The Big 12 is solidifying itself as the third power conference in college football for one reason: excitement. Every single week, the Big 12 finds some new way to impress and make headlines. Last week, it was coach Deion Sanders and Travis Hunter propelling the Colorado Buffaloes up the Big 12 power rankings following a big win in Orlando.
Do the UCF Knights have different luck at home this week? With just one ranked team in action, what does the Big 12 have up their sleeve for Week 6? Without the No. 17 BYU Cougars, No. 18 Utah Utes, or No. 20 Kansas State Wildcats in action to carry the load, is there any good game to watch this weekend? Without Coach Prime in action, is there anything to keep an eye on? Or is it just all ugly?
Let’s take a look at the good, the bad, and the just plain ugly coming up in Week 6 out of the Big 12:
The Good: UCF Knights Hosting Florida Gators
Last week, Coach Prime announced that UCF would have a big recruiting weekend because he was in town. But this weekend? UCF can take down the Florida Gators and take one more step towards control of the Sunshine State.
Florida is in a down season… for the third season in a row. The Billy Napier experiment is failing, and UCF can put one more nail in the coffin. Meanwhile, UCF is – as a program – trending upwards.
Head coach Gus Malzahn leads quarterback KJ Jefferson and running back RJ Harvey as the Knights look to respond to a tough loss to Colorado. UCF’s efforts have been largely based on winning in-state recruiting battles, and a win over their SEC neighbors would go a long way with kids in Floridian high schools.
The Bad: Kansas Jayhawks at Arizona State Sun Devils.
After starting the year with high hopes, and coming off of multiple years of steady growth, it appears the world has figured out the coach Lance Leipold system in Kansas. The Jayhawks have not won a game over a FBS opponent yet this year. That’s bad.
Arizona State sits at 3-1, but their wins appear to be over bad teams. Sure, the Mississippi State Bulldogs are an SEC team… but not a good one. Yes, San Marcos, Texas, can be a hard place to play… but it was a Big 12 team against a Sun Belt team in Texas State. The Sun Devils played a competitive game in Lubbock against the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Week 4 but still came up short. It’s hard to imagine that either of these teams are “good,” but that doesn’t mean it can’t be competitive or fun.
The Ugly: Houston Cougars at TCU Horned Frogs
The Houston Cougars football program went from 2000 to 2023 without being shut out once. In four games this season, Houston has been kept out of the end zone twice and scored just once in garbage time against the UNLV Rebels. The Cougar offense is ugly. Quarterback duties will be split between Donovan Smith and Zeon Chriss, but it feels certain if either scores a touchdown the job is theirs.
The TCU Horned Frogs were in the National Championship in 2022. They are 8-9 in the 17 games since, and saw their coach thrown out of a blowout loss to crosstown rival: the SMU Mustangs. It was ugly.
TCU head coach Sonny Dykes has Kendal Briles, AJ Ricker, Malcolm Kelly, Doug Meacham, and Ryan Dorchester on his staff, each of whom coached at Houston in some capacity. But the cherry on top? Dana Holgorsen, whom Houston fired last December, serves as a Defensive Analyst at TCU.
This game is sure to be ugly throughout… the only question is if it’s ugly enough to be the kind of thing you can’t look away from.