Ranking the league after a dominant weekend by the Big 12

Ranking the Big 12 after three weeks worth of games to evaluate.

1. Oklahoma — I’m still waiting for Oklahoma to play a team with a defensive pulse before crowning Jalen Hurts their third Heisman winner in the last three years, but Texas has seen significant drop off defensively that makes me see no reason to not have the Sooners at the No. 1 spot. 

2. Texas — Texas offense is plenty potent and their defense should only improve as their young and inexperienced talent goes through the season. The only disturbing trend is the amount of nagging injuries the Longhorns have on their roster. If Sam Ehlinger becomes one of those, I’m not sure where their season is headed.

3. Kansas State — The fastest riser in the Big 12 and I’m on the “rank them because of their performance” train right now. I don’t buy Mississippi State as anything close to what they were once  under Dan Mullen, and KSU putting up less than 300 yards while beating themselves a ton doesn’t really help, but they are 3-0 and have arguably the best victory in the Big 12 so far this year.

4. Baylor — The week off means Baylor didn’t have a chance to help or hurt their standing so here they sit at four. Charlie Brewer has only thrown or carried the football 56 times through two games and the first and second string defense hasn’t been tested to say the least. The eye test looks much better than a year ago.

5. Iowa State — Solid ball club that should only get better as the season goes on, but there is nothing that I see when watching them that makes me believe they have the horses to replace Hakeem Butler and David Montgomery right now. They have above average skill players across the board and a very good defensive club that will still make them dangerous in every single game.

6. TCU — TCU beat down a beat up Purdue team and I’m not willing to go higher than six after a combined 8/24 performance from their quarterbacks Max Duggan and Alex Delton. Their running game was impressive and coupled ith a good defense, they are going to be a threat to everyone in the league.

7. Oklahoma State — I’ll fight this one until I’m blue in the face, but the Cowboys still aren’t looking like a fringe top 25 team right now and would take all six teams listed ahead of them in a neutral site matchup. The good news for Cowboys is that OSU doesn’t play all six on the road or neutral and will still be an above average overall team at the end of the year. The bad news is I’m not sure that their defense gets any or much better.

8. Texas Tech — Hate it for Alan Bowman, but after leaving the stadium on Saturday night in a sling on his left arm, it has been reported (true or not) that Bowman will miss the next 6-8 weeks. If that’s the case, Tech might fall below WVU. If not, Tech’s offense should be enough to make them a threat in all but a couple of games this season.

9. West Virginia — So, how close has Neal Brown been to getting fired this year? The upset over NC State was terrific and unexpected, but the I’m still not sure what to make of this team. It will be tough for this WVU team to win on the road this year.

10. Kansas — Tried their absolute best to get out of the cellar this week with their thrashing of Boston College, but WVU went on and pulled an upset of their own as well. I remember when Kansas beat up Rutgers last year so I’m not in a big hurry to move them anywhere but 10.