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[quote=Bass&Catfish2008;36395901]I know I'm a little behind the 8 ball here. I'll get week 2's up in a couple of days after watching highlights and watching No Huddle on Fox Sports Southwest.
2014 Big XII Grades
Week#2 Oklahoma (A-) (Solid win against a team it should have won against....Tulsa is better competition. Defensive line looks to be playing up to its potential. The linebacking core is thin...but will be fine without injuries (yeah right). Heupel opened it up a bit more for Knight and the Offense. It's nice to see talent running backs have a line that can block for them. The Secondary has some issues on communication, but most of the time they were in position to make tackles. Some of the corners need to do a better job of wrapping up instead of shoulder tackling.)
Baylor (A-)(Won a game it was supposed to against Northwestern St....guess that is in Louisiana. Baylor's grade won't change until they play a game against a team not in D3.)
Oklahoma State (B+) (Daxx Garman looked good filling in for Walsh. Bad break for Walsh and the Cowboys. Hope the kid comes back. Nothing really to say....Mizzou St. was overwhelmed. Oklahoma State has great team speed and will have to find creative ways to use it to win in the Big XII.) Kansas State(B-) (I know the game was in Ames.....but K-State was taken to the wire by a team that got beat by an FCS opponent the prior week. Not good but a little kudos for finishing off a gritty Paul Rhodes team.) Texas (F) (Can't believe they let Mormon U. do this to them. Swoopes didn't look so bad. The O-Line was atrocious. Defense gave up in the 3rd quarter.) West Virginia (B+) (Beat an inferior opponent in Towson. I think Trickett is the real deal. I think he's 10x what he was last year. He's got some excellent speed guys that will surprise many in the Big XII. The question always with WV is will they play ANY defense? It would be great for WV to return the favor to Maryland this year.) Texas Tech (C) (Still disappointed in this team.....I expected more of Tech to help the Big XII credibility. I'm always amazed of how their defense underachieves. A head scratcher.) Iowa State(D+)(Gritty performance. That's about all that can be said.) Kansas (C+) (Won the game, but should have throttled SE Missouri.
^^^I agree with the grades for week 1 and 2 B&C. I have a feeling Tech's grade will drop to a D or F for this week. I'm extremely frustrated with Tech's defense, they've certainly been under-performing and they were just awful this week against Arkansas. There has been no improvement on that side of the ball at all.
^^^I agree with the grades for week 1 and 2 B&C. I have a feeling Tech's grade will drop to a D or F for this week. I'm extremely frustrated with Tech's defense, they've certainly been under-performing and they were just awful this week against Arkansas. There has been no improvement on that side of the ball at all.
It would probably help if your coach spent less time dancing and trying to be a "swag' coach.
It would probably help if your coach spent less time dancing and trying to be a "swag' coach.
He arrives at his office at 4:30 every workday. The problems lie mainly with the defense, for which Matt Wallerstedt is primarily responsible. I don't know why the LB's in particular are having so many issues (with tackling, for starters), but Kingsbury's "swag" probably isn't the reason.
Week#3 Oklahoma (A) (Solid win against a legit Power 5 team. Tennessee has some athletes who, with a little more experience, will be racking up some wins in the SEC East quite soon. OU's defense is fun to watch; this is by far my favorite aspect of the Sooners and also the most elite 11 guys on the field in the Big XII. There were some breakdowns in coverage a few times, but that front 7 is aggressive and physically imposing. There still were a few issues with wrapping up demonstrated by weak shoulder tackles. A few costly penalties on OU's offensive line in the 2nd half cost the Sooners probably 10-14 points, but Tennessee deserves a bit of credit as they had some big & fast athletes. Knight missed deep a few times but was on target when he needed to be. Losing Ford will hurt mostly as he was a nice option as a receiver out of the backfield. It was fun to watch Perrine ("like tacklin' a hog") run over those TN linebackers and safeties at the end of the game. Smashmouth against the so-called Big&Bad SEC. Good stuff.)
Baylor (A-)(Won a game it was supposed to against Buffalo. We still don't know anything about this team other than it's got some receivers with elite speed and a QB with a great arm who is one hit away from having a broken back. Still feasting on D3 talent. I think Baylor will be surprised to see many of the middle of the pack teams this year (WVU, TCU, Iowa St.) will provide more than enough of a challenge.)
