Big 12 Pick Six: Week One

We’re going quarterback-heavy for the first edition of the “Big 12 Pick Six”. There wasn’t a bigger story in the conference than the field generals. With two Heisman hopefuls, two replacements and a silly dual quarterback system that may have ended, it was hard to focus on anything else.

That Geno Smith guy is pretty good

For those who were weary of Geno Smith’s preseason Big 12 offensive player of the year honors, maybe you decided to watch him lead West Virginia to a 69-34 victory over Marshall. And maybe you told yourself the only reason Smith was able to go 32-for-36 was because he was up against a Thundering Herd defense that allowed 30.2 points per game in 2011.

Is there any way to make sense of the 81 percent completion percentage, 730 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and no interceptions against Clemson in the Orange Bowl and Marshall in Saturday’s season opener? The Mountaineer offense is averaging 69.5 points and 622 yards over the last two games with Smith behind center.

This is what Geno Smith does. Last season, Smith had a 152.6 pass efficiency rating, and he was able to throw for 453 yards and put up 21 points on LSU. This is also his second year in Dana Holgorsen’s system and it’s been said over and over during the offseason, quarterbacks have a history of putting up even better numbers during their sophomore year in the system.

His performance against Marshall keeps him in the Heisman discussion, as he was named Walter Camp national offensive player of the week and he was named offensive player of the week by the Big 12 Conference. While it’s probably not realistic for Smith to remain above 80 percent completion, he can certainly stay above 70 percent. He has a plethora of weapons on offense to rely on.

The first test for Smith and the offense will be on Oct. 6, when they take on Texas in Austin.

Who are the Cowboys?

With all the buildup to the 2012 season, all the questions about how Oklahoma State could do without Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon, whether or not a consistent Big 12 contender is being built in Stillwater and how a true freshman will do commanding the offense remain unanswered.

Honestly, neither coaches, nor the fans have any clue if this offense can put up the same amount of points the Cowboys have in recent years. The offense has kept on rolling recently despite the losses of offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, wide receiver Dez Bryant and quarterback Zac Robinson. Head coach Mike Gundy and staff has been able to put together quality teams every year since 2008, but it’s hard to gauge just how the offense will be in 2012 since they basically played a middle school team in their first game.

The 84-0 thrashing put on Savannah State could have the exact opposite effect on the Cowboys than a “tune-up” game intends to have. True freshman quarterback Wes Lunt completed all 11 pass attempts and the offense put up five touchdowns on five drives. They had a ridiculously fast tempo, no turnovers and no offensive penalties. While it would be troubling if the offense had miscues in their opener, it doesn’t seem the starters gained much from taking on the worst team in the FCS.

This week’s match-up might as well be game number one and it would be wise for OSU to not underestimate the Rich Rodriquez led Arizona Wildcats. The Cowboys have owned the Wildcats in their last two meetings, winning the 2010 Alamo Bowl 36-10 and earning a victory last season 37-14.

Arizona is coming off a 24-17 win over Toledo. While they needed overtime to finish off the Rockets, they racked up 624 yards of total offense, the second most in school history. Quarterback Matt Scott looked like the perfect fit for Rodriquez’s zone-read option throwing for 387 yards and rushing for 74.

We should have a good idea about the Cowboys after this weekend and then the post Weeden/Blackmon era can be begin to be analyzed.

Calm Down Landry

Any head coach will tell you all that matters is the win. Sure, things could be extremely ugly; there could be tons of miscues and rust to work out after the first game of the season, but at least you got off on the right foot in the win column.

That doesn’t seem to be the case in Norman. After the Sooners grappled with UTEP to pull out a victory last Saturday, a lot of discussion about quarterback Landry Jones had the feeling of déjà vu. With all the struggles Jones went through in 2011, fans were eager to see what all his hard work in the offseason led to.

