Week 2 didn’t have a ton going on across the Big 12 and what good matchups there were largely went sideways for the conference. In a major reversal of years of tradition, LSU came into DKR and put on a clinic for modern spread passing offense. I’ve really only seen a handful of Big 12 … [Read more…]
I took in some of the details from the Oklahoma games this week, watching Oklahoma vs Houston with an eye for what Alex Grinch did and then surveying the tactics that led to OSU running for 352 yards. One of the jarring observations that you couldn’t help but have when closely watching the Sooners and … [Read more…]
Due to outstanding demand, I’ve made “Flyover Football: How the Big 12 became the frontier for modern football” available on Amazon in paperback! Reviews have been positive, this one was my favorite: I’ll give you full disclosure, I know drryanpepper, but I could share a text screenshot in which he intimated the same impression that … [Read more…]
Week 1 has finally come and gone for the Big 12. It was a nice week for the conference with all 10 teams pulling out a win, even the Kansas Jayhawks who had to do so without Pooka Williams. Week 2 will be a big one for the conference, primarily because of the LSU at … [Read more…]
No doubt Lincoln Riley has been winning every round up till now. Dana Holgorsen went 0-7 against Oklahoma as a head coach and the scores after Riley joined the Sooner staff went: 2015: OU 44, WVU 24 2016: OU 56, WVU 28 2017: OU 59, WVU 31 2018: OU 59, WVU 56 That last one … [Read more…]
Nickel became the standard “base defense” for the Big 12 sometime around the turn of the decade. Honestly I haven’t done the research to pinpoint the exact year but Texas went base nickel in 2008, Oklahoma State was starting Shaun Lewis as their “star” LB in 2010, and of course Oklahoma rolled in nickel as … [Read more…]
About a year ago I decided to write a book about the Big 12’s rich history of excellent offensive play. The book was going to be titled, “The 10 greatest QBs in Big 12 history.” That seemed reasonable enough a project given that the Big 12 has only existed since 1996 and I’ve watched it … [Read more…]
The other day I posted this thought on Twitter: So the tiers would look like this: Tier 1: Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa State Tier 2: Oklahoma State, TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech Tier 3: West Virginia, Kansas State 50 feet of crap… Kansas I got a good follow up question from Jay Jordan over at Cyclone Fanatic: … [Read more…]
While breaking down Oklahoma’s prospective depth chart on defense the other day, the size and weight balance of their roster really stood out. Mike Stoops really wasn’t building a defensive roster that was friendly to a major change in approach. After his initial run at the Big 12 in 2012 where the Sooners ran a … [Read more…]
All of the fall camps are wrapping up so there’s some details out now on how different teams are coming together. Here’s a look around at some of the interesting notes that have been cropping up. Oklahoma State One fun detail to come out recently was Mike Gundy noting that his team would have probably … [Read more…]