Big 12 Conference News and Notes

Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) –

BAYLOR: The fifth-ranked Bears had their third open date of the season this weekend. They’ll try to improve to 8-0 on Thursday when they host No. 12 Oklahoma.

IOWA STATE: The Cyclones fell to 1-7 (0-5 Big 12) with Saturday’s 41-7 rout at the hands of Kansas State. They had no answer for a Wildcats ground game that produced 227 yards and four touchdowns on the day. Iowa State’s only points of the day came on a 10-yard touchdown run by DeVondrick Nealy with 3:24 remaining. The score was set up by a fumble recovery on the previous play to put the ball on the Wildcats 10-yard line. Nealy had a season-high 53 yards rushing and scored for the third time in as many weeks, but the Cyclones could simply not keep pace in this one. They picked up first downs on their first three plays from scrimmage but finished with only 12 more first downs for the game and were out-gained, 448-249. Big 12 tackles leader Jeremiah George paced the defense with 12 tackles, his seventh straight game with double-digit stops. Iowa State will host TCU on Saturday.

KANSAS: The Jayhawks suffered their fifth consecutive loss and fell to 2-6 on the season with Saturday’s 35-13 setback at Texas. It was a 14-6 game midway through the third quarter until Texas scored three straight touchdowns to pull away. The first of those decisive TDs came on a 40-yard fumble recovery at the 6:25 mark of the third quarter. KU was unable to get much going offensively, as Jake Heaps threw for only 160 yards on 11-of-21 passing, while James Sims was held to 48 rushing yards on 15 carries (3.2 ypc). Still, it was enough to move Sims into third place on the Kansas career rushing chart (3,119 yards), passing Laverne Smith. Defensively, Jayhawks safety Isaiah Johnson came up with a pair of interceptions, while linebacker Ben Heeney returned from a two- game absence to tie teammate Jake Love with a game-high nine tackles. Kansas dropped to 2-11 all-time against the Longhorns, and that includes a 0-11 mark in Austin. Up next is a road bout with Oklahoma State this weekend.

KANSAS STATE: The Wildcats followed up their 35-12 win over West Virginia by taking down Iowa State this weekend, 41-7. John Hubert ran for 105 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries, spearheading a ground game that tallied 227 rushing yards and four scores. Jake Waters completed 9-of-15 passes for 157 yards, while Daniel Sams came on and completed 4-of-5 passes for 64 yards and a TD. The Wildcats defense gave up first downs on each of the first three plays from scrimmage, but they promptly tightened up and thwarted that drive en route to a 17-0 halftime lead. In fact, they were working on a shutout until losing a fumble on their own 10-yard line late in the game. Iowa State capitalized on that turnover and scored its only points of the day with 3:24 remaining. The Cyclones bottled up ISU’s ground game to 3.6 yards per carry, while they also notched three interceptions on the day. K-State will travel to Texas Tech this weekend.

OKLAHOMA: The Sooners were idle over the weekend. They’ll travel to fifth- ranked Baylor this week for a key Big 12 showdown between two teams in the top-10 in the BCS standings.

OKLAHOMA STATE: The 15th-ranked Cowboys improved to 7-1 with Saturday’s 52-34 win at nationally-ranked Texas Tech. Clint Chelf passed for two touchdowns and ran for two more in the victory, as he completed 18-of-34 passes for 211 yards and also ran for 88 yards on six carries. Oklahoma State has won four in a row and leapfrogged the Red Raiders in the conference standings. Desmond Roland paced the rushing attack with 96 yards and three scores on 31 carries, with Tracy Moore and Jeremy Seaton picking up a TD reception each. Ahead by only four, the visitors re-asserted themselves at the outset of the second half, scoring twice with a span of 2:08, taking a 42-24 advantage after a 3-yard rush from Roland and a surprising long TD run from Chelf. The former was set up by the Cowboys’ defense forcing a three-and-out and a 46-yard punt return from Josh Stewart to the Texas Tech 11, while the latter was capped when Chelf called his own number on 3rd-and-9 and didn’t stop until he collected a 67- yard score. Texas Tech was never able to recover. OSU will look to keep it going this Saturday when Kansas comes to town.

