Welcome to Tuesday Takes, where I share three observations from around the Big 12. It was another eventful week across the conference, but these are the three storylines that have my attention going into Week 6, including Baylor football improving, UCF football’s bad luck and Texas Tech’s slow start.
Baylor will be 7-1 going into the final Month
After putting a beatdown on Arizona State in Tempe, it feels like the entire outlook of Baylor’s season has changed. Are they a top-tier Big 12 title contender? I don’t think so, but that may not matter.
For the first time all season, we say what the Bears looked like when they are firing on all cylinders. DJ Lagway put together his best game, the rushing attack was there, and the defense got stops.
But the real reason I am bought into them is because of their schedule. Baylor has a bye week this weekend, and then they get to play TCU, Kansas, and UCF. Not to get too far ahead of myself, but those look like three very winnable games, and don’t be shocked to see the Bears sitting at 7-1 overall and undefeated in Big 12 action.
UCF Has the Worst Luck Ever
Ever since UCF joined the Big 12, I can’t think of another team that has had worse luck when it comes to quarterbacks staying healthy. Over the last four seasons, it seems like they have had so many quarterbacks that I have lost count.
This season is no different, unfortunately. Alonza Barnett III already went down earlier this year, and Keyone Jenkins has stepped in his place. But even as the backup, it seems no one is safe, because Keyone went down against Houston this past weekend.
Luckily, he came back, but at what point do we start to think there’s some kind of curse in Orlando for quarterbacks?? Just once, I would like to see UCF fully healthy to give them a fair shake because I don’t care who you are, it’s not easy to win games with backup quarterbacks at this level.
Texas Tech’s Slow Starts Will Cost Them
It seems like Texas Tech starts slow every week. Whether it was against Abilene Christian, Oregon State, Houston, Sam Houston, or Colorado, the Red Raiders have not looked sharp in the first half in any of their five games.
While they have outscored opponents 66 to 45 in the first half, I expected a much higher number, especially with two cupcake games and two not-so-great teams with Oregon State and Colorado. However, the second half is a completely different story for this team.
In the second half of their games this season, they have outscored their opponents 103 to 33, which is wild. There have been multiple games this season where they were down at halftime. Why? Because the offense takes a full half of football before they finally start figuring things out.
If Texas Tech is going to be this elite team, they’ll have to get off to better starts. Luckily for them, their schedule is fairly easy down the stretch, but at some point, they are going to dig themselves a hole that they can’t crawl out of.
