10 Big Thoughts on the Big 12: Week 7

1. How good is the Big 12 right now? Seven of the ten programs have reached the debut of the BCS rankings last night. With the exception of Kansas, every team has seen the top 25 in both the AP and coaches polls.

Oct 13, 2012; Lubbock, TX, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders running back Eric Stephens Jr. (24) rushes against the West Virginia Mountaineers in the first half at Jones AT

2. Three of the five conference games ended in blowouts, none more shocking than Texas Tech’s 49-14 shutdown of West Virginia. The 117th-ranked total defense was going to catch up to them sometime, but never did we expect a Big 12 school to shut down Geno Smith. Texas Tech’s statistical defense may be truer than anybody believed.

3. Seth Doege won the Big 12 offensive player of the week award going 32-42 for 499 yards and six touchdowns, all a career high. The only problem with the Mountaineers is they make any opposing quarterback look like Geno Smith.

4. Texas Tech breaks a losing streak in Big 12 games at home. Their last win came five games ago against Missouri in 2010. Probably the worst streak that broke was Oklahoma State scoring 30 points or more. They tied the NCAA record with 22 games, and were only able to get 20 points against Kansas.

5. How pissed is Oklahoma? They steamrolled over Texas Tech, first giving the impression that the Red Raiders weren’t any good on defense. Now that we know they are, they did the same thing again to a Texas defense that looks nothing like their unit a season ago and hasn’t been able to tackle since New Mexico. The Sooners eventually won 63-21.

6. Mack Brown will not retire, and he has supporters from his former players and more importantly, his bosses. While the head coach might be a bit loopy on the thought of still reaching 10 wins this season, he had a brilliant note for his staff. Criticizing is at all-time high against defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, and it’s warranted with how badly the defense has played all year. If Diaz wants to be a head coach elsewhere, he might as well suffer the heat now and find a way to make them better.

Oct 13, 2012; Waco, TX, USA; TCU Horned Frogs quarterback Trevone Boykin (2) and wide receiver Brandon Carter (3) wide receiver David Porter (14) celebrate the win over the the Baylor Bears at Floyd Casey Stadium. The Frogs defeated the Bears 49-21. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-US PRESSWIRE

7. Trevone Boykin has actually been impressive in his first two starts. Going up against a strong ISU defense, along with his team turning the ball over, didn’t give him much of a chance to win, but the Horned Frogs were competitive most of the game. He went perfect on third down against Baylor, converting all 13 tries and scored all five of his touchdowns (four passing, one rushing) on that down. They won 49-21.

8. Iowa State’s defense suffered a similar fate, giving up 7-10 third downs to Collin Klein and a brilliant offensive execution from Kansas State. The Wildcats become the only undefeated team left in the conference at 6-0 with a 27-21 victory. Jared Barnett was far from Klein’s excellence in the same half, but had bad field position to work with.

9. Maybe Kansas finally has something to work with after nearly coming back to beat Oklahoma State. The Cowboys held on to the 20-14 victory, but Kansas had their junior running back, James Sims, run for a career-high 138 yards. Perhaps a solid go-to guy on offense has emerged.

10. That being said, the Jayhawks are still the dormant team for now. Texas Tech makes the biggest jump all the way to third with that shocking win and proving the defense is legitimate. TCU’s offense looks much better than anyone thought it would, and that Baylor defense is now starting to really show its holes.

Kansas State (6-0, 3-0) LW: 2
Oklahoma (4-1, 2-1) LW: 3
Texas Tech (5-1, 2-1) LW: 8
West Virginia (5-1, 2-1) LW: 1
Iowa State (4-2, 1-2) LW: 6
TCU (5-1, 2-1) LW: 9
Texas (4-2, 1-2) LW: 4
Oklahoma State (3-2, 1-1) LW: 7
Baylor (3-2, 0-2) LW: 5
Kansas (1-5, 0-3) LW: 10

Brian Spaen is the lead editor for Clones Confidential. Keep up with the latest sports fails and disdain toward the Big Ten by following him on Twitter.

Read his other work on the Oregon Ducks blog, Autzen Zoo, and Lacrosse the Web.

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