2020 Week 8 Big XII Awards

Team of the Week : Kansas State : With a lot of the focus in the conference on the showdown in Stillwater, the Wildcats showed up and did what was expected; they DESTROYED Kansas.  K-State was helped along with 2 punt returns for scores by Phillip Brooks.  55 yards in the first quarter and then 52 at the end of the first half.  The Wildcats are no 4-0 in the Big XII and along with Oklahoma State have big jump ahead of the rest of the conference to get to Arlington and the Big XII Title Game.  With the 55-14 win the 'Cats have won 12 straight Sunflower State Showdowns.  The longest by either school in the battle for the Governors Cup.

One heartbeat

Game Highlights vs KU ⤵️

#KStateFB ⚒ pic.twitter.com/hsli0l6XaY

— K-State Football (@KStateFB) October 24, 2020

Game of the Week : Oklahoma State 24 - Iowa State 21 : The showdown in Stillwater felt more like a Big Ten Game rather than a Big XII shootout.  With these 2 teams defenses I'm not really shocked though.  The Cyclones scored first, but after OSU scored to tie it seemed they had control of the game.  The Pokes in the second half etched out a 10 point lead early in the fourth quarter.  The Clones scored late with 49 seconds left, but couldn't recover the onside kick to make it more interesting.  Oklahoma State along with K-State now are jockeyed ahead of everyone in the conference for the bids to the title game.  The Cowboys needed this one more though with their next 3 games vs Texas, KState and Oklahoma.  Don't count Iowa State out of anything either.  They own the tie breaker over Oklahoma and get Texas and K-State coming up.

Player of the Week : Phillip Brooks - PR - KState : Brooks set school records for KState for Punt Return yardage and scores in a game with his 2 scores vs Kansas.  Brooks 4 returns totaled 189 yards for the Wildcats.  His first return of 55 yards put KState on the board first.  His other score closed out the first half, essentially putting the nail in the coffin for the Jayhawks.

Brooks does it AGAIN!

He returns his SECOND punt for a TD in the first half for @KStateFB 🔥 pic.twitter.com/UGfYuj8Ezq

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 24, 2020

Big XII Scores

Oklahoma State 24 - Iowa State 21

Oklahoma 33 - TCU 14

Texas Tech 34 - West Virginia 27

Texas 27 - Baylor 16 

Kansas State 55 - Kansas 14

2020 Week 3 Big XII Awards

Team of the Week : Kansas State - 2 years in a row the Sooners went into a game vs KState and 2 years in a row they come out with an L.  Rattler didn't look as sharp as he did in Game 1, but the competition was a step up also.  The Wildcates went into the game short handed, and were also DOWN 21 in the second half and still came back to knock off the Sooners.  Chris Kleiman, after joining Kansas State from North Dakota State, is now 2-0 vs Oklahoma.  

Game of the Week : Texas 63 - Texas Tech 56 - This thing was a Wild West Shootout in Lubbock.  The Red Raiders got up by 15 on the Longhorns in the 4th quarter.  Then Ehlinger took out his six shooters and the Horns also got a lucky bounce on a onside kick.  It lasted one OT and Texas applied its grip on Tech to escape with a win.

Player(s)of the Week : Breece Hall - RB - Iowa State : The second year RB opened the scoring with a 75 yard scamper in the 2nd quarter vs TCU.  He helped the Cyclones seal the win with 2 more scores in the 4th quarter.  Hall finished with 155 yards with those 3 scores.  

7️⃣5️⃣ yards to paydirt for @BreeceH

🌪️🚨🌪️ pic.twitter.com/Js8QsRRfZl

— Cyclone Football (@CycloneFB) September 26, 2020

Sam Ehlinger - QB - Texas : Arguably the leader in the clubhouse for the Heisman.  Versus the Red Raiders, Ehlinger tossed 5 tds, ran for another and lead the Horns back from down 15 in the last 3:13 of the game to force Overtime.  Also tossed a two point conversion to tie the game at 56 to send it to OT.  The Longhorns QB rushed for 70 yards and tossed 262 along with those scores.

