Is the Big 12 back? !$&@ No!
The Big 12 was 5-0 in bowl season, leading to a whole lot of chirping. Let’s set the record straight.
By: The Waco Kid
Let’s skewer these dudes.
After hearing all the talk about the Big 12 going 5-0 in bowl season, I would like to visit a few things. As good as the conference appears with this record there are some concerns with the level of play and competition. First off, I would like to say congratulations to Big 12 commissioner, Bob Bowlsby, for living his best life right now. His conference pulled bowl games against Miami who had just been throttled by North Carolina, Colorado who has proven nothing all season, a Florida team that saw all starting receivers and the top 4 pass catchers opt-out of the Cotton Bowl, Army (no need to comment), and finally Oregon, a team that played 7 games this year and lost 3 of them. For a Power 5 commissioner, this is hitting the jackpot. It seems as if all the pieces are falling into place for people to say the Big 12 is legit and did not go 0-3 vs the Sun Belt Conference in the opening week. Yes, teams got better, but as I predicted earlier in the year, the Big 12 did end up with two-loss teams all across the board. Still, the conference must be rewarded for winning the matchups that they were hand-fed with a silver spoon, hence the B- grade. Points were deducted (I make the rules) because only 3 out of 5 bowl games were played against top 25 teams, while the SEC played all 8 bowl games against top 25 competition and have so far gone 6-2, with the chance to improve to 7-2 with a national championship win.
There is no better feeling than that of seeing a Big 12 fan getting triggered on social media. The delusion of thinking you play in a top tier conference must be a nice break from the reality that 2020 has dropped upon us. Only people who know their team cannot compete with top talent week in and week out, get so mad over being told the conference is not the Zeus of Olympia but merely a Hermes, quick and hard to catch but has glaring weaknesses. Year in and year out we have to listen to these fair-weather fans talk about how good their team is. Then inevitably they lose to an unranked opponent and die-hards start to travel I-10 or down 35 South to find the next Buc-ee’s, Allsup’s, or Walmart that is selling half-priced T-shirts for Big 12 teams with a winning record and some jalapeno jerky. I can always appreciate at least one of those purchases. I keep getting texts from friends talking crap about how Baylor has a bright future and pictures with that stupid BU logo on flags, all I have to say to them is hell yeah! Back your team and double down, these guys are the real fans and the ones that deserve the most respect as opposed to all of those traveling to Austin to support the Longhorns after their Alamo Bowl victory. Many of which were probably rocking the green and gold during the Briles reign.
This will become the same record stuck on repeat next year, especially after the events that transpired this weekend. Expect analysts and commentators to rank Texas and Oklahoma in the preseason top 10, for the 2021 season, based on their bowl performances the last week. I would too if I was still trying to make money off of the Longhorn Network. Bevo clearly did not end up being the cash cow she was thought to be, however, there is hope to make money, the University could make some pretty good steaks out of a certain bull and sell tickets to Sooner and Aggie alumni to indulge in this meal while Tom Herman watches; You’re welcome Horns for the financial advice.
Both UT and OU brought their A-game to the bowl season and were impressive in doing so, but before we crown next year’s Notre Dame, there are some factors that need to be considered. The Longhorns would probably have faced a little bit better of a team in USC, had the Trojans not opted out of playing a bowl game. Do I think Texas still would have won? Probably, but playing a Colorado team that has only won two games by double digits (to awful opponents, check Arizona) is not a program changing win. Also, a rematch of that 2006 BCS National Championship would have been a highlight of the bowl season.
Regardless of how well they played, Tom Herman was still shown the door for Alabama OC Steve Sarkisian. With the way Texas boosters act, this rodeo will probably still have the same outcome. There is nothing more definitive of the University of Texas than to fire a coach that just won a bowl game 55-23. I have already expressed it, so let me repeat, you are NOT Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, or even Oklahoma. Set realistic expectations, bring in a guy like Sam Pittman to “turn that damn jukebox on” and motivate players to sacrifice everything for their belief in teammates and the program. Sam Ehlinger bought in but he proved a quarterback cannot do everything to propel a team to the summit of college football. And yet still, donors and administration are so set in their ways that they cannot see the forest through the trees. So sorry Sark, you just traveled back in time and took the head coaching job for a team trapped in 2006.
If we fire Herman and get Sarkisian, maybe HE can take us back to 2006!
More on that Alamo Bowl. Texas faced a Colorado team that looked like they ate too many edibles on the plane ride down from Boulder, and couldn’t shake off the after-effects of a midwinter’s college night. Smokin’ doobs and killin’ brews. No one can blame them, why not enjoy a night off before playing a team that lost to TCU? Bad mentality taken by a bad team. The Buffs probably thought they had an easy task after knocking Sam Ehlinger out of the game. Little did they know, back up Casey Thompson and running back Bijan Robinson were more equipped to take over than anyone believed. The Horns put up 55 against CU and allowed no chance of a miracle upset. TU backup, Thompson threw for 4 touchdowns, and Robinson averaged 18 YPC and added another score. There was no passing game for the Buffs and when your defense is so bad that they give up 55, you cannot expect to win just running the ball. This was a typical 2000’s Big 12 Colorado team that could not compete at a high level within Power 5 conferences. Texas will continue to believe they are relevant in this day and age, and unfortunately, Sarkisian will be looking for a new job in 3 years when the Texas Exes get tired of him losing 3-4 games a year. Chris Del Conte needs to be the next to go, bring in someone who has the huevos to stand up to alum. Wooderson needs to be the next AD.
