Sorry, I kinda forgot to do the wrap this week as life has been busy busy busy.

Here’s an abbreviated version: Texas squeaked to a victory despite a fine defensive effort from an otherwise depleted and overmatched Oklahoma team in the Cotton Bowl. And the conference’s lesser teams played some games.

I’ll eventually get things cranked up here again…. although the next few weeks may prove to be just as busy if the final details of our homebuying work out (fingers crossed).

This was kind of a fun week in a down conference….

• Texas 38, Colorado 14
  The Big 12′s only great team had a slow first half, then turned it on. They surely will come out focused and romp at the Red River get together Saturday (we don’t expect a shootout).
• Nebraska 27, Missouri 12 Nebraska made a statement in the fourth quarter, on the road, in miserable conditions. They’re our current pick for Best of the North.
• Oklahoma 33, Baylor 7 Sam Bradford threw beautifully Saturday in his return from injury. His receivers, line, and offensive coaching staff, on the other hand, fall far short of greatness this year. Bradford’s presence may keep the OU-Texas matchup from being a blowout, because he rarely makes mistakes. Or it may not, because it’s hard for him to overcome the deficiencies I just listed against truly great teams. He should have gone to the NFL.
• Kansas 41, Iowa State 36 We didnt’ see THIS one being tough for KU, which just goes to show that there’s not much separating the conference’s Mediocre 11 this year.
• Texas Tech 66, Kansas State 14 New QB? No problem. It’s Mike Leach, after all, the best offensive coach in the country. This will be another long week for Bill Snyder’s assistant coaches.
• Oklahoma State 36, Texas A/M 31 From possible national title contender at the start of the season to battling an improving, but still bad, South team to the end. Think Boone Pickens can get OSU’s all-everything WR re-instated?

It’s a belated wrap this week, due to travel, web moves, and general disinterest in a conference that’s down…. But here are the games.

• Miami 21, Oklahoma 20 Oklahoma fails its second test of the season to determine whether it belongs in the Top 15. It doesn’t, and probably will not be ranked after the big Texas game.
• Texas Tech 48, New Mexico 28 Mike Leach turns to his backup QB because of a likely injury. The offensive system hardly misses a beat.
• Arkansas 47, Texas A/M 19 After a quick start in the game, the Aggies discover they have a ways to go yet.
• Baylor 31, Kent State 15 Art Briles turns to his third-string QB because of injuries. Will Baylor be good enough to get a bowl big in a down conference with a lot of tie-ins?
• West Virginia 35, Colorado 24 Dan Hawkins isn’t going to reach the 10 wins he was carrying on about.
• Kansas State 24, Iowa State 23 Stinker Bowl.

Because I’m about a day-and-a-half behind on all things and seemingly not gaining ground, the best I can do this week is this placeholder.

BUT…. if you’re seeing this post, you should be seeing the blog on its new webhost. So that’s something, right? I haven’t updated all the skins yet, so some stuff is almost certainly broken still… it’s been going that way lately!

Backpacking or hiking may transpire next weekend (or maybe just a trip via CO weekend special), so we’ll see what happens with the wrap. Nice job by those UH Cougars this past weekend, though, huh?! 2-0 in the Big 12 South to start the season!

It’s Week 3 in the Big 12…

• Texas 34, Texas Tech 24 Texas gets “revenge” I guess. Not a bad effort from Leach’s crew, though. Look for lots of points to be scored in Houston next week.
• Oklahoma 45, Tulsa 0 Strong performance from an improving Oklahoma team that certainly had room to improve. Miami on the road should give everyone a good sense of how good Oklahoma might be.
• Oklahoma State 41, Rice 24 Not quite as easy a victory as expected against a hapless Rice squad. I’m starting to fall off the OSU bandwagon.
• Virginia Tech 16, Nebraska 15 Huskers couldn’t quite close this one out, but look to be in a dogfight for the North.
• Kansas 44, Duke 16 A contender for the North? It appears so.
• Missouri 52, Furman 12 Another contender for the North.
• UConn 30, Baylor 22 Admit it, Baylor fan — you thought Baylor had a great shot at winning this one, didn’t you? So did I. But as Coog fans know well, Art Briles gets you feeling that way and then rolls out a stinker. Enjoy him!
• Texas A/M 38, Utah State 30 Whoop?
• Iowa State 34, Kent 14
• Colorado 24, Wyoming 0
• UCLA 23, Kansas State 9 Another bad week to be a Bill Snyder assistant coach.

