Week 4 PASS/FAIL Report: Big 12

BIG 12

PASS: Texas Tech, Baylor, Oklahoma State, West Virginia

Texas Tech gets a PASS largely because they gave up 80 to TCU last season, and merely gave up 55 this season, and was a failed trick run back (and 10 yards) shy of beating the Frogs this week. Kliff Kingsbury obviously has the Red Raiders playing more confident this season, and they nearly grabbed a huge upset win. Now that defense…

Baylor is cruising right now, and while they get a PASS for drubbing Rice 70-17 this week, Bears fans should be worried about the future. Baylor has not played a soul yet. Has not been challenged one bit, and looks like a team that could get into trouble heading into Big 12 play.

Oklahoma State gets a ton of credit for holding on and beating Texas in Austin this week. The Cowboys were a team nobody expected much from, but after the 30-27 win, the Cowboys are now 4-0 and ranked. This was an emotional game for UT, and it could have been a huge trap. Trap avoided.

West Virginia has also been a huge surprise, as much for their wins as for their defense. In wins over Georgia Southern and Maryland, the Mountaineers have given up just six points, all this week. That is shocking.

FAIL: TCU, Texas, Kansas

TCU is in trouble despite their 55-52 arena football styled win over Texas Tech. The problem is that TCU is not built to do what they did week after week, and the snake is about to bite them once conference play begins. There are too many decent offenses that actually come equipped with a decent defense to see TCU go through league play unmarred by their defensive shortcomings. They got away with one this week, but the big hit is coming soon.

Charlie Strong should probably think about firing his ST coach as well after a botched EP and a punt that went south this week left Texas losing both to Cal and to Oklahoma State. The good news is that the Horns were in both games, and have had shots. They simply need to convert on opportunity moving forward.

Kansas earns an auto fail for just being themselves. This is one of the worst five programs in college football right now, and it’s not getting any better. When you cannot even beat a Rutgers team that is on an interim coach, is full of suspensions and off field issues, and is just a mess in general, than you deserve that statement.