Big 12 Sports Blog by Big 12 Fans

Darren McFadden and Chase Daniel were supposed to be the headliners,

Temple ran for a Cotton Bowl-record 281 yards and four touchdowns to lead Missouri (12-2) to 38-7 rout of McFadden and Arkansas (8-5) to a 38-7 victory.

Temple ran for touchdowns in each quarter - 22 yards in the first, 4 yards in the second, 4 yards in the third, and a 40-yarder to cap off his big day in the fourth.

While Temple was having a huge day, McFadden was held to only 105 yards on 21 carries and Arkansas’ lone touchdown, which came late in the third, a three-yarder on a fourth-down play. His compatriot in the Razorbacks’ backfield, Felix Jones, was held to 45 yards on 10 carries, as Missouri’s defense backed up Temple’s big effort with a great performance of their own, which included a pick-six by William Moore that made it 28-0 before the Razorbacks were finally able to dent the scoreboard.

It’d been an up and down year for Temple, who ran for more than 1,000 yards this season, but entered the bowl game with 758. He must have had 1,000 on his mind, as he went over 1,000 with his performance, and bested his 1,036 yards from last year by three.

The senior has a knack for big performances in bowl games, as his previous career-high came in last season’s Sun Bowl, when he ran for 194 yards and two touchdowns in a 39-38 loss to Oregon St.

Temple is a senior, but due to an injury late in his freshman season in 2004, he’s reportedly trying to apply for a medical redshirt to get that year back, but if he’s not able to, he certainly helped his draft stock with a tremendous performance, which looks even better considering who his opposite numbers were.

As for the other Big 12 team that was in action early today, Texas Tech just completed an amazing comeback to win the Gator Bowl in the waning moments. The Red Raiders were down 28-14 late in the fourth, but scored 17 points in the final 3:31, benefiting from a crucial fumble by the Cavaliers that allowed Texas Tech to tie the game at 28, and then after a big defensive stop, Tech drove down the field for a game-winning 41-yard field goal by Alex Trlica with two seconds left. I’ll have more on that game later.

The Big 12 is now 4-2 in the bowl season, with Oklahoma’s Fiesta Bowl matchup against West Virginia coming up Wednesday and Kansas going up against Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl on Thursday.

In last night’s Insight Bowl, Oklahoma St. got out to a huge early lead and capped off their 2007 with a winning record by defeated Indiana 49-33. Zac Robinson had a monster game, going 24 of 34 for 302 yards and three touchdowns through the air, and adding 70 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. Freshman Dez Bryant caught nine passes for 117 yards and two touchdowns, and two OSU seniors closed out their careers with solid outings, as running back Dantrell Savage ran for 100 yards and a touchdown, and receiver Adarius Bowman caught six passes for 74 yards and a score.

Just as impressive as their offensive output was the fact that the defense held Indiana receiver James Hardy, one of the country’s top receivers - and biggest at 6′7, to only five catches for 50 yards and no touchdowns.

As we kick off the New Year, a couple of Big 12 teams are in action already. Missouri has put in a tremendous defensive performance in holding Arkansas running back Darren McFadden to only 86 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries, and Tigers running back Tony Temple is showing that McFadden and Felix Jones aren’t the only top-notch backs at the Cotton Bowl, as Temple has run for 261 yards and three scores to help Missouri to a 31-7 lead in the fourth. Chase Daniel has had an off-day, going only 11 of 29 for 127 yards and an interception, but thanks to the great game by Temple and the great defensive effort - Arkansas didn’t get on the board until late in the third, when it was already 28-0), Missouri’s looking at a 12-win season.

It’s not going as good for Texas Tech in the Gator Bowl, as they’re down 21-7 to Virginia at halftime. The Cavaliers have done a great job in shutting down Tech’s high-powered offense, outside of the Red Raiders’ second drive of the game, which they scored on to take a 7-0 lead. Since then, Virginia has scored 21 straight points, and have moved the ball well on Tech’s defense, and got a couple of big plays, one on defense in a safety on an intentional grounding penalty on Graham Harrell, and the other on a 96-yard touchdown run by Mikell Simpson. One bright spot for the Red Raiders is that they’ve held Virginia defensive end Chris Long without a sack thus far, though Harrell has been sacked twice.

As expected, Florida QB Tim Tebow won the 73rd annual Heisman Trophy, beating out Arkansas RB Darren McFadden by 254 votes to become the first sophomore to win the award.

