Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Stay up to date with the latest happenings surrounding Big 12 athletics.
Stay up to date with the latest happenings surrounding Big 12 athletics. Continue reading “Big 12 Morning Rush: Recruiting update, Texas vs. Baylor showdown”
Two more Texas Tech Red Raiders will enter the transfer portal and Kevin Durant is once again a top player.
We scour the internet for the top stories that involve the Big 12 Conference. The latest stories are surrounding former Texas star Kevin Durant and the duo of Ja’Lynn Polk and Alan Bowman from Texas Tech.
On Monday, freshman wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk announced that he would be leaving Lubbock after just one season. Polk appeared in all 10 games for the Red Raiders with 28 receptions for 264 yards and two touchdowns. He averaged 9.4 yards per reception. With a new offensive coordinator joining Texas Tech, it might get interesting after losing KeSean Carter and Caden Leggett as well.
🙏🏽🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/h77vchtAig
— MONSTERP (@jpolk_22) January 25, 2021
After dealing with injuries throughout his first three seasons of college football, Alan Bowman has decided to leave Texas Tech. It could simply be that he is looking for a fresh start, or he doesn’t think he would be a good fit with the new offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie. Either way, this Grapevine, Texas native will head for greener pastures. Bowman threw for 5,260 yards and 33 touchdowns during his time in Lubbock.
Chapter 2… pic.twitter.com/p12PPcOcWe
— Alan Bowman (@alanbowman_) January 22, 2021
According to Synergy Basketball, Durant is one of the top four most efficient players in the league when it comes to high volume players. According to this efficiency leaderboard, Durant averages 26.8 possession per game. Of those possessions, he is averaging 1.16 points per possession.
It is quite impressive to average 31 points a game when you touch the ball 27 times. Despite missing all of last season, Durant is showcasing why he is worth the money. The former Longhorn hasn’t missed a beat.
Here's an updated look at the most efficient offensive players in the #NBA so far this season. pic.twitter.com/bQwS2WzJSJ
— Synergy Basketball (@SynergySST) January 25, 2021
On Tuesday we span the internet for the top Big 12 stories of the day. Headlines include former Texas Tech quarterback setting more records.
On Tuesday morning, Longhorns Wire spans the Big 12 landscape for the biggest stories in the conference. For this edition we take the biggest headlines from Twitter, Yahoo Sports and USA TODAY Sports
On Monday Night Football, former Texas Longhorns wide out Devin Duvernay became the first player this year to score a touchdown on a kickoff. However, it was the reigning Super Bowl MVP that stole the show in Baltimore. During the game in which the Chiefs won 34-20, Mahomes became the fastest player to reach 10,000 yards passing. He did it in 34 games, that breaks down to 303.2 yards per game.
Given how he has taken the NFL by storm, it isn’t a shock to see all the accolades for Mahomes. He has also never thrown an interception or lost a game during the month of September in his brief career. Still impressive.
Making history… again. Congrats @PatrickMahomes! pic.twitter.com/RwA1ysqKbW
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) September 29, 2020
Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports believes that the loss by the Oklahoma Sooners has doomed the conference in terms of the CFP. While he is reserving judgement of Baylor, no one is believing in the Texas Longhorns after their game against Texas Tech.
The sound you may have heard from Big 12 headquarters was commissioner Bob Bowlsby, who is normally defiantly monotone, cursing. The league’s playoff chances have revolved around Oklahoma in the CFP era, as the Sooners have been the league’s only entrant. OU has reached the playoff three consecutive years and four of the past five. OU’s shocking home loss to a watered-down Kansas State team combined with Texas’ shaky overtime win this week and Oklahoma State sputtering last week against Tulsa leaves the Big 12 lacking high-end candidates. (We’ll see how Baylor looks next week at West Virginia before we start judging the Bears.)
Paul Myerburg of USA TODAY Sports called the Big 12 the biggest losers of week four of the college football season.
You can’t sugarcoat or find any silver linings behind the Sooners’ loss. Nor is there too much of a positive sort to take from Texas surviving in overtime at Texas Tech, 63-56, to remain unbeaten; while winning in Lubbock is never easy, needing every second of regulation and then some to do so is concerning. The big takeaway is this: The Big 12 did significant harm to its playoff hopes and will spend the next month scrambling to regain some footing before the Big Ten returns and joins the SEC as the top conferences in the country.
Big 12 football is finally back and the conference had a lackluster day. As a whole, the conference went 4-3, losing to three Sun Belt teams.
Big 12 football is finally back and the conference had a lackluster day. Iowa State and Kansas State lost to Louisiana and Arkansas State, respectively. To make matters worse, Kansas lost to Coastal Carolina for the second consecutive year, the third Sun Belt team to defeat a Big 12 team.
