The college football season is in full swing and the Big 12 Conference had six games on the schedule in Week 6. For the Big 12, there were five conference games, with one non-conference game, and five teams had a bye week as we started the month of October.
There were several teams looking to make their mark early in Big 12 season, with one team looking to move to 3-0 in Big 12 play, while others were looking to avoid an 0-3 start. Here are the Top 5 takeaways from Week 6 of the Big 12 football season.
Texas Tech Atop the Big 12 Standings
There is on team that is 3-0 in Big 12 play and its the Texas Tech Red Raiders, who beat Arizona on Saturday night in Tucson. There were mistakes for the Red Raiders (two fumbles, 2-11 on 3rd downs and six penalties), but sometimes you have to win ugly. And when you can do that in the Big 12, especially on the road, you deserve credit.
The Red Raiders are 5-1 and the Abilene Christian game feels like a lifetime ago. Granted, Texas Tech hasn’t had the toughest schedule to date (Arizona State, Cincinnati, Arizona), but it doesn’t matter. This win, on the road, with Arizona coming off a win at Utah, was their best win of the season, by far.
Now, it’s time for a bye week, and then two winnable games vs. Baylor and TCU. Tech could easily be 7-1 heading into November.
Iowa State’s Best Performance Yet
As many of our readers know, I’ve simply been wanting to see more from the Iowa State Cyclones. It’s not that I don’t think they are a legit Big 12 contender, I just have wanted to see more of it. Thanks to an early bye week, Saturday vs. Baylor was only their second Big 12 game of the season. And after falling behind 14-3 early vs. a desperate Baylor team, they ran the Bears out of the building en route to a 43-21 win at home.
Offensively, they found great success running the ball behind Jaylon Jackson who ran for 107 yards and two scores. Meanwhile, back up Carson Hansen nearly ran for 100 yards himself. Iowa State finished the game with a whopping 265 rushing yards and Rocco Becht threw for 277 yards and two touchdowns. Also, Jayden Higgins caught a touchdown pass which makes it seven-straight games with a touchdown catch.
Defensively, this team gave up seven points in the final 43 minutes. Iowa State keeps getting better, every week, a staple of a Matt Campbell team, which might be the scariest part.
A Two-Decade Low for Oklahoma State
What is going on with Mike Gundy and the Oklahoma State Cowboys?
Oklahoma State is 0-3 in Big 12 Conference play for the first time since 2005. And Saturday’s 38-14 loss to West Virginia in front of the home crowd is as bad a loss as Gundy has had at home in recent memory. Remember, OSU came into the season with the second-best home record the last few years, trailing only Alabama.
West Virginia had 31 first downs to Oklahoma State’s 11. They were outgained overall 558 yards to 227. The Pokes were outrushed 389 to 36. These are disastrous numbers for Gundy and this coaching staff. The craziest part is that this team is, more or less, the same exact team from last year, that started off slow but reached the Big 12 Championship Game.
Now, they’ve lost two of their last three games at home (Utah, West Virginia), and things won’t get easier after the bye week as they have to hit the road to face BYU on the Friday night (10/18).
Kansas’ 4th Quarter Woes
The Kansas Jayhawks entered the game vs. Arizona State -33 in point differential in the fourth quarter through five games this season. Well, after getting outscored 21-14 in this game vs. Arizona State in the fourth quarter, make it -40 for the Jayhawks.
Arizona State only had 14 points through three quarters, but then the offense woke up in a big way. The Sun Devils ended the game with three-straight touchdown drives of 52, 75 and 75 yards to end up winning the game over KU. The drives were 10, 10 and eight plays, which appeared to wear down the KU defense as the game went on.
But for KU, chalk it up to another game they held a second half lead, and let the game slip away, just like Illinois, UNLV, West Virginia, and TCU games.
Sonny Dykes’ Shine is Gone
The TCU Horned Frogs lost to Houston 30-19 in the worst loss of the Sonny Dykes era at TCU. And it’s fair to wonder where exactly this program is headed under Dykes.
The 2022 magical season that ended in the National Championship Game feels like a lifetime ago. TCU didn’t make a bowl game last season, and is looking like it could very well miss one again this season.
There are issues on both sides of the ball. The defense can’t stop anyone, and the offense is sloppy and turnover prone. And when you watch and listen to Sonny Dykes‘ post-game press conferences, he seems shocked every week with very few answers. Instead it’s some version of, “We practiced well this week.” “I didn’t see this coming.”
But now the conversation should fairly turn to whether or not the program can be turned back around under his leadership.