Missouri’s Chase Daniel, who was one of the four finalists invited to the ceremony in New York, along with Tebow, McFadden, and Hawaii QB Colt Brennan, finished fourth in the voting with 425 total points. Daniel received 25 first-place votes, 84 second-place votes, and 142 third-place votes.

The junior threw for 4,170 yards and 33 touchdowns for the 11-2 Tigers, who will match up with McFadden’s Razorbacks in the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day.

Even though Missouri may still be feeling the sting of getting snubbed by the BCS, Chase Daniel is getting what he deserves - a trip to New York.

Missouri’s star signal-caller was named one of four lucky Heisman finalists, along with frontrunner Tim Tebow, last year’s runner-up Darren McFadden, and Hawaii’s record-setting QB Colt Brennan. The quartet know that they are the top four vote-getters for college football‘s top individual honor, but only one of them will walk up to the podium as the nation‘s best player (unless something historic happens).

The junior had a tremendous season in leading the Tigers to a Big 12 North title and the #1 ranking heading into the Big 12 title game.

Had he had a big night against Oklahoma and Missouri came out on top, that might have pushed him ahead of Tebow. But, he didn’t have his best night, and his chances to win the award might have been finished. However, if he’s evaluated on the full body of work, he’s got as good of a chance as the others, and it won‘t be a surprise if he‘s named the winner.

Daniel threw for 4,170 yards and 33 touchdowns for the 11-2 Tigers, and added four rushing touchdowns.

He had a great season overall, but he made his Heisman case in the final four games leading up to the Big 12 title game, throwing for 1,418 yards and 15 touchdowns, with only one interception, including a 40 of 49, 361-yard, three-touchdown performance in a 36-28 win over Kansas.

It’s been quite a ‘breakout’ year for Daniel, whose big year really shouldn’t come as a surprise, after he threw for 3,527 yards and 28 yards as a sophomore in 2006. And, if he returns for his senior season, which he should, he’ll be one of the leading candidates for the Heisman in 2008, and very well could be the reigning winner of the award this time next year.

Either way, if Daniel does or doesn’t get his name called on Saturday night, to know that you’re considered one of the best players in all of college football is something to be very, very proud of.

Now Missouri knows how Kansas St. must have felt in 1998 and 1999.

The Tigers were ranked #1 in the BCS heading into the Big 12 title game against Oklahoma, but fell 38-17, and went from potentially having a shot at playing for a national championship to the Cotton Bowl.

It’s the same thing that happened to Kansas St. in 1998, when the Wildcats were #1 heading into the Big 12 title game. After their classic 36-33 double-OT loss to Texas A&M, K-State only fell to third in the BCS, but instead of getting a BCS berth, went to the Alamo Bowl, which they lost to Purdue. The next year, the Wildcats finished sixth, with a loss to Nebraska the only blemish in a 10-1 regular season, but went to the Holiday Bowl. So, in case anyone’s wondering about Nebraska and Oklahoma getting into the national title game through the back door, maybe it was just karma making up for Kansas St.’s misfortunes.

Fast forward back to 2007, where another Big 12 North team is hurtin’. While the Tigers got the short end of the BCS stick, two teams that they beat in the regular season, Illinois and Kansas, both received invites to BCS bowls. Both of those teams were also ranked lower than Missouri in the BCS - the Tigers were sixth in the final BCS standings, while Kansas was 8th, and Illinois was 13th.

The Kansas snub might have been the most painful to take, not only because the two are bitter rivals, but also because Missouri had beaten Kansas just a week earlier to win the Big 12 North title.

But, the same could be said for Illinois getting a BCS berth as well (Arizona St. could have a gripe too, being 10-2 and two spots ahead of Illinois in the BCS standings), because the Tigers beat the Illini in the season opener, one of Illinois’ three losses.

But, given the fact that OU received the automatic berth, and Kansas received the at-large berth, that left Missouri as the odd man out, due to the rule against having more than two teams from the same conference in BCS bowls.

Unfortunately, as deserving as Missouri may be, they picked the worst time to lose. Things don’t usually bode well for your fortunes if you go down in a conference championship game, but if you lose the week before, it might not be so bad, as Kansas and the 2001 Nebraska team can attest to.

Should there be a change in the BCS rules, that allows three teams from a particular conference to be in BCS bowls? In some years, that wouldn’t be a bad idea, especially when the conference in question is tremendously strong.

There still might end up being some situations where the individual bowl committees might pick the team they want for their matchup, and not necessarily the team that may be most deserving.