TCU: The Horned Frogs suffered their third straight loss on Saturday, as they fell in overtime to West Virginia, 30-27. TCU (3-6, 1-5) was unable to pull out the home victory in a stadium where it had won 31 of its previous 37 games. Casey Pachall went 40-of-58 through the air with a career-high 394 passing yards and three touchdowns. Trevone Boykin was the leading receiver on the day with 11 catches and 100 yards. WVU was up by 10 late in regulation until David Porter hauled in a three-yard touchdown pass from Pachall with just over three minutes to play to make it a 27-24 game. TCU’s defense held strong on the ensuing possession to give the ball back to the offense, and Pachall engineered a seven-play drive to set up Jaden Oberkrom’s 45-yard field goal with 19 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime. But in the extra session, a negative play on first down and a personal foul penalty on second down moved the Horned Frogs backward, and Oberkrom wound up missing a 62-yard field goal attempt.

TEXAS: The Longhorns kept their hold on first place in the Big 12 with Saturday’s 35-13 win over Kansas. UT is 6-2 overall and a perfect 5-0 in league play, as the team sits a half-game ahead of idle Baylor in the conference pecking order. Malcolm Brown was the headliner, as he carried 20 times for 119 yards and a career-high four touchdowns. It was his second straight game with multiple TDs. Case McCoy completed 20-of-29 passes for 196 yards and two interceptions, while Jaxon Shipley paced the receiving corps with six catches for 77 yards. But the defense was the real story. It was a 14-6 game midway through the third quarter when Chris Whaley returned a fumble 40 yards for a touchdown, the first of three straight TDs by the Longhorns to break the game open. UT’s defense held Kansas to five three-and-outs on its first 12 possessions, and the Jayhawks finished with only 306 total yards on the day. They did not score a touchdown until late in the fourth quarter. Cedric Reed led the Longhorns defense with three tackles for loss, two sacks and a forced fumble. They’ll travel to West Virginia this weekend.

TEXAS TECH: The Red Raiders suffered their second consecutive loss since starting the year 7-0, as they fell at home to 15th-ranked Oklahoma State. Texas Tech dropped to No. 25 in this week’s AP poll, after being as high as No. 10 two weeks ago. Webb Davis had a busy day under center, as he completed 45-of-71 passes for 425 yards and two touchdowns for the Red Raiders, who gave up 38 points a week earlier at Oklahoma. Jace Amaro finished with 15 catches for 174 yards and a score in the loss. It was a tight game until early in the second half when the Cowboys scored two TDs in a span of 2:08 to create some separation. OSU had touchdowns following a fumble and a blocked punt to take the crowd out of the game, as Texas Tech lost for the fifth straight time in the head-to-head series despite gaining 549 yards of total offense. The Red Raiders had 35 first downs but converted only 4-of-15 third-down opportunities. They’ll try to get back on track this Saturday against Kansas State.

WEST VIRGINIA: The West Virginia Mountaineers beat the TCU Horned Frogs, 30-27, in an overtime Big 12 Conference matchup at Amon G. Carter Stadium, led by Clint Trickett’s two late touchdown passes. Trickett went 25-of-41 passing with 267 yards and two interceptions in addition to his two touchdowns for the Mountaineers (4-5, 2-4 Big 12). Charles Sims had 24 carries for a season-high 154 yards with a score. Daikiel Shorts was the team’s top pass-catcher with six receptions and 98 yards. The win snapped a three-game slide for the Mountaineers, who need to win two of their final three games (at Texas, at Kansas and home against Iowa State) to become bowl eligible. It also ended a disturbing trend of giving up leads in the team’s previous two games. Last week, the Mountaineers led by five in the third quarter against Kansas State before collapsing for a 35-12 loss, and a week earlier it was Texas Tech overcoming an 11-point third-quarter deficit to notch a 37-27 win. WVU coughed up a 10-point fourth-quarter lead against TCU but managed to hold strong in overtime. The Mountaineers will host Texas this Saturday.

Categorized in: NCAA Football