The State of the Big XII

September 5, 2014February 5, 2015 K-StateFans.com Staff 0 Comments

Before the season started, we ran our own predictions for how the conference race would shake out. We’re gearing up for week four of the college football season, which means that we’ve taken in a decent amount of game action from Big XII teams. It’s still early to draw any definitive conclusions, but things are certainly looking clearer than they were before the season started.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma looks to still be the conference favorite, sporting a mean defense that gets to the quarterback, complimented by an offense that knows how to put points up as well.

Baylor

Baylor lost a lot of talent after the 2013 season, but they seem to have picked up right where they left off, posting video game style numbers. Granted, their competition has been suspect, but they have won their first three games by a combined score of 178-27.

West Virginia

Before the season, we had no hope for the Mountaineers, ranking them only above the basement dwelling Jayhawks. Suddenly, a contender is emerging in Morgantown. A great showing in a loss to Alabama has some people changing their tune. The Mountaineers QB-WR combo is one of the better ones in the nation, and should make for some great football against the Sooners this weekend.

Kansas State

K-State seems to be an enigma. A decent win over creampuff Stephen F. Austin combined with an NDSU blowout over Iowa State led most to predict an easy win over the Cyclones. A struggle that ultimately led to a ‘W’ for the Cats leaves most unsure of where K-State lies. Thursday night’s matchup against Auburn should answer a lot of questions.

Oklahoma State

Oklahoma State is another team that shocked many early, by competing with defending national champion Florida State. The Pokes probably aren’t competing for a title, particularly after losing their starting QB. However, the backup looks like he has a great deal of raw talent, and if he can refine his passing game, the Cowboys could make for an interesting dark horse.

TCU

It’s hard to know what exactly Gary Patterson’s squad will bring this year. Their two victories, while blowouts, were against FCS Samson, and Minnesota, who looks to be a middle of the road team in a terrible Big Ten.

Texas

After getting demolished by BYU, most wrote Texas off, and indeed they probably have no chance at competing for a conference title in 2014. However, an encouraging performance in the loss to UCLA leaves at least a little hope in Austin.

Iowa State

Iowa State started the season on a sour note, losing handily to FCS powerhouse North Dakota State. A decent start against Kansas State and win over in-state rival Iowa shows that the team is probably not as bad as it appeared in week one.

Texas Tech

I won’t say Kliff Kingsbury’s seat is getting warm, but the coach of the Red Raiders better start figuring out something. He ended 2013 with momentum slanted downward, and seems to be angled that direction still. Two unconvincing victories against Central Arkansas and UTEP followed by a shellacking at the hands of Arkansas makes for some low expectations in Lubbock.

Kansas

We predicted KU would finish last, but if it were possible to revise our predictions to pick them lower than last, we would. KU almost blew a big lead over SE Missouri State (a mediocre team in their own division), and followed that up by getting throttled against Duke. This week’s game against Central Michigan isn’t guaranteed, and if they should lose…well, I hope Charlie Weis has a monster.com profile