Big 12 Roundup & Recap: Texas-LSU Thriller, Kansas isn’t Back

TCU Horned Frogs (Bye)

The Horned Frogs were off this week, with a very early bye.

(6) LSU Tigers 45, (9) Texas Longhorns 38

Missed opportunities cost Texas this game. In what ended as a seven-point loss, the Longhorns left at least 14 points on the field. Obviously, Keaontay Ingram dropping a wide-open would-be touchdown to potentially take a 7-3 lead comes to mind, and then Texas had two chances to score from the half-yard line on the following drive and didn’t. On the play that essentially sealed the win, Texas had LSU facing a 3rd and 17, and instead of making a key stop in a six-point game, allowed a 61-yard score. Even then, after responding with a touchdown of its own, Texas nearly executed the on-side kick, but Collin Johnson couldn’t secure the recovery. These were just a few of the several plays Texas will wish it had back.

Texas had chances in this game to make a statement and finally, FINALLY, put to rest the Are We Back and once again they fail to take care of business. This loss hurts more because it was at home. When the College Football Playoffs ramp up, this loss will be held against the Longhorns.

Kansas State Wildcats 52, Bowling Green 0

Bowling Green has had two shots at Kansas State in their history. They’ve given up 110 points, and they’re still waiting to score one themselves. Just like their first meeting in 1997, as the first iteration of the Bill Snyder era was reaching its peak, the Falcons came to Manhattan and were absolutely dominated. The result this time was only six points different than the first as K-State rolled to a 52-0 win in front of a very happy crowd of Wildcat faithful.

Chris Klieman so far has the Wildcats looking tougher and tougher. They haven’t played anyone yet but this is a great start for Klieman.

Coastal Carolina 12, Kansas Jayhawks 7

Kansas took over in their own territory and went four and out. This was essentially the end of the game as Kansas was powerless to stop the clock. In case you forgot, Miles burned TWO timeouts thinking over that failed 4th down play earlier in the quarter. No one expected more than maybe a handful of wins this year, but given the coaching hire it was disheartening to see more of what we’ve seen the last ten years out of this program: disorganization, incompetence, and terrible football.

I feel bad for Kansas fans. All they want is something to be proud of and it continues to be a Groundhog’s Day of terrible for the football team. It wasn’t that long ago Kansas was actually really good.

Iowa St. Cyclones (Bye)

Congrats Iowa State, enjoy Gameday. Put on a helluva show. You might as well because Campbell2Tallahassee is probably on the horizon...

Baylor Bears 63, UTSA Roadrunners 14

When the UTSA Roadrunners woke up at their team hotel and/or got on the team bus this morning, there’s a few things they probably didn’t expect. First, they didn’t expect to play a football game on the surface of the Sun. That is excusable since they, like I, probably didn’t even know a football field could get to 181 degrees, which ours apparently did. There’s a legitimate chance that the playing surface at McLane Stadium was one of the hottest places on the planet today when the game began.

Congrats to Baylor winning and I’ll admit, I don’t know when the surface temp was 181, but let’s just say if you’re playing football on a surface over 100 degrees, you don’t ever get to say you are concerned about “player safety” on any level. Period.

Oklahoma State Cowboys 56, McNeese State 14

Spencer Sanders threw for 250 yards and three touchdowns in Oklahoma State’s 56-14 home-opening blowout win over FCS McNeese State on Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium. The redshirt freshman connected with junior wide receiver Tylan Wallace from 69, 4 and 75 yards. Wallace, a Bilenkiloff Award finalist from a season ago, hauled in 180 yards on five receptions. Sanders also led OSU (2-0) with 51 rushing yards on 12 carries.

Mike Gundy has that team ready to play and they handled their business at home. I don’t want to get too high on the Cowboys yet because this was a FCS opener but they do look good early.

(4) Oklahoma Sooners 70, South Dakota 14

The No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners overcame an avalanche of penalties to bury the South Dakota Coyotes, 70-14. The game played out pretty much how you’d expect with OU building a massive lead before USD’s offense found any success at all. Jalen Hurts followed up his record-breaking debut with another solid showing, and in the fourth quarter fans witnessed the collegiate debut of highly-touted true freshman QB Spencer Rattler.

My favorite part of this game was the post-game presser where a reporter asked Hurts “Do you like throwing deep” and he deadpanned “I like winning”. He’ll either be loved or hated by years end.

Texas Tech Red Raiders 38, UTEP 3

Alan Bowman threw three touchdown passes, two to T.J. Vasher, and Texas Tech rode another strong defensive performance under new coach Matt Wells to a 38-3 victory over UTEP on Saturday night.

STANDINGS