By: David Ware (@davidware)
By the Slimmest of Margins
The parity of the league and even more the Big XII as this week the total differential between all three games was only 10 points. This week’s largest margin of victory for the Big XII was the five-point win that Texas A&M pulled off against West Virginia in a very good battle.
| Team | One Score Wins | One Score Losses | One Score Win % |
| Texas | 4 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Oklahoma | 2 | 1 | .666 |
| Colorado | 2 | 2 | .500 |
| LSU | 2 | 2 | .500 |
| Texas A&M | 1 | 2 | .333 |
| West Virginia | 0 | 4 | 0.000 |
Each team has played in at least three one-score games with four of the six playing in four games. Texas has the most wins and has not lost a game decided by one score or less. On the flip side of that, West Virginia has struggled in their four games and has not been able to sneak out a win. We all know that it feels better to have a larger margin of victories, but a sign of a really good team is that they can win the close games. These close games can come into play in the playoffs as they will surely be some tough close games. A Big XII game is almost guaranteed to be a nail-biter and fun to watch, well maybe not for the coaches and players on the field, but the rest of us can enjoy the games for sure.
The Math Ain’t Mathing
A casual glance at the standings in the Big XII will tell you that West Virginia is in last place but are they? The top team in the Big XII is Texas, who has won five straight games and has a point differential of (+10) on the season. Only three teams in the conference is a positive and West Virginia is one of those teams at a (+4). West Virginia has also scored the most points in a game this season with their 73-31 win over Notre Dame in Week Two. I would venture to say that West Virginia is due a big win now and if they could win out and still make the playoffs with two wins against Colorado and Oklahoma as Ryan mentioned in his playoff picture article. This week, the Mountaineers kept pace with Texas A&M in three of the four quarters but gave up two field goals in the second that were not matched.
Gunner Rice had a total of 519 yards of offense and three touchdowns in the matchup as he did all he could to will his team to victory. Wide Receiver Jay Pittman had eight catches for 191 yards and a touchdown. Rice also found six other receivers for a reception in the game, as he did a great job spreading the football all across the football field. Defensively, West Virginia had a total team effort with two sacks, forcing a fumble, and recovering a fumble.
The Aggies had three receivers with 85-plus yards Buck Stackhouse, Eli Riggins, and Anthony Weston. On top of these young men’s performance, Ryan Greenfield added a 100-yard rushing performance as well on just 17 carries. Marcus Padgett and Noah Radloff added an interception each for the Aggies and the defense finished with nine tackles for loss.
Doing Everything Right
LSU is very close to returning to the ways that many expect them to perform under Josh Claydon. This week as they faced the Longhorns, the offense had more yards of total offense and their defense limited Texas to just 28% on third downs. The issue for LSU in this game was they started slow and gave up 21 points in the first quarter. They did shut down Texas in the second half and did not give up any points to them. Tavon Mason may have only had 373 passing yards, but he spread the ball between nine different receivers this week and Halfback Nas Mason added 23 carries and 108 rushing yards to the offense.
Texas Quarterback Spunky Tolbert did not spread the ball around as much as Mason did, and he had two different receivers with 13 receptions each, Jett Sims and Charlie Jo, who were the beneficiaries of those 26 receptions. Lineback Brandon Chen had a team-leading 10 tackles for Texas against LSU, and Kekoa Rivers had two sacks to help create pressure for the defense.
It’s not how you start, but how you finish, and the Tigers have an opportunity to prove this to be true. If they win out, they can be a force to reckon with in the playoffs with their high-scoring offense and pesky defense.
Notable Performances in Week 6
Colorado may not have won this week, but they had a few players light up the stat sheet as the Buffalos had 581 yards of offense. Sky Sanders had 398 passing yards with a long of 70 and also had a 51-yard rush. Taylor James had 155 rushing yards with three broken tackles and a touchdown to help lead the offense. Linebacker Mykel Stevenson had 13 tackles and three for a loss while Free Safety Rara Banks added 12 tackles. Hendrix Dodd had 240 yards on special teams between kick and punt returns for Colorado. For Oklahoma Himeteo Del Este did not have a huge game in the air, but he did have 143 rushing touchdowns with two touchdowns on 16 carries. Wide Receiver Houston Begley had five catches for 101 yards and two touchdowns and his longest catch was 57 yards. Linebacker Akuma Hunter held to his reputation of ripping heads off with his 12 tackles with two of them for a loss.
Big XII Results Week 6
Texas A&M holds off West Virginia 32-27
Texas Held off LSU 31-29
Oklahoma defeated Colorado 42-38
Big XII Schedule Week 7
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Texas at Colorado 8:30 PM CST (Twitch)
Thursday, February 20, 2025
LSU at Texas A&M 6:30 PM CST (Twitch)
West Virginia at Oklahoma 6:30 PM CST (YouTube)
Potential BigXII Game of the Week
My first thought is that the Texas-Colorado game is the game of the week because if Texas wins and Texas A&M loses Texas is the Big XII champ. I am going to pick the Texas A&M and LSU game as the winner will most likely secure an automatic playoff bid. That would be huge for the Aggies after a rough start to the season, but it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. The loser of this game will be forced to rely on the voters to make the playoffs and there’s going to be several teams fighting for those four spots.
