Big 12 Sports Blog by Big 12 Fans

Pat White and West Virginia’s offense was just too much for a depleted Oklahoma defense last night as the Mountaineers trounced the Sooners 48-28 in the Fiesta Bowl. 

Oklahoma was missing starters Reggie Smith (injury), Lendy Holmes (academic ineligibility), and DeMarcus Granger (sent home for shoplifting), and the Mountaineers capitalized, rushing for 349 yards and totaling 525 yards. 

It was the Sooners’ fourth straight loss in a BCS bowl game.  There was one bright spot in the loss, however, in junior wide receiver Quentin Chaney, who came into the game with only five catches for 56 yards and one touchdown on the season, but caught four passes for 129 yards and a touchdown last night. 

Tonight, 11-1 Kansas looks to cap their storybook season with a happy ending as they take on ACC champion Virginia Tech (11-2) in the Orange Bowl. 

It’s a two-score game yet again, as Oklahoma quickly drove down the field, with Bradford hooking up with Iglesias on a 15-yard score to close the deficit again.

It’s now 41-28 West Virginia with 10 minutes to play. A quick stop for the Sooners is a must.

Just as I say that, the Mountaineers may have just sealed the win, as Devine goes 65 yards for a score.

It’s 48-28 with nine minutes to play, and OU is now in need of a minor miracle, or to at least come up with a couple of quick-strike scores of their own, along with a turnover or two..

Just when OU looked to be getting back into the game, pulling within 34-21 on a Sam Bradford touchdown pass to Quentin Chaney, West Virginia may have all but sealed the victory with Pat White’s 79-yard touchdown pass to Tito Gonzales on the next play from scrimmage.

It’s 41-21 West Virginia with 13 minutes to play. Still not over, but the Sooners are going to have score quickly and buckle down on defense to give themselves a chance to make a comeback.

As quickly as Oklahoma got themselves back in the game, they may have lost it.

After the questionable onside kick call that backfired, and the resulting touchdown by West Virginia, a penalty on the kickoff gave the Sooners bad field position, and after a three-and-out, the Mountaineers needed only three plays to get into the end zone, with receiver Darius Reynaud scoring on a 30-yard run.

34-15 Mountaineers at the end of the third. The Sooners aren‘t going to lay down though, as Juaquin Iglesias just returned the kickoff near midfield, and the Sooners are already inside the West Virginia 30 after a pass interference penalty.

Oklahoma got off to a slow start, falling behind 20-6 at halftime to West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl, but it looks like the Bob Stoops lit a fire under his guys in the locker room, as they’ve stopped the Mountaineers on two straight possessions coming out of the locker room, and trimmed the deficit to 20-9 with a Garrett Hartley field goal on their first offensive possession.

The Sooners were down 28-10 in the third quarter against Boise State in last season’s Fiesta Bowl, and came back to take a 35-28 lead before losing 43-42 in overtime, so there’s plenty of time and plenty of fight left in OU.

They’re moving the ball yet again, and are already at the West Virginia 15. Make that the 1-yard line after Chris Brown just broke off a 14-yard run, and now they’re into the end zone as Brown finished off the drive by getting in from one yard out to make it 20-15 with 6:27 to go in the third.

Oklahoma went for the two-point conversion and didn’t get it, but they’ve quickly tightened this one up. The onus is now on the Mountaineers to get something going on offense, and for the defense to start getting to Sam Bradford like they did in the first half, when they sacked him three times.

That blocked field goal at the end of the first half, when WVU could’ve gone up 23-6, was a real momentum swinger, because it put a good capper on a subpar first half on both sides of the ball.

OU just gave back all the momentum they’d gotten by attempting an onside kick that West Virginia recovered, and with the short field, the Mountaineers fully capitalized, as freshman running back Noel Devine went 17 yards for a touchdown, and it’s 27-15 West Virginia with 3:40 to go in the third.

Time for the Sooners to respond.

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.

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.

Does the Big 12 have a chance at getting someone in the national championship game?

