Congratulations to your Big 12 Champions, the Baylor Bears. Crown them now. It’s over.
More from Baylor Bears
- Baylor football: 3 reasons the Bears will upset No. 12 Utah in Week 2
- When College Football Meets the Tour de France
- Top 10 Big 12 Football Non-Conference games for 2023
- Baylor football: Realistic post-spring expectations for 2023
- Baylor football: Realistic expectations for the Bears in 2023
Analysts who have been hyping the Oklahoma Sooners up this entire offseason had to oversell how the Sooners could make up ground on Baylor after getting throttled by them last year. Turning the game into a toss-up, though, hinged on having a playmaker such as Dorial Green Beckham.
Now, according to reports you can read here, the wide receiver who was kicked out of Missouri and enrolled at Oklahoma this offseason had his waiver request denied and won’t be able to play until 2014.

Cincy on the Prowl
So despite having the Bears at home, the Sooners are back to not being on their level this year. There’s not enough for you to sell to me that they can make up ground after a 41-12 thrashing last year at Baylor. The entire aura and excitement around quarterback Trevor Knight is still off of one bowl game against a team that didn’t care about the game at all.
Are we to crown Knight the superstar who will lead the Sooners to the Big 12 title off of that, when his most exciting weapon now has to sit out a year? There’s no denying Oklahoma has talent, it has depth, it has experience, and there are a lot of returning starters, more than Baylor.
But the Bears have a Heisman candidate at quarterback and a brilliant coach, and they are simply a better team. Art Briles, Bryce Petty and Co. may not have the defense the Sooners have, but it won’t matter. The offense will be unstoppable, and Oklahoma was going to have to match them score for score.
Knight has shown nothing to indicate he can do that. Take out the Alabama game, and he was a very mediocre 47 of 90 on the year throwing the ball with only 471 yards and 5 touchdowns to 4 interceptions.

With the First Pick
I’m not putting my thumb on the scale for a quarterback who has shown nothing but running ability and the ability to throw against apathetic defenses. His ability to throw consistently would have hinged on a guy like Green-Beckham to make plays, and that is no longer there.
So now, what could have been a chance for an undefeated season has fallen to likely a 10-2 or a 9-3 year. Texas is an underrated team who could be very good this year, and don’t forget they beat the Sooners pretty easily last year. And Bob Stoops is always good at blowing a game he shouldn’t, which could happen against Texas Tech, TCU, Tennessee, West Virginia, or any other average team this year.
If 2 losses come out of that, Baylor is a guaranteed third loss. So sit back, grab some popcorn, maybe open up a six-pack, and watch as the Oklahoma Sooners once again fail to live up to preseason hype.
I’m sure Stoops will manage to blame the SEC when it happens.