How do you control the line of scrimmage with only three or four players? That’s a central question in today’s Big 12, although it’s been a useful skill for some time now. Back in 2008 when Will Muschamp took over the Texas defense, he was surprised by a number of things he found waiting for … [Read more…]
It’s very difficult, as you tend to see play out in the Big 12 on a weekly basis. Here’s some notes that the venerable Mike Gundy gave me at B12 media days on the practice: You know, there’s really two ways in our league. You either gotta defend the quarterback, width and length, or you … [Read more…]
At this point in the Big 12 season there are really just four or five teams with a realistic shot at making the Big 12 title game. At 1-2, Oklahoma State isn’t “out” of it but they’d have to go 6-0 or 5-1 against a slate that includes Baylor, at ISU, TCU, and Oklahoma. The … [Read more…]
Now that the Big 12 season is underway, there’s been a few interesting stories and subplots cropping up across the league. I figured it’d be fun to hit on a few of the particularly relevant ones that have been cropping up. Trejan Bridges to safety? This one looks like a nothing burger, but in a … [Read more…]
The action is really starting to heat up in the Big 12 now. We got three particularly clarifying games in the second week of in-conference play and then a customary but likely satisfying (for the winner) blowout of the Kansas Jayhawks. The national scene was pretty interesting too. Mack Brown’s UNC nearly upset Clemson before … [Read more…]
Week 5 is the first real slate of Big 12 football games that will start to shape the conference race. Obviously Oklahoma State had a big chance in week 4 to catapult to the top of the league with a victory over Texas but I suspect that only people living in Oklahoma really thought that … [Read more…]
Over at Crimson and Cream Machine you can read an excerpt from my new book, “Flyover Football: How the Big 12 became the frontier for modern football.” The selection is from Chapter 9: Bob’s last gift and the no-D league. The chapter discusses how Stoops pushed the Big 12 forward with one final offensive hire … [Read more…]
Most of the Big 12 won in week 3 with the conference scoring a 6-2 record against their non-conference slate. Iowa State suffered a weird and disastrous defeat against rival Iowa, who incidentally has zero turnovers over the last four seasons while going 4-0 on Matt Campbell. For all that he’s done in Ames, Campbell … [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…]
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…]