Five bold, crazy, stupid, daring, wacky Big 12 college football predictions for the 2020 season.
5 (Potentially) Stupid Big 12 Predictions
As if everything we’re going through in the college football world – and in real life – isn’t stupid enough, let’s take it all down a few levels.
What if you were told last year at this time that Baylor was going to play for the Big 12 Championship?
What if you were told that Jalen Hurts would be one of the most efficient passers in the history of college football? What if you were told that eight of the ten teams – including Texas – would fail to hit the nine-win mark for the season?
What if you were told last year at this time that Matt Rhule would have an NFL job – hardly a shocker – but Lincoln Riley was still going to be in Norman?
They’re the wild and wacky curveballs that make each season fun. Enough safe and sane, it’s time for dumb and dangerous with five (potentially) stupid predictions thrown at the wall to see if they stick.
To keep this fun, this entire Stick To Sports piece is in a safe, COVID-19-free bubble.
– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
Big 12 Team Previews, 5 Things To Know
Baylor | Iowa State | Kansas | Kansas State
Oklahoma | Oklahoma State | TCU | Texas
Texas Tech | West Virginia
– 2020 Big 12 Preview
– Ranking The Big 12 Coaches
– CFN All-Big 12 Team & Top 30 Players
– CFN Big 12 Team-By-Team Predictions
– Big 12 Schedule, Most Interesting Games
5. The Big 12 will lose two non-conference games
It’s going to take some work for the Big 12 to biff two or more of their Plus-1 games.
Each Big 12 team gets one non-conference tune-up game before diving into the nine-game conference run, and let’s just say no one is exactly pushing the envelope.
Let’s just give Texas Tech (Houston Baptist), West Virginia (Eastern Kentucky), TCU (Tennessee Tech), Texas (UTEP), and Oklahoma (Missouri State) the benefit of doubt and chalk up wins for all of them.
And that’s fine. With no preseason, all college teams are insane to not schedule a winnable game to work out all the kinks. Unless something crazier than even 2020 can throw at the Big 12, assume 5-0 out of that group.
And 3-2 from the other five.
– 2020 Big 12 Preseason Rankings
Tulsa has a potentially amazing offense that might come up with something special on the right day against Oklahoma State, but nah – the Cowboys will win that. However …
Be very, very careful of the opening of the Dave Aranda era at Baylor with a dangerous Louisiana Tech team coming into Waco.
Ha ha ha, Kansas gets Coastal Carolina to start. Yeah, the Chanticleers won 12-7 on its trip last year to Lawrence.
Arkansas State absolutely has the chops to pull off something fantastic in Manhattan against Kansas State, and watch out for a dangerous Louisiana team with the offense, coaching and firepower to upset Iowa State.
NEXT: The quarterbacks …
4. The Big 12 will have the best quarterback play in college football
No, there isn’t a Trevor Lawrence anywhere in the Big 12, and there’s no Justin Fields – at least for the moment – but for a ten-team league, the overall quarterback play might just be the best in any conference.
And yes, that would’ve been true if the Big Ten and Pac-12 were still playing, too.
The SEC could quickly blow this notion out of the water – Florida’s Kyle Trask is a next-level talent, and the winner of the gigs at Alabama, LSU and Georgia should be special – but the Big 12 has the experience and it’s going to have the stats.
Assume that Spencer Rattler will do what Oklahoma quarterbacks do, assume that Sam Ehlinger is Tebow-like for Texas, and assume that Brock Purdy will come up with another amazing year for Iowa State.
Charlie Brewer is back at Baylor, Skylar Thompson returns at Kansas State, and Spencer Sanders should be outstanding with all the skill talent around him at Oklahoma State.
If Texas Tech’s Alan Bowman can stay healthy, he leads the Big 12 in passing, and TCU’s Max Duggan is a terrific talent about to burst onto the conference scene.
West Virginia will get better quarterback play with either Jarret Doege or Austin Kendall handling the work, and Kansas has hope with either Miles Kendrick or Thomas MacVittie.
Again, the superstar, high-end NFL talent might not be there, but even with a ten-game Big 12 season, 3,000-yard passing seasons will be the norm.
NEXT: This year’s Baylor?
3. West Virginia won’t be this year’s Baylor, but …
It might be close.
How did Baylor come within a late rally in the Big 12 Championship from going to the College Football Playoff?
It’s still a wee bit of a mystery.
The pass rush was amazing, and the team seemed to take advantage of every opportunity, but it wasn’t dominant offensively and the defense as a whole – outside of getting into the backfield – was just okay.
The Bears had the right chemistry, the veteran parts were in place, and it had the coaching. West Virginia has the coaching.
