After being picked to finish near the top of the league in the Preseason Media Poll and drastically underperforming, CBS Sports’ Josh Pate has cemented two Big 12 teams among college football’s biggest disappointments.
Those teams are the Kansas Jayhawks and the Oklahoma State Cowboys, who are both winless in conference play, holding a 1-5 and 3-3 overall record through the first six weeks of action.
With one win on the season against Lindenwood to write home about, the 2024 season has been awful for Jayhawks fans. The team entered 2024 as a legitimate college football playoff contender with an incredible offense led by former Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year Jalon Daniels, but ultimately, the team has fallen off a massive cliff.
“Kansas, very disappointing,” Pate said. “Kansas has lost five straight games. They beat Lindenwood, but who amongst us hasn’t? Then they fell off a cliff. Jalon Daniels has not been good. Another classic example of just because a guy returns doesn’t mean he improves. They’re 104th in passing offense right now. Daniels has eight picks and seven passing touchdowns.”
“It feels like what happened to Iowa State a little bit where you start to look at Kansas’ staff and say, ‘He’s building and building and building.’ It’s Kansas. It’s not Georgia,” Pate continued. You cannot sustain there just like Iowa State could not sustain that seven or eight-win level cause history says you have no business doing that. History says at Kansas you have no business doing that. They’ve fallen off a little bit.”
Oklahoma State, picked to finish third in the Big 12 Preseason Media Poll, has been incredibly disappointing. After starting 0-3 in conference play, the Cowboys are electing to make a quarterback change from Alan Bowman to Garret Rangel in hopes of shaking things up in Stillwater.
“Oklahoma State, dead on arrival,” Pate said. “We’ve got the Doak Walker winner last year, the best tailback in the country, the most experienced offensive line in the country returning. They are 122nd in rush yards per game right now. Total no-show of a team. Lost 38-14 last week, they got boat raced by Kansas State and got beat by Utah’s backup quarterback.”
To say that the season has started in tailspin fashion for both Kansas and Oklahoma State is an understatement at this point, as the duo is tied for last place in the league alongside the conference-winless Baylor Bears.
Both teams face a bye in Week 7.