This isn’t to say that Illinois isn’t deserving - the Illini beat #1 Ohio St. on the road and also beat #5 Wisconsin and #21 Penn St. And, because they fit the necessary criteria, they made the perfect candidate to give the Rose Bowl its desired Pac-10 vs. Big Ten matchup.

And as for Kansas, they likely would have been in the same position as Missouri had they beaten the Tigers then lost to Oklahoma - the only better situation for Missouri than to have won the Big 12 title game was to have lost to Kansas, because the loser of that game was going to be in a better position than the winner, if things shook out as they wound up doing.

But, in the end, if you want to assure your place in the elitest of the elite New Year’s and post-New Year’s games, you’ve got to take care of business week in, week out - or at least avoid the ill-timed loss.

This week could have been one of great celebration for Missouri. But, on the way to the national championship game, Oklahoma happened. And, instead of playing Ohio St. for the national title, the Tigers will have to settle for the Cotton Bowl (which isn’t too shabby, but come on, national championship or Cotton Bowl? No contest!), while seeing their fiercest rival - who they beat the previous week - play in a BCS bowl.

After Oklahoma’s 38-17 win over Missouri in the Big 12 title game, you could say order was restored after Mizzoui and Kansas dominated headlines recently, and rose past the Sooners in the national polls. But, even though OU wasn’t a national title contender anymore, they certainly played spoiler to Missouri’s hopes, and got a BCS berth out of it.

Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas are three of the eight Big 12 members to be playing in the postseason. OU will look to reverse last year’s disappointment in the desert when they play Big East champ West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 2. Kansas, a BCS first-timer, will take on ACC champ Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl the next day. As for their unhappy rivals, they’ll have to find a way to slow down Darren McFadden as they tangle with Arkansas on New Years’ Day.

As for the other matchups…

Gator Bowl (Jan. 1): Virginia (9-3) vs. Texas Tech (8-4)
Insight (Dec. 31): Oklahoma St. (6-6) vs. Indiana (7-5)
Independence (Dec. 30): Colorado (6-6) vs. Alabama (6-6)
Alamo (Dec. 29): Penn St. (8-4) vs. Texas A&M (7-5)
Holiday (Dec. 27): Arizona St. (10-2) vs. Texas (9-3)

There are a lot of intriguing matchups in the mix - Arkansas-Missouri because of the regional implications, Arizona St. and Texas because the Holiday Bowl is always a treat, and promises to be again, with two excellent offensive teams on display - I’ve always thought that the game could be on a different day, but with it being the only bowl game on the 27th, it’s got the spotlight to itself, which it deserves), and Penn St. and Texas A&M because of the two big names looking to finish disappointing seasons on a high note.

The regular season may be over, but the season is far from it. So, superglue yourself to your sofa, load up on the Tostitos and your favorite beverages, put the pizza places on speed dial, and get ready for a bowl seasons that, if it’s anything like the regular season was, will be worth watching all the way through.

Things hasn’t been this good for the Big 12 North since 2001, when Nebraska (controversially) played for the national championship, and Colorado won the Big 12 title.

It’s a lot less controversial this year, though there’ll be a tad bit of resentment between Missouri fans if the Tigers fall in the Big 12 title game and Kansas winds up in a BCS bowl game with Oklahoma.

But, it’s a resurgent year for the division, which hasn’t been much of a force in the last several years, nationally or in conference, where the South has been superior, with Oklahoma and Texas perennially national championship contenders and taking four of the last five conference titles, with 2003 being the lone exception (Kansas State over the #1 Sooners).

Strangely enough, it’s coming in a year where Nebraska experiences a defensive implosion of massive proportions, goes 5-7, and fires its head coach after an embarrassing end to a promising season.

Instead of the South having the title contenders, as it was expected to, it’s the North, as Missouri and Kansas moved towards the top as many big names fell nationally.

And now, after #4 Missouri made Kansas the latest victim of the ‘#2 Curse,’ the Tigers are #1 and on the brink of playing for a national championship, if they get past the Sooners in the Big 12 title game on Saturday.

Not only that, but the two have produced a couple of unlikely Heisman contenders, and if Chase Daniel can have another big game and lead his team to a historic win, possibly the Heisman winner.

This isn’t going to be a one-year thing, either. Both Kansas and Missouri should be near the top again next season, and you’d have to think that it’s only a matter of time (and a good coaching hire) before the Huskers are contenders again. Also, Colorado should improve even more in 2008, and Kansas St., despite the disappointing end to its season, should contend for postseason play. Iowa State made strides towards the end of the year as well, and won’t be a pushover in Gene Chizik’s second season.