“Wooderson reporting for duty. Say, where are the high schools around Boulder?”
I will say no one knew 4/4 starters in the receiving corp would opt out of the Cotton Bowl, so we cannot fault OU for that but my goodness, the number of people who are saying that shouldn’t matter or that’s not a good excuse is ridiculous. How could not having your entire starting receiver line up not affect the outcome? We have a perfect example of this theory being absolutely dumped on by two Notre Dame-Clemson matchups. One with Trevor Lawrence and one without, the game where the Tigers’ QB did not play resulted in a 7 point loss in OVERTIME!! The game he did play, well that ended in a Clemson win by 24. So how can anyone sit there and say it did not matter that Florida was missing every single starting receiver? The Sooners played a helluva game and you cannot take anything away from that offensive performance, but do you really think the Gators would not have scored more with their top 4 receivers? The people arguing against this are the same ones that say A&M only won because of the UNC opt-outs. You cannot have it both ways, either across the board opt-outs determine wins or losses, which I believe they do, or Oklahoma and A&M both won their games by multiple touchdowns and that should be rewarded. Not one or the other, if you are blind to one side how can you see the whole picture? The Sooner offense put up the numbers but the defense would probably have struggled with a fully loaded UF team.
Throughout the game, I continued to read about how OU had a top 20 defense, which may be correct on paper but nothing I saw in the Cotton Bowl proved that to be true. Sure the Sooners picked off Kyle Trask 3 times, all of which Trask threw directly to defenders whether he was overthrowing or underthrowing. They did nothing to earn those picks besides stand in the exact spot the no-longer-Heisman-hopeful telegraphed he was throwing to. Also, how does a top defense give up 520 total yards and 20 points to a team without their 4 best offensive weapons? What about that screams “top defense?” Maybe in the Big 12 but if I could read where Florida’s offense was going on any given play, anyone probably could.
Spencer Rattler threw for 3 touchdowns and 247 yards while Rhamondre Stevenson could not be stopped on the ground, putting up 186 of his own and one more touchdown. Oklahoma has a lot of key pieces to build around and this routing of Florida proves there is talent on both sides of the ball. However, I would caution this team going forward, you played a glorified Big 12 team in disguise as an SEC team. Florida’s defense has not been able to stop a wagon rolling down a grass hill with mud on its tires. Don’t read into this win too much, this should have been a classic shootout, unfortunately, the Gators ended up bringing a dull knife to a gunfight.
There were three more bowl games the Big 12 played in this year. West Virginia battled Army in the Liberty Bowl and ended up victorious with a score of 24-21. Alright, enough about that game, I am already putting myself to sleep. Then there was the much anticipated Fiesta Bowl. Not really sure who anticipated it but I kept hearing ESPN try to inject hype. This was another joke of a game given to the Big 12. How is the runner up of your conference paired with a “Pac 12” champion that went 4-2, and made the championship by default? Makes no sense, seems like a ploy to boost ratings for a conference that is irrelevant every year, except for their one golden child that makes it into the playoffs only to get stone-cold stunnered by any team they face. There was no clear quarterback for the Ducks, which is never a position you want to be in during the postseason. Both Shough and Brown took snaps behind center and neither was overly impressive. Brock Purdy and Breece Hall led the Cyclones on offense and made sure Oregon could not keep up with the pace. ISU came out on top, 34-17, but the real winner of the day was Purdy deciding to stay with the program for one more year. The ‘Clones looked poised for another run at the Big 12 in 2021.
Personally, I think the Oklahoma State vs Miami game was the best of the bunch. The Canes were a team that showed they were good, but at times had their flaws, and OSU had something to prove coming into the game. Spencer Sanders did throw for over 300 yards and 4 touchdowns. Also, it did not help the U that D’Eriq King went down with an injury. Without King, the Hurricanes became one dimensional and the Cowboys were able to exploit that. This was a thrilling game that came down to the fourth quarter and three points but ultimately, Mike Gundy returned to Stillwater with a 37-34 win over #18 ranked Miami. The U is also not back.
U not back.
The Big 12 won 5 games against subpar opponents and if that does not sum up the conference as a whole, I do not know what will. You can play jokes year in and year out but at what point do you become the actual joke? I think this is a question conference fans have been avoiding for years. Yes, you will have multiple teams in the top 25 to start the 2021 season, the real question is where will they end up? Started from the top, now we here…...
Photo: Kansas Public Radio