Big 12 Whiparound: Week 2

Let’s jump around through the Big 12 SB Nation sites to get an idea of what went on in the Big 12 this past weekend. And don’t worry KU fans, at least for this week, there’s plenty of schadenfreude to be had.

Let’s get started with the not-so-interesting games.

Louisiana Tech @ Baylor (PPD)

An outbreak of Covid among the LaTech program in the wake of Hurricane Laura forced postponement of this matchup, but Baylor and Houston were able to make a last-minute agreement to play on Sept 19 after the Cougars found themselves in a similar predicament with their first opponent.

Missouri State 0 @ #5 Oklahoma 48

Oklahoma scored touchdowns on its first four possessions, and the Sooners pulled most of their starters at halftime. Not really much to say here, so C&CM is already looking forward to the rest of the schedule:

A lot of positives can be taken away from this game, such as Rattler’s lights-out performance and the defense’s stifling play, but the real challenge begins now. The players who were sidelined tonight will undoubtedly help shore up the team’s depth across the board, but Oklahoma will keep up the defensive performances while working toward a more balanced offensive attack if it wants to seriously contend for a sixth consecutive Big 12 title.

UTEP 3 @ #14 Texas 59

Texas scored on a 78-yard pass play on the first play from scrimmage and never looked back, as the Longhorns steamrolled the overmatched Miners. Burnt Orange Nation notes:

Sure, it was against a less-than-great UTEP defense, but for a season-opener, the Longhorns’ offense looked crisp with Yurcich calling plays. Of course, it helps when a Heisman candidate quarterback is orchestrating the offense, but beyond that luxury, there was diversity in the play-calling and formations Texas featured. The ball was being spread around to any and everyone who wanted it, including walk-on receiver Kai Money, and receivers were often being schemed open, as opposed to Texas simply relying upon superior athletes to make plays, though that did happen.

With the kind of athletes they have in the program, Texas would indeed be quite scary if they have a halfway competent coaching staff. We’ll see how well that shakes out as the competition gets tougher.

Louisiana 31 @ #23 Iowa State 14

Wow. It was an ugly one in Ames, especially if you were partial to the home team. Although the Hawkeyes Cyclones held a 14-10 halftime lead, you just couldn’t shake the feeling that Louisiana was the better team, and in the second half, it showed. The Cajuns scored on a kickoff return, a punt return, and a 78-yard pass play; somebody tell Iowa State that giving up big plays is not conducive to winning football games. WRNL already knows:

Special Teams Coverage: I mean, you knew I had to start with this one, right? There really isn’t a whole lot to talk about. If you give up a 95 yard kickoff return TD and am 82 yard punt return TD in the same game, you probably aren’t going to win.

Eastern Kentucky 10 @ Western Virginia 56

Woof. Maybe if WVU and KU could have switched opponents on Saturday, we would have had two entertaining games to watch. I think maybe if I were to ask, SmokingMusket would feel the same way.

The big takeaway from this game is that we can’t really take too much away. Let’s be honest, Eastern Kentucky is not a good team. Yeah, the Mountaineers looked good today, but is that because we are actually good or is Eastern Kentucky just that bad? We’ll get a better idea of where this team actually is in two weeks when they take on Oklahoma State in Stillwater — assuming the game is played as scheduled.

Arkansas State 35 @ Kansas State 31

What do you do when you’re a football school and you get manhandled at home by a Sun Belt team? Blame the refs, of course, right BOTC?

It’s a simple equation. As soon as it became obvious (which was in the 1st quarter) that the refs were going to allow Johnathan Adams to maul the smaller Kansas State defensive backs, it was all over.

Yeah, that’s it. Don’t blame the two (badly) missed field goals, or the overthrows by Skylar Thompson, or the fact that ASU dominated both lines of scrimmage and simply outgained KSU by 115 yards. Don’t do that.

Houston Baptist 33 @ Texas Tech 35

This actually may have been one of the more surprising results from Saturday. Houston Baptist is - well let’s just say they’re not good, as they lost by 24 points to North Texas a week prior, allowing the Mean Green to rack up 721 yards of offense against them.

In this one, Tech built an early 21-3 lead, but couldn’t stop the Huskies, who totaled 600 yards of offense on the night. HBU scored with 3:23 left in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t convert the 2-point conversion that would have tied the game. What do you think, VTM?

Last night went about as bad as anyone’s nightmare scenario, the only saving grace is it is always better to suck in a win than it is to wake up to a loss.

To be fair, I wish Kansas could get an embarrassing win. Sure beats the alternative. Just tell us what went wrong?

The secondary was horrible, and all that can be hoped is they become just bad. Getting Demarcus Fields back will help get there, as will seeing Schooler in red and black for the first time. That might be enough to get to bad, but that is about it. The corners and safeties were overwhelmed by an nonathletic and untalented receiver corp. Air Raids are going to get yards, but letting someone from a program like HBU throw for 500+ yards is baffling. The receivers were rarely covered, and HBU wins this game if they had a better play caller and caught a few more passes.

Actually... that sounds like good news to me!

Coastal Carolina 38 @ Kansas 23

The TV announcers called KU’s performance “humiliating” and “embarrassing” live, on-air. RCT agrees.

However, this was Coastal Carolina. Even KU recruits at a level where being fully dismantled by a Sun Belt squad for a half is unacceptable. They looked totally unprepared and were outcoached in every way. This team may be rebuilding after losing some important players last year, but the extent to which they were dominated in the first half is a complete embarrassment, and our faithful few remaining football fans deserve better.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

If we’re honest, Coastal was never in danger of losing this game, as the Chanticleers had their way at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball all night long.

I am sad.

Kansas was pushed around up front all night long, which shows in the stats - Coastal was 8-14 (57.1%) on third down, and converted their only fourth down attempt. Meanwhile, Kansas was just 4-11 (36.3%), and 2-3 on fourth downs.

And let’s talk third downs for a minute. KU’s average yards-to-gain on third down was 8.25. Coastal’s was 3.6. Kansas faced 8 third down attempts of 7 yards or more. Coastal faced just 3 such attempts - all in the second half after they had built a huge lead.