The North’s resurgence is not only good for the division, but for the conference as well. With both divisions strong again, things will be a lot more competitive in the North vs. South matchups.

So, regardless of where your allegiances lie, you should be beaming as a Big 12 fan right now, because the future is very, very bright.

There are only four games on the conference schedule this week, as we look towards the final week of regular season action next week.

While Kansas-Missouri, Texas A&M-Texas, Oklahoma-Oklahoma St., and Nebraska-Colorado will headline next week’s slate, there are a few noteworthy matchups this week.

Oklahoma visits Lubbock on Saturday to take on a Texas Tech team looking to repeat its 2005 feat (but maybe not as controversially). The last time the Sooners and Red Raiders tussled in Lubbock, Texas Tech’s Taurean Henderson scored a touchdown on the final play of the game to hand the Red Raiders a 23-21 win. He may well have been stopped short, but that’s irrelevant now, isn’t it? Tech would love to repeat the feat and put an end to Oklahoma’s national title hopes, but if Oklahoma keeps the ball rolling, it’ll not only help themselves, but it’ll also help Kansas and Missouri’s hopes as well. After getting a $10,000 fine from the Big 12 for his comments about the officials in Tech’s 59-43 loss at Texas last Saturday, will luck be on his side if there’s a crucial call at the end of Saturday’s game.

Speaking of Kansas and Missouri, they have one hurdle left before their big showdown on the 24th. The Jayhawks host Iowa St., and even though the Cyclones are 3-8, there shouldn’t be any underestimating them, because they’ve won their last two games, and played Oklahoma and Missouri tough.

As for Missouri, they go to Kansas St. in a game that could see some big numbers put up all around. Chase Daniel and the Tigers would love to repeat what Nebraska did last week (73 points, 720 yards, 510 passing, 7 TD by Joe Ganz), but the Wildcats will be looking for the big upset to not only end Missouri’s Big 12 and national title hopes and get themselves back on track after that humiliating defeat, but also become bowl-eligible.

In the other game in the conference, Oklahoma St. looks for their sixth win and bowl eligibility when they go to Waco to take on Baylor. It will be the season finale for the Bears and the final game of coach Guy Morriss’ five-year tenure at the school, and if the Bears can send him out on a positive note with a victory, it’ll throw OSU’s bowl hopes into jeopardy, with the Cowboys having to to Norman for their regular season finale.

With only a couple of weeks left in the regular season, the bowl picture is beginning to take shape.

The conference may have as many as ten bowl opportunities (seven direct tie-ins, three other potential opportunities) - an assured BCS bowl berth for the conference champion, then the Cotton, Independence, Insight, Alamo, Holiday, and Texas bowls for direct tie-ins, and then the Sun and Gator bowls, which will choose between a Big 12 and a Big East team for one of their spots, and a BCS at-large berth.

And, as it stands, nine conference teams may be able to hit the magic six-win mark needed to qualify for bowl participation.

In the North, Kansas and Missouri are locks, and in the South, Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech are locked in. Texas A&M is already bowl-eligible at 6-5 with a rivalry game against Texas left, but the Aggies will be sputtering towards the postseason (but that’s another story entirely).

The only teams actually eliminated from postseason contention are Baylor, who is 3-7, and Iowa St., who has knocked off two potential bowl teams in a row, but is still only 3-8.

That leaves four teams - Kansas St. (5-5), Nebraska (5-6), Colorado (5-6), and Oklahoma St. (5-5).

Ron Prince’s Wildcats looked all set to wrap up a bowl bid a couple of weeks ago, as they were 5-3 with Iowa St. and Nebraska looming.

But, they lost 31-20 on the road to the 1-8 Cyclones, and this past Saturday, were on the short end of a 73-31 beatdown against Nebraska.

Oklahoma St. was 5-3 two weeks ago as well, with two tough, but very winnable home games upcoming. And they were a quarter away from that all-important sixth win, taking a 35-14 lead into the fourth quarter against Texas. But, the Cowboys wound up losing 38-35, and on Saturday, couldn’t make any early lead stand up in a 43-28 loss to the Jayhawks.

The Nebraska-Colorado game will decide if the conference winds up with nine bowl-eligible teams.

But, will all of those teams be suiting up for the postseason?

Whether or not that happens depends on a few things - if the Big 12 gets two teams in the BCS, if the Sun and/or Gator bowls go with Big East teams, and if the first two don’t work in the conference’s favor, if another bowl in need would want to take a chance on a 6-6 Big 12 team, or perhaps a 7-5 or better team from another conference (like the Big 12, Big 10, ACC, SEC, or one of the non-BCS conference that might have more bowl-eligible teams than tie-ins).

