Saturday gave us the wildest game of the Big 12 season and two of the most emotional press conferences we’ve seen all year. 

Plus, BYU handled its business, setting up one final hurdle before a potential rematch with Texas Tech. 

Here are my top five takeaways from the Big 12 weekend.

The Big 12 Title Picture is Pretty Clear

BYU handled Cincinnati in a businesslike 26–14 win at Nippert Stadium on Saturday night, which makes the math on a rematch with Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship game pretty simple. 

Win, and you’re in. 

On paper, that looks easy. Tech is a 23.5-point favorite at West Virginia, while BYU is a 17.5-point favorite at home against UCF. But are these quiet trap games for the Big 12 favorites?

The Cougars are dealing with an injury to receiver Chase Roberts, who finished the Cincinnati game on the sideline in street clothes. QB Bear Bachmeier and RB LJ Martin were also banged up by the end of the night.

BYU had to lean on Martin to grind down the Bearcats. He finished with 222 yards and two touchdowns on a staggering 32 carries. It was a relatively quiet night for Bachmeier, who had under 200 total yards, but he took some hard shots from a very physical Cincy defense. 

BYU probably doesn’t need a dynamic passing attack to beat UCF this week. They will need one if they’re going to push the Red Raiders. Roberts is key to making that happen. 

On the other side, there are always lingering health questions with Texas Tech QB Behren Morton. The Red Raiders should also be leery of a West Virginia team gaining confidence and playing with nothing to lose in front of a raucous home crowd.

The Mountaineers have looked like a different team over the last month, with close calls in losses to Arizona State and TCU and wins over Colorado and Houston.

Utah and Arizona State are waiting patiently if the Red Raiders or Cougars slip up, but their paths to Arlington are very narrow. 

The Utes actually need BYU to win and Tech to lose, along with Arizona State winning the Territorial Cup. That would set up a Holy War rematch for a Big 12 title. 

The Sun Devils need either a BYU loss or losses by both Texas Tech and Utah as heavy favorites.  

None of that is likely, but crazier things have happened. Tech will be playing in the same stadium where Rich Rodriguez’s 2007 West Virginia team lost as a 28.5-point favorite to Pitt, costing the Mountaineers a shot at the national title.

That May Have Been Kyle Whittingham’s Curtain Call

K-State and Utah played the wildest game of the Big 12 season. 

The Wildcats were down their best running back, receiver, offensive lineman, linebacker, and pass rusher as 17.5-point underdogs, yet they led by 12 with 7:00 to go at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

K-State’s rushing attack entered as one of the least explosive units in the country with only seven 30-plus yard runs all season. Utah’s stingy defense had allowed just four. The Wildcats ripped off six in this game: runs of 44, 37, 66, 33, 58, 80, and 33 yards.

KSU RB Joe Jackson broke Darren Sproles’ single-game school rushing record with 293 yards. It was the most by any player in Rice-Eccles Stadium history. The Wildcats’ 472 rushing yards as a team were also a school record. 

And Utah won the game. 

After K-State scored to go up 12 with 7:00 left, Utah intercepted the two-point try and ran it back for two points the other way after a pass interference flag was controversially picked up.

The Wildcats appeared to have a 4th-and-1 stop on the next drive that would have essentially sealed it, but were hit with a controversial illegal substitution penalty when officials didn’t give K-State time to match Utah’s personnel.

That’s when Utah QB Devon Dampier took over. His 3rd-and-22 strike and subsequent touchdown pass were big-time throws, and he put the dagger in K-State with a 59-yard run on 4th-and-1 on the Utes’ next drive to set up the game-winning TD.

The win was an incredible testament to the resolve Kyle Whittingham has built into this program. On a night when Utah didn’t have its A game and, at one point, had a 3% win probability according to ESPN, the Utes still found a way.

It was enough to make Whittingham emotional after the game. 

Whittingham attributed the emotion to how he feels about his seniors, but KSL Utah beat writer Josh Furlong thinks there was more to it than that:

He played it off as emotion directed toward his outgoing seniors — a plausible fact given this year's roster makeup and his love of his players — but it was difficult to not mistake it for something more.

A wild come-from-behind Utah win was likely his last as head coach at Rice-Eccles Stadium, and the emotions overtook him.

No, Whittingham has not made a formal retirement announcement, but the writing was on the wall after an emotional win that left the head coach almost speechless for a moment.

If that truly is it for Whittingham at Rice-Eccles, it’s a sad day for college football. Whittingham is one of the best to ever do it, and he makes the Big 12 better. 

Tip of the cap to a future College Football Hall of Famer. 

Tensions Are Boiling Over in Manhattan

As you can imagine, it was a major gut punch to be on the other side of that game in the K-State locker room. 

It has been a miserable season for the Wildcats. They lost a rivalry game in August, saw star RB Dylan Edwards injured on his first snap of the year, played like the worst Power Four team in the country while losing to Army and Arizona in September, blew a 14-point fourth quarter lead to Baylor in Waco...you get the idea.

So to see a historic offensive performance against a top ten team on the road go to waste in the game’s final moments, thanks in part to some questionable officiating, was devastating. 

Head coach Chris Klieman shed tears in the postgame press conference and was consoled by athletics director Gene Taylor. Check out the first couple of minutes of this video to see it yourself. 

There is a lot of context needed to explain Klieman’s reaction. 

There has been a ton of heat from fans this season, and frankly, much of it is justified. K-State was picked by Big 12 coaches to win the league and lost three of its first four games. The only win in that stretch was a three-point escape against North Dakota that required a last-minute TD drive. One of the losses was to Army. Another was the fourth in five years to Iowa State.

Since a 7-1 start last season, K-State is 6-9 in regular-season games and has beaten only one Power Four team with a winning record. 

