Burnt Orange Nation: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:



Sports blogs for fans, by fans.
Around SBN: Steve McNair Dead - Former NFL QB Shot and Killed


spread the word

Big 12 Football Report, v 1.6

The week in Big 12 football.

One of my favorite activities each week is my Friday evening chat with The Night Shift crew from Sports Radio 610 AM in Houston--a conversation which forces me to crystallize a week's worth of thoughts into a coherent Saturday narrative. After talking specifics about Texas-Colorado, Adam and Danny asked me on Friday to comment on the Big 12's other conference games, prompting me to emphasize that I thought the opening weekend's main storyline was whether the conference's five heavyweights (Missouri, OU, Tech, Texas, and Oklahoma State) would prove their worthiness by convincingly taking care of business on the road against Tier 2 Big XII teams. (Audio of this Friday's chat here.)

All five passed with flying colors, while Kansas justified my excluding them from the conversation:

Oklahoma 49  Baylor 17
Texas Tech 58  Kansas State 28
Texas 38  Colorado 14
Oklahoma State 56  Texas A&M 28
Missouri 52  Nebraska 17
Kansas 35  Iowa State 33

If I was thrilled to see the contenders hold serve in week one, now the real fun begins as heavyweights are forced to butt heads. Click through the jump for thoughts on handicapping the race.

Star-divide

HANDICAPPING THE FAVORITES

If we start from my premise that the five Big 12 teams currently 5-0 are the only ones with realistic conference title hopes (sorry, Kansas), handicapping the title chase starts with a look at the remaining schedules.

OKLAHOMA ST
n-Texas NEBRASKA n-Oklahoma @ Missouri
@ Texas KANSAS @ Texas A&M MISSOURI BAYLOR
COLORADO @ Kansas St @ Kansas OKLAHOMA ST @ Texas
@ Baylor NEBRASKA TEXAS @ Texas Tech IOWA ST
KANSAS ST @ Texas A&M OKLAHOMA ST BAYLOR @ Texas Tech
@ Iowa State TEXAS TECH @ Oklahoma @ Kansas @ Colorado
n-Kansas @ Oklahoma St BAYLOR TEXAS A&M OKLAHOMA

The favorites, in order:

  1. MISSOURI TIGERS - Their conference and national title hopes appear to rest on their performance the next two weeks, with a home tilt against OSU and road trip to Austin standing between them and an eminently navigable five-game stretch to close the year.
  2. OKLAHOMA SOONERS - Not only do they appear to have the best team, but among the four South powers, they have the best schedule, avoiding Missouri while drawing Tech, Nebraska, and Kansas at home. Beat the Longhorns in Dallas and hold serve in Norman and the Sooners need only avoid an upset in Stillwater.
  3. TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS - Tech gets the advantage over the Horns and Cowboys by missing Missouri and drawing UT and OSU in Lubbock, but will have to win in Norman to overtake the Sooners.
  4. TEXAS LONGHORNS - It could be worse, had the 'Horns also to travel to Stillwater, but this is a tough row to hoe. Not only do they face the other four top contenders, but they face them in consecutive weeks.
  5. OKLAHOMA STATE COWBOYS - On the bright side, the schedule is staggered a bit, with lesser teams interrupting their big tests, but only the Sooners visit Stillwater. Winning at Missouri, at Texas, and at Texas Tech is hard to fathom.

THIS WEEK'S HEAVYWEIGHT CARD

(1) Oklahoma vs (5) Texas  (Dallas, TX) -- While college football fans will have to decide whether to spend the 7-10 p.m. slot focused on LSU-Florida or Oklahoma State-Missouri, there's no question what everyone will be watching at 11 a.m., as the Red River Shootout returns to center stage as a season-defining clash between two top five-ranked undefeateds (the first time since '04). Oklahoma is averaging a silly 6.8 yards per play on offense, which if sustained would put them among giants of recent years. Of course, Colt McCoy would politely remind fans that the Longhorns aren't behind in that regard much at all, their 6.6 yards per play a full yard per play improved from this time a season ago.  Set aside all those numbers, though: This game's getting decided in the trenches, where Oklahoma appears to have the advantage. The Sooners have the talent and experience on the offensive line to deal with Texas' rapidly improving pass rush, while the Longhorns look less well-equipped to deal with Gerald McCoy and friends.

(17) Oklahoma State at (3) Missouri -- Offense? You want off-the-charts offense? The Cowboys and Tigers snicker at the baby numbers above. And why not, when a Missouri and Oklahoma State fan could have the following pre-game exchange:

OSU fan: "Red River Shootout? We're the team north of the Red River averaging 7.6 yards per play."

