Week 3 in the Big 12 started sorting teams out, and it did so fast. Texas Tech and Arizona State moved into the early conference picture, BYU stayed in the mix, and a few programs spent the weekend hanging on by their fingertips. It was one of those Saturdays that left just as many questions as answers.
Texas Tech’s 28-26 win over Houston on Friday night kept the Red Raiders in the hunt, but it also reinforced a strange early-season theme: this doesn’t look like the 2025 Texas Tech team. The Red Raiders are 0-3 against the spread this season after going 12-2 against the spread in 2025, which is part of why the conference feels so open right now.
The encouraging part for Texas Tech is that Friday was its last ranked game on the schedule for now. Still, BYU and Utah have already looked better than expected, and West Virginia and Oklahoma State are in the conversation too.
Houston and Arizona are still around, and Kansas State hasn’t even really entered the picture yet.
West Virginia’s 3-0 start got a major boost with a Top 25 win over Virginia in Charlotte, and the Mountaineers looked like the more complete team from start to finish. Michael Hawkins Jr. turned in a performance that put him in rare company, becoming the first WVU quarterback with 3+ rush TD and 2+ pass TD a single game since White in 2008.
The defense grew stronger as the game went along, with Zac Alley’s blitz packages creating problems Virginia never solved. For Rich Rodriguez, this was the best win of his era at West Virginia, and it might be the most important one too, especially with Oklahoma State next on deck in conference play.
Not every Big 12 team made life that easy on itself. Cincinnati and UCF both flirted with disaster before escaping.
The Bearcats were down 28-7 to Miami (OH) at halftime before ripping off 28 second-half points to pull out a 35-31 win. Cole Tabb’s 53-yard touchdown with 1:29 left gave Cincinnati the lead, and it was the program’s biggest comeback since it erased a 21-0 deficit in 2018 to beat Ohio University 34-30.
For Scott Satterfield, that was the kind of result that can save a week.
UCF nearly followed a similar script in the wrong direction. Georgia State was up 24-20 at halftime, and the Knights’ defense kept giving up scoring drives to open the game and into the third quarter.
Eventually, UCF steadied itself, got a few stops and let the offense lean on big run plays to regain control in a 37-27 win. Scott Frost could breathe again after that one.
Losing either game would have been a disaster for the league.
The Big 12’s first FBS game in London, meanwhile, didn’t exactly make a case for an encore. Arizona State beat Kansas 24-17, but the score made it look better than the game actually was.
The offense from both sides was rough, and the result came down to Kansas special teams mistakes and turnovers that Arizona State converted into points. The travel probably didn’t help, but this was still a game that mostly dragged.
If the league does it again, a better television window than noon Eastern might be part of the plan.
And then there was Colorado, which saw its early-season shine take a major hit in a 41-7 loss to Northwestern. Deion Sanders was openly critical of his players afterward, and the performance backed him up.
Colorado was a 3-point underdog and got blown out by 30-plus, wiping away a lot of the goodwill from the Georgia Tech win. The stumble against Weber State already felt flat, and Saturday only made things worse against a Big Ten team that wasn’t exactly a powerhouse.
The offense is the bigger problem, especially with four turnovers on its first five drives. The defense has improved, but it can’t keep carrying that kind of load if the offense keeps falling apart.
In Other News...
Kelvin Sampson Just Added To Houstons Frontcourt Recruiting Machine
Houstons frontcourt pipeline under Kelvin Sampson keeps rolling, and the latest addition only strengthens the picture for the future. Four-star power forward Triston Hawthorne, a 6-foot-7 senior from Ellisville, Mississippi, has committed to the Cougars for the 2027 recruiting class, picking Houston over Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Harvard. His decision adds another high-end piece to a class that is already drawing attention nationally.
Hawthorne joins three other top-100 prospects in what currently stands as Houstons top-rated 2027 group, a sign that Sampson and his staff are continuing to stack talent well beyond the immediate season. For a program built on physicality, development and depth up front, landing another athletic interior option this early only reinforces how hard Houston has become to beat on the recruiting trail. [Read more 🡒]
Willie Fritz Knows What Cost Houston A Statement Win Over Texas Tech
Houston came out of its Big 12 opener with Texas Tech feeling like it had left a statement win on the table. The Cougars fell 28-26, a one-score result that carried the kind of frustration coaches tend to revisit quickly, especially when there were enough clean plays to win and enough loose ones to decide the game the other way. Willie Fritz pointed to the effort his team showed, but he also made clear there were specific areas that kept Houston from finishing the job.
Missed field goals, defensive communication problems and tackling issues all surfaced in Fritzs postgame assessment, and a late two-point conversion attempt involving Conner Weigman added another layer to an already tight finish. The play call and the officials ruling drew attention, but Houstons bigger concern is more basic: in a game this close, the small mistakes mattered most, and the Cougars know they have to tighten them up before the rest of the league starts stacking losses against them. [Read more 🡒]
Which Houston Targets Are Emerging As The Offense Starts To Shift
Houstons offense is starting to show a little more shape as the Cougars try to regroup after a 28-26 loss to Texas Tech, a game that again underscored how thin the margin has been in this matchup. Conner Weigman moved the ball well through the air and also added something with his legs, while Koby Young and Amare Thomas both stood out as reliable targets in a passing game that looked more connected than it has at other points this season.
The wider question now is which receivers are becoming the clear fits as Houston keeps adjusting around Weigman. Trent Walkers production dipped from what he had been giving the Cougars earlier, and the balance of opportunities among the pass catchers has started to look more fluid, which can be a good sign or a sign the offense is still searching for its most dependable answers. On a night when Jalen Mayo and Will James also delivered key plays on defense, Houston still came up short, but the receiving picture may be changing in a way worth watching. [Read more 🡒]