🤘 @sehlinger3 did it all today for @TexasFootball pic.twitter.com/BE95QmrS7A

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 27, 2020

2020 Week 1 Big XII Awards

Week 1 of the 2020 Big XII Season is in the books.  2 Games ended up being cancelled due to COVID-19 (Baylor & TCU).  I don't foresee the conference teams not named Texas or Oklahoma scheduling SunBelt teams in the future as the SBC went 3-0 as visitors vs the Big XII.   This weeks Big XII Results.

Team of the Week :  West Virginia - The Mountaineers had one of the worst rushing offenses in college football last year.  Week one they go out and roll up 329 yards rushing and racking up 5 touchdowns on the ground.  Alec Sinkfield and Leddie Brown both scored twice and ran for 123 yards against Eastern Kentucky.  Now can the keep that up against conference competition.  

Game of the Week :  Arkansas State 35 - Kansas State 31 - Yes its a loss for the Big XII and an 0-2 week for the conference vs the SunBelt, but this game was back and forth all day.  KState pushed to a big lead.  Some trickery helped the Redwolves come back initially.  Some wind was taken out of the Wildcats sails with Arkansas State driving for the go ahead score, Safety Wayne Jones was taken off on a stretcher.  The RedWolves then marched down to score with 38 seconds left  on Jonathan Adams 3rd touchdown reception.  They then and held off a last hurrah by the Wildcats for the upset win in Manhattan.

Player of the Week :  Sam Ehlinger - QB - Texas - What ever you can do I can do better?  Spencer Rattler goes off in the first half vs Missouri State and looked like he might have this wrapped up.  In comes the gunslinger.  Sam threw for 426 yards and 5 touchdowns while completing 75% of his passes.  He opened up with a 78 yard touchdown, came back then with scores on throws of 20, 40, 5, and 6 in route to a lead of 45-3 lead over UTEP at the half.  The Longhorns won 59-3 with Sam watching from the sidelines the majority of the second half.  The next 9 games the competition will get more difficult, but If Sam keeps this up OU may have a hard time claiming another Big XII title.  How great will the duel between Ehlinger and Spencer Rattler be in the Red River Shootout.

🎯 to @_TheJoshuaMoore #ThisIsTexas #HookEm

📺 https://t.co/WCUxy4elqi pic.twitter.com/hEEvUeKsT1

— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) September 13, 2020

Hope you enjoyed this opening weekend with major college football.  Who knows how long we'll have it in this crazy year.  The ACC is already talking about how many schools need to be playing to not cancel the season.  The Big Ten is talking about a revote early this week for an October start. 

One update to note, Baylor will now host Houston next week at noon on Fox.  

We have a fun one for you next week 🍿 pic.twitter.com/yuB6Xhx85M

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 13, 2020

2012 College Football Awards

The college football season is close to being over.  Most all the awards have been awarded except the National Championship.  Before the Tide and Irish clash in Miami, here are the GFR College Football Awards.

LYNCH - TE'O - SNYDER - MILLER - KLEIN

Offensive Player of the Year - Jordan Lynch - QB - Northern Illinois : Lynch put up better numbers than Johnny Heisman, has the Huskies on a 12 game win streak, MAC Champions, oh and playing in the Orange Bowl.  He also lead the nation in rushing (going into bowl season) with 1771 rushing yards.  He also tossed the ball for 2962 yards and accounted for 43 Huskie touchdowns.

Defensive Player of the Year - Manti Te'o - LB - Notre Dame : I don't know if any player meant more to their team than Te'o did this year.  Not only did he make big plays in big games and key situations, he IS the heart and soul of this year's Irish.  If Te'o isn't there the Irish are probably and 8-4 team.  Instead they are 12-0 and playing for the BCS Championship.  Te'o had 7 picks for the Irish and 93 tackles and 1.5 sacks.

Coach of the Year : Bill Snyder - Kansas State : Snyder has to be up for coach of the millennium   What he did his first go around at KState almost having them in the title game in 1998 and continuing success in the early 2000s.  Then to retire and comeback and have them 11-1 this year and a loss to Baylor away from playing Notre Dame for the title is amazing.

