Welcome to Tuesday Takes, where I give you three takes from the Big 12. It was a jam-packed week full of exciting news, but here are three things that have my attention going into week two.
Oklahoma State Will Get Blown Out
After watching Oklahoma State in their embarrassing 24-10 loss to Tulsa this past weekend, I am officially selling any stock I had in the Cowboys coming into the season. Drew Mestemaker looked rattled, the offensive line was bad, and the run game didn’t look much better.
In fact, outside of one or two players on that offense, the Cowboys looked pretty bad. It’s one thing to shake off a little rust, but another to score ten points against Tulsa in front of a crowd mostly wearing orange. And with Oregon squeaking by Boise State at home, I have a feeling that Dan Lanning is going to want to make a statement to the rest of the country. Unfortunately, Oklahoma State will have to suffer because of it.
Cutter Boley Will Be a Top Five Big 12 Quarterback
Coming into the season, we knew that there were going to be a ton of new faces for Arizona State this season. With Sam Leavitt in Baton Rouge, Kenny Dillingham brought in Kentucky transfer Cutter Boley to fill the void.
At first, it made me pause for a bit because he didn’t really have great numbers at Kentucky last season. But after watching him toss six touchdown passes on Saturday and throw for nearly 400 yards, it’s safe to say that he has my attention.
Cutter looked flawless, and I know it was against Morgan State, but he has the tools to be an excellent quarterback. If there is one thing I have learned, it’s that Kenny Dillingham knows how to find good quarterbacks, and after seeing Cutter play, I believe he could be a top five quarterback in the Big 12.
UCF Will Knock Off Pitt
I don’t know how much of a hot take this is, but I can see UCF going into Pittsburgh and walking out with a win. The ‘Knights’ run game looked fantastic in week one,, and even though we didn’t get to see much of new starting quarterback Alonza Barnett III, I thought he did a nice job in limited action.
The Knights head into the weekend as a touchdown underdog, and to be quite honest, I don’t know a ton about Pitt. Typically, they never have much of an offense, and they love to grind out games on the ground. I could see this as a physical matchup across the board, and when push comes to shove, I think Barnett could be the difference-maker in his coming-out party. Call me crazy, but I’ll take the Knights taking down Pitt this weekend.