Outside of Texas, Oklahoma and West Virginia, Texas Tech was the only other conference team to win. However, a two-point victory over FCS level Houston Baptist provides little inspiration.
How the Longhorns, Sooners and Mountaineers got on with their opening weekend games:
Texas opened its 2020 season with a dominant victory over UTEP. Quarterback Sam Ehlinger had a historic day, having a career-high in passing yards and passing touchdowns.
Playing the entire first half plus one drive in the second half, Ehlinger set a career-high in passing yards and passing touchdowns. His final stats sit at 25-of-33 with 426 yards and five touchdowns. Backup quarterbacks Casey Thompson and Hudson Card played the majority of the second half.
Wide receiver was a major question entering the season and Joshua Moore answered them. The redshirt sophomore opened the game with a 78-yard touchdown. Ehlinger found him five more times for a total of 127 yards.
Tarik Black also had a solid debut, securing five receptions for 80 yards. No other Longhorn receiver had more than three receptions.
Only one other Big 12 team compared to Texas’ opening day, and it was Oklahoma. Redshirt freshman Spencer Rattler had an incredible day, throwing for 490 yards and four touchdowns.
Months of building excitement led to a lopsided victory on Saturday night, as Oklahoma defeated Missouri State 48-0 in its season opener.
Spencer Rattler was at the center of an offensive supernova for Lincoln Riley and the Sooners.
Rattler met the occasion with rare fortitude for a redshirt freshman. The former five-star went 14-for-17 for 290 yards and four touchdowns, all in the first half of the contest.
While West Virginia got a big win, it did not quite compare to Texas or Oklahoma. The Mountaineers blew out Eastern Kentucky, 56-10. Year 2 of the Neal Brown era got off on the right foot.
The West Virginia Mountaineers (1-0) kicked off the 2020 season at home this afternoon with a 56-10 win over the Eastern Kentucky Colonels (0-2) from the FCS Ohio Valley Conference.
Prior to the game, Neal Brown announced 11 players were suspended for the day, including starting inside receiver TJ Simmons, starting left tackle Junior Uzebu and starting center Chase Behrndt. Brown confirmed the suspensions were in a direct response to players violating a team rule and did not have anything to do with COVID-19. Those suspensions were lifted at the final whistle, so those players are free to rejoin the team and will be available for the next game.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3]
The Saturday Big 12 morning rush is here. Headlines are provided from USA TODAY Sports, Phil Steele and College Football News.
Each morning Longhorns Wire will share the top stories from around the Big 12 Conference. For this edition of the Big 12 Morning Rush USA TODAY Sports, Phil Steele and College Football News provide the headlines.
One idea that we were tossing around was the thought of adding BYU to the Big 12 Conference for one season. A very similar move that the ACC pulled by adding Notre Dame to their entire schedule. However our colleagues at Sooners Wire says that isn’t on the table.
The hot idea to mention was BYU. And that didn’t even reach the rumor phase of social media this time around.
During the last two rounds of realignment for the Big 12, BYU was a common name, but the conference never got to the point to invite or accept the Cougars bid to join.
.@BYUfootball to the Big 12 (this season) was a fun idea, but a conference source tells me there's "no chance."
— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) July 31, 2020
The annual Phil Steele magazine is out and he laid out just how he interprets the Big 12 finishing in 2020.
College football analyst Phil Steele made his predictions for the 2020 college football season, including the Big 12. And those rankings reflect the potentially wild nature of the conference; Steele has three teams tied for one spot.
Steele’s 350-page season preview is available exclusively at Books-A-Million and Barnes & Nobles book stores or online at PhilSteele.com. Known as “the book experts can’t do without,” Steele’s magazine is celebrating its 26th anniversary as one of the most accurate — and certainly information-packed — preseason previews in the country.
(1) Oklahoma
(2) Texas
This year they return 16 starters including QB [Sam] Ehlinger, a deeper stable of RB’s and a defense that is even more [experienced] than 9 [returning starters] with a lot of players having experience due to ’19’s injuries.
(3) Oklahoma State
(4) Texas Christian
(5) Iowa State
(6) West Virginia
(T-7) Texas Tech
(T-7) Baylor
(T-7) Kansas State
(10) Kansas
Our colleagues at College Football News performed a five-year analysis on the 10 Big 12 programs to come out with an average ranking. Here is how they are laid out.
(1) Oklahoma: 142.10
(2) Texas: 86.01
Texas has won just 53% of its Big 12 games over the last five years? Seriously? The mere 13 drafted players are almost as embarrassing, but the huge Attendance Score of 9.49 and huge Elite Win Score helped provide the bump.
(3) Oklahoma State: 84.31
(4) Texas Christian: 83.06
(5) West Virginia: 74.45
(6) Baylor: 70.18
(7) Kansas State: 62.38
(8) Texas Tech: 56.12
(9) Iowa State: 51.81
(10) Kansas: 16.46
