Big 12 Double Standard

What a weekend it was in America’s most exciting yet flawed conference. 

One of the preseason favorites to win the league struggled mightily with a team picked near the bottom. Another preseason favorite is off to a 1-2 start in the conference. The team picked last in the league won another huge game. 

Basically, you have a jumbled mess of average to good teams who can all beat each other on any given Saturday, and it’s fair to question if there is anybody who will dominate at the top. 

Of course, I’m describing last Saturday in the SEC. 

Outside of relatively untested Texas, the SEC has played out almost the exact same way that the Big 12 has so far this year. But Zack hit the nail on the head in that tweet. The two leagues are treated wildly differently.

While the SEC will be credited with being a deep league when Vandy, Kentucky, and South Carolina rise up to beat Bama and Ole Miss, the Big 12’s perception suffers when Arizona State knocks off Utah or BYU takes down K-State.

Tennessee is still ranked 11th after averaging a paltry 18 points per game the last two weeks against Arkansas (who lost in Stillwater) and Florida. LSU is in the top ten with a loss to 3-3 USC. 7th ranked Alabama should have just dropped its second straight game to a team picked to finish in the bottom quarter of the league. 

It is what it is. 

Here’s the good news, though. The SEC’s vulnerability makes college football look wide open this year, and that continues to bode well for a Big 12 team to make noise in the playoff. 

It’s clear the NIL and the portal are increasing parity in the sport for now. It’s more challenging for the big boys to stockpile rosters when a player can easily transfer for a nice payday if they’re not getting playing time. 

With teams like Army, Navy, Pitt, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa State all having historic seasons, it feels a lot like 2007. That was the craziest year of college football in recent memory when Rutgers, Boston College, South Florida, and Kansas all found their way into the top ten. 

The crazier, the better for our beloved conference. It’s time for the Big 12 to strike while the iron is hot and take advantage.

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

The Good

The Big 12 Coach of the Year Race

Who would you give the midseason Big 12 Coach of the Year Award to after watching this weekend’s games?

It’s an almost impossible question because there are so many great candidates. I think there are four front runners (in no particular order): 

Kalani Sitake – BYU was picked 13th in the Big 12 preseason poll after a 5-7 Big 12 debut campaign, and they’re now 6-0 with blowout wins over two of the teams picked in the top five of the preseason poll. 

The Cougars’ defense did it again on Saturday, forcing four Arizona turnovers that turned into 24 points to break a close game wide open. Sitake’s hire of Jay Hill as defensive coordinator before last season is paying off big time, and Sitake has also found a way to turn quarterback Jake Retzlaf into a top-25 quarterback nationally in passing touchdowns and yards per completion. 

The bottom line is that Sitake has built a team that is much greater than the sum of its parts, which is a true testament to his coaching. 

Kenny Dillingham – Speaking of defying the preseason projections, Arizona State was picked dead last in the Big 12. That means the media thought 15 Big 12 teams would be better than the Sun Devils this year. All Dillingham has done is rip off a 5-1 start with (much like Sitake) wins over two of the top five teams in the Big 12 preseason poll, punctuated by an upset of Utah that led to this incredible postgame interview. 

Dillingham inherited a total mess of a program in 2023. Not only was the football program in disarray thanks to Herm Edwards, but the leadership of the entire athletic department had also been suspect under former AD Ray Tanner. 

It wasn’t easy, but Dillingham stood tall during a 3-9 debut season and continued to pump his infectious energy into the program. He even survived the wild Jaden Rashada situation and built an effective offense around discarded Michigan State quarterback Sam Leavitt and Sacramento State transfer running back Cam Skattebo. His Coach of the Year resume is becoming more impressive by the day. 

Matt Campbell – If we’re giving out the Coach of the Year award to the coach of the best team, I’d have a hard time not giving it to Campbell. That’s no disrespect at all to BYU, but I think the Cyclones have more ways to beat you. 

