THE BIG 12 REPORT
Texas is back in the college football spotlight and has created a three-team race for the Big 12 title
Oct 9, 2018, 6:35 am
Sam Ehlinger and the Longhorns are on a roll. Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images
The college football landscape was shaken this past weekend when Texas took down Big 12 goliath OU. The No. 7 Sooners strolled into the Cotton Bowl with high expectations going against the No. 18 ranked Longhorns but found themselves upset by 3 points when the clock hit zero. While many people believed that Texas would be no match for Oklahoma’s electric offense, UT came through on both sides of the football and proved to the nation that this year’s team is the real deal. The Longhorns hit the game-winning field goal with less than 10 seconds on the clock to defeat the Sooners 48-45 and take home bragging rights until these teams face off again next year.
While West Virginia still sits atop the Big 12, this victory makes Texas a very real competitor for the Big 12 championship title. After this gut-wrenching loss, Oklahoma will go into their bye week with a chance to regroup, but a few other Big 12 favorites will be back in action.
Must watch games week 7:
Texas Tech vs. TCU
This is a matchup fans have had their eye on for a few weeks now. The Red Raiders and the Horned Frogs will both come into this matchup with a full week of rest and preparation. Both teams come into this game with 3-2 records but very different stories behind them. Texas Tech started the season off slow with many question marks surrounding their team but have found some momentum and hope behind young quarterback Alan Bowman. While TCU on the other hand, started the season hot and look to be a real competitor before losing two straight games to Top 25 opponents and are now looking for a fresh start midway through their season. This game will hold significant value for both programs and could very well determine the direction of the rest of their season.
Baylor vs. (9) Texas
While Baylor is looking significantly better than years past and now sits with an impressive 4-2 record, they will be going up against arguably one of the hottest teams in the nation. Texas has burst onto the scene in 2018 with three consecutive victories of Top 25 ranked opponents. With their most defining win over Oklahoma this past weekend, the Longhorns have jumped nine spots in the national rankings from No. 18 to No. 9. UT is looking like an unstoppable machine midway through the season and has been consistently performing at a high level on both sides of the football. While nothing is ever for certain in college football, the Bears will have to hope for a lot of things to go their way this Saturday if they are to have any chance of taking down the red-hot Longhorns.
(6) West Virginia vs. Iowa State
The Mountaineers are the only undefeated team remaining in the Big 12 and will be extremely difficult to beat with quarterback Will Grier throwing the ball the way he has been this season. Grier has nearly 2,000 yards through the air, with 21 touchdowns and a 71% completion percentage. With that said, we have learned through the last couple years that Iowa State is a team that plays up to its competition and is always capable of completing a big time upset. While things have not gone the Cyclones way so far this season, they lost by just 3 points to a very talented TCU team two weekends ago, and just recently defeated a tough Oklahoma State team 48-42. There is no doubt in my mind that Iowa State will show up on Saturday with every intention of altering the college football landscape in a big way.
Players to watch week 7:
Texas QB Sam Ehlinger:
It would be nearly impossible not to list Longhorn quarterback Sam Ehlinger as a must watch player this coming weekend, after his historic performance in the Red River Showdown. Ehlinger scored five total touchdowns vs. the Sooners, with over 300 yards passing and 72 yards rushing. As the Longhorns continue to build confidence on the offensive side of the ball the sky's the limit for UT’s young quarterback, and he will look to keep the ball rolling against Baylor this Saturday.
Baylor WR’s Jalen Hurd & Denzel Mims:
If Baylor hopes to have any chance of challenging the Longhorns this coming Saturday, they will need big performances out of their two star receivers. Hurd and Mims have truly separated themselves this season as the explosive playmakers for the Bears offense and will look to give the UT secondary trouble. In their last two games, Hurd and Mims have combined for 443 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns off 39 receptions. Needless to say, these dangerous athletes will get plenty of opportunities to impact the game and will demand serious attention from the Longhorn defense.
