Around the Big 12: WVU rolls K-State, Oklahoma survives against Army
By Steve Lansdale
There’s little argument that Texas-TCU was the Big 12’s marquee game of the weekend … but the Longhorns and Horned Frogs weren’t the only teams that took the field.
West Virginia 35, Kansas State 6
Quarterback Will Grier completed 25 of 35 passes for 356 yards and five touchdowns — three wideout David Sills — to help No. 12 West Virginia put away Kansas State in Morgantown, W.V. In 14 games since transferring to WVU, Grier has thrown for at least five touchdown passes in five games.
Head coach Dana Holgorsen said he was encouraged by the fact that his team could make mistakes — the Mountaineers lost a fumble and Grier threw a pair of interceptions — and still record a lopsided victory.
“The scary thing," West Virginia coach Dana Holdorsen said, "is that you make a lot of mistakes and when you can beat a team like Kansas State, 35-6, that might mean we are on the verge of some big things here."
Oklahoma 28, Army 21
The Sooners ran the third-fewest offensive plays (38) in school history, and the fewest since 1960, but got an overtime touchdown pass from Kyler Murray to CeeDee Lamb, and an interception by cornerback Parnell Motley, and escaped with a seven-point home win over Army. OU linebackers Kenneth Murray and Curtis Bolton piled up 28 and 22 tackles, respectively; Murray’s total set a new FBS record, although the NCAA has only kept records since 2000.
"Give Army an unbelievable amount of respect — I do," OU defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said. "They (the Black Knights) fought their butts off today, like I knew they would. They fought extremely hard. (I) think that shows you why we're in pretty good hands in the United States. They're courageous. They're not scared of anything and they played that way tonight."
Texas Tech 41, Oklahoma State 17
Freshman quarterback Alan Bowman completed 35 of 46 passes for 397 yards and a pair of touchdowns to lead the Red Raiders to a lopsided win over the No. 15 Cowboys in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The loss ended a streak of nine straight OSU wins over Tech. The Red Raiders, who have the nation’s top-ranked offense, racked up 621 yards Saturday, and climbed to No. 25 in the new Associated Press national rankings.
Oklahoma State “has had our number for a long time, particularly out here,” Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury said, “so for those guys to play the way they did and execute the way they did, I'm just proud of their effort. Hopefully we can build off it."
Iowa State 26, Akron 13
Quarterback Zeb Noland for 233 yards and a touchdown, running back David Montgomery ran for 107 yards — the ninth game with at least 100 rushing yards in his career — and a score, and kicker Connor Assalley hit four field goals to give the Cyclones their first victory of the season.
“I know it wasn’t always perfect today,” Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell said. “I thought our ability and resiliency to stay the course … I really appreciate our student-athletes. I think you really mistake what 18-22 year olds go through and I was really proud of our kids.”
Baylor 26, Kansas 7
Whether Charlie Brewer has ended the quarterback controversy at Baylor remains to be seen, but Jalan McClendon only played the final series after Brewer completed 19 of 27 passes for 221 yards and three touchdowns to lift the Bears over the Jayhawks in Waco, Texas.
"If your number is called, you need to be ready to go,” Brewer said. “That's what Coach (Matt) Rhule preaches, and my number was called for most of the game.”
Rhule said that a significant part of his team’s success was its ability to protect the football (Baylor didn’t fumble or throw an interception).
The Bears “new coming in that Kansas was highly ranked on defense,” Rhule said. “We knew that they have a tremendous pass defense. We knew they were taking the ball away at a record rate. So for our offense to protect the football and not turnb the ball over was obviously huge, extremely critical.”
