Big 12 Football Power Rankings, Week 4: Don’t sleep on Oklahoma State
By Dante Pryor
2-0. Baylor Bears. 6. 860. Scouting Report. player. Pick Analysis. Last Week: 6
Baylor had last week off, and go to Rice this weekend, so we won’t know what the Bears are made of until they go Ames and play the Cyclones on Sept. 28. What we do know is the Bears are looking to take the next step in the highly-competitive Big 12.
Second-year head coach Matt Rhule has done a fantastic job turning around the Baylor Bears after the Art Briles scandal. They won seven games last year and defeated the Commodores in the Texas Bowl. The big question is where do they find those additional wins in conference play? Are the better than TCU, Oklahoma State or Kansas State? We’ll find out how good they are in the Big 12, and it starts in Ames.
Pick Analysis. 3-0. Last Week: 8. player. Scouting Report. Kansas State Wildcats. 5. 823
Kansas State was impressive against the Mississippi State Bulldogs last week in Starkville. It wasn’t always pretty, both teams had three turnovers, but the Wildcats found a way to win the game in the end.
One of the great football cliches is “you have to be sound in the kicking game” and the Wildcats were just that, returning a kickoff for a touchdown late in the game that fueled the comeback.
The Wildcats have the week off before they travel to Stillwater and play the Oklahoma State Cowboys. They played in a hostile environment at Davis Wade in Starkville, but this will be a different challenge for the Wildcats. They will have to face a tough environment at Boone Pickens Stadium, but they will face an offense unlike any they’ve faced when they play the Cowboys.
856. Pick Analysis. 3-0. Last Week: 5. Oklahoma State Cowboys. 4. Scouting Report. player
Speaking of the Cowboys, they are proving the best offenses in the Big 12 reside in the state of Oklahoma. They’ve put up 52, 56 and 40 points, respectively, so far this season. When they went with redshirt freshman dual-threat quarterback Spencer Sanders over Hawaii transfer Dru Brown, you knew they were going to run the football, and they have done just that.
In addition to leading the team in passing, Sanders is also second on the team in rushing.
We will see what they are when they take on the Texas Longhorns at Darrell K. Royal in Austin, Texas. The Longhorns have made Austin a home field advantage the last couple of years, and want to validate their place among college football’s elite. The Cowboys want to prove they are one of the best in the Big 12 and all of the nation. We will see how good that offense is against an elite defense.