RSSBot
News Junkie
This shouldn't be surprising, but Week 5's games meant the most movement so far of the Big 12's young season.1. Oklahoma (5-0, LW: 1) Theorize all you want about whether or not Nebraska would beat Oklahoma. They might if they played tomorrow, but look at who Nebraska's beaten and who Oklahoma's beaten. Almost weekly fourth-quarter miscues have produced some scores that were closer than they should have been, but Oklahoma was clearly the better team in all five wins.
2. Nebraska (4-0, LW: 2) Kansas State is well-equipped to beat Nebraska, especially in Manhattan, but if the Huskers play like they did against Washington, there aren't many teams who'll beat them anywhere.
3. Oklahoma State (4-0, LW: 4) It wasn't pretty, but in conference play, it doesn't have to be. Oklahoma State deserved to win the game and needs to keep the momentum rolling into Louisiana this week for a Friday night game against the Cajuns.
4. Kansas State (4-0, LW: 6) The Wildcats sat at home on Saturday, but have a gigantic opportunity on Thursday night against the Huskers to earn some national attention.
5. Missouri (4-0, LW: 7) Missouri's probably a pretty good team, but we may know less about them than any team in the Big 12. They have yet to play a team that's as good as they are, but they've trailed in the second half twice. They might be as good or better than Oklahoma State. They might be nowhere near as good. Either way, they have the least impressive resume of any of the Big 12's undefeated teams, but they should feel good about being members of a dwindling club that'll lose at least one more member after Thursday night.
6. Texas (3-2, LW: 3) The Longhorns may rebound when the schedule softens after Nebraska, but right now, they're making a beeline for 3-3 and their only somewhat impressive win was to a team that lost to Iowa State on Saturday. Texas has no reliable offensive options and when the defense isn't on point, (i.e., first half against Oklahoma, second half against UCLA) Texas looks awful.
7. Baylor (4-1, LW: 10) Don't forget that Baylor's only loss is to the No. 4 team in the nation, even if it was extremely one-sided. They've soundly beaten everyone else they've played and while Kansas is a bad Big 12 team, they're not historically bad. They are not the kind of team you look at and say, "Yeah, Baylor should handle them by almost 50." The Bears thumping the Jayhawks like they did on Saturday should put everyone in the Big 12 on notice. Like I said yesterday, the only teams I feel 100 percent confident in being better than Baylor are Oklahoma, Nebraska and Oklahoma State, especially when Robert Griffin is on like he was on Saturday. Art Briles has said since spring this is his most talented and deepest team at Baylor. We're seeing those results on the field.
8. Texas A&M (3-1, LW: 8) Math time! So, Texas A&M's only loss came to a ranked, undefeated team on the road by a last-second field goal that came after their fifth turnover of the game? A worse team would have lost that by double digits or worse. Jerrod Johnson's turnovers are still extremely perplexing and the only variables are his offseason shoulder surgery and a young offensive line that's played pretty well so far this season.
9. Iowa State (3-2, LW: 9) Should have moved up with the win over Texas Tech, but Baylor keeps them at No. 9. I said at the beginning of the year Texas Tech's aggressive style would make the defense look unstoppable at times and completely inept at others while giving up many big plays. When an offensive line plays like Iowa State's did, you see the latter. Austen Arnaud made plays to win and a handful of fantastic throws despite having an injured left shoulder, and Shontrelle Johnson is making sure the Cyclones will be just fine at running back after Alexander Robinson graduates.
10. Colorado (3-1, LW: 11) I didn't think Colorado would lose big against Georgia, but I didn't think they had a great chance to win. Give the Buffs some credit; it was a good win. But Georgia is still 1-4 with a win over Louisiana-Lafayette.
11. Texas Tech (2-2, LW: 4) This feels way, way low, but Texas Tech's wins are over a terrible New Mexico team and a decent SMU team. It took a valiant effort by the Red Raiders to dig out of a 24-0 hole, but looking at the rest of the division, they've been the least impressive team in the South and have an 0-2 conference record to show for it.
12. Kansas (2-3, LW: 12) That was embarrassing, Kansas. The only positive out of Saturday's performance is it's hard to see it getting much worse for the Jayhawks.
More...