We’ll just crowdsource the editing up front after last week’s terrible effort. Please let me know what I’ve left out or screwed up, and we’ll correct it quickly. Thanks!

Substantively: In Week 2, I think we learned that the conference has fallen considerably from last year (when I think it was the best it’s ever been, and arguably the best in the country overall). This year, Texas is awfully good, there are a few dangerous but inconsistent teams, K-State’s assistant coaches won’t be getting much sleep, and Colorado might as well start advertising its opening.

• Texas 41, Wyoming 10 Slow start, faster finish for the Big 12′s only great team. Next?
• Nebraska 38, Arkansas State 9 Nebraska raced out to a big lead, then got lots of kids some playing time against an overmatched opponent.
• Houston 45, Oklahoma State 35 The Coog fan in me is very happy about this outcome. The Okie in me is disappointed that Oklahoma’s best college football team this year isn’t ready to take that tough next step into national title contention. I still believe this OSU team will win ten games and give OU and UT a lot of trouble. And that the loss to Kevin Sumlin’s youngish Coog team wasn’t a fluke.
• Oklahoma 64, Idaho State 0 If a 12-game schedule means these sorts of opponents are scheduled, then can we go back to 11 games and add a playoff? Probably not. That said, the Sooners needed this kind of game and opponent. And new Sooner QB Landry “Porn ‘Stache” Jones had himself a pretty nice game tossing the ball in a downpour.
• Kansas 34, UTEP 7 Nice win for KU. That Mangino fellow seems to get the most out of his guys, eh?
• Texas Tech 55, Rice 10 Rice kinda slowed down Coach Leach. For a half. Texas will be a load for this Tech team next week, but the Houston/Tech matchup in two weeks will feature the two best offensive coaches in the college game (Leach and former assistant Dana Holgorsen). That ought to be fun.
• Missouri 27, Bowling Green 20 Scary game for a team that looked pretty good last week. Ah, the fun of rebuilding instead of reloading.
• Louisiana-Lafayette 17, Kansas State 15 Do you think taskmaster Bill Snyder’s assistants are gonna be absolutely miserable this week? I do.
• Toledo 54, Colorado 38 Who will be Colorado’s coach next year? Kevin Sumlin isn’t a good fit here, is he? I hope not.
• Iowa 35, Iowa State 3 Iowa barely escaped Northern Iowa last week, but easily handled Iowa State. Chasing Dan McCarney is looking pretty stupid for Iowa State about now, huh? Well, I’m sure Coach Mac is happy enough at Florida.

Hurricane Ike scrambled my football watching (and the Big 12 wraps) last year, but we’ll give the wraps a go again this year and hope the hurricanes stay away. I still have about the same attitude I did last year post-Hurricane, and am not really looking to sit around watching football all weekend when cooler weather finally arrives and there is hiking to be done, so these things will be pithy at best. But hey, they’ll help me get up to speed after hiking weekends, even if nobody else cares.