Oklahoma State (A-) (Garman appears to be the real deal. Why he wasn't playing in front of Walsh is a mystery. Garman clearly has a big arm and lots of upside. Guys on the radio said he was having trouble picking up Gundy's offense, so that may be why Walsh was playing. The defense is fast and tackles well and pursues well for the most part. UTSA is no push-over as former OU assistant/Miami coach Larry Coker has 'em coached up there in the Yellow Rose. For yet another week Tyreke Hill was not much of a factor...and he was not needed. However, I do believe with his elite speed the Pokes will have to utilize him a bunch more in conference play to be successful.) Texas Christian U.(A) (Very solid win against a B1G school. TCU won in convincing fashion. Dotson has the best catch in all the Big XII so far....a one hander that might be ESPY-esque. Still not sold on Boyken, but I might be eating crow if the kid gets on a roll in conference play. Running game looked a lot better this week and, as usual, the defense held up nicely against some big MN athletes. I still think TCU will really miss Fields down the stretch....with him in the line-up this team competes with OU for best all around run D although the Sooners have more pass rushers and more team speed on D. Good win though.) West Virginia (B+) (I almost awarded WVU with an A-, but it's really unthinkable considering they almost gave up 40 points to unranked Maryland. Still this is a good win for a program on the rise and rebound. Again, Trickett continues to shine and show off that arm in the Holgerson Air Raid Attack & Spread. The defense is the biggest question of this team. Can it stop the run? Offense and special teams look very very good and will give many teams in the Big XII fits.) Iowa State(A-)(Gritty performance once again, this time against in-state rival. Iowa St. has some athletes on offense and special teams. Mangino looks to be settling in nicely after the N. Dakota St. debacle.) Texas (B-) (Swoopes looked solid again. The running attack needs to be more effective and I would expect a Horn O-Line to be more stout. I know the loss of the center was a big loss because of his experience and leadership. I really think this loss falls on Strong. He had the game won with three and a half minutes to go. All they needed was one more first down or so to ice the game. I think it was really poor clock management, not to mention the Horn team captain gave UCLA an extra possession! So much about this game was strange and intriguing all at the same time. UCLA's great QB going down did slow their team performance down a bit, but Neuheisel did well coming in as a backup. Very sorry to hear about Ash. Seems like a good kid full of pride. Sooner Nation wishes him the best.) Texas Tech (F) (I think I can speak for all of us in saying we expected more from this team. The talent is there, but clearly there are some major issues on D. The lack of tackling by the linebackers is unacceptable. Firing the D-Coordinator in the middle of the season is not the answer IMO. We'll see how that experiment works out. The really tragic thing is that Tech has some really nice athletes but they were completely dominated and demoralized by the running attack of the Hogs. Tech knew the run was coming and still got gashed over and over. I think there is either an attitude issue or coaching issue at Tech....or maybe a combination of both. Sad. This team should be better, and I'm guessing it will improve over the season as lots of improvement is needed. ) Kansas (F) (If only this would have been a basketball game.)
Last edited by Bass&Catfish2008; 09-18-2014 at 09:40 PM..
^^I mostly agree with those grades B&C. Tech definitely deserved an "F" for that pathetic defensive display against Arkansas. As far as Kliff firing the defensive coordinator Matt Wallerstedt goes, ESPN backtracked that story. Apparently, Wallerstedt resigned yesterday. He showed up at the campus under the influence of an unknown substance earlier this week and was sent home. If he hadn't have resigned I'm sure he would have been fired anyway. I won't miss him, the defense is just awful. I hope there will at least be some improvement by the end of the season.