Iowa State QB Brock Purdy:
After a disappointing 1-3 start the Cyclone’s decided to make a change at the quarterback position, which paid off in big fashion with a 48-42 victory over Oklahoma State. Freshman quarter Brock Purdy took full advantage of his first collegiate start with five total touchdowns and over 400 yards of total offence. Purdy threw for four touchdowns on 318 yards passing and ran for another touchdown on his way to 84 yards rushing. Purdy will have another big test vs. No. 6 West Virginia in his second collegiate start but could have a serious impact with his dual threat abilities.
It’s been an excellent weeklong stretch of games for the Astros tempered by the news of yet another season-ending injury to a starting pitcher. To get the bad news out of the way, it comes as no surprise that Ronel Blanco needs Tommy John surgery and is done until at least the middle of next season. While Blanco had not been nearly as good through nine 2025 starts as he was last season, he was still taking his regular return and on average getting into the sixth inning. Blanco turns 32 years old at the end of August. He’s not even salary arbitration-eligible until 2027. That last fact may be good news for him. The Astros will likely keep Blanco next year in hopes he can contribute in the second half of the season, since they will pay him barely the Major League minimum salary ($780,000 next year) That’s in contrast to Jose Urquidy, who in the midst of his salary arbitration years would have cost about three and a half million dollars to keep, so the Astros non-tendered him.
With Blanco joining Hayden Wesneski in the “See you next year! Hopefully.” club, it struck me as interesting that the Astros let Lance McCullers throw 102 pitches in his Wednesday outing vs. the Athletics. That’s eleven more than he had thrown in any of his prior four starts. McCullers holding up physically would be a huge boost, but the new essentials in the Astros’ rotation are Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. Framber has settled in to the tune of a 1.93 earned run average over his last four starts. Brown’s season ERA is 2.00. Brown has had five days of rest before all eleven of his starts this season. This Sunday is Brown’s presently next scheduled outing. He would work on four days of rest if on the mound Sunday against the Rays.
Taking the last two games from the Mariners was huge (for the second half of May anyway). Keeping the good times rolling by sweeping the two-game miniseries from the A’s was less significant but still nice. Maybe not quite nice enough to have Frank “The Tank” from the movie Old School belting out “We’re going streaking!!!” but it did give the Astros their first four game winning streak of the season. They still have not lost more than three straight.
On a heater!
Speaking of streaking, time for annual mention of one of my all-time favorite baseball factoids. The 1916 New York Giants hold the MLB record for the longest win streak with an incredible 26 in a row. Earlier in the season the Giants ripped off 17 in a row. Combine the two streaks and that’s 43-0! The 1916 New York Giants finished in fourth place. In all their other games the Giants went 43-66. The American League’s longest ever winning streak is of fairly recent vintage. The 2007 Cleveland Indians won 22 straight. There have been only two other winning streaks since 1900 of at least 20 games. The 1935 Chicago Cubs won 21 straight. The Art Howe-managed 2002 Oakland A’s won 20 in a row, and were the inspiration for the movie Moneyball. The Astros have three 12 game winning streaks as the longest in their history.
Expect the unexpected
Tuesday’s win over the A’s brought the Astros to the one-third completed point of the regular season. Isaac Paredes was definitely their best offensive player to that milepost. His “on pace for” numbers were the best on the ballclub 33 home runs and 93 runs batted in. Paredes also led in runs scored with 29. The last Astro to lead the team in all three of those categories was Alex Bregman who did it in both 2018 and 2019. That Bregman was clearly a better player than this Paredes, but Isaac healthy and making “only” 6.625 million dollars this season is a heck of a lot better value than Bregman at 40 mil for the Red Sox, especially given that while Bregman was off to a sensational start for Boston, he’s now out for at least a month with a quad injury.
Hunter Brown is on pace to win 20 games. The last Astro to get there was Gerrit Cole on the last day of the 2019 regular season. The day before that Justin Verlander won his 21st game.
The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen was awesome last season, by far the best in the league with four relievers who each pitched in at least 74 games posting ERAs of 1.92 or lower, headlined by closer Emmanuel Clase’s microscopic 0.61. One-third of the way through this season for the Astros: Bryan Abreu sat at 1.90, Steven Okert 1.82, Josh Hader 1.57, Bryan King 1.52.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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