The college football season is in full swing and the Big 12 Conference had seven games on the schedule on Saturday in Week 5. For the Big 12, it was the first full Saturday where the league was playing exclusively conference games.
There were several teams looking to move to 2-0 in league play, while there were also teams trying to avoid the 0-2 start. Here are the Top 5 takeaways from Week 5 of the Big 12 football season.
Colorado Football, How Do You Do?!
The Colorado Buffaloes walked into the Bounce House as a two-touchdown underdog and absolutely manhandled the UCF Knights, who had all the mojo after their comeback win over TCU two weeks ago and their hosting of Big Noon Kickoff on Saturday morning.
Instead, Travis Hunter and company had an explosive day. Hunter had nine catches for 89 yards and a touchdown as quarterback Shedeur Sanders finished 28/35, 290 passing yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
Oh, and if I told you that Colorado would have a better yards per rush than UCF, you would have called me nuts. And that would have been fair. But it was Colorado averaging 4.4 yards per carry compared to 4.0 for the Knights. KJ Jefferson struggled with three turnovers on the afternoon (2 INT, 1 fumble), and Colorado’s defensive front had itself a day, with five sacks and 13 tackles for loss.
Colorado football is now 2-0 and has a ton of momentum going into their bye week, which is followed by a home game vs. Kansas State.
RELATED: Three takeaways from Colorado’s 48-21 win over UCF
Oklahoma State is a Mess
The Oklahoma State Cowboys are 0-2 in league play and are likely out of the Big 12 Championship race before the end of the September. Who saw that coming one month ago?
The Cowboys offense is, by far, the bigger issue. Alan Bowman does not look like a competent enough quarterback who can win at a consistently high level. Ollie Gordon was rolling early, but for some reason they took the ball out of his hand as the game progressed. Ollie Gordon touched the ball 12 times in the first two drives. The Cowboys had four more drives in the first half and Gordon touched the ball a total of four times on those drives. Why?
Oklahoma State was moving the ball well to start the game, but then it started to unravel, and the play calling from Kasey Dunn just got outright weird. That’s nothing new for Oklahoma State football fans, by the way.
But now one of the bigger questions in Stillwater: When will Zane Flores get a look?
RELATED: Mike Gundy Must Make This Long Overdue Move for Oklahoma State Football
BYU Football is Now 5-0
The BYU Cougars tried to give this game away late, but they hung on and are 5-0 and solidly in the Top 25 heading into Week 6. This continues the storyline as the Cougars taking the mantle as the biggest surprise in the Big 12 Conference this fall.
BYU safety Crew Wakley’s had the game-clinching interception near midfield right in front of the Baylor bench with 59 seconds left to seal the 34-28 win over Baylor on Saturday. The Cougars never trailed but had to hold on after twice building three-touchdown leads before halftime when Jake Retzlaff threw for two scores and ran for another one.
Retzlaff was much better in the first half than the second half, going 13/17 for 180 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, compared to 4/14 for 36 yards in the second half. BYU scored 31 points in the first half compared to three in the second half, but it was enough to stay undefeated and remain ranked for another week.
BYU is 2-0 in Big 12 play, which matches their Big 12 win total from 2023 (2-7).
Utah’s Big Letdown
The Utes were coming off a huge road win at Oklahoma State, but returned home and lost to Arizona, fresh off a bye week, 23-10.
Cam Rising was, once again, out for the Utes as quarterback, and Arizona’s defense stepped up in a big way. The Wildcats stopped the Utes’ first two possessions on downs — both inside the Arizona 10-yard-line on fourth-and-2. It was surprising to see the Utes leave points on the board early in the game with their back-up true freshman quarterback running the offense. But it showed a lack of respect for the Arizona defense as much as anything else. It turned out to be a mistake in judgement by Kyle Whittingham. Utah had 219 yards in the first half, but scored only three points.
But credit to Arizona’s game plan as well. The Wildcats smashed Utah’s defense with surprise runs — 95 yards on their first seven carries — and then Noah Fifita did his thing in the second half. After Fifita threw an interception, which led to a Utah score to make it 16-10, the Arizona QB took his team right back down the field. Fifita hit Tetairoa McMillan for a 41-yard pass on third-and-11 and then threw a 35-yard touchdown to Keyan Burnett on another third-and-11 to make it 23-10 with 8:13 to play.
Arizona now has a 6-31-1 road record against AP Top 10 teams. The Wildcats defense allowed the fewest points to a top 10 team since the program shut out No. 10 Miami 29-0 in the 1994 Fiesta Bowl.
RELATED: Three takeaways from Arizona’s 23-10 win over Utah
Congratulations, Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell became the winningest coach in Iowa State football history on Saturday night with a 20-0 victory over Houston, giving him 57 career wins as Cyclones head coach, which breaks the record set by Dan McCarney.
Campbell is a three-time Big 12 football coach of the year in 2017, 2018 and 2020. He’s been tied to several other college football and even NFL jobs during his tenure in Ames, but he’s stayed loyal to the Iowa State football program.
In an era where it seems like most coaches are willing to just move on up and climb the coaching ladder, Campbell is one of those guys who realizes the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. He’s making an incredibly handsome living, he’s beloved in Ames, and he gets to build a program his way, blending high school recruiting with some NIL/transfer portal, when necessary.
But it’s an old school and underappreciated approach in today’s college football. And that’s too bad. Because it just might be Campbell who finds himself in Arlington in December. Congratulations, Coach, and here’s to another 57 wins in Ames.
