Who won Week 3 in the Big 12?
The league had a really nice rebound in Week 3. Multiple teams faced various P5 and G5 squads of good repute and comparable recruiting levels and the Big 12 came out ahead with several victories.
The Oklahomas eked by Nebraska and Boise State, West Virginia beat Virginia Tech (told y’all they had the better athletes), the Texas schools all won convincing victories, and Kansas State stopped a potential draft Twitter favorite in Nevada quarterback Carson Strong and absolutely gloated about it after the fact.
There’s a lot to discuss.
Contrar-Ian says that was a good win for Oklahoma State
I flipped over to the Oklahoma State at Boise State game as soon as I’d fulfilled my commitments in covering the Texas game against Rice (terrible game unless you like watching good running backs crush overmatched opponents on outside zone).
So I caught the controversy. Jaylen Warren, who effectively carried the Pokes to victory with 32 carries for 218 yards (6.8 ypc) and two touchdowns, fumbled the ball and the Broncos recovered it and took it back for a touchdown. The game was 21-20 OSU at this point with just 3:22 left in the game. The officials ruled the ball dead though before the return for a score had been completed with one official insisting Warren was down by contact.
Unfortunately for Boise, replay revealed he was not down and it was a clean fumble. So Boise got the ball on the OSU 41-yard line and were not given back the winning points. They tried to earn them with a short drive but had a 36-yard field goal blocked and OSU ran out the clock for a win.
Overall I take it the officiating wasn’t exemplary in this game but I will say this. Boise State had their chance and OSU blocked a field goal, it’s losers who complain about officials.
There was a lot not to like if you’re an Oklahoma State fan. Let’s talk about Spencer Sanders’ stat line.
6-13 passing for 82 yards at 6.3 ypa, zero touchdowns and zero interceptions.
18 carries for 26 yards at 1.4 ypc with one touchdown.
All told, 31 touches for 108 yards at 3.5 ypp with one score and zero turnovers. For a quarterback, that’s nearly as bad as it gets.
However, the Cowboys have been taking it on the chin with injuries this season. Tre Sterling, a top notch safety, is injured. New star wideout Jaden Bray, was also out, along with Tay Martin and Braydon Johnson. If you haven’t been following the Oklahoma State season that’s nearly the entire wide receiver corps.
No wonder Mike Gundy didn’t want to throw the ball.
So Oklahoma State beat the Broncos by running outside zone from 11 personnel and found a new feature running back along the way. Jaylen Warren was a very low 3-star recruit out of a Utah JUCO, but the dude is ultra smooth and weighs 215 pounds while standing at 5-foot-8 so he’s an absolute bowling ball. They also found a tight end, to the credit of Jason McEndoo whom Mike Gundy hired from the FCS level to be a creative problem solver at the position.
Their answer has been Braden Cassity, whom I was high on as a recruit out of Westlake where he served as a dominant pass-rusher. The Chapparals have had a dozen more since who have been good, their defensive coach and head coach in waiting Tony Salazar teaches those boys how to use their hands, now it’s translating in the OSU outside zone blocking game.
I think Oklahoma State will find some momentum and identity in their win over the Smurfs.
Lincoln Riley solves for the four-minute offense problem
Oklahoma’s offense for years has been about having a power run game bolstered by quarterback run reads and attaching some of the nastiest play-action as well as some classic Air Raid passing staples. They haven’t been a part of the RPO spread revolution you see elsewhere but prefer to mix in some backside keeper reads for the quarterback to account for big boxes.
Well as I detailed after the Tulane game, the Sooners have been having some issues with this approach in the Spencer Rattler era. Their issues this season include the following:
- They don’t really want to run Spencer Rattler regularly because he’s not very big and he isn’t a terrific runner, although he’s definitely effective enough.
- The running back depth chart was demolished by arrests and the transfer portal and now includes only two scholarship athletes.
- Of the three tight ends in their rotation, only one of them (Jeremiah Hall) is a good blocker in the box.
All this points toward a solution in which the Sooners lean more on the passing game than they have in the past. The major challenge though is in finishing drives in the red zone, picking up short-yardage, and closing out games when they have a lead.
Riley found himself in such an issue against Nebraska after the Huskers made it 23-16 Sooners in the fourth and OU got the ball with 5:37 left in the game. From there they managed to move the ball and eat up literally four minutes (4:41 in fact) of time, leaving Nebraska without enough time to launch the sort of balanced drive they needed in order to score.
