Big 12 Roundtable: Week Five

by rockchalk on Sep 30, 2009 4:36 PM CDT in Kansas Jayhawk Football

Yet again, the fabulous folks on over at Rock M Nation are hosting the Roundtable. Pay them a visit, por favor.

1. Is it time for the Big 12 to collectively pour one out for the departure of Baylor quarterback Robert "Hot Tub" Griffin? Even if your team benefits from his injury, are you sad to see one of the conference's premier playmakers done for the season?

Yes. I think everyone liked Robert Griffin, for multiple reasons. First and foremost, I think everyone enjoys programs that typically don't see success, such as Baylor, become relevant. Robert Griffin was clearly leading the charge of Baylor's possible ascent to relevance. But also, he's just such a likable guy. As Kenny laid out in our commiseration thread:

All Robert Griffin has is:

1. World-class hurdler speed
2. A rocket cannon for an arm
3. Prodigy-level football IQ (set the record for most pass attempts to start a career without an interception)
4. Prodigy-level non football IQ (4.0 student; father is on the Texas Supreme Court).

The only reason he isn’t a Super Duper Star is that he plays for Baylor.

It's hard not to like that kind of kid. The fact that he was such a "Super Duper Star" in Waco, as I said, makes it even better.

Everyone should be sad. Everyone.

2. Play the role of Mythbusters for us. If you could dispel one national perception of your team, what would it be?

We don't play defense. No, we won't be confused for a grind-it-out, old-fashioned, win 9-7 team. The game has changed, though, and it isn't necessarily a good thing to be that kind of team. As a whole, spread teams are often thought of as kind of gimmicky, quick-striking and holding a desire to simply outscore the opponent. As Mike Gundy would say, that's not true!

Kansas has a good defense. It isn't as good as our offense, and is still finding itself, but it is a good unit. It's been getting good, if not consistent, pressure on the QB and has some playmakers in the secondary. The linebackers have stepped up, and are probably a better fit against other spread offenses than the more traditional linebackers of last year, most notably Mike Rivera and Joe Mortensen.

Kansas plays defense. Most spread teams do.

3. Give us the name of one player on each side of the ball on your team that everyone else in the conference may not know about or fully appreciate.

OFFENSE -- LT Tanner Hawkinson. By now, I'd imagine that most have heard of Toben Opurum and Bradley McDougald, so those answers would be kind of silly. However, Hawkinson isn't known as well as he should. His story probably is -- came to Kansas last year as a TE, moved to DE halfway through the season, then was moved to LT prior to spring practice and is now the starter there -- but not his impact. He's good. He's still undersized, and will be prone to bull rushes and such during Big 12 season, but he has a bunch of natural skills. For the most part, he's impressed at protecting Todd's blind-side. Give him another year, and he'll be a name that everyone thinks of when making All-Big 12 lists.

DEFENSE -- DE Maxwell Onyegbule. A lot of different directions I could go with this one, but I'll go with Max O. He's been dominant so far this season, finally showing the talent and ability he's only shown flashes of before this season. Some other possibilities would include LB Arist Wright, CB Daymond Patterson and even, maybe, LB Huldon Tharp.

4. OU vs. Da U: Who ya' got?

Miami. It's in South Beach, even though it's really north of Miami because it's in Dolphin Stadium, and Sam Bradford probably won't play. If he does, I guess it switches to Boomer Sooner, I don't know. I'm still not all that sold on the Sooners, but they looked really good the past two weeks, shutting out the opponent and putting up absurd point totals. Still not a Landry/Lance Jones fan (warden), though, which is probably irrational. Keep in mind -- I haven't seen a second of Boomer Sooner football since opening weekend, so maybe they've gotten a whole bunch better. I don't know.

As far as Da U goes, they have to be pumped up, right? They looked like a legitimate National Title contender in the first two games, and while they played pretty awful in equally terrible weather in Blacksburg, I still think the first two games is what is closer to their true talent level.

Plus, that Jacory...I don't even have to say it. You know what's coming.

5. Give us your Offensive Player of the Week, Defensive Player of the Week, and Storyline of the Week for last week.

OPOW -- IDK. Blaine Gabbert? 400+ yards is pretty sweet, even if it was against Nevada's absolutely abysmal secondary.

DPOW -- Chris Harris. For whatever reason, I entirely forgot him from my game recap yesterday. I feel bad, so I'll give him this award.

Storyline of the Week -- Robert Griffin out for the season. If it's worth a discussion topic on the Roundtable, it wins this Award. Easy.

6. Power Poll! Rank the teams 1-12 based on who would win on a neutral field.