Week 10 shook up the Big 12 in all the ways fans have come to expect: a rivalry showdown at the top, a wild shootout in the middle of the standings, and two coaches walking away from ugly losses with the noise around their jobs getting louder.
Utah is the team setting the pace now. The No.
3 Utes beat No. 9 BYU 28-20 in the Holy War and, with that, pushed their odds of making the Big 12 Championship Game to 93% according to ESPN.
At 9-0 overall and 6-0 in league play, they’re the only unbeaten team left in the conference with three games still to play.
That win came with plenty of Utah fingerprints on it. Devon Dampier was a problem all night, and the defense slammed the door in the second half, holding BYU scoreless after halftime.
The Utes also intercepted Bear Bachmeier four times, including a pick at the goal line on the Cougars’ final drive. LJ Martin never really got going, which left Bachmeier carrying too much of the load in a hostile road setting.
That was a tough ask for the sophomore, and Utah made him pay for it.
Texas Tech is still right there too, and the Red Raiders had to earn every bit of their 53-48 win over West Virginia. The two teams piled up more than 800 yards of total offense in the first half alone, then the game tightened into a defensive fight after the break. Texas Tech eventually put together the go-ahead drive with a few minutes left, took a 51-48 lead, and then added a safety to finish it off.
The Red Raiders are now 5-1 and sitting alone in second place in the Big 12. They look positioned to get back to Arlington for a second straight season, but the road ahead gets real fast with a trip to Stillwater coming this weekend.
Thomas Castellanos has given the offense the spark it needed, and that matters because the defense is not what it was in 2025. If Texas Tech is going to win the league again, it’s going to need that dual-threat quarterback to keep making plays downfield.
Oklahoma State also made a loud statement of its own. The Cowboys went into Manhattan and beat Kansas State 66-28 in a game that was never really close after the opening stretch.
Caleb Hawkins ran for 175 yards and three touchdowns, all of them in the first half as Oklahoma State raced out to a 49-14 halftime lead. Drew Mestemaker was sharp too, completing 22 of 28 passes for 313 yards and four touchdowns while posting a QBR of 90.2.
Kansas State’s defense had no answers, and the numbers were brutal on the other side as well. Fourth-string quarterback Blake Barnett finished with a QBR of 1.0 for the Wildcats.
Oklahoma State is still alive in the title race, but it needs to beat Texas Tech this weekend to keep that path open. The matchup could be there for the taking, since Tech’s defense has shown vulnerability, but the Cowboys will need their own defense to hold up against a better opponent.
The pressure is also building in Lawrence and Fort Worth after two painful finishes. Kansas led 32-26 after trailing 26-7 in the third quarter, but the Jayhawks couldn’t close it out.
A 10-play, 73-yard drive ended with the Knights scoring the winning touchdown and converting the PAT in a 33-32 loss. It was a gut punch for Lance Leipold, even with the comeback effort.
TCU’s loss was just as rough in its own way. Sonny Dykes had the Horned Frogs up 28-20 on Arizona before the Wildcats scored a touchdown but missed the extra point.
Arizona then pulled off a pooch kick, recovered it, and turned that into a field goal for a 29-28 win. It was a brutal ending for Dykes, and both coaches are now dealing with growing heat from fan bases that are getting restless.
And then there’s Baylor, which keeps hanging around in a way that still feels hard to believe. Two weeks after firing Dave Aranda, the Bears are 4-2 in Big 12 play after back-to-back dominant wins over UCF and Iowa State, outscoring those two opponents 83-0 over the last two games. They’re one of five teams in the league at 4-2 or better heading into the final three weeks.
The schedule ahead is rough - at BYU, vs. Texas Tech and at Houston - so nobody is rushing to call Baylor a real championship contender.
But the turnaround has been real enough to keep the Bears in the conversation. The talent was always there; the consistency wasn’t.
That inconsistency cost Aranda his job, but it hasn’t taken Baylor out of the picture just yet.
In Other News...
Ex-WVU QB Nicco Marchiol Gets Another Chance To Reopen Old What-Ifs
Nicco Marchiol is back in the kind of spot that can reshape a quarterbacks story, even if only for a night. The former West Virginia signal-caller is set to start for Northwestern against No. 19 Iowa, giving him his first extensive action since last season and a chance to step back into a meaningful role after a quiet stretch this year.
For Mountaineers fans, Marchiol still carries the memory of what he did in Morgantown, especially those two wins over Pitt that made him a familiar name in rivalry lore. His career at West Virginia was shaped by coaching changes and shifting offensive schemes, and now he gets another opportunity on a bigger stage to add a fresh chapter to a college journey that has already had its share of what-ifs. [Read more 🡒]
WVU Wasted A Historic Night In A Loss Fans Will Hate
West Virginia got a night that should have been remembered for all the right reasons from Mike Hawkins Jr., only to see it swallowed up by a wild 53-48 loss to Texas Tech. In a game that turned into a track meet almost immediately, the two teams piled up more than 892 yards of total offense in the first half alone, and Hawkins still managed to carve out a place in school history by setting the program record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in a single season.
For the Mountaineers, though, the record book will sit alongside a frustrating finish. Defensive breakdowns kept giving Texas Tech room to answer, and the final minutes brought the kind of critical plays that can flip a shootout from memorable to maddening. West Virginia had enough offense to win on most nights, but this one ended with the kind of late-game collapse fans will be replaying for a while. [Read more 🡒]
Ross Hodge Just Teased A Nonconference Opportunity WVU Fans Will Love
Ross Hodge is already thinking beyond the usual nonconference slate, and he dropped a hint on a radio show that should get West Virginia fans paying attention. The new Mountaineers coach said he will try to line up a game at Madison Square Garden next year, a stage that carries plenty of appeal for a program looking to make a statement early in his tenure.
A matchup there would likely come against an East Coast opponent, with St. Johns mentioned as the kind of team that fits the idea, and the history between West Virginia and the Red Storm only adds to the intrigue. Nothing is set yet, but the possibility alone gives the Mountaineers a marquee road trip to watch as Hodge starts shaping the schedule in his own image. [Read more 🡒]