This conference will likely destroy itself by December.
With all the talk about Penn St., USC, and the SEC, a lot of people have forgotten—and are only now starting to notice—that the Big-12 has been the best conference in college football since the beginning of the season. At no point during the season has there been less than two Big-12 teams in the top 10 and in the last month that number has risen to at least three with four being in the top ten entering this past weekend. The past two weeks have been the calling card to the rest of the nation to take notice that this is the conference that will dominate the storylines of the rest of the college football season with four HUGE games each pitting at least one team from the top 15 with the annual Red River Shootout being the biggest in years. All have delivered.
FROM OCTOBER 11:
McCoy, Longhorns comeback to shock Sooners in Red River classic
Big plays and a big rally lead by Texas quarterback Colt McCoy gave the fifth-ranked Longhorns a 45-35 win over top-ranked Oklahoma in the teams’ annual get-together at the Cotton Bowl. This game turned out to be more than just a game between two of the top five teams in the country: it was a game that exceeded the hype that this game and any game with teams this highly ranked gets producing a classic that will no doubt become part legend down south in years to come when this rivalry is spoken of.
McCoy threw for 277 yards and a touchdown on 28/35 while also rushing for 31 yards while leading four scoring drives in the second half—three ending with touchdowns—to ensure there would be no Sooner comeback.
The real hero of this game, a most unsung hero in this case, was Texas running back Cody Johnson whose three rushes on the day were all for touchdowns including the Longhorns’ final two scores, the scores that broke the back of the Sooners and sealed the Longhorns’ amazing win.
Another unheralded performance that was overshadowed by McCoy was that of Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford, who had a career day with five touchdown passes to go along with 387 yards passing on 28/39.
And if the day of big performances couldn’t get any bigger, there’s the story of Sooner receiver Manuel Johnson, Bradford’s favorite target on this day, who caught six passes for 85 yards and three of Bradford’s five touchdown passes. Johnson caught the Sooner’s first touchdown and their final two as well.
And finally, the man who broke the scoring floodgates wide open, Longhorn receiver Jordan Shipley. After a defensive first quarter and a Sooner touchdown early in the second quarter made the game 14-3 Sooners, Shipley returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown and the scoring didn’t stop until the final quarter read zero’s on the clock. Shipley was a dual threat catching one of McCoy’s touchdown passes and ending the day with 225 total yards—113 on returns and 112 on 11 receptions.
Oklahoma St. overwhelms Daniel in route to upset
Despite throwing for just under 400 yards, Chase Daniel couldn’t will his Missouri Tigers to victory as he has on many occasions as three interceptions, including one with under two minutes to go, proved to be too much.
The seventeenth-ranked Cowboys of Oklahoma St., now 6-0, finally had their coming out party as this game thrust them into the national spotlight after weeks of being the forgotten undefeated team in the Big-12 behind Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, and Missouri.
The game itself was a see-saw battle through 3 ½ quarters before Damian Davis broke it open for the Cowboys with his second touchdown catch of the night—he caught one in the final minutes of the third quarter to put the Cowboys ahead—giving the Cowboys a 28-17 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Davis ended the game with 76 yards on three receptions with two of them being touchdowns.
Until Davis’ touchdowns, the game saw Missouri lead at halftime and six lead changes with Davis’ touchdown in the third producing the last lead change of the night.
Despite the loss, Missouri had more total yards, more yards through the air, and committed the same amount of turnovers as Oklahoma St., but had much fewer yards on the ground, more penalties, worse third down efficiency, and held the ball for around six minutes less than the Cowboys.
Kendall Hunter put the Cowboys over the top in this one providing a great game on the ground with 154 yards on 24 carries and a 68-yard touchdown run in the opening minute of the second half.
FROM OCTOBER 18:
Sooners bounce back with high scoring win over Jayhawks
Sam Bradford had no problem bouncing back from the Sooners’ tough loss to Texas with another spectacular outing and a 14-point win over Kansas Saturday.
Bradford threw for 468 yards and three touchdowns on 36/53 leading Oklahoma to a win where they lead for 44:56 of the game and never trailed for a second during the game.
This week Bradford’s favorite receiver was Juaquin Iglesias who caught 12 passes for 191 yards on the day.
Bradford’s touchdowns went to Matt Clapp (making the game 7-0 Oklahoma), Jermaine Gresham (31-17 Oklahoma), and Kolby Smith (45-24 Oklahoma).
Despite another big outing from Bradford, the Sooner running game produced over 200 yards on the ground, the majority coming from Chris Brown and Demarco Murray who combined for 175 of the Sooners’ 206 yards on the ground. Both men entered the end-zone as well with Brown scoring in the second quarter and Murray scoring twice—once in the second quarter and once in the third quarter.
Despite being outgunned, Todd Reesing still had a good outing throwing for 342 yards—269 of those going to receiver Dezmon Briscoe—and two touchdowns, both to Briscoe.
Sooner defensive back Lendy Holmes should be credited with taking the Jayhawks out of their game early and giving the Sooners the game’s momentum as he intercepted Reesing twice in the first half, with his first resulting in a Sooner touchdown, the game’s first touchdown, soon after.
McCoy impresses yet again in primetime win over Missouri
Just when people thought Colt McCoy couldn’t top his come-from-behind performance last week against Oklahoma, he outdid himself with a dominating performance against Missouri.
McCoy threw just three incomplete passes (29/32) and was part of four touchdowns, two passing and two rushing, in helping the Longhorns keep their #1 ranking with a 56-31 win over the eleventh-ranked Tigers.
Jordan Shipley had another big night with 8 catches for 89 yards and a second quarter touchdown.
Of the Longhorns’ five first half touchdowns McCoy was part of three, throwing for two and rushing for the other. The other two scores from Texas in the first half came from running back Chris Ogbonnaya, who would end the game with 65 yards on the ground off of 13 carries.
Another losing effort saw another good outing from Chase Daniel. Daniel went 31/41 through the air for 318 yards and two touchdowns.
In this case, it wasn’t Daniel throwing interceptions (he only threw one on the day) that killed his Tigers, but the fact that the Longhorn defense got to him early and often never allowing Daniel or the Tigers’ offense to get into a groove resulting in Texas holding onto the ball thirteen minutes longer than Missouri.
McCoy broke the Texas record for most touchdowns responsible for with his final touchdown run of the night passing Vince Young’s mark of 81. And McCoy still has nearly half of a season to go.
The final insult for Missouri came in the fourth when Longhorn running back John Chiles connected on a 51-yard touchdown to Dan Buckner to make the game 56-31.
Earlier in the week, Mac Brown and the Longhorns buried the game ball from last week’s win over Oklahoma. A new tradition may have just begun in Austin.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was a weekend that saw BYU gets absolutely smoked by TCU and their top-ranked defense, Alabama nearly blow it against Ole Miss, Michigan play half of a great football game against Penn St., and Boise St. & Utah stay unbeaten. Still, all of that is only second chair to the two big games in the Big-12 acting as an appetizer to the next six weeks of pure intensity and suspense that will come out of that conference. If you need proof, think about this: Texas still has Oklahoma St. next week and still has to play A&M, Kansas and Texas Tech, Kansas has Texas Tech next week and finishes the year against Texas and Missouri, and Texas Tech’s next four games read like this: Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma St., and Oklahoma. As I stated in the beginning of this article, this conference will likely destroy itself by December. With all of these games featuring the top half of the conference how can’t it?
