I pretty much jumped the gun with my Texas Tech/Iowa State comment further proving my imperfectness.
The third week of the 2012 college football season didn't tell us a whole lot about the Big XII. We know that OSU can still beat up on the sisters of the poor, even with a backup quarterback, and that David Ash can actually look like a respectable quarterback when he has all day to throw against defensive backs who could't cover at toddler bed with a king sized blanket.
However, as the season progresses the merit of every Big XII team will be put to the test...including Oklahoma. Here's the buzz around the Big XII on SBN.
Sitting at 3-0 the Iowa State Cyclones are filled with confidence heading into their first conference game against Texas Tech. In fact, they're trying to find a way to get more fans into the stadium.
In case you have not heard by now, last Saturday's game was the 4th largest home attendance in Iowa State history. That is pretty darn impressive considering Iowa State was playing
Monticello High SchoolWestern Illinois. And if you're any kind of rabid cyclone fan, this attendance demand has pushed the topic of the mythical south end zone renovation back into everyone's forefront. - WRNL
After holding serve against SEC opponents over the last two weekends, Louisiana-Monroe now has its sights set on the Baylor Bears who will visit this Friday night. Despite the terrific performances against bad SEC teams, ULM should be an underdog to the Bears. All Baylor has to do is figure out how to attack the 3-3-5 defense.
Our offensive line has to step up their game in pass protection considerably. I've now watched both of ULM's prior games and seen everything said above born out in practice. On almost every play, ULM brings at least 4 rushers, often 5 or more, to create havoc in the backfield. They blitzed, blitzed, and then blitzed some more. We should expect them to do exactly the same thing again this week. Against Arkansas in the first half, it actually didn't work out so well because the offensive line protected Wilson well enough to get the ball away and Arkansas' receivers were able to get open in the spaces vacated. ULM's Vincent Eddie and Rob'Donovan Lewis, combined with deep safety Mitch Lane, were unable to fill the holes vacated by blitzers. To his credit, Wilson reacted quickly to find those holes and the receivers streaking through them. It's easy to forget that when Wilson left the game, his team was up 28-7. They had dominated on offense. - Our Daily Bears
The backup quarterback is always the most popular player on the team. That is unless he's actually put into the game when the starter is injured.
It wasn't long after Wes Lunt went down Saturday when seemingly "spoiled by recent success" Oklahoma State fans started writing JW Walsh off. "Texas will eat him alive" they said. The kid seems to be on a pretty short leash with Oklahoma State fans, but is that even close to fair? - Cowboys Ride For Free
TCU started their Big XII tenure off with a win over Kansas. However, you don't necessarily get the feeling that they are completely satisfied.
Welcome to the Frogs O' War Video Rewind, where I look over the game film of the latest TCU game and highlight (with pictures) what went right, what went wrong, and how Casey fumbled. Hopefully that last part won't be a recurring theme for this feature, but it will certainly be covered in detail in this one. Additionally on Friday we'll be looking at some photos from the Virginia/Georgia Tech game from last week and breaking down some of the breakdowns in Virginia's defensive scheme in their loss. Sound good? Good. Make the jump and let's learn. - Frogs O' War
Was the Texas win over Mississippi enough to place them second in a Big XII power poll? At least one SBN blog thinks so.
2. Texas
How They Fared: 66-31 win over Ole Miss
Up Next: Bye
Previous Ranking #4
Texas put 60+ on an SEC school and their quarterback play hit a level that hasn't been seen in Austin since Colt McCoy's departure. Yes it was Ole Miss and not Alabama or LSU, but the win is till big time and that Texas/WVU game in a few weeks is looking pretty good. I'll be there for that one, never been to Austin...can't wait. - Rock Chalk Talk
Part of the key to success in 2012 for the Texas Longhorns has been the ability to avoid something that plagued them in 2011.
Last season, the Texas offense was characterized by breakdowns along the offensive line and at the quarterback positions. Linemen would miss assignments or blocks, and the young quarterbacks had little to no ability to get the team out of obviously bad plays.
As a result, the Longhorns finished tied for 73rd in the country in tackles for loss allowed with 77 over the course of the season, roughly six per game. All that after a relatively strong start -- after three games, Mack Brown and his squad had only conceded 10 stops behind the line of scrimmage against Rice, BYU, and UCLA. - Burnt Orange Nation
There's no better way to get to know a new conference foe than by checking out one of their most storied rivalries.
Our Staring Down The Musket series continues this week with WVU's oldest rival on the 2012 schedule, theMaryland Terrapins. Despite having played Maryland significantly more than anyone else the Mountaineers will face this year, we still don't know much about them. So we enlisted the help of Maryland's SBNation blog,Testudo Times to help answer some questions. And while I still can't tell whether the JMU Sports Blog was right about the Dukes being WVU's toughest non-conference opponent to date, I do know that the Mountaineers shouldn't take the Terps lightly. Randy Edsall has beaten WVU in the past, and evidently has some talented (albeit young) players on his roster who are chomping at the bit to knock off a ranked WVU team. Take it away, Testudo: - The Smoking Musket
Who doesn't like it when a play is broken down by still frames?
So we move back to the offense today and this is one of my favorite formations because it is relatively rare and we don't see it all that often. What we have here is Pistol formation using 22 personnel, two running backs and two tight ends. The situation is a third and one in the third quarter and Michael Brewer is the quarterback. In watching the video, I think that Beau Carpenter was actually in the game as the right guard and Alfredo Morales runs in and Carpenter moves over to tight end on the left side of the line while TE Jace Amaro is on the right side of the line. RB Omar Ontiveros is your up-back while RB Kenny Williams is your tailback. - Double T Nation
Here at CCM we're getting ready for the Kansas State Wildcats and that means coming up with a way to put the brakes on Collin Klein.
The most obvious change, and one you've likely heard about by now, is how the Sooners are likely to play more of a 4-3 on run downs as opposed to their customary 4-2-5. Mike Stoops said earlier this week that Joseph Ibiloye and Aaron Franklin were the two most likely linebacker to fill that third spot. Ibiloye was a predictable choice as he's been the linebacker of choice in this formation when Oklahoma has employed it in the past. Franklin was a little surprising given his size (he's listed at 6'1" 212 lbs), but has been a player the coaches have spoken highly of in the past and received snaps in a reserve role through OU's first two games. - CCM
Speaking of Klein, Bring On The Cats is keeping his Heisman campaign rolling.
It wasn't a perfect week for our hero, but at the end of it he was actually fairly close to the crazy numbers I suggested he needed to get last week. Plus, the man furthest ahead of Collin Klein in the Heisman race suffered a large and unexpected setback out on the West Coast.
I find it incredibly encouraging that compared to his stats after three games last season, our quarterback has doubled his passing yardage totals and is completing passes at a much higher rate. In my mind, that makes up for his 171 fewer rushing yards, especially since he has exactly the same number of rushing touchdowns and passing touchdowns as he did after three nonconference games last year. - Bring On The Cats