Go North My Son

Coming into this weekend, the big game in the Big 12 was supposed to be Oklahoma and Texas at the venerable Cotton Bowl. But a couple of letdowns later we are staring down the barrel of Oklahoma and Texas going into the Red River Rivalry coming off losses for the first time since ever really. actually that is a lie it is the first time since 1950 something or other. But the point is that a game that had all the promise in the world is suddenly not as important as it once was thought to be. And not only on the national stage, but within the conference as well. Both of these teams are still in the national championship race, and the winner gets a big boost in moral and status among the one loss teams, but the winner is not going to be vaulted anywhere near the front of the national pack, which probably would have been the case if both entered the game 5-0. In fact the winner of this game will not be the front runner for anything, at least as far as the standings go. And so it is, for the first time in many moon’s, that when the nation casts its glance at the Big 12 this weekend it will not be looking to the South exclusively, as has been the case on this weekend for the entirety of this decade, but will be looking North for the first time since the late 90’s when Bill Snyder and Frank Solich were running roughshod over the rest of the conference. Oklahoma and Texas is still Oklahoma and Texas but there are two games going on that are more important to the outcome of the conferecne race at this early juncture in the season. And they are happening north of Texas for a change.

Kansas State and Kansas, for example, is a game of significance for the first time in, well, forever as far as I am concerned. I do think that this game is far more important to Kansas than it is to Kansas State, for a couple of reasons. Kansas looks spectacular on paper, outscoring opponents 214 to 23, ranking in the top 10 offensively and defensively in rushing, scoring and total yards. What doesn’t look impressive though is their opponents, Central Michigan, SE Louisiana, Toledo and Florida International. Now granted the old Kansas would have struggled with some of those teams, most likely CMU and Toledo, but beating up on those teams raises no one’s eyebrows, and catches no one’s attention. That is why this game is more important to the Jayhawks, they have more to prove. I am not saying that Kansas State is worlds apart from Kansas, these two teams do match up pretty well with each other, and this should be a good, hard fought game between two in state rivals. But, at this point Kansas State is a little bit more of a proven entity. They went to Auburn, caught the Tigers on a good day, a Dr. Jekyll day so to speak, and played them within 10 points. Then they went down to Austin and physically dominated to Longhorns. Those are two games of note, two more than Kansas can claim. We know a lot more about Kansas State than we do about Kansas, mainly because the Hawks have not yet taken that step up in competition, but they will do so this week. The stats look great, but you can throw them out the window because they were accrued against vastly inferior teams. I want to know what this Kansas team is really about. Is the defense really that good? Is the secondary really that good? I know Aqib Talib is, but he was excellent last year and that secondary still imploded in Brittneyesque fashion. How do you go from dead last to third in 10 months? And the same questions can be asked about every phase of the game. Is it a result of inferior competition, or have they genuinely improved that much? There are questions about both teams to be sure, but the ones concerning Kansas are more pressing to me right now than the ones with the Wildcats. Thats why this game is more important for them. I think Kansas has improved a lot, and will surely go bowling, needing just three more wins and having both Baylor and Iowa State remaining, but I don’t see them surviving this steep an improvement in competition.

I say: Kansas State 27; Kansas 17

But the true Marquee game of the week in the North is Missouri and Nebraska. Nebraska is undefeated in conference play, but they have only played Iowa State, so, for all intents and purposes they have yet to play a real conference game. Meanwhile Missouri is untested in conference, but they have been tested in various ways outside of the conference with the Ole Miss , and Illinois being the only real games of note for the Tigers. Nebraska is wounded, badly in my opinion. That defense took a hit in production this year as most people expected it to, but I don’t think anyone but the most fervent Husker Haters thought that it could be this bad. The defense has been bad and the offense doesn’t have the capability with the mistake prone Sam Keller at the helm to truly carry this team, and to mask their defensive deficiencies. Nebraska has been out gained in every game but the Nevada game, and soundly in every game but the Wake Forrest game. But in this game, Nebraska isn’t the only team with issues on the defensive side of the ball. Missouri gives up points and yards in bunches, which was to be expected when the only thing resembling a pass rush moved on after last season. But the key difference here, and the difference in the game IMO, is the ability of Missouri to out gun the Huskers with the arm of Chase Daniel and the best Tight End combination in the country. The way I look at it is simple, if Nate Davis can come within a dropped TD of beating the Huskers in Lincon, what can the uberefficent offense of the Tigers do to that defense? Quite a lot I feel, so the Tigers are the pick. Nebraska will score to be sure, just not enough.

I say: Missouri 45; Nebraska 38