What mattered and what’s important from Week 3 of the Big 12 college football season?
Kansas 48, Boston College 24
Who and what is THAT? What did you do with Kansas? The program did absolutely nothing or two weeks to look capable of doing anything interesting, and Boston College was fantastic over the first two games, and then came … this.
The Jayhawks executed well, they were explosive, and they looked and played like a real, live team. This wasn’t a quirky performance with a slew of takeaways to pull off some sort of a fluke, Kansas was fantastic. So yeah, it’s like everyone forgot – Les Miles is a damn good football coach. Now the expectations are higher. Now we all know what this program is capable of.
Boston College played well in several ways – AJ Dillon rumbled for 151 yards and a score – and it still didn’t matter. The Jayhawks ran for 329 yards and three scores, Khalil Herbert and Pooka Williams each ran for over 100 yards, Carter Stanley hit 20-of-27 passes for 238 yards and three scores, and this all worked against a very good Power Five team on the road.
West Virginia 44, NC State 27
THERE’S the West Virginia we’ve been waiting for. The offense was balanced, Austin Kendall was terrific, and the defense didn’t let NC State do a thing down the field. The Wolfpack coaching staff tried a slew of things to get the O going, but the pass rush and a good-tackling day from the back seven kept State to just 4.6 yards per pass.
There were way too many penalties. It was a good performance against a strong team, but the Mountaineers still aren’t good enough to get flagged 12 times and – usually – survive. The offense was able make up for the mistakes by keeping the pressure on with an even performance. When it needed to score to close things out, it came up with a great fourth.
After what Kansas did against Boston College, the trip to Lawrence next week is hardly a given. And then comes Texas. And then comes Iowa State. and then comes the trip to Oklahoma, and on and on … there are no breaks the rest of the way. WVU needed this.
COMING: Kansas State at Mississippi State, Oklahoma State at Tulsa, Iowa at Iowa State, TCU at Purdue, Oklahoma at UCLA, Texas at Rice, Texas Tech at Arizona
