I voted this year, or at least I think I did, one of my offensive or defensive ballots (defense I think) wasn’t submitted in time. I posted my teams and poll as well as the rationales over at Inside Texas. You can read it free here: My preseason poll shook out like this tweet: That’s … [Read more…]
In the last post I went over the top 10 Big 12 defenses of the 2010s based on scoring defense within league play. That gave us the following list: I like the 2017 TCU Horned Frogs, 2010 Nebraska Cornhuskers, and 2017 Iowa State Cyclones from that list for their performance and/or innovative impact on the … [Read more…]
There’s a number of players across the Big 12 that are going to be highly influential in the events of 2020 that are currently, in my estimation, flying under the radar. Of course, once I write up this bit then they won’t be overlooked much longer… I’ve got my eye on West Virginia as a … [Read more…]
These three schools all share the common trait of being fairly distantly removed from the biggest metro areas of the Big 12. Those major metro areas and talent hubs are, in order by population: Obviously D.C./Baltimore and Pittsburgh are irrelevant for everyone in the B12 save for West Virginia but they very much matter for … [Read more…]
I was preparing for my Kansas State preview over at Inside Texas (those drop on Thursdays and I believe this one will be free) today and went down a statistical rabbit hole that proved interesting. I was looking up how much of Kansas State’s pressure comes from their DL and the DL’s share of the … [Read more…]
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…]
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…]
If you buy the 2019 “Thinking Texas Football” prospectus by my pal Paul Wadlington (Scipio Tex) you’ll get a preview of the entire Big 12 that includes some interesting thoughts on West Virginia. Wadlington’s sense is that Dana Holgorsen got out at the right time with his program losing more NFL players than they’d sent … [Read more…]
Can you sign too many DBs? Not enough Big 12 programs are asking that question, in my opinion. In particular you need guys that can play coverage on a variety of skill players and in a variety of places on the field. None of your potential impact players at DL or LB have much of … [Read more…]
Over at Football Study Hall I wrote about some of Neal Brown’s unique qualities as an Air Raid coach who prizes physicality, defense, and special teams. The big story today is that Oklahoma gave way and allowed Austin Kendall to transfer to Morgantown to compete for the starting QB job. I haven’t watched Jack Allison … [Read more…]