Big 12 Update: Kansas, Sooners Dominate in Power Five Matchups

The Big 12 went 4-2 against Power Five foes this weekend, and Kansas doubled a team up.

It was another solid week for the conference. The Big 12 is 22-5 through college football’s first three weeks, and no conference team has more than a loss. Here is a recap of Big 12 action from Week 3.

Kansas 48, Boston College 24

To start the weekend, Kansas put an exclamation point on a sentence that was already obvious: The Big 12 is much, much deeper than the ACC.

The 48 — 48!! — points Kansas put up against Boston College is the most the Jayhawks have scored since their 55-14 Week 3 victory against Rutgers last season. Saturday was the Jayhawks’ first Power Five road win since 2008.

Carter Stanley had a rough game against Coastal Carolina, but he bounced back against BC. The senior threw for 238 yards and three touchdowns, but it was an even bigger outing for the KU running game.

Senior running back Khalil Herbert ran for 187 yards and a touchdown on only 11 touches. That’s 17 yards a carry. This 82-yard run definitely helped that cause:

This 82-yard run by Khalil Herbert was the seventh chunk play BC's allowed so far. It set up a 3-yard TD run by Parchment that sent the Eagles into the locker room down 28-24 at the half. pic.twitter.com/ggulQV4wGt

— Julian Benbow (@julianbenbow) September 14, 2019

Not to be outdone, Pooka Williams had 121 yards and a score.

Les Miles is unbeaten against Power Five schools at KU, and Les Miles is unbeaten on the road at KU.

Saturday, Miles will have a shot to be unbeaten in conference play, as the Jayhawks open their Big 12 slate by hosting West Virginia.

Kansas State 31, Mississippi State 24

Another Power Five matchup, another Big 12 W.

Kansas State has looked downright scary under Chris Klieman. This game wouldn’t have been close without a few K-State punt return fumbles, but the Wildcats still showed some moxy to get out of Starkville with a victory.

It was a balanced attack for K-State, as the Wildcats threw for 123 yards and ran for 146. The play everyone will remember from this game was Garrett Shrader’s attempt at flight.

Holy Garrett Shrader! pic.twitter.com/91LUzRhpfy

— Kyle Boone (@Kyle__Boone) September 14, 2019

K-State will watch the opening week of Big 12 play before starting its conference slate against Oklahoma State on Sept. 28 in Stillwater.

West Virginia 44, NC State 27

Hey look, another Power Five win.

The Mountaineers’ offense looked like a pile of pooh in their first two games, but Austin Kendall and WVU got a few things figured out against NC State. Kendall threw for 272 yards, three touchdowns and an interception.

Freshman wideout Sam James was Kendall’s target of choice. The pair connected nine times for 155 yards and a touchdown.

As mentioned above, WVU will travel to Lawrence on Saturday and open Big 12 play against Les Miles and Kansas.

Oklahoma State 40, Tulsa 21

Here’s a graph of how good OSU looked through this game’s four quarters:

After a crummy second quarter, the Cowboys shutout Tulsa in the second half and went on to cover. If you made your way to this site, you know Chuba Hubbard was ridiculous, running for 256 yards and three touchdowns.

OSU starts Big 12 play at Texas on Saturday.

No. 19 Iowa 18, Iowa State 17

Ames just wasn’t ready for ESPN’s College GameDay to leave.

Iowa State and Iowa battled through two weather delays, delays in which the ISU student section decided to storm the field:

Iowa-Iowa St. is in a weather delay due to lightning in Ames.

So the Iowa State student section decided to storm the field. pic.twitter.com/4jffJvU4Il

— Jeff Eisenband (@JeffEisenband) September 14, 2019

After a questionable triple overtime victory against Northern Iowa in Week 1, the Cyclones looked better against Iowa, but still not great.

Brock Purdy threw for 276 yards and a score, but ISU rushed for only 91 yards in the game.

The Cyclones get one more tune-up game next weekend against Louisiana-Monroe before starting Big 12 play with Baylor the week after.

No. 5 Oklahoma 48, UCLA 14

Two statements that we knew were true before this game even started: Oklahoma is good. UCLA stinks.

UCLA was trying to give tickets away for the game, but it still looked as if more crimson made its way into the Rose Bowl.

Jalen Hurts looks like the heir apparent to a program that has produced back-to-back Heisman-winning quarterbacks. Hurts has 13 total touchdowns this season and only 12 incompletions.

Hurts had 439 total yards and four touchdowns against the Bruins.

OU has a bye week before hosting Texas Tech on Sept. 28.

Oh, and UCLA stinks.

No. 12 Texas 48, Rice 13

After having all eyes on them against LSU last weekend, the Longhorns took care of lesser Rice to little fanfare.

It was a solid day for Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger, who went 23-for-27 for 279 yards and three touchdowns. There isn’t much more to say.

Texas hosts Oklahoma State on Saturday.

Arizona 28, Texas Tech 14

The Red Raiders got Pac-12 after darked.

TTU quarterback Alan Bowman threw the ball 55 times, but only one of those passes was for a touchdown. Two were interceptions. Bowman’s 153 pass attempts this season lead the country, and there are 24 attempts between him and the next QB.

Tech looked good enough against Montana State and UTEP, but losing to an Arizona team that lost to Hawaii and got in a shootout with Northern Arizona isn’t going to cut it.

Tech has an off week before traveling to Norman on Sept. 28.