The Big 12 Standings are still in the early phase, but patterns are emerging.
No teams have had a common opponent, so there still aren't any tiebreakers.
Baylor does not have last year's mojo so far. There was a reason Dillon Doyle and Connor Galvin were the players selected for the post game presser. They're seniors, and were willing to go out and face the press, but they were shell shocked.
Unpopular opinion: the offensive line is playing as well as they did last year. Abram Smith isn't in the backfield. There is no one in the running back room that can reliably get two yards on their own. Bohanon, Smith and Ebner, collectively, outweigh Shapen, Reese and Williams by 114 pounds. Defenders feared tackling Smith, and they didn't like tackling Bohanon. When Smith was running forward, you'd see defenders, in that twitch moment before impact, shift, so they would hit him at an angle, instead of head on.
If Bohanon's first read wasn't open, he took off. Shapen goes to second and third read, so he holds the ball longer, and the line has to hold up longer.
The defense is not playing badly, but they are getting burned a little more. Nine of the Oklahoma State points came with the defense on the sidelines, two on the safety and seven on the kick off return. After the turnover on downs, the Cowboys were already in long field goal range. So, the Cowboys scored 23 against the Baylor defense, which is a respectable defensive showing. Going for it on 4th down when deep in your own territory removes Issac Power from the equation, and he's one of Baylor's best weapons.
Dana Holgorsen may have already accomplished what he was hired for at the University of Houston. In 2011, Holgorsen went to West Virginia, The next year, West Virginia went to the Big 12. Before West Virginia, he'd been an assistant at Texas Tech, Houston and Oklahoma State. He knows the Big 12. Houston had one wish, more than anything else, and that was to get into a Power 5 conference. Holgorsen left West Virginia to take over Houston in 2019, and in 2021, the Cougars got an invite to the Big 12. Maybe it was a coincidence, and if Texas and Oklahoma hadn't decided to leave, there wouldn't have been an invitation to accept, but he knows the Big 12, and has built a lot of friends in the conference over the years. Since Holgorsen has worked at three Big 12 schools, and already navigated one school's transfer into the Big 12, it seems fortuitous that he would show up in Houston just in time to help another team transition.
Houston still needs to attract more T-shirt fans. Maybe change their school colors to Columbia blue and white, get a new mascot, and a catchy fight song.
No teams have had a common opponent, so there still aren't any tiebreakers.
Baylor does not have last year's mojo so far. There was a reason Dillon Doyle and Connor Galvin were the players selected for the post game presser. They're seniors, and were willing to go out and face the press, but they were shell shocked.
Unpopular opinion: the offensive line is playing as well as they did last year. Abram Smith isn't in the backfield. There is no one in the running back room that can reliably get two yards on their own. Bohanon, Smith and Ebner, collectively, outweigh Shapen, Reese and Williams by 114 pounds. Defenders feared tackling Smith, and they didn't like tackling Bohanon. When Smith was running forward, you'd see defenders, in that twitch moment before impact, shift, so they would hit him at an angle, instead of head on.
If Bohanon's first read wasn't open, he took off. Shapen goes to second and third read, so he holds the ball longer, and the line has to hold up longer.
The defense is not playing badly, but they are getting burned a little more. Nine of the Oklahoma State points came with the defense on the sidelines, two on the safety and seven on the kick off return. After the turnover on downs, the Cowboys were already in long field goal range. So, the Cowboys scored 23 against the Baylor defense, which is a respectable defensive showing. Going for it on 4th down when deep in your own territory removes Issac Power from the equation, and he's one of Baylor's best weapons.
Dana Holgorsen may have already accomplished what he was hired for at the University of Houston. In 2011, Holgorsen went to West Virginia, The next year, West Virginia went to the Big 12. Before West Virginia, he'd been an assistant at Texas Tech, Houston and Oklahoma State. He knows the Big 12. Houston had one wish, more than anything else, and that was to get into a Power 5 conference. Holgorsen left West Virginia to take over Houston in 2019, and in 2021, the Cougars got an invite to the Big 12. Maybe it was a coincidence, and if Texas and Oklahoma hadn't decided to leave, there wouldn't have been an invitation to accept, but he knows the Big 12, and has built a lot of friends in the conference over the years. Since Holgorsen has worked at three Big 12 schools, and already navigated one school's transfer into the Big 12, it seems fortuitous that he would show up in Houston just in time to help another team transition.
Houston still needs to attract more T-shirt fans. Maybe change their school colors to Columbia blue and white, get a new mascot, and a catchy fight song.
