The 2010 college football season is now two-thirds of the way over with and we're a long way off from settling the Big 12 championship. In the South Baylor, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are all labeled as front runners still and in the North Nebraska has won the edge over Missouri but we can't count the Tigers out yet. All of this makes for an interesting final four weeks of the season and of course some interesting quotes from SBN's Big 12 Blogs.
We had a total of 623 yards of total offense in the game, with 174 yards rushing and 449 yards passing. The scary thing is, we throttled down in the 4th quarter, and ran the ball more to run out the clock. We could have put up over 700 yards of offense and over 60 on the scoreboard if Sherman was so inclined.Even scarier, this performance was after we had a slow start on offense, going 3-and-out on our first drive, not making a 4th and 1 on our second drive, and fumbling the ball on our third offense possession. We finally got on the scoreboard on our fourth possession with a FG, after an illegal formation and a delay of game penalty pushed us back from 2nd and goal from the 3 to 2nd and goal from the 13. If we had begun the game with all pistons firing on offense? Scary thought. - I Am The 12th Man
Hawkins abruptly ended his press conference late Saturday night in Norman, Okla., after one too many questions about his job and his future following another ugly loss. Even Hawkins appears to be growing tired of the speculation.
...Not all the messages to Hawkins` Facebook page are negative. He continues to receive support. Freddie Trauer even managed to strike an optimistic tone while encouraging Hawkins. "Time to regroup big guy," Trauer wrote to Hawkins. "We can still get Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and go into Nebraska and shut all the naysayers down. What do ya say, coach? Lets do this." - The Ralphie Report
I glanced at the Des Moines Register the other day, and a small graphic caught my eye. It said that Iowa State has played Nebraska a total of 105 times, or more than any other team in their football history. Wow! Just another one of those unexpected moments where the move to the Big Ten doesn't seem all that wonderful. - Corn Nation
As everyone has probably heard by now, Blackmon missed last week's game at Kansas State for a misdemeanor DUI complaint driving back from Dallas early Tuesday Morning.
The Pokes managed a road win against the Wildcats (24-14) despite not having their star receiver. While OSU piled up 511 yard of offense, their points didn't quite reflect that total. 17 offensive points doesn't sound like one of the top offenses in the nation. With their most powerful weapon back, Oklahoma State hopes to take care of Baylor at home this weekend. - Cowboys Ride For Free
Looking purely at the numbers, it's hard not to get a little shiver of terror as a Cyclone fan, but that would be a mistake. Texas proved that Nebraska is not invincible. I will not make any inferences that since we beat Texas and Texas beat Nebraska that we are therefore better than Nebraska. While it's a sound logical argument, there's simply no evidence that it applies in college football. I love the phrase "Any given Saturday" because it represents all the things that make college football so exciting. You simply never know what's going to happen, who's going to win and who's going to lose. The uncertainty and the strong ties people have to certain schools give college football a vibrant heartbeat. - Clone Chronicles
Matchup breakdown for Colorado v Kansas amounts to what many consider the Jayhawks last hope of getting a win in conference. Do that and you're no longer in the basement, you've got something to build off of and then you focus on being competitive against a brutal stretch of Oklahoma State, Nebraska and Missouri.
Colorado is still the favorite, they have a team that has put together more "quality" football throughout the course of the season, but they are a team that Kansas can at least hope to have a shot against. At the same time, I'd say Iowa State and Kansas State should have provided that same opportunity and for the most part Kansas didn't get it done. - Rock Chalk Talk
Like most fans this upside down season, I've gone from shock (UCLA) to frustration (Oklahoma) to false hope (Nebraska) to anger (Iowa State) to an uneasy sadness (Baylor). I suppose the next step is hysteria.
Texas has lost three straight games at home to teams much less talented. So, what does that tell us? Winning and losing is about so much more than talent. It's how you use it - or perhaps more accurately with this team, how you misuse it. We thought we knew how valuable guys like Jordan Shipley, Quan Cosby and Earl Thomas were. Now we're really finding out. - Burnt Orange Nation
With Torres out for the rest of the year, the receiving corps takes a significant hit and I don't know of a reliable receiver that's well suited to take Torres' new inside receiver spot. WR Detron Lewis can obviously swing back inside and perhaps you can then move Darrin Moore or Eric Ward (both outside receivers) outside. But now you have two receivers on the field with Ward and Lewis that aren't the most consistent on the team. Moore has impressed with the time he's been on the field, and he seemed to have a bit of chemistry with Sheffield in at quarterback. And Tuberville mentioned earlier this week that Zouzalik is about 50% or 60% for Saturday, so now you're down another reliable receiver. Losing Torres hurts, there's no way around it. If you want my half-arse idea, I'd think abouty moving RB Ben McRoy to this inside receiver slot. Sure, he doesn't have the size of Torres, but he's awfully quick. I'd love to see McRoy taking a slant pass over the middle and turning it into 50 yards in the blink of an eye. - Double T Nation
It starts with the fact that we saw a very similar performance from this OU team two weeks ago against Iowa State. The offense looked great, the defense played amazing, and we all thought "FINALLY! This was the OU team I was waiting to see." Then they come out and play a terrible game, making all kinds of mental mistakes, yet again on the road against a Missouri team that now looks pretty overrated. So forgive me if I'm not quite ready to jump back on the "this is a great team again!" bandwagon. This is a very bad Colorado football team, sorry CU fans but I sincerely doubt I'm telling you anything you didn't already know. OU was playing at home against a significantly over matched opponent, this is how those types of games are supposed to play out. So they did what they're expected to do, let's hold off on the parade for a little bit. Call me Debbie Downer, but I'm just not going to fall into the same trap. This team still has some major issues, but they were fortunate enough on Saturday to play a team not capable of exploiting them. - Crimson And Cream Machine
A lot has been made in the last two weeks about Missouri's goal-to-go success level, or lack thereof. Against both Oklahoma and Nebraska, the Tigers failed to punch it in despite facing first-and-goal from the 1. Obviously this cost us -- against Oklahoma, Mizzou settling for a field goal allowed the game to stay within one possession for a while longer. Against Nebraska, it allowed Mizzou to only cut Nebraska's lead to 14 in the third quarter instead of 10. We now have anecdotal evidence that Mizzou struggles in this area. Overall, how much of a problem is this? - Rock M Nation
Let me start off by saying this is not going to be the same type of recap as my last post.
As I sit here at my computer thinking about the game, it is hard for me to really get upset like a lot of people probably are. Don't get me wrong, I am disappointed in the game and the fact that we did not come out as the victor, but let's be honest, Oklahoma State is a good team with a very potent offense, and if you really think about it a lot of us didn't really give the Cats a chance in this one.
On paper, it didn't even look like we were going to stack up well. We have a horrendous rush defense, and they are one of the best rushing teams in the nation (They have actually won the Big XII rushing title the past four years). We did come in with the 36th rank pass defense, but if you ask me, that is a very bloated number because nobody has really had to pass the ball on us all year. At the same time we were coming off of two straight games where we averaged 50 points, so we at least had a chance. - Bring on the Cats