The Big 12 Conference’s off-the-field stock might be rising, but on the field, Saturday, Sept. 2 might be remembered as one of the darkest days in recent memory, at least for some of the league’s latest up-and-coming programs.
TCU, Baylor and Texas Tech all took it on the chin on Saturday. TCU, which played for the national championship last year and looked to be one of the favorites to push Texas for the conference title this year, was knocked off in its very first game, no less, by Prime-Time-Fueled Colorado. Texas Tech lost a close one at Laramie to Wyoming, and Baylor – well, there’s little excuse for what happened in Waco, a loss to unheralded Texas State.
Elsewhere around the conference, Texas, ranked No. 11 and cranking up for that trip to Tuscaloosa this coming Saturday to face Alabama in a rematch of that fantastic game last year, defeated Rice, 37-10; Oklahoma, ranked No. 20, defeated coach Butch Jones and Arkansas State in an ugly shutout, 73-0 (no word on if anyone won the Championship of Life in that contest); West Virginia lost to No. 7 Penn State, 38-15; defending Big 12 Conference champion and No. 16 Kansas State defeated Southeast Missouri State, 45-0; Iowa State beat Northern Iowa, 30-9; Houston edged out upstart Texas-San Antonio, but only by three, 17-14; Oklahoma State beat Central Arkansas, 27-13; Cincinnati pasted Eastern Kentucky, 66-13; and BYU held off a scrappy Sam Houston State team, 14-0.
Back on Thursday, Central Florida routed Kent State, 56-7, and on Friday, Kansas blasted Missouri State, 48-17.
- Colorado 45, TCU 42: In Fort Worth, what everyone (sort of) suspected would be coach Deion Sanders’ team trying to hang with upstart TCU turned into a dogfight, coming down to the final moments.
The Buffaloes got in front for good on a pass from quarterback Shedeur Sanders to Dylan Edwards on a fourth-down play gone wrong for TCU, a 46-yard pass to Edwards, a freshman, who scored with just over four minutes left.
Sanders, one of two of Sanders’ sons on the team, set school passing records in the win. Sanders completed 38-of-47 passes for 510 yards and four touchdowns. Edwards caught three of them, and Jimmy Horn Jr. caught the other. Sy’veon Wilkerson was the leading rusher for Colorado, but only had 35 yards and a score. Edwards also incredibly RAN for a touchdown, as well.
Colorado’s defense was able to snuff out any attempt by the Horned Frogs to score the remainder of the contest, and quarterback Chandler Morris was intercepted twice, one by former national number-one recruit Travis Hunter and one by Trevor Woods. Hunter also played on offense, making 11 catches for 119 yards.
Sanders’ brother, Shilo, a defensive back, led the team with 10 total tackles, nine of them solo.
On the other end of things, Morris was 24-of-42 for 279 yards, two touchdowns (to Dylan Wright and Jared Wiley) and the two interceptions. Emani Bailey had a huge day for TCU, with 164 yards rushing on 14 carries. Johnny Hodges and Bud Clark each had nine tackles to lead the Horned Frogs’ defensive effort.
This week, the eyes of the college football world will be squarely on Colorado, as they host Nebraska and first-year coach Matt Rhule – Nebraska had a near-miss in week one, losing a heartbreaker as time expired, 13-10, to Minnesota, a Big 10 Conference game in the opening weekend. TCU is home Saturday against Nicholls (an 0-1 team).
- Texas State 42, Baylor 31: Waco was the site of one of the more – well – interesting results of the day, as the Bobcats went into McLane Stadium for what was supposed to be a one-sided affair in favor of the Baylor Bears, and wound up sending Baylor fans home shaking their heads.
In fact, not only did they go in and take advantage of their underdog status, they dropped 28 points in the first half on the Bears, giving coach GJ Kinne a win in his coaching debut.
Texas State finished with 448 total yards.
T.J. Finley, the Auburn transfer, completed 22-of-30 passes for the Bobcats for 298 yards and three touchdowns (to Joey Hobert, Donerio Davenport, and Ismail Mahdi). Mahdi ran for 83 yards and another touchdown, as well.
The Bobcats’ defense had three sacks, a fumble recovery and an interception.
To add injury to insult, Baylor quarterback Blake Shapen was injured in the game, and coach Dave Aranda said Shapen had a knee injury and would have an MRI on Sunday. Shapen was injured in the third quarter. Shapen’s replacement, former Mississippi State quarterback Sawyer Robertson, had two turnovers on the Bears’ last two drives: an interception and a fumble.
Shapen finished 21-of-31 for 303 yards and two TD (both to Drake Dabney). Dominic Richardson led the Bears in rushing with 79 yards on 16 carries.
Baylor’s defense had onr sack and no picks in the game.
Texas State will be back on the road at Texas-San Antonio on Saturday, and Baylor will have a challenge, hosting Utah this Saturday. Utah, interestingly enough, is about to leave the Pac-12 for the Big 12 – in the future, this game will be a conference game.
- Texas 37, Rice 10: Rice came to Austin with the intention of sneaking up on coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns.
Right.
They did score first, a 43-yard field goal by Tim Horn, with 10:07.
But Texas took a lead shortly thereafter on a 37-yard catch by Jonathon Brooks from Quinn Ewers, and then Bert Auburn – who sounds like he should be an SEC kicker – hit three straight field goals in the second quarter (27, 46, and 49 yards, respectively).
Texas scored three touchdowns in the third quarter: Adonai Mitchell on a 9-yard pass from Ewers; Ja’Tavion Sanders on a 44-yard pass from Ewers; and then Ewers using his legs on a 1-yard run.
Luke McCaffrey scored the only TD for Rice in the fourth quarter, a 15-yard pass from JT Daniels with 3:04 left in the game.
As mentioned, the latest Game of the Century is this coming weekend, with Texas visiting ‘Bama in Tuscaloosa. Rice hosts Houston.
