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Big 12 Roundtable: Week 2

The Big 12 Roundtable has once again been called together. This time the Nebraska bloggers at Big Red Network are hosting. Make sure that you leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below and then check in with BRN to see what the Big 12 bloggers are saying.

What has been the biggest surprise of the Big 12 season so far? The home loss to Arkansas State by Texas A&M, the impressive scores by Kansas State and Iowa State, or something else?

The biggest surprise to me so far has been Texas Tech. In our last roundtable discussion we were all in agreement that the Red Raiders had the weakest, most embarrassing non-conference schedule in the Big 12. I guess because of that I expected Tech to really dominate and they haven’t. In a 25 point win over Eastern Washington and a 16 point win over Nevada Texas Tech has looked sluggish and hasn’t lived up to the pre-season hype just yet.

 

Should the ankle injury to Jeremy Maclin concern Missouri fans and does it alter the Tigers chances at a division or conference title? Or do his 65 all-purpose yards and a touchdown (on just 6 touches) tell us that he’s fine?

I really don’t care about Maclin at this point. He is a phenomenal athlete and great football player but with the Tigers not being on Oklahoma’s schedule this year I won’t concern myself with anything Missouri related unless they wind up playing the Sooners in the Big 12 championship game.

I will say this though. There aren’t any coaches that I’m aware of who would turn down the 10.8 yards per touch he cranked out the other night.

 

Many people thought this could be the year that Texas Tech finally breaks through and wins the Big 12 South or at least finishes in the Top 10. Do their performances after two games change your perception of them at all or does this look like a team that can get to a BCS bowl game?

The Red Raiders appear to be soft. I think that by the time conference play comes around they should be clicking on all cylinders. If not they are going to be in trouble because their first conference game is a road trip to Manhattan to take on Kansas State. As it is Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State have all been more impressive than Texas Tech through the first two games.

 

Oklahoma has put together some strong performances so far and should be favored in every game they play. But Bob Stoops’ teams have shown themselves to be vulnerable to an upset from time to time. Is this team going to go 13-0 (regular season plus BCS championship game) or will they get knocked off (and if they get upset, who gets ‘em)?

It’s hard to say that any team will go undefeated but Oklahoma certainly has a good chance. We learned last year with LSU that a team doesn’t have to run the table to win the BCS Championship. Without seeing how Oklahoma is going to play on the road yet I don’t know that we could safely pick them to run the table. As much as it pains me to say it I would say that Oklahoma’s best chance to be upset is in Stillwater.

 

After two games, what can you say with confidence that you really know about your team?

They are fast! I’m not sure that I’ve seen a faster team under Bob Stoops. All of their skill position players can go the distance on offense in just one play. On the defensive side they fly to the ball and like to bring the pain. This is the nasty defense of the early Stoops years.

With two games down, how would you re-rank the divisions?

South (Overall Rank)

Oklahoma (1)

Texas (2)

Oklahoma State (4)

Texas Tech (6)

Baylor (11)

Texas A&M (12)

North

Missouri (3)

Kansas (5)

Kansas State (7)

Nebraska (8)

Colorado (9)

Iowa State (10)