Week 1 in the Big 12 delivered the kind of opening stretch that tells you plenty about a conference without pretending to tell you everything. From Thursday night in Orlando to Saturday night in Tempe, the league spent the weekend stacking up blowouts, a couple of eye-opening wins, and one loss that turned into a real missed opportunity.
The cleanest headline belongs to Colorado and Cincinnati, two teams that came out of Week 1 looking like they had something real to build on.
Colorado’s 14-13 win over Georgia Tech was tight, tense, and decided late, but the Buffaloes earned plenty of credit for how they handled the game at the line of scrimmage. They looked better up front and, in that area, outplayed Georgia Tech in its own game.
The offense still leaves room for concern, but Julian Lewis delivered the throw that mattered most, finding Charlie Williams for the go-ahead score with less than a minute left. If Colorado can sort out the offense, it has the look of a serious Big 12 problem.
Cincinnati also came out swinging, and the 34-15 win over Boston College was more convincing than plenty of people probably expected. JC French IV didn’t need to carry the offense through the air because the Bearcats just kept pounding away on the ground.
Cincinnati rolled up 254 rushing yards, with Gi’Bran Payne leading the way at 108 yards and French adding three rushing touchdowns of his own. The defense held up its end, too, and the result never really felt in doubt.
The rest of the conference mostly spent the weekend doing what it was supposed to do against overmatched opponents, but there were still some performances worth noting.
Devon Dampier was electric in Utah’s 66-14 win over Idaho on Thursday night, with the Utes piling up more than 600 yards of offense and 364 of those coming on the ground. UCF followed that up by running through Bethune-Cookman 73-6 behind 360 rushing yards. Kansas got a look at Isaiah Marshall in a 51-6 win over Long Island on Friday night.
Saturday brought the avalanche. Texas Tech handled Abilene Christian 33-10 with Will Hammond in the mix.
Houston knocked off Oregon State 33-20 as Connor Weigman threw for more than 300 yards. West Virginia survived Coastal Carolina 31-24 by leaning on a 281-yard rushing day.
Avery Johnson threw three touchdown passes in Kansas State’s 71-3 win over Nicholls. Iowa State’s defense looked good against SEMO in a 38-10 win, and Jaylon Raynor threw two touchdown passes in that one as well.
BYU joined the blowout parade with a 63-7 win over Utah Tech, as Bear Bachmeier threw three touchdowns. In Arizona, Cutter Boley tossed six touchdown passes in Arizona State’s 70-7 win over Morgan State, while Arizona’s defense was sharp in a 35-7 win over Northern Arizona.
The one result that really landed on the wrong side of the ledger was Baylor’s 17-16 loss to Auburn. The Bears had a real chance to steal that game and came within one foot of pulling off the upset. The defense played better than expected, even while giving up nearly 400 yards, and allowing just 17 points put Baylor in position to win.
The issue was the offense, which couldn’t consistently turn production into points. Baylor finished with 436 yards but struggled to cash in outside of the final drive.
DJ Lagway showed flashes, but he also had some rough stretches. When Baylor scored late, the decision to go for two with less than 15 seconds left made sense as an aggressive call, especially for Dave Aranda.
The Bears just couldn’t finish it.
Then there was Oklahoma State, and that outing was rough from start to finish. The hype around the Cowboys took a hit in Tulsa, where Drew Mestemaker looked nervous and the offense never really found explosive plays.
The offensive line didn’t hold up well, either. Outside of the defense, there wasn’t much to point to, and four turnovers, 10 points, and a back-to-back loss to Tulsa told the story pretty clearly.
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