Mizzou fan: "Excuse me, pantywaist, but Missouri is not only north of the Red River, but we're at 8.2 yards per play. [yawns] Have I mentioned Chase Daniel is on our team?"

OSU fan: "Chase? As in chasing Zac Robinson from behind in quarterback rating?"

Mizzou fan: "Ah, yes, that's right--the quarterback with a lovely rating and... what, one receiver with more than 10 catches? We have four. And I haven't even mentioned our tailback, who averages more than 7 yards per carry!"

OSU fan: "Are you comfortable with rounding up a tailback with a 6.6 yards per carry average to 7? Hmm? No? Okay, then we only have two tailbacks averaging seven-plus yards per attempt."

Mizzou fan: "Two words: Jeremy Maclin."

OSU fan: "Two more: Dez Bryant."

On and on they could go, and when you get down to it, neither could be considered excessively boastful: Both of these offenses have been on a planet of their own through five games. Which of course means the game is really about whether either team's defense has the ability to slow down someone else's great offense. I give the advantage in the front seven to Missouri, while preferring Oklahoma State's secondary.

So who wins? Who knows? The first to 60?

0 recs | Comment 14 comments | Share on Facebook Digg!

Story-email Email Printer Print

More from Burnt Orange Nation

Big 12 Football Report, v 1.10

Nov 2008 by PB @ BON - 16 comments

Big 12 Football Report, v. 1.8

Oct 2008 by PB @ BON - 5 comments

Missouri Preview For Your Ears

Oct 2008 by PB @ BON - 1 comment

BON LIVE Talks Missouri

Oct 2008 by PB @ BON - 0 comments

Comments

Display:

RRS

The game next Saturday is (sadly) at 11am.

by BigTexBD on Oct 5, 2008 7:55 PM CDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

You think that's bad

Try 9:00AM Pacific time. Hard to get enough beers down before kickoff, unless I stay up all night.

by Longhorn in Canada on Oct 5, 2008 9:49 PM CDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Yes

Sacrifices must be made. I’ve never faced an OU game without a beer or two, or three in me, and I don’t intend to start now.

by Longhorn in Canada on Oct 5, 2008 10:05 PM CDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Can you recall another team

That has gone 5-0, and whose fans don’t know whether to expect them to be 9-0 or 5-4, or somewhere in between after the next four games? And if we lose one or two games in that stretch, to whom will we lose them? Should be a fun, if stressful, four weeks.

by Longhorn in Canada on Oct 5, 2008 10:03 PM CDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Even more amazing

As pointed out to me by Meekrob, Is that its quite possible that Texas could play two consecutive games against #1 teams. Has that ever happened before? And on top of that, has anyone ever won both?

Id love to see it happen, which of course the first step is to knock off OU.

by BoddickerIsClutch on Oct 6, 2008 11:07 AM CDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

(knock wood)

If Texas wins on Saturday, they’ll play No. 2 (or 3) Missouri the following week

by edsp on Oct 6, 2008 11:42 AM CDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

I dunno

Bama is on a bye, if Missou crushes OSU, a ranked team, they could jump them. It could happen!

by BoddickerIsClutch on Oct 6, 2008 11:48 AM CDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

I think he meant

if Texas wins Saturday Texas will be #1 and the best Mizzou would be is #2, but I’m not positive that’s what he was suggesting. If this is what he meant then it of course depends on how each team wins.

by tdwalsh on Oct 6, 2008 1:45 PM CDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Ah!

Right over my head!

Also possible, and also a result I could support!

by BoddickerIsClutch on Oct 6, 2008 1:58 PM CDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Welcome to Burnt Orange Nation, a blog dedicated to University of Texas athletics. Get BON updates via Twitter.
Start posting about the Longhorns »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recommended FanPosts

Small
Top 10 Games of the Mack Brown Era

Recent FanPosts

Me_small
Favorite Wash-outs
Small
Most Underrated Plays in the Mack Brown Era
Small
The Kindle Conundrum
Small
Fiercest Rivalry and Texas preview
Small
NCAA 2010 Player Ratings
Jack_small
Saving Grace
Brandedbevo1024x768_small
Free event with Brown and coaching staff
Brandedbevo1024x768_small
Texas Gridiron Kick-Off
Bevo_small
Let us debate.

Post_icon New FanPost All FanPosts Carrot-mini

SPONSORS


Site Editors

Pb6_small PB @ BON

Dark_pumpkin_small awiggo

Contributing Authors

Jersey_front_small 54b

Zombie_profilepic_small Horn Brain

Gse_multipart20834_small 40AS

Pigeons_small billyzane

Small whills

Menbooger_small GhostofBigRoy

Brandedbevo1024x768_small dimecoverage

Official Partner of CBS Sports