Neal Brown went 4-8 at Troy as a 34-year-old first time head coach, and then the program went on a 31-8 run over the following three seasons.
West Virginia struggled last year, but considering it needed a rebuild, there wasn’t any running game, and the D finished last in the conference, going 5-7 wasn’t quite that bad.
This year isn’t going to be easy with road games at Oklahoma State, Texas and Iowa State, but there’s a week off before playing the Cowboys, and there’s another week off before hosting Oklahoma in Morgantown the weekend of Thanksgiving.
And the Mountaineers host Baylor.
The defensive front should be among the Big 12’s best, the skill parts are better, and the O line – to be nice here – can’t be any worse.
It’s not time to plan on a trip to the Big 12 Championship quite yet, but after a year off, West Virginia should be an out-of-leftfield player in the title chase.
NEXT: Spencer Rattler will be great, but …
2. Spencer Rattler will be great, but …
You’ll have to wait until 2021 before he wins the Heisman.
He’ll be fantastic, but give it a season before the real explosion happens.
Oklahoma was able to test out its starting quarterbacks under Lincoln Riley. The program let someone else get through the growing pain stage, and then it all went kaboom in the right system.
Baker Mayfield got his feet wet at Texas Tech, Kyler Murray was a huge recruit for Texas A&M, and Jalen Hurts was legendary at Alabama.
Now Oklahoma has its own developed recruit who’ll try to keep a historic run going.
Spencer Rattler was a superstar get in the 2019 class, brought in with the mobility along with the high-powered passing skills to be the perfect fit for the attack. He had to wait his turn last year when Hurts came in, he still has to hold off Tanner Mordecai …
And he has to match all-time greatness.
– 2020 Big 12 Predictions For Every Game
No pressure or anything, Spencer – or Tanner – but all you have to do is this …
Hit 70% of your passes for 4,280 yards and 39 touchdowns with seven picks, and run for 870 yards and 12 touchdowns. That’s the average of what Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts did over the last three season.
And win the Big 12 Championship.
And go to the College Football Playoff.
So in keeping with the (potentially) stupid predictions theme here, expect the Sooners to get another great statistical season out of its quarterback, but …
NEXT: The Big 12 winner will be …
1. The winner of Texas at Oklahoma State will win the Big 12 Championship
Four Big 12 losses in five seasons isn’t bad, especially with all of them by a touchdown or less. That’s what Oklahoma has done.
Give the program all the credit in the world for always finding a way, but the defense has occasionally been shaky – to be very, very kind before a turn last year – and from time to time the offense has needed to pull a few rabbits out of a hat.
Again, a win is a win is a win, but last year’s Sooner team won five Big 12 games – the championship over Baylor included. At some point, eventually something is going to go wrong and the other side will slip one or two past the goalie.
– 50 Most Interesting Games of 2020
Look at Alabama last year. That was one of the best teams in America, but it went up against an all-timer of a LSU juggernaut, gave up a few picks to Auburn when Tua Tagovailoa was out, and that was all it took to go from national title-good to also-ran.
The greatness of teams like Oklahoma, Clemson, and – normally – Alabama – isn’t that they’re perfect, it’s that they’re almost always perfect after that one time they’re not.
It’s a ridiculously long-winded way of saying they don’t lose that second game.
This year’s team can’t complain about the schedule. There’s Missouri State to use as a tune-up before getting a week off. The road games at Iowa State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia aren’t that bad, but there’s still the trip to Dallas to face Texas, there’s still the home game against Oklahoma State, and Kansas State and Baylor aren’t going to be easy in Norman.
This feels like the sort of season that might end up being screwy.
– CFN 2020 Preseason Rankings 1-76
Assume a loss for the Sooners somewhere – like against Texas. Let’s throw in something else a bit wacky, like a shootout against Texas Tech in Lubbock, or against an improved TCU – who gets a week off to prepare – in Fort Worth, or …
At West Virginia.
The Mountaineers get a home game against TCU, then a week off, and then another home date against Oklahoma. The Sooners have to deal with the rivalry showdown against a loaded Oklahoma State before traveling on Thanksgiving week to Morgantown.
So the (potentially) stupid call could go one of two ways.
1) Oklahoma loses twice and doesn’t even get to the Big 12 Championship, or, more likely – if it doesn’t win the title – 2) it gets there, but loses to the Texas-Oklahoma State winner.
This is a good enough Big 12 to see a few upsets along the way, but the Halloween showdown in Stillwater when Texas faces Oklahoma State will be for a spot in the Big 12 title game, with this finally being the year when the Sooners slip.
