This week's SB Nation Big 12 Roundtable Recap takes a look at some of the different thoughts expressed around the Big 12 blogosphere. This week's participants included Corn Nation, I Am The 12th Man, Clone Chronicles, Rock M Nation, Rock Chalk Talk, Double T Nation, The Ralphie Report and Bring On The Cats.
1. A solid 10-2 showing for the Big 12 this weekend. Which of these wins was biggest for the Big 12 and why?
RIMSHOT! Before citing Oklahoma State's victory as the biggest win, Corn Nation starts the Roundtable off with a shot with our friends in Boulder:
Kansas' victory over Northern Colorado. If another lower level school in Colorado had beaten a Big XII team, nobody would be talking about the suckage of the Big Ten/Eleven.
I Am The 12th Man keeps its vote close to home.
I'm sure most people will point to Oklahoma State's win over Georgia as a key win, and while I must admit it was nice to shut up the ESS-EEE-SEE lemmings for one week, I don't think that victory counts as the most significant for the conference. I may sound like I am tooting our own horn here, but I actually thnk the most significant wins for the conference last weekend were Baylor over Wake Forest and A&M over New Mexico. Baylor's win over a solid ACC team shows that they are to be taken seriously, that signs of progress in their program last season were not a fluke, and that they may very well be a bowl contendor this season. A&M's win over New Mexico shows that they are taking steps in the right direction under Sherman, and that they are improving as a team. Both of these wins are significant because these are the two teams expected to bring up the bottom of the Big 12 South; if both of these two teams are solid this year, it means the Big 12 South may be ridiculously tough, and by extension, it makes the Big 12 Conference look very good.
In the end, votes were cast for Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Missouri.
2. Conversely, the Mountain West did its damage against Colorado and Oklahoma. What's more disconcerting -- a sleeper in Colorado coming unglued, or a power in Oklahoma getting knocked off?
Though neither loss surprised Clone Chronicles, the bluntness of this response to Colorado surely surprised some:
With Colorado, they just suck. I honestly do not understand how anyone thought they would be any good this year. You cannot expect to be good, but have a sucky offensive line, bad QB play, and bad coaching. CU is destined to win 5 games and Hawkins will probably get fired.
With or without Bradford, questions abound in Oklahoma, according to Rock Chalk Talk:
Oklahoma did not look good on Saturday night. Even when Sam Bradford was alive and kicking, their offensive line couldn't handle BYU's blitzes, and their defense was bailed out by a couple of timely turnovers from a much larger loss. And depending on how long the injured shoulder takes to heal, Oklahoma couldn't be done losing -- Miami looked really, really good on Monday night, certainly good enough to beat a Sam Bradford-less Oklahoma. Hell, even if Bradford comes back for that game, I bet it won't be a blowout. The Sooners certainly disappointed Saturday night, and it might take awhile before they recapture all of the mojo they lost.
Panjandrum of Bring On The Cats looks at the OU loss in the bigger picture:
Oklahoma losing to BYU was kind of surprising, but again, it's time we start talking about the Mountain West as a BCS quality conference and its members as quality teams. BYU is legit, and this was a statement game for them. Oklahoma, as usual, came out flat in a big, non-conference game. At some point, folks are going to realize that anyone can get beat on any given day, and the hyperbole that surrounds programs like Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, etc. will hopefully dissolve over time. It's not like they lost to an FCS team, so I don't think it's disheartening to the conference at all.
3. Right now, the college football world is rotating around a shoulder that can't rotate itself. What does the Sam Bradford injury mean for the conference right now?
The Ralphie Report looks at the national title implications and why the Big 12 needs OU to be a winner.
If Bradford and the Sooners cannot rebound, it most likely means that the Big 12 will need an undefeated team in order to reach the national title game. As Matt Hinton at Dr. Saturday mentioned yesterday, Texas (and OSU for that matter) needs to be crossing their fingers and hoping that the Sooners can march through the rest of conference play without a loss in order to keep the perception of the league as high as possible, and that could be tought to do with an upcoming game against a seemingly much-improved Hurricane team in Miami.
4. How, if at all, did your perception of your team change after week one, both for better and for worse?
Don't count Skin Patrol of Double T Nation as impressed with Texas Tech's performance in Week 1.
Only for the worse. Taylor Potts demonstrated that he can turn the ball over three times in one game (to one player) against an opponent almost certainly less capable on that side of the ball than nearly all of our remaining foes. The defense played fine, I suppose, but that was to be expected. Our running game, a presumed strength heading into the season, looked absolutely flat; the burden of proof shifted to that unit to prove up its own efficacy. Our RB stable will enjoy no more assumptions in their favor from me.Having said all that, one week is one week. I was fatalistic after our game against Nevada last year and we turned out to be just fine. I acknowledge that Taylor Potts at the helm, as a first year starter, has me worried additionally due to remaining questions as to whether he is the next BJ Symons. But if the worst thing that happens to Texas Tech is that we beat an opponent by 25 someodd points that we should've beaten by 35 someodd points, life will go on.
5. Give us your offensive player of the week, defensive player of the week, and coaching move of the week, including justifications for your selection. You ARE eligible to vote for your own program.
This week's winners, with whom the bloggers agree on the offensive selection but disagree on defense:
Offensive Player of the Week: Missouri QB Blaine Gabbert (single votes went to Roy Helu and Jerrod Johnson)
Defensive Player of the Week: Texas A&M DE/LB Von Miller (narrowly beating Baylor LB Joe Pawelek)
Coaching Decision(s) of the Week: Oklahoma State's Bill Young for and Baylor's Art Briles share the honors for their roles in their teams' Week 1 statement victories. Several sarcastic votes went the way of Colorado's Dan Hawkins.
6. Big 12 Power Poll! Rank the teams from 1-12. (Again, the simple criteria for this is power, i.e. who would beat who on a neutral field?)
1. Texas (Average ranking: 1.125) (7 first-place votes)
2. Oklahoma State (1.875) (1)
3. Oklahoma (4.000)
4. Missouri (4.125)
5. Nebraska (5.375)
6. Kansas (5.875)
7. Baylor (7.125)
T8. Texas A&M (7.875)
T8. Texas Tech (7.875)
10. Iowa State (10.125)
11. Kansas State (11.125)
12. Colorado (11.500)