They can run the ball with three very effective backs and play great defense, as always, with defensive coordinator Jon Heacock running the show, but their passing game is explosive enough to keep them in virtually every game. Just ask Iowa. 

That explosiveness with quarterback Rocco Becht and receivers Jaden Higgins and Jaylin Noel is an element we haven’t always seen from Campbell teams. 

They may not be the fastest starting team in the world, but it doesn’t matter. They’re a complete team that wears you down. That’s what happened to West Virginia in Morgantown on Saturday after a hot start. 

Joey McGuire – Things were looking bleak for the Red Raiders after a blowout loss at Washington State. Injuries were piling up, and Tech was a two-point conversion away from being 0-2. 

McGuire steadied the ship, though. Now his Red Raiders are rolling with four straight wins and a 3-0 start to Big 12 play. They’re the only team to beat Dillingham’s Sun Devils, and outside of a game at Iowa State in early November, they have a schedule conducive to keeping the Ws coming. 

We’ve all been waiting for McGuire to turn glossy recruiting rankings and high-profile transfers into legitimate progress on the field, and it looks like this may be the year it happens. 

Others receiving votes – Coach Prime, Scott Satterfield

K-State is Growing Up

What a game we had in Boulder on Saturday (late) night. 

K-State rode the legs of running back DJ Giddens to a 21-7 lead early midway through the third quarter. Giddens put together a virtuoso performance littered with explosive runs on an improved Colorado run defense. He finished with 182 yards and over seven yards per carry. 

But there was plenty of adversity to come for the young Wildcats, who wilted when they were hit with it in Provo a couple of weeks ago. 

Almost the entire starting secondary dealt with injuries throughout the night. Cornerbacks Jacob Parrish and Justice James left and didn’t return. Safety Marques Sigle left in the third quarter before eventually returning. Cornerback Keenan Garber battled cramps. It made the Wildcats defense particularly vulnerable to an electric Colorado passing attack, even without two-way star Travis Hunter. 

Quarterback Avery Johnson also left the game with a non-contact injury, leading to one of the game's unsung heroes stepping up. Backup quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson kept a touchdown drive going by converting a key third-down pass to receiver Jayce Brown. 

K-State’s turnover problem even reared its ugly head at the worst of times late in the fourth quarter when an Avery Johnson interception was returned 59 yards to set up a go-ahead score for the Buffaloes. 

But none of it phased the Wildcats. They quickly and calmly responded by going 84 yards in three plays to regain the lead. Then, the defense stopped Colorado on four plays to seal the deal. 

It was a huge step in the growth process for a team that had struggled mightily in road games at BYU and Tulane. That’s great news for a team with yet another stiff road test this weekend in Morgantown. 

The Bad

Colorado-K-State Injuries

Injuries are a part of football, but they can be frustrating and disappointing when they pile up like they did in the K-State-Colorado game. 

The headliner is obviously Travis Hunter, who left the game in the first half with what is believed to be a shoulder injury. There’s no denying it made a significant difference in the game – nobody in the country impacts the game quite like he does. 

When K-State quarterback Avery Johnson left the game in the third quarter, ESPN execs had to shake their heads. Both players on the game's promotional graphic, Johnson and Hunter, were now out. Thankfully for the suits, Johnson at least returned later in the drive. 

All Big 12 fans should be pulling for a return sooner rather than later, as Hunter gives the league a legitimate shot at winning a Heisman. Love or hate them (you should at least respect them), Coach Prime and Colorado bring a lot of positive publicity to the league, with Hunter at the forefront of it all. 

The Buffs receiving corps is deep, but Jimmy Horn Jr., Omarion Miller, and Terrell Timmons Jr. also dealt with injuries throughout the night. 

On the other side, K-State lost its top three cornerbacks at different points throughout the game, with number one corner Jacob Parrish leaving for good in the third quarter. Top safety Marques Sigle also missed time. At one point, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders completed a 51-yard pass on 2nd and 28 by picking on true freshman cornerback Zashon Rich, who had only played on special teams before Saturday. 

