Takeaways from Kansas' upset of Oklahoma: The Sooners' defensive regression, Lance Leipold's price just went up, Big 12 chaos
Well, so much for the question of what might happen if every Power 5 conference has an undefeated team by season’s end. It won’t. Chaos came early for the Big 12.
After barely surviving against UCF last weekend, No. 6 Oklahoma went down at Kansas in a thrilling, seesaw 38-33 loss featuring seven lead changes. Behind backup quarterback Jason Bean and some timely defensive stops, the Jayhawks pulled off their biggest home win in 39 years — the last time they beat a Top 10 Sooners team in 1984. They also snapped an 18-game losing streak to Oklahoma in the two teams’ final matchup before the Sooners leave the Big 12 for the SEC.
Bean, again starting in place for the injured Jalon Daniels, had a couple of bad interceptions in the fourth quarter but he was bailed out by Kansas’ defense — including forcing OU to punt inside the final two minutes when it looked like Sooners would be able to salt the game away. Bean finished with 218 passing yards and three total touchdowns.
In a back-and-forth affair played in miserable conditions — 30s, drizzling rain and a second-quarter lightning delay — Devin Neal scored the game-winning touchdown with 55 seconds. The Jayhawks then held on, batting down Dillion Gabriel’s heave into the end zone to secure the win.
Here are three takeaways from Kansas’ upset over Oklahoma:
Oklahoma’s playoff hopes take a huge hit
The first College Football Playoff Rankings will be released Tuesday, and the Sooners are likely to be ranked outside the Top 10 with Saturday’s loss. Their playoff hopes took a huge hit, as their upset over Texas looks more and more like an outlier performance.
Brent Venables’ defense is suddenly regressing each week, and they are pitiful at stopping the run again. Kansas rolled up 225 yards and four scores Saturday, averaging over 5.5 yards per carry.
With the injury to wideout Nic Anderson, their lack of playmakers on the perimeter has become problematic, too. Dillion Gabriel attempted just 19 passes — one of which went for a bad pick-six — and the Sooners were just 2 of 10 on third downs. The Sooners were also super sloppy, committing 11 penalties for over 100 yards.
The Big 12 is wide open
The Sooners aren’t out of the CFB Playoff picture, but they have to win the Big 12 first — and it’s not a foregone conclusion that they even get to Dallas now. There’s a logjam atop the Big 12 standings — potentially featuring five one-loss conference teams by the end of Saturday.
Oklahoma must now beat rival Oklahoma State next weekend in Bedlam (the last edition for the foreseeable future) to not lose a potential tiebreaker. Texas, which handled BYU, can’t afford a second conference loss, and it hosts a Kansas State squad that is annihilating teams next weekend. Then there’s the Chaos Iowa State Cyclones.
For all the carnage talk around the Pac-12 this fall, we may see a similar cannibalization unfold in the Big 12.
Lance Leipold could have plenty of suitors on the 2023 coaching carousel
Kansas fans (understandably) don’t want to hear this but Lance Leipold is about to become one of the more sought-after head coaches on the market next month. The job Leipold has done in Lawerence is remarkable.
He took over arguably the most moribund program in the country from Les Miles, and in three years, has turned the Jayhawks into a competitive Big 12 team. The Jayhawks are now 6-2, bowl-eligible in back-to-back seasons for just the second time in school history.
This is a team that went 0-9 the year before Leipold arrived, and now he has two Top 25 wins the last two seasons. Leipold’s agent is going to field plenty of calls from interested suitors in the coming weeks. Kansas’ head coach has already been linked to the Michigan State opening, and that probably won’t be the only one.