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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2012
FOOTBALL
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
BIG 12 POWER RANKINGS
FARZIN VOUSOUGHIAN
fvousoughian@kansan.com
1. Oklahoma (2-0)
Oklahoma took a break this week and will go into Week 4 with the first ranked conference battle of the season against Kansas State. The Sooners defense, who have given up 20 points in two games, will be tested by the Wildcats this week.
West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen has to be pleased with what he is seeing out of senior quarterback Geno Smith. Smith has the second highest quarterback rating in the nation and has yet to be sacked or picked off this season.
2. West Virginia (2-0)
3. Kansas State (3-0)
Senior quarterback Collin Klein has lived up to expectations so far this season. Klein is viewed as a dual-threat quarterback and opposing defensive coordinators have not found a solution to the Wildcats' versatile offense.
4. Texas (3-0)
Texas coach Mack Brown got more than what he wanted from his Longhorns against Ole Miss this past weekend. Texas stomped Ole Miss and scored on multiple possessions each quarter and finished with 66 points. The Longhorns have the eight best scoring offense in the nation going into conference play.
5. Texas Christian (3-0)
6. Oklahoma State (2-1)
Oklahoma State rebounded after suffering a loss to Arizona in Week 2. The Cowboys lead the nation in net total yards on offense and are climbing their way back to the top 25. While junior running back Joseph Randle is good, the Cowboys will need to limit their turnovers to construct an even better offense.
7. Baylor (2-0)
senior quarterback Nick Florence pleasantly surprised coach Art Briles. Going into the final non-conference game of the season, Florence has an offense full of viable weapons to better prepare him for conference matches later this season.
8. Texas Tech (3-0)
Despite not being highly ranked, Texas Tech is the only team that has won their games by a big margin. The Red Raiders have won their three games by a margin of 121 points. Their true test comes when they play against other Big 12 teams, in which spectators will see if they can continue to post these kinds of numbers.
9. Iowa State (3-0)
Iowa State has had three different games, but have come away victorious in all three of their non-conference games. Coach Paul Rhodes would like consistency out of his team as they get ready to play Texas Tech, a team close to their level.
10. Kansas (1-2)
Kansas has more losses than any team in the Big 12 after Week 3. Coach Charlie Weis has addressed the holes with his team, but they have not followed through by executing.
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Big 12 football teams face difficult schedules
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Big 12's big bore is about to finally come to an end.
The league that dominated headlines for a variety of reasons during the offseason, not least of which was whether it would continue to exist, has been a blip on the national radar once games finally started against a dismal lineup of non-conference weaklings.
Oklahoma State scoring 84 points against Savannah State. West Virginia's Geno Smith throwing for 411 yards and 5 TDs against James Madison. Games against the likes of Western Illinois, Sam Houston State, Florida A&M and Grambling State over the past couple of weeks.
"They're an excellent team, so the preparation for them is always complicated," said Sooners coach Bob Stoops, whose team will have had two weeks to prepare for the Wildcats.
That all changes Saturday night, when sixth-ranked Oklahoma hosts No. 15 Kansas State in the first true showdown of the new-look conference. It's a game that should help decide the league champion, and also give people outside the Big 12 a reason to start tuning in.
Not much to get excited about.
They appeared rather uninspired in a season-opening victory at UTEP, then routed Florida A&M two weeks ago, leaving Stoops to wonder whether his team is ready for a real test.
Still, it's a difficult situation for the Sooners to be in.
The offseason overhaul of the Big 12 resulted in the loss of Missouri and Texas A&M, two teams already saddled with losses in the SEC, and the addition of No. 8 West Virginia — the reigning Big East champion — and 17th-ranked TCU, the defending champions of the Mountain West.
"They look like an excellent football team. They're doing an excellent job of running the football, like always, and using the quarterback to run it," Stoops said. "It'll be a challenge."
It's just the start of challenges awaiting the Sooners.
Both of them will see the Sooners down the road, along with everyone else in the round-robin Big 12. Oklahoma also has a non-conference game against No. 11 Notre Dame on Oct. 27, right in the middle of
While the conference has been beating up on punching bags, though, other leagues have played games that warranted more national attention. Florida and Tennessee pitted SEC rivals on the rise
the leagues regular meat-grinder.
last Saturday, while the Fighting Irish visited then-No. 10 Michigan State. Even top-killed Alabama booted around Michigan in a rare, season-opening showdown between power schools.
Now, the Big 12 will be getting into the act, and Oklahoma and Kansas State aren't the only conference schools ramping up the difficulty this weekend.
Baylor takes on Louisiana-Monroe, the school giving the SEC all kinds of fits. TCU steps out of league play after a战 win against Kansas to take on Virginia. The jayhawks visit Northern Illinois and the Mountainers play a regional game against Maryland.
The feeble early competition for
DANA HOLGORSEN
West Virginia football coach
Second, the new members in the league have made life much more difficult. Missouri and Texas A&M were a combined 9-9 in conference games and barely finished above .500 last season, while West Virginia won 10 games and TCU is coming off another 11-win season.
Finally, the larger footprint of the Big 12 — nearly 1,500 miles separate Texas Tech and West Virginia — has left teams scheduling regionally out of conference. So the Red Raiders are playing nearby New Mexico, Texas is making a short trip to Ole Miss, and
the Mountain
the Big 12 can be traced to a few reasons.
First, the league jockeyed its schedule relatively late to make room for the new additions, which left programs such as Oklahoma scrounging for non-conference games against the likes of UTEP.
the Mountainers scheduled a game against Virginia school James Madison in suburban Washington, D.C.
"That James Madison thing over in D.C. was great for
our fans. Attendance was awesome, fan support was awesome", West Virginia coach Dana Holgarsen said. "We want to play regional games."
The byproduct, though, is gaudy statistics and not much else.
Smith is an astonishing 66 of 75 for 734 yards and nine touchdowns in a pair of blowout wins, and is second nationally in total offense. Oklahoma State leads the nation at better than 686 yards per game, while West Virginia, Texas Tech are Baylor also among the top 10 in the country.
Nice stats, sure — but not the best prep for what's to come.
"It's going to get tougher this week. Athletically, it's going to get tougher." Holgarsen conceded. "It's going to get harder and harder in the Big 12."
1.