Bevo's Daily Roundup - September 14, 2009

Here we go again.

John Chiles and Dan Buckner have settled into their roles.

"Dan Buckner became a huge positive for us," Brown said. "He is a real weapon in that he can have a mismatch with linebackers and safeties because of his height [at his new position]. He became a really fast, flex tight end as opposed to a receiver with good speed. We’re excited about him."

Greg Davis, the Longhorns’ offensive coordinator, praised Chiles for his "ability to step through tackles" and his unselfishness as a blocker in his first game at receiver since his junior season at Summit.

"I was really pleased with John," Davis said. "The thing that goes unnoticed a lot is he really blocked well. He did a good job on the perimeter of staying after people."

The Cowboys didn't lasso the Horns.

Colt McCoy warmed up after a shaky start and No. 2 Texas overcame poor special teams play and a bad first half to beat Wyoming 41-10 on a cold and breezy Saturday.

The Longhorns (2-0) looked ready to be lassoed until taking a 13-10 lead just before halftime, although their defense had a great afternoon against a spread offense in preparation for next weekend's showdown with Texas Tech.

Barking Carnival has the good, bad and ugly and a post-mortem.

Check the BDR Wyoming Postgame for more coverage of Saturday's game.

Oklahoma

Those style points were helpful. The Sooners moved up to No. 12 after their drubbing of Idaho State.

Landry Jones threw for three touchdowns in the win.

With a week to prepare, Jones did his best Bradford imitation, completing 18 of 32 passes for 286 yards with one interception despite rain falling most of the game. Oklahoma continued to run its no-huddle offense, albeit with a reworked line after that unit committed nine penalties against BYU.

Landry Jones completed his first pass as a starter, a swing toss that Broyles took 34 yards. The Sooners eventually had a first down on the Idaho State 2, but the Bengals stopped Oklahoma on five plays, stuffing a quarterback sneak on a fourth-and-inches.

The Jones to Broyles combo works wonders.

With quarterback Sam Bradford still mending a separated shoulder and tight end Jermaine Gresham shut down for the year with a bum knee, Oklahoma may have found a new special connection to carry the offense during Saturday night’s 64-0 drubbing of Idaho State.

Landry Jones to Ryan Broyles.

Remember all the Sooner hype about that o-line? Well, it seems they are now playing musical lineman.

Is this like the excitement over that incredible offensive line? Everyone is getting excited about Landry.

Bob Stoops said Jones did an excellent job, especially considering that the game was played amid showers. Jones said it was the first time he has ever played in the rain. He said it drizzles in his home state of New Mexico. "But nothing like that," he said, referencing Saturday's deluge.

Did Stoops find out anything about Jones that wasn't already known? Only that Jones can manage an entire game. "But I thought he stepped up a week ago, too," Stoops said.

The Sooners wanted to make a statement.

"We had a statement to make. Coming off the loss was tough. We felt like at the end of that game we had the chance to make that a win. We were kind of frustrated, so we wanted to come out and play hard tonight." — linebacker Ryan Reynolds.

Oklahoma State

OSU lost to the University of Houston 45-35.  The Pokes fell to No. 16 after their loss to the Cougars.

All that hype ended quickly.

Coming into stores across Stillwater earlier Saturday, fans were buying anything that had a Cowboy on it in a moment of exultation and pride for the long-suffering program.

The national attention – along with the top five national ranking after last week’s convincing victory over Georgia – was hopefully going to mark this season as different. So much different than all of those long previous years in the football wilderness.

But all of that excitement was punctured a few hours later after the kind of loss that has typified Oklahoma State so often during its football history.

On a dank, gloomy day that matched Coach Mike Gundy’s post-game attitude, Houston claimed a 45-35 victory that will cease most of the early buzz about Oklahoma State.

Running back Kendall Hunter suffered an injury in the second quarter and did not return.

OSU's troubles haven't ended.

The problem for OSU is that most Big 12 offenses will resemble Houston's – think Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Missouri – more than they will the plodding approach Georgia featured in its 24-10 loss in Stillwater.

The North

They are already talking buyout in Boulder.

Dan Hawkins might keep his job as head football coach at Colorado regardless of how bad things get this season because the athletic department cannot afford the buyout if it fired him, let alone any additional expenses in hiring a replacement.

Hawkins' contract contains a clause limiting the school's liability to $850,000 per contract year if it should terminate him without cause. Hawkins would have more than three years remaining if he was fired at any point this season. His contract runs through Jan. 31, 2013.

Darrell Scott got some playing time.

Colorado made running back Darrell Scott a bigger part of the offense Friday in a 54-38 loss to Toledo.

Scott rushed 12 times for 85 yards after receiving just two touches in the season opener against Colorado State. He also returned eight kickoffs for 204 yards against the Rockets. The eight returns and 204 return yards were both school records.

In addition, Scott caught one pass for 1 yard. His 290 all-purpose yards rank fourth all-time in school history, although Scott did not run the ball in the second half.

