Weekend Warzone: Big 12 Roundup Week 14

Texas Longhorns 41, Texas Tech Red Raiders 16

When TCU was announced as Texas' Thanksgiving opponent last year, many people assumed it might become a regular thing- you know, like with that team whose schedule we slipped in to.  That went out the window for two reasons: firstly, Texas decided that if they alternated Thanksgiving opponents they could be the home team all the time and secondly, they wanted a team that they could beat like a drum in Austin.  For all of Tech's exploits under Mike Leach, his Red Raider teams never solved the world's quietest 100,000+ stadium- and in fact in one season in the Big 12 TCU matched Texas Tech's win total @ Texas for their entire Big 12 careers.  A new Big 12, a new coach, a new era for Texas Tech, but futility in Austin remains constant as the Red Raiders were absolutely sledged by the Longhorns on the ground.  Malcolm Brown and Joe Bergeron combined for 230 yards rushing on 44 attempts and Case McCoy avoided throwing any disastrous interceptions, leaving a rested Texas defense to bully and pressure Baker Mayfield to the tune of seven sacks before adding two more on Mayfield's replacement Michael Brewer.  The beating was so severe the Longhorns even got another glimpse of the freshman who had his redshirt wasted, Tyrone Swoopes.  Texas looked like more like the team that blew TCU out than the one that was stuffed against OSU, while Tech looked... like Tech in the second half of the season.  We should really start playing them then.
Next Week: Texas- @ Baylor, Texas Tech- Regular Season over
Staff Picks: Everyone except Hawk picked Texas.  Silly Hawk.

Kansas State Wildcats 31, Kansas Jayhawks 10

For those oldies who remember LaDainian Tomlinson playing for us, remember the old offense with LT?  How it was the most predictable stuff you could imagine, but no defense could stop it?  Against Kansas, KSU had that sort of offense, as the Wildcats ran John Hubert 30 times for 220 yards and Kansas couldn't do a darn thing against it.  Kansas is a bad team, so I won't dig too deep into this one, but the question I wish I could ask a Jayhawk now is "What do you think needs to be done?"  There was some improvement on the field, the team won a conference game and tripled its win total, but they loaded up on JuCo transfers so the roster is older than it should be and it's not really a rebuilding operation- if you take in JuCo players by the armful you're aiming to win now, and that didn't happen this year.  Do you stay the course, because otherwise Weis' Juco farming will have stacked the depth chart against the new guy, or do you drop him and hope that a more competent coach can get you to a bowl bid next year?  Tough, tough call.
Next week: Kansas State- Regular Season over, Kansas- Season over
Staff Picks: The guys (apart from spfleming) picked KSU to kick varying degrees of butt.

Iowa State Cyclones 52, West Virginia Mountaineers 44

What a weird game.  Iowa State didn't just trail most of the way in this one, they trailed by a lot most of the way through this one- no less than 17 points for the entire second and third quarters, started the fourth quarter with a touchdown to cut it to ten, only to see the lead immediately pop back up to 17 on a 76 yard touchdown pass from Clint Trickett to Mario Alford.  Then the weirdness happened, as Iowa State's moribund offense scored 17 straight points to send the game to overtime.  Both teams exchanged field goals twice, but ISU has pounded the ball on the second OT possession which set things up beautifully for a play action double move in the third OT to spring Justin Coleman into the end zone totally uncovered.  The Cyclones got the two point conversion and West Virginia picked up 22 of the 25 OT yards on their first play and looked like they would answer.  Nope.  Two running plays went backwards and two passes fell harmlessly to the turf as the Mountaineers ended their season with an identical record to TCU while having lost to both ISU and Kansas.
Next week: Iowa State: Season over, West Virginia- Season over.
Staff Picks: HawkeyedFrog redeems himself by being the only picker to take the Cyclones, though spfleming did predict a multiple OT game.

Baylor Bears 41, TCU Horned Frogs 38

I don't want to talk about it, and you can't make me.  Until tomorrow's Monday Morning QB.  Stupid responsibilities.
Next week: Baylor- Texas, TCU- Season over
Staff Picks: Jamie and Marshall were right, with Marshall even getting the margin of victory correct.  Still, Hawk and spfleming picked the Frogs based on nothing but a feeling and were almost (and should've been) right.  You can decide who to praise.