The college football season is underway and Week 5 was loaded with conference match ups in the Big 12, while also featuring one non-conference game that almost went awry. The Big 12 had two games on Friday night, with the rest of the schedule on Saturday, ending late at night in Boulder, Colorado between BYU and CU. So with that, let’s take a look at the top five takeaways from Week 5 in the Big 12 Conference.
Sam Leavitt Does it Again
Last week, it was Sam Leavitt leading Arizona State to a come-from-behind win over Baylor on the road. ASU trailed BU 17-16 with nine minutes to play after the Bears scored a touchdown. Leavitt responded with a seven-play, 84-yard drive to put Arizona State up 24-17. The Sun Devils then gave up a touchdown, and it was Leavitt who once again led the team down the field for a walk-off field goal.
Fast-forward to Friday night, and the Sun Devils were in an immediate 17-0 hole against TCU. Leavitt didn’t panic. He led the Sun Devils to two critical touchdowns before halftime to close the lead to three points. In the second half, ASU tied the game on their first drive with a field goal. But TCU responded with a touchdown. In the fourth quarter, the Sun Devils tied the game, and then the defensive showed up with a strip sack of Josh Hoover, which led to the go-ahead field goal to beat TCU 27-24.
Arizona State has one tough loss to Mississippi State (who took No. 15 Tennessee to overtime on Saturday), but otherwise has started off 2-0 in what is turning out to be one of the toughest schedules in the Big 12. And it doesn’t get easier from here with a road trip to Utah, followed by Texas Tech, Houston and Iowa State. If the Sun Devils are going to repeat as Big 12 champs, it will be behind the leadership of Leavitt, but if they can avoid 17-point deficits, that will make their lives easier.
Another Come From Behind Win
Arizona State wasn’t the only double-digit come-from-behind win in the Big 12. BYU did it as well against Colorado after trailing 14-0 in the first quarter. The Buffaloes had two very good drives that found the favorites in a surprising hole early on with a true freshman at quarterback. But, BYU’s defense did eventually lock down, while the offense woke up for the Cougars.
Bear Bachmeier continues to impress at quarterback, as the true freshman finished 19/27 for 179 passing yards, with two touchdowns, while also rushing for a team-high 98 yards. As we’ve said for weeks, the ceiling for Bachmeier is actually higher than it was for Jake Retzlaff, and as BYU remains undefeated in the early season, with the harder part of their schedule coming on the back end, the quarterback turmoil in the offseason may end up being a net positive for BYU from a personnel perspective.
The Cougars are 4-0 with two very winnable games coming up against West Virginia and Arizona. Then comes the brutal stretch of Utah, Iowa State, Texas Tech and TCU. But if BYU is 6-0 going into that stretch, you feel like Bachmeier will have the confidence, and the reps at that point, to put BYU in a position to compete and try to win every one of them.
Utah and Kansas State Bounce Back
These are two teams that needed wins for different reasons, and they got them. Utah was fresh off a beat down vs. Texas Tech, but the program still believes it’s a Big 12 title contender. And they proved exactly that on Saturday in a dominant 48-14 win over West Virginia. QB Devon Dampier had plenty of time to work and showed why he’s one of the nation’s leaders in accuracy, throwing for four touchdowns, while rushing for one score in the dominant victory at WVU. Utah scored on its first three drives and beat up a banged-up Mountaineers team, but it was exactly what they needed coming off the Texas Tech game.
Meantime, K-State was off a bye week at 1-3, knowing full well this team could easily have been 0-4. But, they welcomed back running back Dylan Edwards, and it showed as he rolled up 166 rushing yards and a touchdown, while QB Avery Johnson had 75 rushing yards and K-State rolled up 6.0 yards per carry in the 34-20 win over UCF. While Utah and K-State feel like they’re in very different places right now, they’re both technically 1-1 in the Big 12. But for the Cats, they have three two games coming up: at Baylor and home vs. TCU. If they’re going to get rolling, now is the time.
Scott Satterfield’s Biggest Big 12 Win
Scott Satterfield has had a couple of mediocre seasons in the Big 12. They started off 3-1 in the Big 12 last season before losing five in a row to end the season. Cincinnati has spent two years basically beating the teams they were favored against, while losing those they are underdogs versus. In 2023, Cincinnati was 1-6 as an underdog (the only win game vs. Pittsburgh). In 2024, Cincinnati went 1-5 overall as an underdog (the only win as an underdog was vs. UCF). Excluding non-conference games, Cincinnati was 1-10 as an underdog in Big 12 games during its two seasons in the league.
And on Saturday, they went to Lawrence as a 4-6 point underdog, depending on when you were looking at the line, and picked up a 37-34 victory over the Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence. They were able to overcome having four touchdowns called back because of penalties. So for Satterfield to go on the road and get a Big 12 win as an underdog is a huge sigh of relief for a program that needs some good mojo moving forward.
Slow Starts No More for ISU
Remember when we spent years discussing Iowa State’s slow starts under Matt Campbell? Yeah, well, those are a thing of the past. The Cyclones moved to 5-0 on the season with a 39-14 win over Arizona, which means this marks the first time in program history that Iowa State has had consecutive 5-0 starts. They’re atop the Big 12 standings, tied alongside Arizona State at 2-0 in league play, and, as of the end of this game, are only one of four remaining undefeated Big 12 teams (Houston, Texas Tech, BYU). Iowa State is a team I thought might take a step back given what they had lost to the NFL. And I was wrong. Matt Campbell has built a real program, that year in, year out, will compete atop the Big 12, until proven otherwise.