The Buffs play Wyoming next week at home.

Missouri came back from a 14 point deficit to beat Bowling Green 27-20.

When Blaine Gabbert arrived on the Missouri campus for August drills a year ago, Tigers coach Gary Pinkel pointed to Chase Daniel.

Not for the touchdown passes Daniel threw in win after win. But for how he responded to adversity, to defeat.

"You learn how he handles, how he responds, how he communicates with his team," Pinkel said.

Blaine Gabbert had a hard time finding open targets for the first part of the game.

"Well in the first half they were playing a lot of Cover Four so … we had to check down to a lot of underneath routes, because the stuff over the top really wasn't open there," sophomore wide receiver Wes Kemp said.

Still, Missouri adjusted, picking it up offensively as the game progressed. Gabbert lofted a deep pass over a defender’s head and into the hands of Jared Perry in the end zone to wake up the Faurot Field crowd and capitalize on the Tigers’ best drive up to that point.

The Jayhawks beat UTEP 34-7.

KU sacked UTEP five times in the first half, and each takedown of UTEP quarterback Trevor Vittatoe came at the hands of a defensive lineman.

If the line of scrimmage were the Rio Grande, KU defensive linemen Maxwell Onyegbule, Jeff Wheeler, Jake Laptad and Patrick Dorsey would have been all the way to Mexico City by halftime. What nobody can know is whether UTEP has much of a border patrol. Still, Onyegbule’s two sacks and Wheeler’s 1½ after returning from a one-game suspension were welcome signs for a defense that may not have to depend on the blitz as much as in past years.

KU’s front four accounted for just 13½ sacks all of last season.

Kansas State did not have a good day on Saturday. They lost to Louisiana-Lafayette in a error-filled game.

Kansas State committed a season’s worth of blunders Saturday night in a 17-15 loss to an unheralded Louisiana-Lafayette squad of the Sun Belt Conference, and there was no shortage of places to point the finger of blame.

"It’s hard, because this is a team we’re supposed to come in here and beat," said Banks, a senior wide receiver. "But we made some critical mistakes with field goals and turned the ball over a few times. … We could have corrected those and had a different outcome."

Nebraska beat Arkansas State 38-9.

In the huddle, Zac Lee is one cool, calm quarterback.

"He doesn’t really get nervous," Nebraska wide receiver Menelik Holt said. "If you’re in the huddle with a quarterback with watering eyes, you get nervous."

Against Arkansas State on Saturday, Lee showed that his demeanor doesn’t change once the ball is snapped.

Lee completed 27 of 35 passes for 340 yards with four touchdowns to lead the Nos. 18 and 22 Huskers to a 38-9 win over the Red Wolves.

The South

Tech demolished the Rice Owls 55-10.

Taylor Potts needed only two starts to do something Graham Harrell never did in his prolific Texas Tech career – throw seven touchdown passes in a game.

Tech’s new quarterback threw three of his seven TDs to high school teammate Lyle Leong in a 55-10 rout of Rice Saturday night at Jones AT&T Stadium. The Tech record for single-game touchdown passes is eight, held by B.J. Symons. Harrell, even though he set the major-college career record with 134 touchdown passes, never threw more than six in a game.

Raiders receivers Tramain Swindall and Lyle Leong were the stars in the win over Rice.

After their performances against Rice on Saturday night, Tramain Swindall should be back in his coaches’ favor, and Lyle Leong now can be considered a serious threat.

Swindall and Leong were among the Red Raiders’ brightest stars in a 55-10 win over the Owls at Jones AT&T Stadium, with each enjoying a career night. They also made up for the absence of Detron Lewis — who didn’t return after suffering an apparent right leg injury in the second quarter — combining to make 15 catches for 240 yards and five touchdowns.

Raider offensive line is still not settled.

Texas Tech offensive line coach Matt Moore juggled his starting lineup for Saturday’s game. Sophomore Lonnie Edwards got his first career start at left guard, and Brandon Carter moved back to right guard, the position he played last year.

It stayed that way throughout the first half with Mickey Okafor being the odd man out. In the second half, Okafor returned at right guard. The sophomore from Houston Westbury made his first career start in the season opener against North Dakota.

Moore praised Edwards’ development throughout preseason practice, but he has also said he liked having new starters next to a veteran, a consideration not reflected in Saturday’s starting lineup.

New Heisman candidate. In case you missed the USC game this weekend, the freshman Trojan quarterback is the second coming of Matt Leinart.

You knew this was coming. ESPN's bloggers tell us what we learned this weekend.

Big 12 overrated? The Big 12 could arguably be considered the nation's most overrated conference after the first two weeks of the season -- at least at the supposed strength at the top. Texas slumbered through the first half of its game against Wyoming, a team predicted to finish last in the Mountain West Conference. Oklahoma lost last week to MWC team BYU. Oklahoma State lost to Conference USA's Houston. You can argue all you want, but the Big 12's expected three power teams should have played better to live up to the conference's immense preseason hype.