Beyond the Fort: ‘You write what the hell you want to write’

For the first time since August, there’s no football game involving the TCU Horned Frogs this week.

If you like Saturday games, you’ll have to wait until Oct. 20 to see TCU participate in one as the Frogs play a Thursday night game next week against Texas Tech following the team’s current bye. It’s then onto a date with the No. 7 team in the country.

But fear not. There’s still plenty of Big 12 football to entertain us as we patiently wait for the next dose of fun (hopefully fun) on the gridiron in Fort Worth. You can even venture just some 30 miles east on I-30 to watch Texas and Oklahoma face-off at the Cotton Bowl this Saturday — complete with another DFW edition of ESPN College GameDay — if you’re willing to pay the pretty penny.

Certainly, the Red River Showdown has dominated — and will continue to dominate — the headlines this week as the Longhorns and Sooners face each other in what is a top-25 affair for the first time in more than half-a-decade. But the annual spectacle at the State Fair of Texas has some company thanks to a few developments that came to light on Monday — and some odd ones, they were.

Here’s the latest scoop on the happenings across the conference.

Bill Snyder isn’t here for your quarterback questions.

Is the situation in Manhattan even worse than it appears for 2-3 Kansas State? It might be a fair question for head coach Bill Snyder, who turns 79 on Sunday, after the way he responded to quarterback questions that were hurled at him on Tuesday.

Okay.

Whatever you say, coach. But let’s not ignore that things could be far better under center.

Between junior Alex Delton and sophomore Skylar Thompson, the pair of quarterbacks have only passed for a combined 874 yards in a five games. The mark is second to last in the Big 12, and the Wildcats would likely be at the bottom if Iowa State, at 841 yards, hadn’t played just four games so far.

We’ve said before that it could be a long year for the Snyder’s squad — something that was evident the moment they nearly lost to South Dakota on home turf. Turns out, it may be short as bowl eligibility looks less promising for K-State on a weekly basis. And with Snyder’s snap yesterday, who really knows what unexpected turns the Wildcats could take in 2018 — for the better or the worse.

Impostors crash the Big 12 football coaches conference call

If you had trouble finding the Stillwater Tribune’s website following the Big 12 football coaches conference call on Monday, quite searching, because it doesn’t exist.

Yet that didn’t stop a few folks from using that alias to ask Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy a few, um, bizarre questions over the phone, as seen below. Whether or not the Jalen McCleskey inquiry was just an innocent blunder, we may never know.

Yep. And who other than the most interesting coach in college football to be the recipient of an oddity like this?

Hey, A+ response at the end of it all, coach.

Lincoln Riley less than 100 percent?

Oklahoma may be the clear cut favorite at the Cotton Bowl Saturday with the way Kyler Murray and others have been performing of late for the Sooners. Whether or not the architect of the offense will be 100 percent ready to go against Texas is another question.

Head coach Lincoln Riley didn’t take the podium on Monday during Oklahoma’s weekly press conference, with an illness cited as the reason for his absence. Thankfully, assistant head coach Cale Gundy was there to the rescue several hours after Riley’s voice was noticeably muffled during the Big 12 coaches teleconference.

Well, it’s the peak time of the year for allergies, after all. Probably nothing major, but who knows how Riley’s play-calling might be affected on Saturday is he’s forced to take some Claritin between every drive.

On a separate note — does the OU-Texas have to be an 11 a.m. game seemingly every year?

Anyways, get the popcorn ready. It should be a good one as the Big 12’s two biggest brands fight it out for staying power in the national standings.