Coach Prime didn’t have a full update on the injured receivers as of the post-game press conference, but Hunter’s Heisman odds have dropped in the betting markets. 

K-State head coach Chris Klieman thinks everybody injured in Boulder could be available at West Virginia this week. 

Big 12 Disrespect from the AP Poll

I’m sure it shocks exactly nobody to know that the Big 12 isn’t getting the respect it deserves from AP voters. 

Unbeaten BYU checks in at #13 and is behind seven teams with at least one loss. Are you telling me that Notre Dame deserves to be a spot ahead of them after losing to Northern Illinois? What about an LSU team that lost to 3-3 USC? Or Alabama, who followed up a loss at Vandy with a should-have-lost performance at home against South Carolina?

Even Iowa State at #9 has room to complain about Bama and LSU. I’d love to see a neutral site 4/5 seed College Football Playoff game between the Cyclones and Crimson Tide right now. That is if Bama fans didn’t run off head coach Kalen DeBoer before the game would kick off. 

It’s hard to complain too much about K-State at #17 because of the blowout loss in Provo, but Arizona State still can’t crack the top 25 even after beating Utah to get to 5-1. 

Meanwhile, Missouri hangs on at #18 with a humiliating blowout loss at Texas A&M and an overtime win over Vandy as its SEC resume. I guess that win over UMASS on Saturday is really doing it for the voters. 

My general message would be, don’t waste too much time getting fired up about the AP poll. It really doesn’t matter much at all these days. But in the interest of pointing out some absurdity, I decided to indulge in some good old-fashioned complaining today.  

The Ugly

Utah’s Offense Without a Healthy Cam Rising

The Cam Rising era at Utah might be over. 

Rising struggled through an ugly night in Tempe in his return from multiple injuries suffered early in the year. He clearly couldn’t get the same zip on the ball he’s accustomed to and completed less than 50% of his passes while tossing three interceptions. 

To add injury to insult, he took a nasty fall that seemed to limit his mobility even more during the game. 

Now, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham says the Utes have to move on. 

It’s honestly probably for the better. Rising wasn’t very effective before getting even more banged up against the Sun Devils, so it’s hard to imagine his situation would improve much in the immediate future. 

And at some point, Utah just has to move on with its football program. While the offense has still struggled mightily at times with true freshman Issac Wilson under center, there is clearly talent there ready to be developed. 

A Big 12 championship and College Football Playoff berth look out of the question, so the best move is to get Wilson important reps that will help build the Utah program for the future. 

It’s a humbling reality for Utah fans to accept. Many thought they would easily run the league after winning two of the last three Pac-12 titles. Rising’s injury situation has undoubtedly contributed to their struggles over the last two years, but that doesn’t change their current reality. 

Incredibly, Rising technically has an eighth season of eligibility available if he wants it next year, but no decision has been made yet about pursuing that. 

UCF’s Season Trajectory

Things are feeling bleak at the Bounce House. 

Cincinnati held off UCF 19-13 in Orlando to give the Golden Knights a third straight loss and drop them to 1-2 in Big 12 play. 

Give credit to Gus Malzahn for this: he wasn’t afraid to make a change at quarterback. With KJ Jefferson struggling, Jacurri Brown completed 13 of 20 passes for 207 yards and one touchdown, but the offense still couldn’t find much consistency. 

Star running back RJ Harvey was held under 100 yards for a third straight game after going over the 100-yard mark in five straight before that, and two early fumbles killed any chance at a fast start. 

Between missing a chance to deliver on a national stage with Colorado in the house, blowing a shot at an in-state rival, and now struggling while playing two different quarterbacks, it doesn’t feel like there’s much to build on at the moment. 

It might get worse before it gets better, with Iowa State and BYU next up on the schedule. It would take winning three of the last four to get bowl-eligible if UCF doesn’t pull off a massive upset the rest of the month. 

On the flip side, shout out to Cincinnati for grinding out a road win on a day that wasn’t quarterback Brendan Sorsby’s best. That’s a sign of a quality team.

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