It’s a disturbing downward trend that has happened with a herald class of talent leading the way, headlined by QB Avery Johnson. The same Avery Johnson that the Wildcats chose over another year of now national champion QB Will Howard. 

While Klieman’s program has slipped, former K-State QB and offensive coordinator Collin Klein has ascended to the top of the list of offensive coordinators in line to get a Power Four head coaching job this offseason. 

Wildcats fans see their version of Kenny Dillingham, an alum who feels perfectly cut out for this era of college football and might actually stick around because it is his school.

That has created a lot of chatter about the desire for a Klieman retirement so Klein could take over. 

When Klieman says he deserves some respect, I have to imagine he is largely referring to that dynamic and the idea that he should be pushed out to make way for Klein.

And I completely understand that reaction. Who wouldn’t feel disrespected by that? I have a lot of empathy for Klieman and the players who have been roundly criticized this season. It’s hard for me to avoid reading negative YouTube comments or tweets. I’m sure I would handle the situation with far less grace than Klieman has this year. 

But this is also what he signed up for, and he is paid millions of dollars to handle it. Coaching Power Four college football is not for the faint of heart. Fans invest a lot into K-State football, and they know the results and effort level for much of this season have been unacceptable. 

It’s entirely possible to respect Klieman for his accomplishments at K-State, namely a Big 12 championship and five 8+ win seasons, and have legitimate questions about his ability to get the program back to a conference championship level. 

It’s fair to point out that the conference title came after promoting Klein to offensive coordinator before the 2022 season, and the program has slipped since he left after the 2023 season. 

Most of Klieman’s other hires have been safe and unimaginative. Can he shake it up and make the right moves to infuse life into what has become a stale program? It is fair to wonder.

It’s also fair for fans to worry about watching Klein win titles for other Power Four schools over the next couple of decades. This is the same fan base that has watched Frank Martin, Bob Huggins, Lon Kruger, and Brad Underwood enjoy massive success away from Manhattan in basketball. K-State fans know how this story typically goes. 

I’m not calling for Klieman to be pushed out for Klein. It wouldn’t at all be fair to Klieman and what he has accomplished as a head coach at K-State. But I do bristle at the fan-shaming that came across in that press conference. It matches the general attitude I’ve perceived from the athletics department this season, too. 

The stakes are high. Fans saw how fast Oklahoma State went from a Big 12 title game to 17 straight league losses with an accomplished head coach on the sideline. They know what happened to Oregon State and Washington State when they were left out of major college athletics. K-State fans desperately do not want that to be them, and that threat is very real if the program slips over the next 3-5 years.

I am hopeful this becomes a rallying cry for the athletics department and donors to back Klieman with the necessary funding for everything he needs: staff changes, quality hires, and a quality roster.

I do not condone being cruel to Klieman and the team for a rough season, but I also do not condone labeling any fan with legitimate concerns as a problem. 

The State of Arizona Continues to Rise

Both Arizona and Arizona State took care of business as favorites on Saturday to set up the best Territorial Cup matchup in years. 

Arizona blew open a four-point game in the fourth quarter by forcing three Baylor turnovers and taking one back for a touchdown. The Wildcats scored all 20 fourth-quarter points in just over four minutes. If you blinked, you missed it.

Arizona’s much-improved defense held Baylor QB Sawyer Robertson to a near-season low 161 passing yards and limited star TE Michael Trigg to just 45 receiving yards.

Wildcats’ defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales is at or near the top of the list for best coordinator jobs in the conference this season.

While Arizona is out of the Big 12 title race, the Wildcats can secure a nine-win season and end their rival’s Big 12 title hopes with a win Friday night over Arizona State. That is quite the consolation prize.

Speaking of the Sun Devils, they also exploded late to blow open a close game at Colorado. Twenty-one fourth-quarter points helped ASU survive four turnovers with ease. 

RB Raleek Brown was the latest Sun Devil to step up in the absence of star QB Sam Leavitt. Brown rushed for 255 yards and two touchdowns, the third-highest single-game rushing total in ASU history.

Head coach Kenny Dillingham has done a phenomenal job this season to keep Arizona State in the Big 12 title hunt until the final week of the regular season, despite the key injuries throughout. 

There was good news on that front: WR Jordyn Tyson returned against Colorado and caught two passes for 61 yards.

TCU Didn’t Quit

It has been another disappointing season for TCU by nearly any measure. The Horned Frogs finished hot in 2024 and looked poised to compete for a Big 12 championship after drilling North Carolina in front of the nation on Labor Day.

With Big 12 title hopes gone, it certainly looked like Houston would be the more motivated team on Saturday. The Cougars still had an outside shot at Arlington and were in the middle of a meaningful, transformative season for the program.

Instead, the Horned Frogs found a way to overcome four turnovers and win an ugly game between the two former Southwest Conference rivals. Houston kicker Ethan Sanchez missed a 38-yard field goal in the final minute that would have tied it. It was his second miss of the fourth quarter.

Believe it or not, it’s the first road win against a ranked opponent for the Horned Frogs since the 2022 national runner-up season. 

If nothing else, this game gave us this video of TCU head coach Sonny Dykes singing Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer, and that’s a lot (for love?). 

What You Need to Know

• Where do Texas Tech, BYU, and Utah land in the latest College Football Playoff Bracketology? Find out here.

• Chris Klieman says he reached out to the Big 12 about the illegal substitution penalty against Utah. Here’s the latest on what he’s heard. 

• Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark inked a very innovative deal for the league that will bring in significant NIL money for Big 12 men’s basketball. 

• Here is the full list of Big 12 title game scenarios heading into the final week of the regular season. 

• If you want more in-depth Big 12 discussion, check out the latest Open For Business Big 12 podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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