Weekend Review: Baylor debuts big, Texas escapes, Sooners falter

There is so much to get to so I will not drag out a long intro to this. We finally saw the Big 12 in full swing and I have thoughts. So let’s dive in.

Baylor 47, Kansas 14

In one of our pop quizzes this summer, I selected senior running back Trestan Ebner to lead Baylor in touchdowns this year. After one game, I feel really good about that pick. Ebner was amazing and all over the field on Saturday and now that he is finally healthy, you see what he can do. Larry Fedora’s offense really fits all of his skills.

Overall, Baylor looked very solid all the way around. They dominated a game in which their best receiver Tyquan Thornton didn’t have a catch. That is all good news. Sure, there are things to work on, but I don’t think you can pick out too much that went wrong. Just think how good the offense will be when Xavier Newman and Jake Burton come back. 

Texas 63, Texas Tech 56 (OT)

Is there a luckier team in college football than the Texas Longhorns? Look, I know their last decade has not been up to standards, but do they ever lose games like that? All Tech had to do was make one play in the fourth quarter and overtime. They failed to do that. Texas fought back down 15 late and sent it to overtime, but there should be alarm bells going off about that defense. Texas doesn’t look much different to me than they were last year. But it’s early. 

Kansas State 38, Oklahoma 35

Another lesson in pumping the brakes before we anoint Spencer Rattler the next Chosen One. He is going to be an outstanding player. But he was reckless with the ball on Saturday and the Sooners fell to a K-State team that was very depleted. Not to mention former Ohio State defensive coordinator Alex Grinch’s defense has failed to take hold yet for the Sooners.

Iowa State 37, TCU 34 

Iowa State looked like they shook off that week one upset pretty well in game that went about how it should have. TCU has major offensive line issues right now after one game. They gave up 6.0 sacks and no matter who the QB is, it’s hard to win that way. 

Oklahoma State 27, West Virginia 13

Do the Pokes play defense now? Through two games it looks like they can. We’ll see what happens as they play teams with better offenses, but they are keeping the score low early on. Maybe it’s smoke and mirrors. And if I turn out to be wrong, I will deny I ever had this thought just like Mike Gundy pretended that he was not aware of the majority of the programming on OAN. 

Mississippi State, 44 LSU 34

A wild card from outside the conference just because I am supremely entertained by this man, 

The pirate finally has the SEC job he craved for so long and he is 1-0 in a big way. Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense was on full display as the defending champs could not do anything to stop the Bulldogs. LSU dropping off should come as no surprise. When you lose the best QB you have ever had, both coordinators, half the staff and a host of other players to the NFL Draft and opt-outs, you can’t maintain. I don’t think they will be down for long, but so much came together for them at once, you can’t expect them just to reload that fast. 

Summary

• Baylor was really good 
• Texas was really OK
• OU did something really bad 
• Mike Leach is going to really annoy the SEC establishment. And it was all glorious to watch.