Welcome to Tuesday Takes, where I give you five takes from the Big 12. It was a jam-packed week full of action, but here were several things that caught my attention from this past weekend.
No Bowl Game for Deion
At this point, this is not a hot take by any means, but I can say for certain that Colorado will not make a bowl game this season. In fact, they will finish either 3-9 or 4-8 when I look at the rest of their schedule.
The Buffaloes played one of the worst halves of football I had ever seen on Saturday against Utah. They had -18 total yards, zero points, and gave up over 40 points and 400 yards of offense in just the first two quarters alone. Keep in mind that they went into Utah coming off a win and a bye week, which means they had two weeks to prepare for that game. I just don’t see this team coming back after a game like that.
Willie Fritz Will Be the Big 12 Coach and National Coach of the Year
Last week, I said Houston would win nine games, and boy, do I look stupid now after their big win against Arizona State, because they will win at least ten games this season. The Cougars are the biggest surprise and the best turnaround story not just in the Big 12, but the entire country.
Keep in mind, this is just year two under Willie Fritz, and the man is sitting at 7-1 with four games left against UCF, West Virginia, Baylor, and TCU. In a perfect world, Houston wins out and finishes 11-1, but I could see them splitting the final two games. Even if they don’t make it to Jerry World, Willie Fritz should be the Big 12 and national coach of the year with one of the best turnarounds I have ever seen in such a short period of time.
Cincinnati Will Not Make it to Arlington
As much respect as I have for Cincinnati right now, their path to the Big 12 championship is not easy at all. In fact, it may be the toughest remaining schedule in the conference. The Bearcats will be going to Salt Lake City to face Utah this weekend, followed by home games against Arizona and BYU before going to Fort Worth to end the season. A win this weekend would go a long way for their title hopes, but with that schedule, I could see them dropping at least a game or two before December comes around. Then again, it seems like everyone is doubting this team, which isn’t fair.
Kansas State Will Be a Problem in November
I wrote off Kansas State weeks ago, just like everyone else. That’s easy to do when a team is down, but after watching this team over the past couple of weeks, they are hitting their stride.
Unfortunately, it has taken this long for them to play well, but at least they haven’t given up just yet. The offense is moving well with Avery Johnson, who has been a fantastic game manager and, most importantly, hasn’t been making the same old mistakes he was.
The defense has also been playing much better the last two games, and even the special teams has found success as well. At 4-4, any hopes of making the playoffs are off the table, as is making it to Arlington, but they aren’t going to go down without a fight. In the month of November, they will get to face Texas Tech and Utah, and don’t be shocked if the Wildcats are able to knock one of those teams off with the way they are playing right now.
Kansas Will Not Go Bowling
I haven’t talked much about Kansas this season simply because they haven’t given me much of a reason to up to this point. However, after suffering their second straight loss and third out of the last four, their path to making it to six wins seems narrow at this point.
Offensively, Kansas has been fairly good this year, but you wouldn’t be able to tell if you had watched them in their last two games. To make matters worse, their defense hasn’t been great either. They were going to have to outscore teams to win games, and that just isn’t sustainable in the Big 12 anymore. Now they are 4-4 with four games left against Oklahoma State, Arizona, Iowa State, and Utah. Oklahoma State will be a win, but as for the other games, not so much. 5-7 seems likely for this team right now.
