It was a somewhat wild weekend of college football in the Big 12 conference. It began on Thursday night with an offensive explosion in the fourth quarter between the West Virginia Mountaineers and Houston Cougars in the “Dana Holgorsen Bowl.”
The two teams scored a combined 38 points through three quarters before they combined for 42 points in the fourth. With a WVU touchdown late in the game, Houston had just 12 seconds to put together a scoring drive. We see this desperation play time and time again with more failures than successes in this situation. This time, quarterback Donovan Smith was able to pull off the improbable heroics.
Pandemonium in Houston! #SCTop10 x @BoogieCO22 pic.twitter.com/bWAaylr4DA
— Houston Football (@UHCougarFB) October 13, 2023
It was going to be hard to top that wild finish as Stephon Johnson hauled in the deflection for the Cougars’ first win in Big 12 play. Only Cincinnati and UCF remain winless in conference play. Cincinnati had a shot to earn their first-ever win as members of the Big 12 in conference play but it was not to be for the Bearcats.
UCF was idle and Cincinnati fell to Iowa State, 30-10. The Cyclones moved ahead of West Virginia in the Big 12 standings and controls their own destiny. Iowa State is half a game ahead of the idle Texas Longhorns, Kansas State Wildcats, Oklahoma State Cowboys, and West Virginia Mountaineers for that No. 2 spot in the conference behind the Oklahoma Sooners.
In other action the TCU Horned Frogs steamrolled BYU 44-11, Oklahoma State came back against Kansas 39-32, and Kansas State won their eighth straight against Texas Tech 38-21.
College Sports Wire takes a look back at the week that was in the Big 12 with the weekly wrapup, including who leads the new-look conference in recruiting.