Originally Posted by
SoonerDave
LOL can't help but giggle @ how the UT folks can't get over last year, and still blame OU for their troubles....I still quite haven't figured out how OU made UT's Gideon drop what would have been a game-clinching interception against Tech.....alas, that's last year.
Big 12 is pretty easy to figure this year: OU and UT fighting for the top spot in the south, OSU looking to knock off either or both, but with a very suspect defense; A&M looking to a really blah season, with Tech in a real rebuilding effort and having probably the least optimism at QB they've had since Leach arrived. Baylor will be better with Griffin at QB, but he doesn't play defense.
North is who-doesn't-wanna-win. Mizzou has lost their trifecta of offense with Maclin-Coffman-Daniel, and without that punch pressure will be on their already suspect defense to carry the mail. KSU is in external and internal disarray, and if the Cats sniff .500 this year it will be an entirely new kind of Manhattan Miracle. Iowa State is, well, wretched, and Colorado is nothing to write home about. That leaves Nebraska and KU, and with the Huskers just tossing their leading rusher off the team while breaking in a new QB, it leaves the 'Hawks as the defacto favorite in the North.
How will it work out?
In the South, even if OU's offense doesn't crank out 60 points per game, it may well be more dangerous than last year provided its retooled OL emerges - and I think it will. The Sooners should be in fine form by their Dallas clash with UT, and given that OU doesn't lose a middle linebacker to injury midway through the third quarter, OU should upend Texas on October 17th. Downstream, OSU's defensive line will not be able to handle the pressure of too many high-octane offenses, giving them a highly respectable 3rd-place South finish behind the Sooners and the Horns. Baylor, Tech, and A&M will fight out the rest for 4th place.
In the North, Nebraska will find losing a starting QB and tailback too much to overcome, losing their bid at a North title to KU at Lawrence. The rest of the North will simply take turns beating each other, with the exception of KSU, which may well lose a scrimmage to itself (unless Iowa State shows up).
That puts OU and KU in Arlington for the BIg XII title game in December, and at this point in (very late) August, pencil me in for a win for OU and quite probably a return trip to the BCS title game.
Time will tell.
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