Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will officially decide the Big 12 conference championship on December 3rd. The two have risen to the top of the conference rankings, thanks to a couple of impressive winning streaks, and are clearly the top to teams the Big 12 has to offer. Speaking of streaks, the goal posts came down in Lawrence as the Jayhawks halted one of the worst streaks in all of college football. Let’s jump into this week’s Good, Bad, & Ugly.
The Good
Streaking Part I | You have to go back to November 8, 2014 to find the last time Kansas won a football game against an FBS opponent. You have to go even further back to 1938 to find the last time the Jayhawks had beaten Texas. Both of those streaks came to an end on Saturday with a 25-yard Matt Wyman field goal in overtime.
Streaking Part II | Oklahoma State’s 31-6 win over TCU, in Ft. Worth, secured a shot at the conference title for the third time since 2011. The Pokes have now won seven games in a row and are ranked #10 in both the AP and Coaches Polls.
Streaking Part III | The Oklahoma Sooners handled business in Morgantown on Saturday night to secure their conference title shot. OU is ranked #7 in both the AP and Coaches and is riding an 8-game winning streak.
Dede Westbrook’s Yards Per Reception | Oklahoma’s star receiver only caught two passes Saturday night but he tallied up 100 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Kansas State’s Alex Barnes | The Wildcats’ freshman running back carried the ball 19 times against Baylor for 129 yards and 4 touchdowns.
The Bad
Plummeting In The Rankings | The polls haven’t been kind to West Virginia all season and that trend continued on Sunday. After Saturday night’s loss to Oklahoma, the hottest team in the Big 12, the Mountaineers were punished by dropping nine spots in the AP and eight spots in the Coaches Polls.
Oklahoma’s Run Defense | The good news for the Sooners is that they won by four touchdowns. The bad news is that WVU’s Justin Crawford ran for 331 yards on 24 carries in a losing effort.
The Ugly
TCU Offense | The wheels have completely come off the wagon in Ft. Worth as TCU’s nightmare season continues. The Frogs managed just 6 points on Saturday and have now lost three of their last four games. During that stretch, TCU is averaging just 15.5 points per game.
Iowa State 66 – Texas Tech 10 | We knew that the Texas Tech defense is just a slight upgrade from a Jr. High soccer team doing the Mannequin Challenge, but they still have the high-octane offense to bail them out, right? Wrong! The Red Raiders looked equally pathetic on both sides of the ball last Saturday.
The Charlie Strong Era | Charlie still has the opportunity to collect a win over TCU on Friday and qualify for a bowl game, but unfortunately his legacy as being, “the guy who lost to Kansas” has been set at Texas.
Power Rankings
- Oklahoma 9-2
- Oklahoma State 9-2
- West Virginia 8-2
- Kansas State 6-4
- Baylor 6-4
- TCU 5-5
- Texas 5-6
- Iowa State 3-8
- Texas Tech 4-7
- Kansas 2-9