Big Ten Player of the Year - Braxton Miller - QB - Ohio State : Miller in year 1 under Urban Meyer has given the rest of the Big Ten a glimpse of what the Buckeyes will have the next few years, and it looks dangerous.  Miller accounted for 3200+ total yards for the Buckeyes and 28 touchdowns as the Buckeyes went 12-0 in their self imposed no post season year.

Big XII Player of the Year - Collin Klein - QB - Kansas State : How much would Klein and KState like to have the Baylor game back.  If they win in Waco they are playing in Miami for a title and Klein is the Heisman Winner.  Klein passed for 2490 yards, a 15-7 TD-INT ratio and added 890 on the ground with 22 scores. while leading the 'Cats to a Big XII title and Fiesta Bowl bid.

Previous Award Winners

Garwin Rankings

This weeks rankings are out, and the top 4 stayed the same....but shuffled a little bit.

Alabama continued to hold on to the top spot in this weeks Garwin Rankings with their last minute win in Baton Rouge.  Oregon's win in L.A. has moved them up to the #2 spot.  Florida State and THE Ohio State stay in the 5 and 6 slots.

SEC new comer Texas A&M is the 2nd highest SEC team in the GFR with Florida a few spots behind.

To view the complete rankings click here.

2011 Big XII Predictions

Welcome to the new Big XII, or as I like to call it, the Texa$ Ten.  No more divisions, no more championship game…a round robin schedule of 9 games too.  The conference was on life support last year and may not be out of the neck of the woods yet with the rumblings going on in Norman, Austin and College Station about the new ESPN juiced LongHorn Network.  Somehow the conference has 9 bowl tie-ins for 10 teams.  That’s gonna change soon, and how did the Holiday bowl slip to #5 in the pecking order.

The conference, in my opinion won’t be around like it is come 2015 but that’s the future.  Let’s talk about this year:

The conference will be split into 3 tiers, the top will be very good, the bottom very bad, and the middle average.

The Conference Championship (and one half of the National Championship) is determined on Nov 5 in Norman when the Sooners host the Aggies. 

Texas will be better than last year but will not move into the elite of the top 3.

Baylor’s record could easily flip flop if Robert Griffin III gets hurt, and they will score the upset of the first week when the Bears beat TCU.

Iowa State record won’t be great but they have a stud on the OL in Osemele, and the new scoreboard is going to be a nice addition to Jack Trice Stadium.

The state of Kansas will continue to be under a heat wave in the college season as the coaches seats will be getting warmer.  I think this is Snyder’s last year at KState and will select his successor and Turner Gill needs to win next year or he will be done at Kansas.

Now for the picks…Norman, Oklahoma should be happy.

BIGXII PREDICTIONS

Oklahoma                         9-0                 12-0              National Championship Game vs Alabama

Texas A&M                       8-1                 11-1              Fiesta Bowl vs Wisconsin

Oklahoma St                     7-2                 10-2              Cotton Bowl

Texas                               5-4                  8-4               Alamo Bowl

Baylor                               5-4                 8-4                Insight Bowl

Missouri                            5-4                 7-5                Holiday Bowl

Texas Tech                        3-6                 6-6               Texas Bowl vs Michigan State

Kansas                              1-8                 3-9

Kansas State                     1-8                 3-9

Iowa State                         1-8                 2-10

BIG XII AWARDS

Coach of the Year – Bob Stoops : Oklahoma

Player of the Year – Landry Jones : Oklahoma

Who's in your 5 - College Football Helmets

So, new topic, who's in your five for College Football Helmets. A lot of schools change them to get a better image of your school, other schools haven't changed in years because they are classic. So here is my five, what do you think, what's your 5?

5. Florida State - Fear the Spear

4. Miami - I think the "U" struck fear into people in the 80's/90's

3. Kansas State - Love the Power Cat

2. Michigan - A classic.

1. Iowa - Yea, I'm biased!