Here are the plays OU relied on to run out the clock.
Riley had some 12 personnel sets and they tried to run GT counter down Nebraska’s throat a few times and couldn’t do much. However, they really did some work from these spread out run schemes and the Huskers weren’t quick-thinking enough to adjust here from their two-deep shell when they needed to stop the run with the game on the line.
So long-term, I don’t know if this approach to running out clock will work super well. However! They ran the ball to Kennedy Brooks and Eric Gray 29 times for 159 yards at 5.5 ypc with a touchdown, mostly thanks to these schemes. Here’s what works well about them.
- You have a backside RPO threat in both concepts. In the 3×1 set they liked to run mid zone in, Jadon Haselwood would run a slant from the solo-side and Spencer Rattler hit him on it a time or two. In the 2×2 Y-flex counter play they’d have a now screen to the wide side of the field to hold the nickel.
- Tight end Austin Stogner is pretty good at blocking the linebacker off the ball. It’s basically the same play as a normal counter run in which the guard would kick out the end and the tight end would pull behind him and lead block the linebacker for the runner. The only difference is that instead of leading from the other side of the formation, he comes inside from a flexed role. It works because the linebacker flexed with him and if the end tries to spill the ball to the linebacker then it’s going to be easy for the tight end to trap him inside so the running back can bounce outside.
So here they can leverage Rattler’s arm strength, avoid asking their flex tight end to join the box (boo!) and try to block someone there, and still emphasize a good run-blocking line without compromising the health of their quarterback or the strengths of their skill talent.
This is why Oklahoma is always at the top of the league by November, Riley and his staff adjust to their talent every year on offense. I’m sure they have more solutions forthcoming.
Contrar-Ian says the glass is half-empty
Baylor has been playing nearly flawlessly on offense thus far on the season. It means something, although how much exactly is not yet clear. They know how to execute their wide zone run scheme, there’s no doubts there, and their backs are running wild in it. Quarterback Gerry Bohanon is also feasting in the scheme, picking opponents apart from the safety of a system in which the Bears are running wide zone in settings like 4th-and-3.
If you don’t think the Bears are a lot better this year, you’re fooling yourself. The only question is “how much better?”
The problem they could have is the lack of quality defensive tackles on their schedule. Baylor hasn’t faced any and the Jayhawk D-line wasn’t up for it this last Saturday anymore than Texas State or Texas Southern or whoever else the Bears have been picking on. Next up? Iowa State, who recently shut down the Iowa Hawkeyes’ run game.
This is the real test and it’ll be unlike anything Baylor has faced yet within their new system.
In other news, this looks like the same Texas Tech defense. Somehow, lacking pass-rush up front, having six or seven solid linebackers to man three positions, and rebuilding the secondary every year with late-coming transfers doesn’t yield particularly cohesive defenses in Lubbock. They shredded a FIU defense concerned with their run game (rightfully so) which is a good sign, but the Big 12 isn’t going to give such generous looks to Tyler Shough.
I suspect the Red Raiders will score a fair amount this season and be scored upon even more.
Who won Week 3 in the Big 12?
Are we sure losing Skylar Thompson eliminates K-State from Big 12 title contention?
The Wildcats are in a 3-2-6 for this package and it’s modeled closely after the Iowa State defense except they tend to rotate the middle safety deep to make their normal match 3 defenses rather than bringing him down in the box like the Cyclones.
The “Sam/nickel” is transfer Reggie Stubblefield while Louisville safety transfer Russ Yeast is behind him as the field safety. T.J. Smith is in the middle and Jahron McPherson is the boundary safety. Up front they have their normal Mike and Will linebackers Daniel Green and Cody Fletcher with Jaylen Pickle (6-foot-4, 298 pounds) as the boundary end, Eli Huggins at the nose, and star edge Felix Anudike as the field end. They do have Tampa 2 as well, of course, it was already in their playbook and they can insert 215 pound FCS transfer Cincere Mason at middle safety for it.
There’s a ton in their flyover package, a ton.
Meanwhile, look at this.
It ain’t that hard to get this guy the ball and the K-State run game has improved since last season with a solidified O-line.
Kansas State is flying under the radar, like always, and just racking up wins heading into this road opener in league play against Oklahoma State. How healthy will the Cowboys be for this game? Can they score enough to keep up with the Wildcats? Can they block this D-line?
I think we may get a statement win from the Wildcats this weekend.
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