Hokies Game Critical for Big 12 Play

1 comment so far September 23, 2008 by Tom Cudd

Now that we're a few weeks into the football season, almost every team in the Big 12 has played someone that should be considered a test. They may not be signature wins, but we can tell a lot about what the season is going to look like for the Big 12 based on those games. Nebraska's first real test comes this weekend, and is sure to be an exciting match. With a 6.5 point line in favor of Nebraska, Vegas oddsmakers think that the Huskers are going to win one by a field goal (once you knock off the 3 points automatically given to the home team). If Nebraska wins this game, 7 or more wins looks even better than it did at the beginning of the season. As for the rest of the Big 12, the past few weeks have shook up the conference turning a couple of teams around.

Starting with Missouri, we learned from the Illinois game that the defense is susceptible to an efficient passing attack. From Buffalo, we saw that the Tigers can actually be forced to make mistakes when on the scoring side of the field. Otherwise, this team looks nearly unstoppable. Pelini will have his work cut out for him to game plan after this week.

The last game of the season will be against a Colorado team that will already be bowl bound. After beating a ranked West Virginia, they could have seven wins already when coming into Lincoln the day after Thanksgiving. Kansas could also have seven wins when they face us a few weeks earlier than Colorado. They are just as scary efficient as they were last year with Reesing at the helm, but the running game may not be as on track based on their offensive line play.

Kansas State's loss to Louisville has really angered the Wildcat fans. They expected to see a defense that would be dominant heading into the regular season, but instead saw a team get run down like a dog in the street. When Nebraska heads down to Manhattan, this could be a dangerous team with a coach fighting to keep his job. Is Ron Prince the KSU version of Callahan?

What is there to say about Iowa State? They should start fighting pretty hard not to be at the bottom of the Big 12 this year. Already 2-2 in non conference, I don't think they're going to pull out a winning season, but they can't be counted out as a door mat just yet.

Texas Tech is a team we play this year that hasn't seen a quality opponent. The only thing I can say is that many thought they should have averaged over 50 points per game against the teams they played, but instead are only averaging 45. So we'll just have to score a lot to beat them. Will we be able to put up 45-50 points on the road? Speaking of averaging over 50 points, the Sooners look like they have the best chance of going undefeated this season. Facing them in Norman is a nightmare, and I hope we just make a respectable game out of it. They deserve the #2 ranking in the country and maybe even the #1 spot.

Baylor has shown flashes of having a better future, but expect them to be just a step up from where they have been in the past few years. If their game wasn't in Lincoln, I'd be a little more worried. Instead, I don't expect a close game in the end. For the rest of the South, Texas A&M looks like they made a mistake in hiring Sherman. They haven't shown anything impressive losing at home twice already to teams they should have beat or at least hung around with. Oklahoma State still has a great offense, and I'm glad we don't play them this year. Texas is the other team that I'm glad we don't have to face. They could easily have a 10-win season.

So maybe there are too many non-conference cream puffs. I'm not hear to argue that. But you can always tell quite a bit about a team when they play good opponents. Let's hope the rest of the Big 12 follows Nebraska's lead in getting quality opponents for the future.

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