Welcome to Tuesday Takes, where I give you three takes from the Big 12. It was a jam-packed week of exciting news, but here are three things that have my attention going into week three.
Oklahoma State Will Be Fine
After the loss to Tulsa in Week 1, everyone was selling their stock on Oklahoma State, including me. But in typical fashion, it was an overreaction because last weekend against a top-ten Oregon team, the Cowboys absolutely dominated the Ducks in every way imaginable.
It was so shocking that I still can’t believe that it happened. I have never seen such a big jump from week one to week two in my years of covering college football. I just hope this roller coaster ride smooths out a bit, because I think what we saw against Oregon is what the real 2026 Oklahoma State Cowboys are going to look like. And if that’s the case, then the Pokes are going to be heard from this year across the Big 12 Conference. It’s just keeping up the consistency that needs to happen in Stillwater.
Texas Tech is Showing Cracks
Even though they are 2-0, I am not 100% sold on Texas Tech being far and away the best team in the Big 12. In week one against Abilene Christian, they looked a little rusty. That’s expected in the opening game with so many new faces across the board.
However, against Oregon State this past Saturday, I saw a few concerning things. For starters, the run game hasn’t been as dominant as I would like to see, and Will Hammond has yet to impress me enough to say he’s hands down the right guy. And apparently Joey McGuire agrees, after the head coach said after the win on Saturday, “There’s two sacks out of the four sacks that are on the quarterback. He’s got to throw the ball away. You can’t take sacks.”
“There’s a clock that’s got to go off in your head when you step up, nothing’s there,” McGuire added. “You either run or you throw the ball out of bounds.”
On top of that, it’s clear the defense isn’t what it was one year ago. That secondary got torched last weekend, and the defensive line doesn’t have the same level of talent either. Again, I am not saying Texas Tech is bad by any means, but I don’t see them as the clear-cut best team in the Big 12. However, they get a chance to prove me wrong this Friday against Houston.
Iowa State is Better Than What We Thought
With so many new faces, including a new coaching staff, I didn’t think much of the Cyclones coming into the season. In fact, I had them picked as one of the bottom three teams in the conference in my preseason poll.
Even though they lost against Iowa, I thought they showed a lot of fight. Their effort in that game was extremely encouraging and they were just a play or two away from walking out of Iowa City with a win. After watching that performance, it wasn’t fair of me to count them out right away because now I can see them as closer to a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 team than one near the bottom. Then question then becomes, who’s at the bottom of this league? It just might be too early to tell.
