The Big 12 is facing a full slate of games this weekend with all twelve teams involved in conference play. Of course what that means for us is that the SBN Big 12 blogs should be buzzing with thoughts, previews and even some reviews of what happened last weekend. Let's take a look!
For the second week in a row, the Ags made too many mistakes to win the game. I think Mike Sherman adequately expressed all of our frustrations when he looked at the ground after another Aggie fumble, rather than look out at the field. Nothing we can do except get ready for a good Missouri team coming to Kyle on Saturday. We are all just waiting for the team to play well in every aspect of the game on the same day. - I Am The 12th Man
Dan Hawkins sure has a quick trigger pull for the quarterback position. I wonder why the same quick trigger doesn't apply to his coaching staff? That would certainly make more sense if it was consistent across all of Coach's workings. But for some reason, nothing has changed in regards to special teams. Missouri led off the game with a big kick return that put the Buffs defense against the wall that resulted in pinning the Buffs offense inside the 5 yard line the first two possessions of the game that led to a safety that put the Buffs behind and gave the momentum to Missouri. A nice run on sentence there but special teams has a causal effect, almost always a negative causal effect for the Buffs. As CU fans, we always get to appreciate just how important special teams are when the opposition uses it to beat Colorado. We get a first hand view every game just how important kicking, punting and returning are to the game of football. - Ralphie Report
An observation about the difference between the Nebraska and Texas fan bases -
When Texas is not doing well, their fans become highly critical of their coaching staff and players. If it were legal, Longhorn fans might just kill their coaching staff, barbecue them and eat them.
When Nebraska doesn't do well, Husker fans have a tendency to go around beating the hell out of any other Husker fan if they say anything bad about the coaches or the players all the while declaring themselves "true fans". Arguments ensue about how long each has had season tickets, attended games, or how many pieces of Husker fandom each owns and practically nothing is said about the coaches or the players and how lousy they're performing.
I'm not trying to say that one approach is necessarily better than the other (because it's not), I'm just pointing out the difference between the fans so that if you head over to BON this week to try and get a handle on Texas, you understand the mood they're in. - Corn Nation
So we are once again left with mixed emotions following a decent win by the Cowboys.The Pokes covered a big spread on the road and cracked the 50 point mark, we should be happy with the performance, and if we hadn't watched the game we would be. The reason we are uneasy is we keep seeing the stretches of poor performance that we believe will lead to doom in future contests verses better competition.... and maybe it will... but apparently the Cowboys are intent on being this type of team this season so we better get used to it... and maybe embrace it.
Yes it would be great if the Cowboys could come out firing on all cylinders on both sides of the ball and put every game away like they did to Tulsa... but couldn't this ability to turn it on at will be considered a positive as well? I like the idea that this team can be completely disoriented as they were in the first half of the last two games, re-group at halftime, remind themselves that they are much better than this, make a few adjustments, come back out for the 2nd half and dominate. This is a young, extremely talented team, running even younger and more talented schemes... a team that is still figuring itself out, and we are going to have to adjust our support accordingly. - Cowboys Ride For Free
Holy cow, was that ugly. I literally wanted to turn off the TV in the fourth quarter, and I noticed that 80% of the people in the stands were gone about half-way through the 3rd. I have a really hard time blaming them, I'm sorry to say.
We could literally spend all day talking about the things that went wrong on Saturday night in Jack Trice Stadium, but what can we feel good about? (Warning, un-supported optimism incoming) - Clone Chronicles
Week seven and we're out of the bye week cycle that comes with the beginning of conference play for the most part.
Full slate of games this week starting with Kansas vs. Kansas State on Thursday night and wrapping with a couple nice matchups Saturday.
Missouri travels to Texas A&M and Nebraska plays Texas in Lincoln. A little North vs. South bragging rights up for grabs and some potentially fun games to watch. - Rock Chalk Talk
We're gonna dance around a bit. Good for cheering us up. We need to collect our restless spirit from the dark night winds swirling around us now.
So, at appropriate interludes there needs to be some music to fill up this bye week. You can help with that.
No one is writing much because, frankly, there's not much to cheer about and the sense of anticipation is about like a pen full of young bulls when it's nut chopping time in the spring. Although it is so slow in this desperately needed bye week, and there really nothing to say, I've never been one to let that deter me from my appointed mission, whatever in the hell that is. - Burnt Orange Nation
1. HOW DO YOU IMPROVE THE PASS RUSH? | A big part of Texas Tech's defensive success early in the season was getting pressure on the quarterback, especially with the emergence of DE Scott Smith. With Smith's indefinite suspension, and the pass-rush was almost non-existent against Iowa St. and Baylor (totally admit that it's hard to get a pass rush on a mobile quarterback like RGIII and Arnaud), what do you do and how do you get the pass rush going, especially this week against Oklahoma St.? Do you try to do something schematically or is it a personnel issue (remember that Smith was out, and DT Myles Wade and DE Aundrey Barr were out with injury)? - Double T Nation
Well thanks to the two voters who decided to give OU a first place vote, things got a little bit more interesting this week. For those not already familiar, this info is courtesy of Poll Speak who each week publishes the AP voters ballots. If you've been reading these posts the last couple weeks, you'll be familiar with the name of one voter who ranked OU first. The second voter is a new name to CC Machine and he is apparently a really big fan of Oklahoma teams. - Crimson And Cream Machine
It really is easy to take living in Columbia for granted. It takes me 15 minutes to get from house to parking space in Lot X. I don't have kids (and their things) to pack up, and even if I did ... I'm still only 15 minutes away. I visit with a friend of mine from college; she lives in St. Louis and has a nine-month old now. As far as I can tell, nine-month olds are basically puppies; if it's near them, they stick it in their mouth. Leaves, toys, Mommy's shoulder. Getting to a Mizzou game is an outing for them. Even though my friend was (almost) as crazy about Mizzou games as I was in school (she didn't make the stupid overnight trip to Clemson, for instance, but she didn't miss a home game either), she's only going to make it to about half of this season's home games. Things happen, and sometimes you can't make it to town. For me, not an issue. I never want to live anywhere but Columbia.
Lot X, by the way, is quite the scene now. Tents set up everywhere there is grass, TV's with the DirectTV rolling, music pumping ... it's a great tailgate atmosphere. It is also, of course, a long, long walk from the stadium. Laptop bag on my shoulder (I've got a press pass for this one, thanks to our friend SleepyFloyd7), I start to make the walk to our typical tailgating spot, in Lot P on the south side of Mizzou Arena. It's a 20-minute haul. And yes, the walk includes trips through 80%-empty, higher-donor lots. - Rock M Nation
The week of the Big Game -- be it in football or basketball -- always brings with it thoughts of my dad. Some of my best memories of him are wrapped up in K-State games. I remember Jack Hartman (whom my dad idolized), and Lon Kruger (whose Silver Lake team was beaten my dad's Lewis Spartans in the quarterfinals of the 1970 Kansas state basketball tournament). I remember the 1982 football season, and how it was a flicker of light down a long, dark hallway leading to 1990. Without Coach Jim Dickey, and his boy Darrell, my early Wildcat football memories would have contained naught but losing, from my first memories of listening to Cats' games, in my dad's farm truck, as a kindergartener back in 1979, all the way until Coach Snyder arrived on the scene in late 1988.
In fact, as a know-it-all 14-year-old, I was singularly unimpressed with the "old man" (that's honestly what I called him, even back in 1988, when he was all of 49) who stepped to the podium that day. It was my dad who told me, "Give him some time, Kev. I think he might be different." As in most things, my dad was right. - Bring On The Cats