Week 1 didn’t hand the Big 12 a neat little script. It gave the league a little of everything instead: a statement win, a few flat spots, some quarterback buzz, and one meltdown that already has people reaching for the panic button.
The cleanest headline belongs to the conference as a whole. The Big 12 went 13-2 in the opening week, and that’s the kind of start most leagues would happily sign up for before a single snap.
Colorado’s upset of Georgia Tech stood out as especially impressive, and Cincinnati’s win over Boston College was dominant. Most of the rest of the league handled lesser competition without much drama, which is exactly what you want in Week 1.
That mattered because the Big 12 avoided the kind of messy opening weekend that haunted it last year. UCF had to sweat out Jacksonville State, Cincinnati lost to Nebraska, Baylor and Colorado took convincing losses to Auburn and Georgia Tech, and Kansas State had to scrape by North Dakota.
This time around, the league mostly took care of business. Not perfect, but a lot cleaner.
Baylor still left Week 1 with a loss, but it was the kind that can live in two different buckets depending on what happens next. The Bears fell 17-16 to Auburn after Dave Aranda chose to go for two following a late touchdown with under 10 seconds left.
The conversion came up just one foot short. Baylor had plenty to feel good about beyond the final score, though.
DJ Lagway was dealing with an ankle sprain and “basically playing on one leg,” but still delivered several strong throws. The defense, now led by new coordinator Joe Klanderman, also looked noticeably better.
If Baylor doesn’t let the ending linger, there’s a real chance this game ends up looking like the kind of performance that can carry into Big 12 play.
Oklahoma State, on the other hand, walked out of Week 1 with the wrong kind of noise surrounding it. The Cowboys were one of the trendy dark-horse picks in the league, but the Eric Morris era began with a rough 24-10 loss to Tulsa.
It was the second straight season the Pokes lost to the Golden Hurricane, and the better coach and better quarterback were both on Tulsa’s sideline. That’s a hard reality to swallow in Stillwater, especially with how much it’s been reported Drew Mestemaker is being paid by the Cowboys.
The defense was only mediocre, the line play on both sides was at best average, and there wasn’t much to cling to from the performance. Next up is No.
2 Oregon. That is not the kind of follow-up anyone wanted.
Woof.
West Virginia’s opener looked like two different games stitched together. The Mountaineers were rolling early, starting with Cam Cook’s 72-yard run on the first play from scrimmage.
Cook later punched in a 3-yard touchdown, Michael Hawkins hit Armoni Weaver for a 49-yard score, and before halftime Cook added a 1-yard touchdown to send WVU into the break up 24-0. Then came the second half, when Coastal Carolina outscored the Mountaineers 24-3 and piled up more than 300 yards.
West Virginia had to survive an onside kick attempt to close it out.
Rich Rodriguez called the second half an embarrassment, and that’s the kind of line that tells you all you need to know. WVU has one more tune-up against UT Martin before a meeting with Virginia, which looked sharp in a 34-8 win over NC State in Week 0. The Mountaineers have to clean that up fast if they want to play a full 60 minutes going forward.
There was also no shortage of quarterback debuts around the league, and a few of them jumped right into the spotlight. Jaylen Raynor got rolling for Jimmy Rogers at Iowa State, finishing 8 of 16 for 184 yards and two passing touchdowns while adding two more scores on the ground with 32 rushing yards.
Cincinnati’s JC French IV went 10 of 14 for 77 yards and a touchdown and also ran for three touchdowns on 52 yards. Michael Hawkins’ line for West Virginia was efficient and productive: 11 of 14 for 132 passing yards, one passing touchdown, 103 rushing yards, and another score on the ground.
Baylor’s DJ Lagway battled through the ankle issue and still put up 27 completions on 54 attempts for 333 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. And at Arizona State, Cutter Boley threw for five touchdowns and more than 300 yards in the first half.
That’s a lot to chew on for one opening weekend. Some of it was encouraging, some of it was ugly, and some of it was just a reminder that Week 1 can be a strange place to make sense of anything. But the Big 12 came out of it with more good than bad, and that’s a solid place to start.
In Other News...
Oklahoma States Eric Morris Debut Raised Concerns Fans Cant Ignore
Tulsas 24-10 win in Stillwater did more than snap Oklahoma States 11-game season-opening streak. It exposed how quickly a promising afternoon can tilt when the Cowboys lose control of field position, give away possessions and fail to finish drives, all while trying to sort out what the Eric Morris era is supposed to look like in real time. The game never found a steady rhythm for Oklahoma State, and Tulsa made sure the few explosive moments belonged to the visitors.
The Cowboys also took an early hit up front when left tackle Jacob Sexton went down and had to be carted off, a blow that only added to the sense of unease around the offense. Tulsa, meanwhile, created the kind of chunk gains Oklahoma State never matched, and the Cowboys problems on fourth down kept them from turning scattered progress into anything lasting. For a fan base hoping for a clean reset, the opener left plenty of questions and not many easy answers. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma State Has A Tulsa Problem Fans Can't Ignore
Tulsas latest trip to Stillwater ended with a result Oklahoma State fans did not want to see and one that carried a little more historical weight than a normal nonconference loss. Baylor Hayes managed the game efficiently, completing 17 of 24 passes for 227 yards and a touchdown, while the Golden Hurricane defense kept the Cowboys off balance by forcing four turnovers and limiting their fourth-down chances in a 24-10 win.
For a program trying to reset momentum, the part that stings is how complete Tulsa looked doing it. Tre Lamb had sounded confident before kickoff, and afterward the Golden Hurricane coach had reason to feel even better about the way his team handled the moment. The scoreboard told one story, but the way Tulsa controlled enough of the game to make the final margin feel manageable left Oklahoma State with a problem it cannot just brush aside. [Read more 🡒]
Eric Morris Debut Just Sparked A Bigger Oklahoma State Debate
Eric Morris Oklahoma State debut arrived with plenty of attention, but the bigger story from the opener was how thoroughly Tulsa dictated the terms. The Golden Hurricane were the sharper, more physical team from the start, winning the turnover battle and coming up with the kind of early fourth-down stop that set the tone for the rest of the afternoon. For a Cowboys roster that had been overhauled and was supposed to carry more offensive talent than this showing suggested, it was a sobering first look.
The frustration is bigger than one loss because Tulsa has now had the upper hand in back-to-back meetings, something Oklahoma State supporters have not seen in generations. A program trying to reset under Morris does not need this kind of early setback, especially not one built on self-inflicted mistakes and an offense that never found a steady rhythm. The opener was supposed to answer some questions about where the Cowboys are headed, but instead it left a more uncomfortable one hanging over the program. [Read more 🡒]