It’s a crimson football conference featuring the rest of us

That was uglier than anyone could have expected for Tech. And Iowa State has gone from wonder child, to bottom tier.

1) Oklahoma

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Oklahoma’s offense is the best in the nation bar none. I will own I thought Hurts would be a bust at Oklahoma, but he has matured as a passer and his legs make him a truly dynamic player. Lamb is potentially the best receiver in the conference, and the running back by committee approach is really working.

Now, that defense is not good. Tech had one of the ugliest offensive performances humanely possible. Wells and Yost called a game not to get blownout, and you could feel the team quit once they realized that. But sitll, they managed 192 yards on the ground.

That being said, the defense plays hard and with pride now. They are improved enough to maybe have Oklahoma compete in the playoffs. The speed is there, and the system is much better. That defense might sneak into the top 40 range, which to me will keep the Sooners from being challenged in conference play with that offense backing them up.

2) Texas

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The Horns were on bye, which is great because they are banged up. The downside is, that gave them time to actually watch how far ahead Oklahoma is. Texas can hope to lockup the second spot, but even with the weirdness of the mid-day rivalry game against the Sooners, I don’t think they will come within two touchdowns.

That isn’t to say Texas in’t a good football team but they aren’t championship caliber. Maybe Texas will prove me wrong and upset Oklahoma. But it appears their ceiling is second in conference play.

3) Oklahoma State

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The Pokes beat a resurgent Kansas State. That offense has one of the conferences best receivers, and the nations leading rusher. Hubbard is the engine of this offense, and while I don’t know how sustainable his production is I can confidently say he is a 150-200 yard a game back. He is that good, and this was a showing to see.

The issue offensively is Spencer Sanders has not been good. Wallace is managing to produce despite that, but at some point you want something from the quarterback to compliment the rushing attack or teams will bracket Wallace and stuff the line to slow Hubbard down.

Defensively, there are reasons to be concerned but they have looked better the last two weeks. Still, this is a team that was gashed by Oregon State. But with a date against the Red Raiders offensive offense they will look even better.

4) Kansas State

A tough first loss for Kleiman, who is really not used to seeing his teams lose. But still, the team looks years ahead of the rebuilding curve. There is a lack of talent right now, but Kleiman looks to rebuild this program through some of that grit Snyder made famous.

The issue with this team is can their offense produce enough in a conference based around explosiveness. But with so many offenses struggling this year, I think they can do enough to solidify a top-half finish.

5) Baylor

The Bears hung on to defeat Iowa State, and I will give them the credit they deserve for that win. That being said, Iowa State appears to be far worse than I thought. Baylor is a middle-tier team with a decent quarterback. That will win them games in a conference that very much appears to be down.

I was impressed by the defensive effort, they held Iowa State down though again that appears to not be the feat anyone thought it would be. Purdy looks mediocre and they can’t replace Montgomery at running back. But Baylor still hast to be pleased with that performance.

Offensively the back-to-back bad performances is alarming but they also did go up against a good defense this week so the performance was far easier to explain.

After a scare from Rice, this win was another step forward in Waco.

6) TCU

The Horned Frogs obliterated Kansas, which means nothing but was much needed after an ugly SMU loss. Better for the Frogs appears to be that a lot of offenses are struggling mightily. That will allow their strong defense to keep them in games when their quarterback play lets them down again.

This team is going to live and die by the ground game, which is fine as long as their quarterbacks do more or less what they did this week. Put up mediocre numbers but be accurate and protect the football.

7) Iowa State

Iowa State is not a good football team, we know that for sure now. Purdy has regressed, and their running game is far worse without their star Montgomery. I was extremely high on this team, but they look more like a 4-5 win team than the 8-9 win team I had predicted them to be.

Defensively, the Cyclones are still stout but you have to be able to move the ball and not shoot yourself in the foot. And that late drive that gave Baylor the win was a poor showing from the defensive unit.

8) Texas Tech

Good lord, Yost followed up a bad performance with an even worse performance somehow. The decision to start Tyner was a damned disgrace, and it spotted Oklahoma a 14 point lead. His lack of trust in his team is apparent, and he absolutely gave up after the Tyner experiment predictably failed.

He wasted the bye week that should’ve been used to build Duffey an offense, and even this being his first year I absolutely understand wanting him fired. Wells was also a coward, and this #WeUsOur crap only seems to mean that we play to not get blown out. Which, in case anyone forgot, we were anyways. Yes, he called a fake punt but that was the only call Wells made that looked like he played to win.

He and Yost wanted to play for field goals and field position. It was a joke, and Wells burned any respect he earned from his talk of culture and discipline. Because if you didn’t notice, we still committed dumb penalty after dumb penalty and probably should have been flagged for more.

Patterson appears to be the only coach trying to win games, and yes he took a few chances that didn’t work but against that offense you had to take those shots. The disgraceful display of “tackling” was my only concern about the defense but I actually trust Patterson to clean that up. He coaches hard and his scheme is one I can get behind.

I believe the team is talented enough to get to a bowl game if Yost gets out of the way of this team and someone wakes up the offensive line. But, it just does not look like that is going to happen. Wells won’t be fired after one year, but he somehow nuked a good team with a bad offensive coordinator and that can’t be forgiven if the team doesn’t turn it around.

9) West Virginia

Guys, they might beat us. Yeah, let that sink in. West Virginia does not have it this year, and Brown has lost the shine his hire came with. The bright side, there is a lot of football left and the teams just above them look very vulnerable.

10) Kansas

Only team I think Tech can actually count as a definitive win. Les Miles was never going to fix Kansas in a year but I did expect them to escape the last place spot. That will not happen this year.