Big 12 Roundup & Recap: Iowa State Storms Back in Farmaggedon

#14 Texas Longhorns (9-3, 7-2) 24, Kansas Jayhawks (3-9, 1-8) 17

For a ninth time this season, the Texas Longhorns played a game decided by seven points or less, as a furious comeback by the Kansas Jayhawks fell short when Lil’Jordan Humphrey recovered an onside kick with 1:37 remaining to seal a 24-17 victory in Lawrence on Saturday at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. In front of a small crowd that featured nearly as many Longhorns fans as Jayhawks fans, Texas once again struggled to put an opponent away in the fourth quarter, a common scene this season for a team that will now head to the Big 12 Championship game for the first time since 2009.

The Longhorns started off strong, forcing a Kansas three-and-out on the opening possession of the game. The KU punt was downed at the 2-yard line, and Texas marched 98 yards in just over 5 minutes to get the game’s first points on a 26-yard touchdown pass from Sam Ehlinger to Collin Johnson. That was as good at the Texas offense would look at game. After that opening drive, Kansas held Texas to just 199 yards of total offense and intercepted Ehlinger twice. However, KU’s offensive attack was equally morbid, which explained the 21-0 deficit entering the fourth quarter of play.

Iowa St. Cyclones (7-4, 6-3) 42, Kansas State Wildcats (5-7, 3-6) 38

The defense came up huge on the last drive. They stopped K-State on 4th down with a little over a minute left. David Montgomery iced the game with two runs that led to a first down. Iowa State won 42-38 after trailing 38-21. Iowa State ended the streak that we all thought would never end. David Montgomery had one his best games as a Cyclone with 19 carries for 149 yards and 3 touchdowns. As did Willie Harvey on the defensive side of the ball. Brock Purdy was 20-27 for 337 yards with two touchdowns. He also ran for 37 yards and stepped up when needed most.

Farmageddon has always been four hours of absolute lunacy. With 12:27 to go in this year’s edition, that description was guaranteed. K-State, the prohibitive underdog, stood with a 38-21 lead over Iowa State and the unbelievable prospect of reaching bowl eligibility after a 3-6 start. It was already insane, and the only way to erase that insanity would of course be even more insanity. And then Iowa State only took two minutes to pull within ten points.

And then Skylar Thompson was hit in the backfield 104 seconds later and Mike Rose returned his fumble for a touchdown. And four minutes later, Iowa State completed the comeback with an 18-yard run by David Montgomery, his third touchdown of the night. K-State was unable to answer, and the Cyclones snapped a ten-year losing streak to Bill Snyder with a 42-38 victory at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames.

Baylor Bears (6-6, 4-5) 35, Texas Tech Red Raiders (5-7, 3-6) 24

WE ARE GOING BOWLING! The 2018 Baylor Bears are going to a bowl! That is all for now. More later. I’m on my phone. JUST KIDDING—A BOWL GAME IN YEAR 2! Charlie Brewer: man. John Lovett: man. Chris Platt: MAN. BLAKE LYNCH: MANNNNN. TRUST. THE. PROCESS. I want reaction gifs in the comments, people!

If the firing [of head coach Kliff Kingsbury] does eventually in fact happen, then Kingsbury will finish his time at Texas Tech with a 35-40 overall record and 19-35 record in conference. Tech suffered a losing season in three of the six years Kingsbury was here which hadn’t been done since the early 1980s. After a 5-2 start, Tech finished the season on a five-game losing streak, once again suffering a losing record. Despite multiple injuries to his starting and backup quarterbacks this year, the losses seen to be too much.

TCU Horned Frogs (6-6, 4-5) 31, Oklahoma State Cowboys (6-6, 3-6) 24

The monument to Jalen Reagor — a statue may not do him justice — should start construction in January. Reagor scored two touchdowns, put up 212 combined yards (121 rushing, 91 passing) and dominated in every facet of the game in a 31-24 TCU win over Oklahoma State at Amon G. Carter Stadium in the final contest of the regular season. The Frogs improved to 6-6 on the year and are now eligible for a bowl, something Gary Patterson has stressed in the past is always a positive for the program.

Oklahoma State would show some life in the third quarter on a 3-yard run from Chuba Hubbard(finally) and make the score 10-24. Then, the defense missed Darius Davis in the back of the end zone for another Frogs score to make it 31-17 TCU. They would keep trying to comeback when Taylor Cornelius would take it into the end zone himself in the fourth quarter to give us what would be the final score of 31-24 TCU. Overall TCU played like a team that wanted to get bowl eligible. They got stops when they needed to and got points on the board when it counted. Meanwhile Oklahoma State played well...like they didn’t have anything to play for. Which isn’t necessarily the case.

Big 12 Standings