Going Out On A Limb: Big 12 Edition

Let’s start this edition of the Going Out On A Limb series by…well, doing just that. The Big 12 had the top-to-bottom best conference a season ago.

There. I await flaming.

Ridicule and lambaste away, just don’t misconstrue the above as a devaluation of the SEC. The league has six BCS titles for a reason, and LSU and Alabama were probably the two best teams in the nation — though Oklahoma State looked like a team that could make a similar case on almost every game day. Both conferences had a considerable collection of double digit-game winners (OSU, Oklahoma, Baylor, Kansas State; Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina). Where the Big 12 has the edge in that its next tier down featured Missouri, Texas and Texas A&M as opposed to the SEC’s Auburn, Florida and Mississippi State. Arkansas, for example, was arguably one of the five best teams in the nation, yet needed a monumental meltdown to best seventh place Big 12 finisher A&M.

Anecdotal, sure. But the Aggies were a great bunch that finished a few plays away from 10 or 11 wins in their own right, and finished closer to the bottom than the top. Of course, both A&M and Mizzou now call the SEC home. Their departures would seemingly be detriments to the Big 12’s overall profile. But alas…

The Big 12 Is Better In 2012 Than It Was In 2011

Despite losing MU and A&M, the Big 12 reloads with two teams that could potentially be better in West Virginia and TCU. Both were double digit game winners last season, albeit in weaker conferences. That said, each finished the season on decided upswings that should translate into momentum for their first forays in the Big 12.

TCU finished the season on an 8-win streak that included snapping Boise State’s run of 35 consecutive home wins. WVU rolled into the Orange Bowl and put up a record 70 points on ACC champion Clemson. Both have reason to feel good as a result, because there are key pieces to each team’s successful run returning. It starts at quarterback, where the Frogs and Mountaineers both have proven studs in Casey Pachall and Geno Smith.

They join a bevy of talented playmakers at the position around the league. Landry Jones is a Heisman favorite. Collin Klein is one of the best, most unappreciated stars in the game right now. Texas Tech struggled a season ago, but Seth Doege whipped the ball all around West Texas like his name was Jonathan Moxon.

Texas and Oklahoma should both be markedly improved and take drastic steps to return their rivalry to the level it was not long ago, when the Red River Shootout was a key to the BCS title game. And don’t count out reigning conference champion Oklahoma State. Though starting a true freshman quarterback, the Cowboys have one of the best running backs in the nation, Joseph Randle, and an underrated defensive corps. OSU could surprise and compete for a second Big 12 championship.

No team is more slept on than K-State, though. The Wildcats have the aforementioned Klein, balling in a workmanlike fashion that doesn’t turn heads, but does get the job done. Some have criticized K-State’s affinity for close wins, but those victories could be interpreted as a test of the team’s collective meddle. And should the Wildcats emerge as a surprise league champion, it might be time for the Little Apple to start thinking Big Apple.

Collin Klein Wins The Heisman

The attention given to Geno Smith and Landry Jones has overshadowed another returning quarterback who very well could have been a Heisman finalist last season. Collin Klein had a stellar season as the most productive two-way quarterback in the nation, when he rushed for 27 touchdowns last season.

Once more, in case that didn’t settle in: COLLIN KLEIN RUSHED FOR 27 TOUCHDOWNS. That’s more than Trent Richardson, LaMichael James, Ronnie Hillman, Chris Polk, or basically anyone not named Montee Ball or Bernard Pierce. Add to that he threw for 13 more scores (while giving up just six interceptions) and you have a scoring machine only slightly off pace of Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III.

Klein is celebrated for his focus and primed for an even bigger season with K-State returning numerous key weapons on offense. Replicating his individual production last season, and the Wildcats once again breaking the double digit-win barrier, could send the quarterback from one Manhattan to another.

But K-State must avoid the always dangerous trap game, inherent in such a deep conference.

Iowa State Shocks Not One, Not Two, But Three Ranked Opponents In Ames

The Cyclones Tessitore’d Oklahoma State’s BCS title hopes last November in one of the most unforgettable games of the last few seasons. Paul Rhoads doesn’t have the shiniest of records, but he’s done an outstanding job at ISU given the program’s history of struggles, taking it to two bowl games in three seasons.

Reaching a third in 2012 will take a valiant effort considering both the Big 12’s top to bottom strength, and the Cyclones’ out-of-conference schedule that features challenges from Tulsa and rival Iowa. ISU must certainly pull off an upset or two. Now, no one is going to confuse Steele Jantz and Jared Barrett with Landry Jones and Geno Smith, but Luckily for the ‘Clones, they are in Ames for some of the season’s marquee match-ups.

First comes K-State, something of a rivalry for ISU. The Wildcats have won four straight, all by single digits. The combined 23-point margin averages out to less than a touchdown sans extra point a contest. Surely the tide has to turn ISU’s way eventually, right? The Tasmanian devil duo of linebackers AJ Klein and Jake Knott will be busy against the rushing oriented offense Bill Snyder’s boys employ.

Traditionally, contests between ISU and Oklahoma are much less competitive than those ISU-KSU games detailed. ISU struggled with the spread offenses so en vogue in the Big 12, included OU’s. But the Sooners have had a knack recently for dropping games they shouldn’t, and the trip to Ames comes one week after an historic pairing against Notre Dame, and another two before OU travels to WVU for a potential

And speaking of WVU, the Mountaineers were a play away from the BCS title game in 2007 but lost to a heavy underdog in the season finale, Pitt. The Mountaineers are generating some considerable buzz as a Big 12 front runner, and winning the Big 12 often means contention for All The Tostitos. But a surely road weary bunch will face a winter’s Saturday hurdle in Ames should it come to that.

Such a run of upsets would rattle not only the Big 12, but all of college football to its very core.