Around the Big 12: All Hail the Clones

Iowa State 23, Texas 20

Our friends at Wide Right Natty Lite had a name change over the weekend: when Texas kicker Cameron Dicker went wide left on a 58 yard attempt as time expired, it sealed a trip to Arlington for the Cyclones and a chance to win their first Big 12 Championship, and had WRNL calling themselves Wide LEFT and Natty Lite. It might also have been the final nail in the coffin for Tom Herman, who absorbed serious shade on twitter when Breece Hall dropped a hell of a line — “five star culture beats five star talent”.

Culture has long been an issue at Texas, going back to the end of the Mack Brown era. Herman has talent and depth at nearly every position on the roster, but for the third time in four years it will end short of Arlington. Iowa State meanwhile, will absorb another offseason of “will he or won’t he” with every major opening that comes up in the coaching ranks. I personally think he will stay — with guys like Brock Purdy (25-36, 312 yards and a touchdown Friday) and a Heisman Candidate in Breece Hall (yeah, I said it) who had 91 yards and a score on 20 carries, the future stays bright in Ames.

Now, they’ll likely get a rematch with red hot Oklahoma on December 19th.

Oklahoma State 50, Texas Tech 44

The Cowboys looked a little deflated, especially on the defensive end, coming off of yet another Bedlam loss. They made this one far more exciting than it should have been, as the return of Alan Bowman sparked the Red Raiders into nearly pulling off the upset on the road.

Cowboys fans have plenty of questions about Spencer Sanders, who threw for 212 yards, a touchdown, and an interception Saturday. The turnover issues for OSU continued, as they fumbled four times, recovering two. Without Chuba Hubbard or LD Brown, Mike Gundy turned to Dezmon Jackson in the running game, and the junior delivered 235 yards and three touchdowns to keep the feisty Red Raiders at bay. Tylan Wallace was his usual amazing self, pulling in more than half of Sanders’ passing yards and the only touchdown pass of the day.

For Tech, Bowman was excellent, throwing for 381 yards and three scores, adding to a potent attack that absolutely ate up the much ballyhooed Cowboys’ defense. The Red Raiders had well over 600 yards on the day, including 258 on the ground, and the injury bug has caught up big with what was expected to be one of the best defenses in the conference.

Baylor 32, Kansas State 31

What a comeback for the Bears, a team that has been very bad but has rarely stopped playing hard in their first year under coach Dave Aranda.

The Wildcats, meanwhile, continue to backslide; Chris Klieman’s team jumped out to a big lead, 17-6 at the half, but couldn’t hold on as Baylor rallied and hit a field goal with no time on the clock to complete the comeback.

Will Howard was just 9-18 for 88 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions while Charlie Brewer had a vintage effort at quarterback (31-39, 349 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions) as his storied — and controversial — career in Waco winds down.

Deuce Vaughn crossed the century mark on the ground and the Wildcats defense held Baylor running backs to just 15 yards on 15 attempts — Brewer led all rushers with 56 yards — but couldn’t get a stop when they needed, allowing BU to get just their second win on the season.

Oklahoma at West Virginia: POSTPONED