The newest BCS standings were released yesterday, and after Ohio St.’s loss to Illinois, the race for the two coveted spots is wide open once again.

Behind new #1 and #2 LSU and Oregon, there are three Big 12 teams - #3 Kansas, #4 Oklahoma, and #5 Missouri.

Because Kansas plays Missouri in two weeks, and the winner of that game will play Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game in three weeks, only one of those three teams is going to be right there in the end.

Oklahoma’s presence isn’t a surprise, but for the other two, it’s another story.

Kansas has impressed their way to a 10-0 record, and in the last couple of weeks, have begun to open eyes as a national title contender. ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit appeared to be convinced of the Jayhawks’ credentials after he witnessed their 43-28 win at Oklahoma St. on Saturday night.

Missouri’s had only one hiccup, a 41-31 loss at Oklahoma, but the Tigers have quietly moved their way into the top 5, and are seriously in the hunt for the national championship.

The #2 Ducks have games left at Arizona, UCLA, and vs. Oregon St., teams with a combined record of 15-15.

All sewn up for the Ducks, right? Not even close. It’s been a crazy year in the Pac-10, as shown by the struggles of USC, Cal, and UCLA, and the emergence of Oregon and Arizona St.

And while the records of their last three opponents won’t wow anyone, winning all three of those contests won’t be easy.

Oregon’s offense hasn’t had any problems with scoring points, but their defense can be scored on, and that’s where Arizona’s best chance is.

And, a trip to the Rose Bowl won’t be easy, because that inconsistent UCLA team might have its hot day at just the right time.

Then, there’s the annual ‘Civial War’ game against rival Oregon St., a team that upset #2 Cal on the road.

But, while the best bet would be to have one of the top two to lose, could one of the Big 12’s big three get in on their own merits?

If a team was to do it, it would be Kansas. The Jayhawks have gotten a lot of flack for their ‘easy’ schedule up to this point, but the past and present are on their side.

In the BCS’ history, no unbeaten team has been left out in favor of a one-loss team. There was Auburn in 2004, who was left out, but they were behind two unbeaten teams in Oklahoma and USC.

And, with them set to play two top-five teams down the stretch, that will take care of the quality wins that they’ve been lacking thus far, and could give the Jayhawks enough of a push in the polls to make up the deficit they currently face against Oregon.

With a couple of big wins, you can move up those necessary hundredths, as shown last season, when Florida’s BCS average went from .8897 to .9445 from the next-to-last standings to the final standings with a win over Arkansas in the SEC Championship Game, which jumped them over Michigan for the #2 spot.

So, two wins over two top-five teams would likely move them into that #2 spot, even if they may be #3 in the polls (though if Oregon has a close win in any of their final three games, and the Jayhawks take care of business against Iowa St., Missouri, and Oklahoma, they could move up to #2).

Granted, Oregon would have a valid complaint if they went 11-1 and were left out of the national title game. But, when you’ve got two teams relatively even in their resumes, and the only difference is one team’s loss to a mid-pack bowl team, then, you can’t argue with how things turn out.

But, if the Jayhawks don’t take the #2 spot, then do Oklahoma and Missouri have a chance? Missouri could be a darkhorse pick, given that they would at least move up to #3 if they win out, and beating two top-five teams could be enough to make up what is now a fairly sizable deficit. But, if they do win out and fall short, the Tigers would have a legitimate argument, because of the wins on their resume (their season-opening win at Illinois looks huge right now, along with blowout wins at Nebraska and Texas Tech, who were ranked at the time, then wins over top-fivers Kansas and Oklahoma, along with road wins at Colorado and Kansas St., who may be bowl bound).

For the Sooners, that loss to Colorado is a killer right now, but they would have an argument for #2 if they win out (at Texas Tech, vs. Oklahoma St., vs. Kansas/Missouri).

The last three weeks are sure to be crazy, and when the dust clears, there’s a good chance that the Big 12 could have a member in the national title game for the fourth time in the last five seasons.