The result was the second-worst completion percentage of any Big 12 starter in week one. It wasn’t all Jones’ fault. The offensive line, which is missing two key veteran players for the season, needs to block better for the Heisman hopeful. No quarterback could’ve had a productive game with the amount of pressure he faced. Jones was sacked three times and even when the Miners didn’t get to him psychically, they were able to put enough pressure on the senior to cause some issues.

One disturbing observation on Jones is he still doesn’t seem to trust a receiver like he did Ryan Broyles. It was no secret the decrease in Jones’ numbers last season after Broyles went down, as he only completed 59.7 percent, threw for one touchdown and was intercepted six times.

I really think Jones has a talented receiving core with Kenny Stills, Justin Brown and Trey Metoyer. Stills, Brown and Metoyer combined for 24 catches against UTEP and there should be no reason why at least one of the three can’t gain the trust of Jones. Unfortunately for the receivers, the trust issues all lies on the man behind center. All the receivers can do is catch the ball and make some plays to build up Jones’ confidence.

Keep David Ash in

The Longhorns have had themselves quite the quandary at the quarterback position since Colt McCoy left for the NFL. It could be looked at as troubling that neither David Ash nor Case McCoy was able to separate themselves in the competition. The situation didn’t appear to be going away, especially after co-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin’s comments about using both quarterbacks, but in a strange twist, David Ash took every single snap behind center against Wyoming.

Ash looked as efficient as he needs to be for the Longhorns to make a serious push in the Big 12 this season and while he still needs to improve getting the ball down field, it’s not a dire necessity because of the running game. He just needs to manage the offense and not turn the ball over. Last season he only had four touchdowns against eight interceptions, but he didn’t throw an interception in 27 pass attempts last Saturday.

As long as he continues to improve, it only makes sense to leave him in the game at all times on offense. Let him gain more and more confidence with the system and let him take full command of his teammates to lead them in games. Ash will grow more from learning how to handle adjustments and rebounding from bad decisions. The coaching staff isn’t doing any favors for neither Ash nor McCoy if they keep getting knocked out of rhythm because they are rotating with the offense every game.

Nickflorenceforheisman.com

Was Baylor quarterback Nick Florence not aware he was replacing the greatest player in school history? Did he not get the memo the offense wouldn’t be the same without Robert Griffin III?

The Bears’ offense complied 613 yards, averaging nearly a first down on each play. Florence threw for 341 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. He was able to extend the Baylor streak of games with at least 45 points scored to five and made head coach Art Briles look like an offensive genius. Florence appears to be the next step in the process of building a consistent winner in Waco.

Yes, the nickflorenceforheisman.com is a joke and I’m not seriously suggesting he is now a front runner, but in all seriousness, Baylor just might be for real again this season. Think about this; the Bears have gone bowling in two consecutive seasons and put two players in the first round of the NFL Draft in consecutive seasons. The Texas Longhorns haven’t done that since 2006-2007.

It was only one game, but as it looks now, Art Briles is able to recruit quarterbacks for his system. He had success in Houston and in Waco he is establishing a brand for Baylor football. Did you ever think that was a possibility? Florence doesn’t have to have an RG3 like season for this to happen, but if he is successful and leads the offense to production like in the SMU game, people around the nation might start taking what Briles is doing much more serious.

Stability

The Big 12 Conference, ABC/ESPN and Fox will announce a 13-year media rights deal Friday worth $2.6 billion, an average of $200 million per year and worth $20 million per school. As reported by ESPN, The Big 12’s new deal means the Big 12 and Pac-12 are the only two conferences with telecast agreements with two over-the-air national networks in ABC and Fox.

The new deal includes grant of rights, meaning if a Big 12 school leaves for another league in the next 13 years, that school’s media rights, including revenue, would remain with the Big 12 and not their new conference.

Well done fellas. The deal with the grant rights is a hole in one. Keep in mind the Big 12 was on the brink of collapse after Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri and Texas A&M all left. No one knew what the future held for the conference, but with the final ink on the new TV deal and the addition of TCU and West Virginia, the conference is stronger than ever.