Five weeks into the Big 12 season, the league has already started sorting itself out, and the divide is pretty clear. There are undefeated teams piling up wins, winless teams running out of answers, and a middle class that still has time to make a move. After Week 5, a few programs changed the conversation entirely.
Baylor is one of them.
The Bears didn’t just handle Colorado. They went to Arizona State and delivered a 55-19 beat-down on the road.
That kind of result turns heads fast, especially with the way Baylor’s defense has looked under coordinator Joe Klanderman. DJ Lagway is healthy now, and he backed that up by throwing four touchdown passes on Saturday.
Even Dave Aranda, in his own way, seems fired up about what he’s seeing.
If this is what Baylor is for the rest of the season, then the Bears are a real contender. And the schedule ahead helps, too, because their next four games are gettable.
Houston also took a step forward, even if it didn’t look that way for a full 60 minutes. The Cougars were flat for a half, and Willie Fritz said as much after the game.
But they flipped the script after halftime against UCF, with a third-quarter interception helping swing things their way. Conner Weigman kept showing why he’s turning heads, while Re’Shaun Sanford II and Makhi Hughes give Houston a dangerous one-two punch out of the backfield.
That win mattered because Houston already has a loss, and another conference stumble would make the path a lot tighter. Still, beating UCF at home was a must.
And for Cougars fans, there’s a night game against Oklahoma State in two Saturdays. Maybe the crowd shows up this time, because that’s a damn good team.
Iowa State’s offense deserves a place in the spotlight, too. The Cyclones found a way to score, and then some.
Aiden Flora did something no Big 12 player had done since Vince Young, and he isn’t even a quarterback. He accounted for five touchdowns as Iowa State leaned into every bit of trickeration it had, partly because West Virginia’s offense was giving the Cyclones defense real problems.
That defensive issue is still there after two weeks, but the scoring burst changes the picture. If Iowa State can keep putting up points like that, it helps cover for some of the holes on the other side of the ball.
The Cyclones have title aspirations of their own, though they’re already carrying a conference loss. Still, knowing the offense can explode like this gives them something to build on.
On the other side of the ledger, Colorado keeps sliding.
It got worse again in Week 5. After the loss to Baylor, the Buffaloes managed only seven points against Texas Tech.
Isaac Wilson threw three interceptions, Joseph Williams added one more after coming in, and the whole quarterback situation around Julian Lews only added more confusion. Deion Sanders didn’t sound interested in explaining much of it.
“No, no. I would love JuJu to come in here and he tell you what happened.
Don’t ‘you benched JuJu from first string to third string.’ No, that’s not how it went down,” Sanders said.
“It didn’t happen like that.”
So how did it happen? Sanders didn’t really say.
He may not care what the media thinks, but this is the kind of mess his new athletic director, Fernando Lovo, is going to notice.
Texas Tech is still undefeated, but the Red Raiders are living a little too close to the edge for comfort. The defense has been the backbone, forcing 10 turnovers in five games and picking off four passes against Colorado. Tech is No. 26 in the country in points allowed per game at 16.20, and the pass rush is still affecting quarterbacks even if it isn’t quite at last year’s level.
The problem is the offense hasn’t matched it. Will Hammond hasn’t hit another gear yet, and while the run game has held up, everyone is watching Cameron Dickey’s injury closely.
The word is that it’s a high ankle sprain, which usually means a few weeks out. That’s a tough one to shake.
Tech is winning ugly, and there’s value in that. But ugly wins can start disappearing fast if the margin for error gets too thin.
Arizona State comes to Lubbock on Saturday, and the Sun Devils will be angry after losing to Baylor. That should be a test.
And yes, for anyone keeping score at home, remember who beat Texas Tech last year.
West Virginia, meanwhile, is stuck in a familiar bad place.
For the second straight week, the Mountaineers gave up even more points to a less talented offense than they did the week before. Iowa State put up 45 after Oklahoma State scored 42 the previous week. That’s not a trend anybody wants.
The bigger issue is that the defense was rebuilt through the portal, and it still isn’t working. The secondary is banged up, and the coaching staff needs to settle on one defensive front and stick with it, whichever version gives this group the best chance to stop the bleeding.
Right now, West Virginia isn’t going to a Big 12 title game. The season is already telling that story.
In Other News...
Houston Brings A Tough Big 12 Problem Kansas State Must Solve
Kansas State gets a difficult Big 12 assignment at home with No. 22 Houston coming in, and the matchup has a little extra edge for Wildcats coach Collin Klein because it means facing former player and current Cougars quarterback Conner Weigman. Houston has gotten strong play from Weigman this season, making him the centerpiece of a trip that already looks like one of the more challenging tests on the Wildcats schedule.
For Kansas State, the task gets a little harder with tight end Will Anciaux sidelined by injury, leaving another gap to manage as it tries to slow a Houston team that has drawn praise for its recent performances. Both sides have been talking through the key players and what has stood out in the buildup, but the real answer will have to come on the field when the Wildcats try to solve a familiar face leading an unfamiliar problem. [Read more 🡒]
Houston Finally Gets A Rare Big 12 Home Spotlight
The Cougars are about to get the kind of showcase that has been hard to come by in their early Big 12 life. Houston will host No. 18 Oklahoma State on Oct. 17 at 6:30 p.m. CST at TDECU Stadium, with FOX carrying the game nationally, giving the program its first nationally televised primetime home slot of the season.
For a Houston team that is ranked No. 22, the setting only adds to the significance of the month ahead. The Cougars also go to Kansas State the week before, another FOX game, and this stretch could give them back-to-back chances to show they belong in the conference spotlight while possibly landing their first top-25 home matchup since 2015. [Read more 🡒]