Week#3 Oklahoma (A) (A very good road win that many national pundits were predicting OU would lose. OU should have won the game and did so in a hostile environment. West Virginia looks like a team very much on the cusp of top 4-5 teams in the Big XII. This is a major improvement. OU gets the A for winning in a hostile environment over a a thousand miles away......I still don't understand how this works geographically, but it is what it is. OU matched West Virginia virtually punch for punch in the first half. The Alex Ross return was sensational and snatched the momentum right out of WV's hands. WV is a scrappy team which feeds off of momentum. However, as we saw in the second half, much of that momentum had worn off and the players appeared to be tired/gassed and the WV fans started hitting the exits early in the fourth quarter. A major negative is that OU did not get a lot of pressure on the WV line in the first half, but some credit goes to the opposing O-Line, of course. Another major negative was OU players trying to retaliate against the dirtiness of WV. Not smart and cost OU several yards/opportunities in penalties. OU was sound in its defense and really was out of position twice all night....which consequently cost the Sooners two TDs, which is why the Sooners don't get an A+. OU did an excellent job against the run and causing some turnovers to take some wind out of Trickett's sails was big. So overall, the D did quite well. As for the offense, it did what it had to do to wear down West Virginia's smaller and less physical athletes. This is essentially exactly what Bama did. If WV had just 2-3 bigger/faster guys on their D-Line, I'm telling you this team would be a lot tougher. Knight missed some throws, but managed the offense well. The O-Line was excellent in their assignments in the second half and we got to see the fruit of the O-Line's blocking with Perrine rollin' the Mountaineers up, especially the linebacking core. I wish I could say I felt sorry for Perrine destroying the backers/secondary (you could tell that none of them wanted to tackle him as he's just an absolute tank of a man), but WV was playing pretty dirty and talkin' some trash.....so the Mountain Men got Rednecked by the Boys from the South-Central. OU just has to point at the scoreboard. Good win against a better than decent team.) West Virginia (B) (Played gutsy and fed off of that first half momentum. The offense is a legitimate force and one of the better O's in the Big XII, perhaps in all of college football. A question was answered: Could WV stop the run? Answer: not when it counted. West Virginia played their hearts out in the first half but lost the battle up front over and over in the second half as Perrine gashed 'em and the WV D-line buckled under 325 lb. Sooner lineman.....D. Williams and Tyrus Thompson are freaks, not to mention Shead and Darlington. Savage is coming on and into his own. A nasty and tough O-Line will win a lot of games. As for the rest of WV, their offense was quite balanced. Trickett threw to 4-5 different receivers I believe, with White and Mario Alford being the cream of the crop. White is a beast and probably the most physically imposing receiver in the Big XII, since DGB isn't allowed to play. White ran precise routes and did a great job against an above average secondary. One downfall of White: he talks a lot of trash, stands over players when he makes a routine catch. Striker made him pay in a big way at the end of the game on WV's two-point conversion. Trickett sailed the ball high on an out route to White and it left White exposed.....Striker licked his chops and almost separated White's head from his body the kid got blown up so hard. Other than having a small D-Line, the other major issue for WV was special teams, especially the lack of coverage on kickoffs. Two weeks in a row the kickoff team has allowed a TD. Ross is electric and some credit has to be given to his lightening speed, but this was a huge blow to WV's momentum going into halftime and very well could have changed the whole course of the game. Either way, WV played hard, although nasty/dirty, and deserves some credit. I think most teams in the Big XII will have their hands full with the Mountaineers.) Kansas State (C) (This is gonna be "the game which got away" for K-State. Played hard against a very athletic and big Auburn team, but there were so many opportunities that K-State did not capitalize on. The missed field goals, which were mostly chip shots and straight away, are unnacceptable. Leaving 9 points from missed field goals is something that is not characteristic of a Snynder team. Also, Locket's drop in the endzone was a killer. It really set the tone for the whole game and it's a mystery why Locket, who usually is one of the better receivers in the Big XII....just ask OU, is playing so poorly this year. He may be having some off the field stuff affecting him as I believe Snyder sat him out the first game for personal issues. The Snyder D was there as usual, but many big plays were given up which is surprising. K-State did a serviceable job of stopping the run, but the pass rush was pathetic and much of the pass defense on the back half was poor at best. Too many big plays given up. This wasn't a crisp and clean game that K-State is so used to playing against good teams. A few thoughts: Watters is a gamer, but he can't do it alone. There needs to be better receiver play and a stouter run game outside of the Redzone. Their Redzone Wildcat is quite effective, in contrast. Auburn seemed to underestimate K-State some and perhaps the Tiger players were not expecting such a good crowd. Either way, this is a game that K-State easily (easily!) could have won if it would have taken advantage of just a few opportunities. If Auburn is really the 5th best team in the country, then I think that shows that K-State can play with just about anybody. Good fightin' K-State, but too many mistakes. Kansas (A) (Won a game it should have won, but C-Michigan is no gimme. There have been some really good athletes go through that program and play on Sundays. For Kansas' offense, it is really good to see Pierson get the ball; the kid is really good...and as they noted on Big XII Showcase on Fox Sports Southwest, he could probably play on most Big XII teams. The defense is still shakey, but hey we'll be happy for Kansas for a change. This was a decent win against a decent non-conference foe. I'm pleasantly surprised, as I fully expected Rock Chalk Jayhawk lose. Well done.)
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