Week 6 gave the Big 12 a clearer picture of where things stand, and the message was loud: the top of the league is starting to sort itself out.
BYU stayed unbeaten with a 24-10 win over Iowa State on Friday night. Arizona rolled past West Virginia 52-31.
Houston went into Manhattan and beat Kansas State. Oklahoma State handled UCF 42-28 after a slow start.
Utah finished off Kansas 41-24. In a week where the league’s biggest names mostly held serve, the contenders kept building separation while the teams trying to catch them kept losing ground.
That includes a stretch of teams that now look like they belong in the same conversation at the top with Texas Tech. BYU, Arizona, Oklahoma State, Houston and Utah all came through with results that mattered, and the back half of the regular season is arriving with the conference race taking shape.
Kansas State’s problems up front showed up again in a big way. After a bye week and a loss to Cincinnati, the Wildcats still got bullied at the line of scrimmage.
Houston ran for 233 yards, while Kansas State managed just 117 on the ground. The Wildcats finished without a sack and with only one tackle for loss.
Houston, meanwhile, recorded two sacks and five tackles for loss.
The Cougars deserve plenty of credit for that. They went on the road and controlled the game in Manhattan from the jump.
Makhi Hughes is the headliner in the backfield, but Houston is also getting real production from Re’Shaun Sanford II, and senior tight end Patrick Overmyer was impossible to miss with four touchdown catches. Since transferring in from UTSA, Overmyer has been a major addition.
Oklahoma State’s 42-28 win over UCF turned on one brutal sequence in the fourth quarter. The game was tied 21-21 at halftime, and the Cowboys had nudged ahead 27-21 early in the fourth.
Then, with UCF driving and possibly on the verge of taking the lead, Keyon Jenkins’ backwards pass was knocked down by Oklahoma State’s Christian Bodnar and returned for a touchdown by Evan Jackson. Mestemaker’s conversion run pushed the lead to 35-21 with 10:32 left, and that was that for the Knights.
UCF had just blown a 17-0 lead at Houston the week before, and the second-half issues showed up again in Stillwater. Still, there’s more going on with this team than the record shows. Even if the results aren’t there yet, the progress is real, and it’s happening while UCF is dealing with a backup quarterback, backup offensive linemen and backup linebackers.
Arizona’s offense didn’t blink even without its top three wide receivers. Noah Fifita and Isaiah Mizell picked apart a West Virginia defense that has been a problem all season, especially when the Mountaineers were caught in one-on-one coverage or drawing interference penalties.
Fifita went 16 of 23 for a season-high 341 yards. Mizell, a sophomore, exploded for six catches and 183 yards, both career highs.
He had 176 receiving yards all season before this game. West Virginia’s defense turned him into Jerry Rice.
The Mountaineers are now 0-3 in Big 12 play, and the win over UVA already feels distant. The offense has done enough at times, but the defense is giving away too much and forcing the other side to chase points.
West Virginia also wasted several first-half chances, including a short field goal, a lost fumble at the 2 and a turnover on downs at the 3. Right now, Rich Rod’s team does not look ready for a Year 2 turnaround.
Kansas did enough offensively to make Utah work for it. Isaiah Marshall put together a strong performance, finishing 19 of 37 for 333 yards with one touchdown pass and one touchdown run.
He started slowly, but once he settled in, the Jayhawks moved the ball. Kansas was down 34-24 at the one-yard line in the fourth quarter and went for it on fourth-and-goal, but couldn’t convert.
A few plays later, Wayshawn Parker ripped off a run of more than 90 yards to put the game away.
Utah did show some defensive cracks, but Marshall’s outing still stood out because of the setting and the way Kansas kept competing. It was the kind of performance that can matter later for a program trying to build itself back up. If Kansas can carry it forward, next week could bring a chance to beat K-State for the first time since 2008.
In Other News...
Mike Gundy Just Reminded Oklahoma State Why His Exit Still Hurts
Mike Gundy popped up on TNTs Big 12 pregame show and, for Oklahoma State fans, it was a reminder of just how much of his life was tied to Stillwater. He went from being a player there to spending more than two decades as the Cowboys head coach, building a rsum that included a Big 12 Championship and a long stretch of winning seasons.
Now part of college football coverage for TNT, Gundy was looking back on an era that defined him as much as it did the program. The public separation may be new, but the connection clearly is not, and for Oklahoma State, hearing him reflect on that long run only underscores how much history left the building when he did. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma State Has Real Momentum After Its Cleanest Win Yet
Oklahoma States four-game winning streak now comes with a performance that looked a lot closer to a complete team effort. The Cowboys handled UCF 42-28, and the biggest sign of progress came from the passing game, where Drew Mestemaker stayed in rhythm and moved the offense efficiently while the rest of the roster chipped in across the board.
There were still early hiccups, but the Cowboys never let them derail the afternoon, which has become a meaningful sign for a team trying to build something sturdier as the season goes on. Eric Morris and several players pointed to individual and unit-level growth after the win, and the next question is whether Oklahoma State can keep that same balance as the schedule keeps tightening. [Read more 🡒]
Mike Gundys First Public Return Will Hit Oklahoma State Fans Hard
Mike Gundys first public return to the college football spotlight since his firing at Oklahoma State carried plenty of emotional weight for fans who watched his entire run unfold in Stillwater. Now working as a studio analyst, Gundy used the broadcast to look back on a relationship with the program that stretched from his arrival as a player in 1986 to more than two decades as a coach and head coach, a span that made him one of the most familiar figures in school history.
For Oklahoma State supporters, the moment landed in a different light because the program has already moved on under Eric Morris after Gundy was dismissed three games into last season. Seeing him back on air, reflecting on a place that shaped so much of his life, only underscored how abrupt the end was and how much of the Cowboys recent identity was wrapped up in him. [Read more 🡒]