By: David Ware (@davidware)
It’s Not How You Start, It’s How You Finish!
So many times will you hear during a broadcast that there is a lot of football left and Colorado proved this theory this week. They started down 21-3 at Kentucky this week but had a great second quarter to tie the game at half with each team having 27 points. In the third quarter, the Buffalos were shut out and they entered the fourth quarter down 30-27. Then the “lots of football left” kicked in as both teams scored a combined 48 points in the fourth quarter to make it a 105 combined point shootout!
Quarterback Sky Sanders had a career night as he passed for 628 yards and had six touchdowns. He did have three interceptions early on but did a great job of regrouping. Sanders found a way to get three different receivers over the 100-yard mark. Daniel Blackmon and Speedy Hernandez had career days with 246 yards and 180 yards respectively. Marquis Towns added 110 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Hernandez added two touchdowns as well for the Buffalos. Towns also added three pancakes to his stat line on the night to help Colorado escape the shootout with the narrow three-point win.
Fast or Famine
Looking back at week one for the West Virginia Mountaineers, their offense struggled and could not put any points on the board except a field goal. The defense added a pick-six, but this week was a different team on the field. Led by Quarterback Gunner Rice, the offense started with a 28-0 score after the first quarter of football and scored at least 10 points per quarter throughout the entire game. Rice had himself an offensive player of the week type week with 435 passing yards, 208 rushing yards, and nine total touchdowns. The only flaw to be pointed out in his performance was an interception but that is going to happen in the CFSL. With the 435 passing yards, I find it interesting that only one player broke the 100-yard mark in receiving this week and that was Hunter Dowell. He had eight catches for 124 yards and two touchdowns to go with it.
The Mountaineer defense had a solid night as they had six tackles for a loss with all of those being in the form of a sack. Defensive Tackle Brian Paine had two of the sacks by himself and four other defenders had one as well. On top of the sacks, the defense had two interceptions with one coming from Tank Golden and the other by Will Brown. Both of them had over 20 yards on the return to help open up field position for Rice and the offense. One other interesting note for West Virginia’s defense is that both leading tacklers Brandon Carr and Billy Davis were picked in the three-star draft and have immediately made a huge impact.
Notable Players This Week in the Big XII
Texas Quarterback Spunky Tolbert had a great performance as he passed for 518 yards and five touchdowns in the Texas win over Georgia this week. Strong safety Tyrell Lawson had a 94-yard pick-six to swing the momentum in favor of the Longhorns after starting down 14-0. LSU had a dominant performance from Nas Mason who rushed 24 times for 111 yards and two touchdowns in the tough loss to Michigan. Gabriel Guerrero also showed out with five catches, 125 yards, and two touchdowns as he was one of two receivers over the 100-yard mark. Oklahoma had a dominant win against Florida this week and one key performer was DJ Yost, as she rushed for 164 yards and a touchdown.
Big XII Results Week 2
Texas A&M lost to Miami 48-32
Oklahoma defeated Florida 48-10
LSU lost to Michigan 55-41
Texas Defeated Georgia 59-31
Colorado defeated Kentucky 54-51
West Virginia defeated Notre Dame 73-31
Big XII Non-Conference Record after Week 2
6-6 with a +11 Point Net Differential
Big XII Schedule Week 3
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Texas A&M at Auburn 8:30 pm CST (Twitch)
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Texas vs Penn State 6:30 pm CST (Twitch)
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Oklahoma at Michigan State 6:30 pm CST (Twitch)
LSU at Alabama 6:30 pm CST (Youtube)
Colorado vs Florida State 8:30 pm CST (Twitch)
West Virginia at Tennessee 8:30 pm CST (Youtube)
Potential Big XII Game of the Week
Two games stick out to me this week as Oklahoma travels to Michigan State to face a Spartan team that is hungry to right the ship from a tough loss this week. Oklahoma has a great chance to be the favorite in the game but they will have to be careful as the Spartans do not want to finish a non-conference schedule with a losing record. The other game of the week could be Colorado hosting Florida State. The Seminoles started the season with a huge win against Auburn but lost last week by giving up a slant route touchdown to Ohio State with three seconds left on the clock. Colorado better be ready for Tom who will be looking to make a point and show that his Seminoles are a top team in the CFSL.