CBS Sports currently has the Big 12 getting two BCS bids (Oklahoma and Kansas) and eight bids overall, with Kansas St. being the lone bowl-eligible team left out (and Nebraska getting in over Colorado).

In Stewart Mandel’s projections on SI.com, he has nine conference teams getting in (Oklahoma and Texas in the BCS), including Kansas St.

Kansas St.‘s fate rests on beating either Missouri at home this week or win at Fresno St. in two weeks to be bowl-eligible, which isn‘t an enviable position to be in.

In the end, the Big 12 should be more than well-represented in the postseason, no matter who gets in and where they go.

Where will they go? Well, we’ll know after these next few exciting weeks of action.

Passing the Test

If you needed any proof of Kansas and Missouri’s mettle, you got it this past weekend, when they were both tested by quality opponents.

Kansas fell behind early to Oklahoma St., but bounced back with a vengeance and won 43-28 in Stillwater.

In Columbia, Missouri saw a 24-9 halftime lead tighten to 24-19 after three quarters and 31-26 midway through the fourth, but the Tigers calmly drove down the field for a touchdown on their next drive, and a safety on Texas A&M’s next drive wrapped up a 40-26 win.

Is the Real McCoy Back?

Texas’ defense has given up 103 points in the last three games, but the Longhorns are 3-0. The offense has had issues with turnovers and consistency all season long, but has woken up when it’s needed to. And, while the defense has had its struggles, the offense has picked up the slack, averaging more than 41 points and 567 yards per game.

In comeback wins over Nebraska and Oklahoma St., Texas scored 25 and 24 points in the fourth, and got that same output on Saturday, when Texas Tech predictably made a comeback, and answered every time the Red Raiders tried to find a way back into the game after trailing 35-20 entering the fourth.

In the last two games, Jamaal Charles took over in the fourth quarter, minimizing the pressure on Colt McCoy to win the game with his arm, which has been mistake-prone this season.

But, with Charles nursing a injured ankle in the latter part of Saturday’s game, the old Colt showed up, throwing two touchdown passes and running for another in the fourth quarter to help Texas outscore Graham Harrell and Texas Tech 59-43.

McCoy had thrown only two touchdown passes with six interceptions in the last three games, and had 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions on the season going into Saturday. But, he threw for 268 yards and four touchdowns (with only one pick), and added 51 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.

That running ability has been big recently, and as was the case in the last couple of games, he had a big run in the fourth against Texas Tech, with a 19-yard touchdown run to make it 45-28 with seven minutes left, after the Red Raiders had drawn within ten.

Then, after Texas Tech drew within 10 again, it was McCoy that put the game out of reach with two touchdown passes, both of which came on third-down plays.

McCoy was 10 of 11 passing on third and fourth-down plays, with all 10 completions going for first downs (and three for touchdowns), and added two first-down runs in those crucial situations.

When you have players that you know you can count on to step up for you, even when they’ve had their struggles, you can be pretty confident when you’re entering the final quarter, even when your defense isn‘t playing as well as it should.

Murray Needs Some Hype Too

While Sam Bradford continues to put up big numbers (20 of 25, 353 yards, 3 TD in a 52-21 win over Baylor on Saturday), and making his case as a top Heisman candidate for next year (and an All-American this year), another Sooner might need to get some consideration as well.

While Bradford was busy solidifying himself as the nation’s most efficient passer, DeMarco Murray was busy terrorizing Baylor as well.

By now, we’ve seen Murray’s kickoff return touchdown against the Bears, where he not only navigates out of a potential disaster, but finds a lane down the right sideline and takes it all the way for a touchdown, his second kick return for a score this year. Along with that touchdown, Murray had three touchdowns on the ground, taking his season total to 15 (13 rushing, 2 return).

The issue in the way of Murray being a serious Heisman candidate next season is not the fact that his quarterback is also going to be in the running, but that Oklahoma will have 3,682 other backs getting carries.

That hasn’t stopped Darren McFadden from being a Heisman candidate, but he’s only really sharing carries with one other guy, and the Razorbacks don’t have a passing game, whereas OU has one of the nation’s top quarterbacks, and a couple of other backs to hand the ball to besides Murray.

But, on the other hand, he could end up like Reggie Bush, who was in a backfield with another 1,000 yard rusher and an All-American quarterback, but ran away with the Heisman with his versatility and electrifying ability as a runner, receiver, and returner.