What a perfect way to end this season's most anticipated day of college football. After fans across the country finish a night-window doubleheader of Oregon-Ohio State and LSU-Ole Miss, a game like this is the perfect way to keep the buzz going long into the night.

The Buffs are on a roll, winning three straight games since their lone loss at Nebraska. Their last game at UCF was the most complete performance of the Coach Prime era. The win over the Knights showcased how much Colorado has improved in its two main areas of weakness: the offensive line and the defense. 

In fairness, the defense has been much improved for weeks now, but they were at their best in Orlando, forcing four turnovers and holding UCF 200 yards below their season rushing average. 

We all know about the explosive offense with playmakers everywhere. K-State’s secondary has been a weakness this year, and while they have seen an elite receiver in Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan, they haven’t seen a complete receiving corps as talented as what Colorado brings to the table. That could spell big trouble if K-State’s defensive line can’t generate consistent pressure on quarterback Shedeur Sanders. 

K-State should be able to run the ball on Colorado, improved defense or not. The Wildcats lead the league with a 6.9 yards per carry average on the season, over a full yard better than anybody else. But to fully utilize its best weapon, K-State can’t fall into a hole. 

The Wildcats ran the ball well at BYU, but their ground game was shelved when they fell behind after a couple of turnovers. 

That sets up the biggest question about K-State in this game: Are they ready to handle a rowdy road environment?

The Wildcats have been an entirely different team at home than on the road this year. In addition to the shellacking in Provo, you could argue they should have lost at Tulane. 

Now you’re playing at night in front of a raucous Colorado crowd. Will one mistake turn into four or five mistakes, like what happened at BYU? Or is a young K-State team ready to turn the corner and grow up on the road?

4 Yormarks

#11 Iowa State (-3) at West Virginia – 7:00 Fox 

Don’t look now, but here come the Mountaineers. 

It was easy to write Neal Brown off after the late fourth-quarter collapse at Pitt, but he has West Virginia playing its best football of the season heading into a showdown with unbeaten Iowa State. 

WVU absolutely destroyed Oklahoma State in Stillwater last week. They rolled up over 500 yards of offense and had a 24-point lead by halftime. Say what you will about what the Cowboys are right now, but that’s a far cry from the stagnant, sloppy West Virginia offense we saw in early September against Penn State. 

Frankly, we should expect this by now from Brown. Whenever you count him out, he finds a way to surprise you. Just ask everybody who picked his 2023 Mountaineers last in the Big 12.

However, the upcoming schedule is still pretty daunting, so WVU must take advantage of a statement-making opportunity like this at home.

It certainly won’t be easy against Iowa State, who is on a roll right now. 

Arguably the Big 12’s most consistent team this year, the Cyclones are in uncharted territory. They’re 5-0 for the first time since 1980. If you can believe this, a win on Saturday would give them their first 6-0 start since 1938. 

"There's been 133 football seasons here at Iowa State, and I think the message is nobody's done it here and nobody's ever been able to sustain it over the course of an entire season," head coach Matt Campbell said. "We still haven't won at least a major conference championship, outright, and the reality of it is those things are really hard to do, and they've certainly been hard to do here — it's never happened.”

The Cyclones moved the ball at will against Baylor last week, and their passing game should have plenty of opportunity against a West Virginia defense that is 109th in the country in success rate on dropbacks. 

If the Mountaineers stand tall defensively, they can grab a statement win that firmly plants them in the thick of the Big 12 title race. 

If not, the Clones will be on to a very manageable part of their schedule at 6-0, dreaming of a 10-0 start. 

Look for the Mountaineers’ awesome alternate uniforms for the first-ever “Coal Rush” game, which will pay homage to coal mining in the state. 

#16 Utah (-4.5) at Arizona State – 9:30 ESPN (Friday)

I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is that we’re playing the “will he or won’t he” game with Utah quarterback Cam Rising again. The good news is this game is on Friday, so we’ll have to wait one less day to find out if he’s actually playing. 

Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reports Rising will start, but we got mixed messages all week from Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham.

That sounds somewhat promising, but we’ve heard that refrain many times about Rising over the last two years. 

Whittingham also admitted this week that the time may come this season when they have to just move on to fully invest in the Issac Wilson era. 

"There is a point," Whittingham said. "I'm not going to pin ourselves down to an exact, specific time, but as things progress, and then also the conference race — where are you in the conference race? — there's some things that enter into it. But it certainly could come to that point, but we're not there yet."

No matter who is under center, this is a game the Utes need badly. 

Coming off of a bye week and a somewhat shocking home loss to Arizona, Whittingham should have his team’s attention. He better if they want to stay in the Big 12 title race. 

The Sun Devils are perfectly capable of getting the job done if Utah isn’t at its best. In other words, it’s not the same ASU team that got boatraced 55-3 by the Utes a season ago.

One of the biggest differences from that team is the run defense. The Sun Devils gave up a staggering 352 yards on the ground in last year’s game but are allowing just 3.8 yards per carry this year, down from 5.1 in 2023. 

Meanwhile, ASU’s offense features a much-improved version of running back Cam Skattebo, who is now one of the best in the Big 12. He’s already flirting with his rushing total from the entire 2023 season midway through 2024. 

The battle in the trenches should decide this game, especially if Rising can’t go for the Utes.

Arizona at #14 BYU (-4) – 3:00 Fox

In an era of college football where rivalries are being lost left and right due to conference realignment, the Big 12 helped us regain an old WAC rivalry between Arizona and BYU.

Legendary BYU head coach LaVell Edwards had fierce battles with the Wildcats in the 60s and 70s while building the Cougars into a power. The all-time series is currently tied at 12-12-1. 

It was the Wildcats who most expected to be competing for a Big 12 title this year after returning most of the stars of last year’s ten-win team, but BYU is the team in the driver’s seat to make it to Arlington after a 5-0 start.

Saturday could be a showcase game for BYU with Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff pregame show in town. Fox is even sending its “A” crew of Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt to broadcast the game.

The Cougars have gone from the hunters to the hunted, but they handled that role just fine at Baylor two weeks ago. 

Arizona is a tough team to figure out. They have one of the most impressive wins of the Big 12 season at Utah but have accomplished very little outside of that. 

The Wildcats did show plenty of fight in the fourth quarter against Texas Tech last week and may have beaten the Red Raiders if Tetairoa McMillan had not fumbled late in the game. 

Still, it’s hard to trust head coach Brent Brennan’s squad because of the inconsistency all season long.

3 Yormarks

Cincinnati at UCF (-3) – 2:30 ESPN 2

UCF’s season has gone from College Football Playoff aspirations to damage control in a hurry. 

The Knights weren’t even close in two high-profile games against Colorado and Florida, and five players decided to redshirt and sit out the rest of the season to transfer. 

Mathematically, they’re still very much alive in the Big 12 championship race, but head coach Gus Malzahn might need to think about bowl eligibility instead of Arlington for now. 

The Bearcats are two eyelashes away from being unbeaten. You can largely credit transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby for that. He’s been a significant upgrade at the position, ranking in the top ten in the country in yards per game. 

Cincinnati’s run defense could be a major problem, though. While disappointing the last two weeks, the Knights sport a high-powered ground game that seems tailor-made to take advantage of a rush defense that is 111th in the country in success rate. 

I’m expecting a lot of points in this matchup of former AAC rivals.

2 Yormarks

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1 Yormark

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