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...
Colorados Offense Just Raised A Bigger Concern For Deion Sanders
The Red Raiders left Boulder with more than just a road win, they left with a defensive statement. After Colorado opened with a touchdown, Texas Tech settled in fast and turned the rest of the night into a showcase for its secondary and its adjustments, forcing four interceptions that directly produced 20 points. John Curry and Brice Pollock were among the defenders making plays as Joey McGuires group erased any early doubt and kept Colorado off the board the rest of the way.
For Texas Tech, the result said as much about the defense as it did about the final score. Shutting out Colorado after that first drive gave the Red Raiders a clear formula on the road, one built on tightening up quickly and taking advantage of mistakes when they come. McGuire was quick to credit the way his team adapted, and it was hard not to see the bigger takeaway for Colorado in the process, since the offense never found an answer once Texas Tech started to close the door. [Read more 🡒]
Colorado Still Has One Reason To Believe After Texas Tech
Colorado is using its Week 6 bye to get healthy and clean up the issues that showed up in a 29-7 loss to Texas Tech, a game in which the Buffaloes defense held up far better than the final score suggested. Defensive lineman Santana Hopper stood out on that side of the ball, and the overall performance offered at least one reminder that this team still has a foundation to build on even after a frustrating setback.
The bigger concern was on offense, where the Buffaloes never found enough answers to stay with the Red Raiders. Hopper said the group is focused on correcting mistakes and taking advantage of the extra time to improve before a Week 7 matchup with Utah, and that next stretch should tell plenty about whether Colorado can turn one encouraging defensive effort into a more complete performance. [Read more 🡒]
Colorado Keeps Pulling Huge Audiences Despite Results Fans Hate
Colorados homecoming loss to Texas Tech drew a surprisingly big national audience anyway, with the FOX telecast averaging 2.51 million viewers and landing as the 10th most-watched college football game in Week 5. It was another reminder that, for all the chatter around the Buffaloes on-field slide, they remain one of the sports most visible and talked-about programs.
The attention has held even as the results have gone the other way, with Colorado now 2-3 after its third straight defeat. The viewership trend has softened in recent years, but the Buffaloes still keep pulling numbers that few teams in the country can match, which says plenty about the pull of the program even when the football is frustrating for its fan base. [Read more 🡒]