• Texas 59, Louisiana-Monroe 20 I’d rather not see powers like Texas beating up on these sorts of teams. The Okies definitely put together more interesting games, although Bob Stoops probably wishes he had scheduled a scrimmage against a I-AA team (sorry, that’s how we will continue to refer to those teams). We thought Texas was the real deal heading into this one and still do. What else to say?
• Oklahoma State 24, Georgia 10
  A statement game — or at least second half — from Boone Pickens State against an SEC power. The best college football team in Oklahoma will need to keep its focus against an explosive Houston team as it takes aim at Texas for supremacy in the Big 12 south. Kudos to Pickens State for scheduling a real opponent in Week 1.
• Nebraska 49, Florida Atlantic 3
  Year Two of the Bo Pelini program gets off to a nice start, beating up on a Howard Schnellenberger program that had hoped to be further along at this point.
• BYU 14, Oklahoma 13
  The Sooners came into the game without last year’s experienced O-line and talented wide receivers. They lost playmaker Jermaine Gresham before the game to injury. They lost playmakers Sam Bradford and Damarco Murray during the game to injuries. What happened as a result wasn’t an upset. No, what happened in the second half was a game between two teams to decide which one belongs in the Top 20. The better coached, better prepared, better executing team of those two teams won the game; the much more highly compensated Sooner coaching staff got skunked. They will probably turn it around — that’s Bob Stoops’ history — but this is the third best team in the Big 12 South AT BEST for now. Whether they fall further will depend on the Sooner coaching staff and the health of Bradford, Gresham, and Murray.
• Missouri 37, Illinois 9
  Mizzou had a few playmakers to replace, but their coaching staff seems to have found some answers.
• Texas Tech 38, North Dakota 13
  UPDATE: Fill in your own line. As commenter Dave H caught, the line below was not meant to be here, one of several errors this week.
• Kansas 49, Northern Colorado 3
  Whee, it’s fun to beat the hell out of directional schools!
• Baylor 24, Wake Forest 21
  Solid road win for Art Briles and crew.
• Texas A&M 41, New Mexico 6
  A&M fans have to be happy with this start.
• Iowa State 34, North Dakota State 17
  Hey, it’s a win…
• UPDATE: Kansas State 21, U-Mass 17 Sorry, K-State fans, for leaving your team out! Nice start to the (second) Bill Snyder era.
• UPDATE: Colorado St 23, Colorado 17 Sorry, Colorado fans, I left out your team. Who do you think will be coaching your team next year?

There weren’t really many surprises this week in the Big 12. Here are the games:

Oklahoma 52, Cincinnati 26
A good win for the Sooners over a solid opponent, with just enough to work on to keep Bob Stoops and staff busy. It would have been nice to see the second half. Ah well!

Missouri 52, SEMO 3
We need a twelfth game (but no playoff) for THIS?

Texas 42, UTEP 13
Despite the blowout, UTEP actually rolled up 400+ yards of offense and had the ball nearly 37 minutes.

Kansas 29, Louisiana Tech 0
Kansas makes it look easy.

Texas Tech 35, Nevada 19
Tech makes enough plays (offensively AND defensively) when it mattered to put Nevada away.

Oklahoma State 56, Houston 37
If the Oklahoma State team that showed up in the second half would show up for entire games, the Pokes could be a force.

Kansas State 69, Montana St 10
See the Mizzou/SEMO entry.

Nebraska 35, San Jose State 12
Baby steps…

Colorado 31, Eastern Washington 14
Remember when the Buffs used to compete for national championships? It’s been a while…

Iowa State 48, Kent State 28
Iowa State gets “revenge” for last year’s loss.

Baylor 51, Northwestern State 6
Coach Briles’ teams look crisp against teams of this quality.

Texas A&M 28, New Mexico 22
A win is a win…

Football season is finally here, and with it come the weekly Big 12 wraps, my pithy takes on each week’s Big 12 games. Here we go…

Oklahoma 57, Chattanooga 2
We’re not fans of Big 12 teams playing I-AA opponents. The Sooners scheduled this one when a I-A team backed out, which makes it only slightly more palatable. At least they didn’t charge full admission.

Missouri 52, Illinois 42
Nice win for Mizzou, which starts the season as explosive as they were last season.

Texas 52, Florida Atlantic 10
Schnellie might not want to call out UT’s toughness before the game next time (if there is a next time).

Kansas 40, Florida International 10
Ho hum.

Texas Tech 49, Eastern Washington 24
Is Tech ready to join the Big 12′s Big Boys? Hard to say either way after this one.

Colorado 38, Colorado State 17
The Buffs win the state championship!

Kansas State 45, North Texas 6
UNT looks as dreadful as they did last season.

Oklahoma State 39, Washington State 13
A nice road win to start things for OSU.

Nebraska 47, Western Michigan 24
The Bo Pelini era is off to a successful start.

Iowa State 44, South Dakota State 17
*yawn*

Arkansas State 18, Texas A&M 14
Suck.

Wake Forest 41, Baylor 13
Enjoy Art Briles, Baylor fans, because Coog fans are really pleased with his replacement.

It’s time for the last Big 12 Wrap of the year, and even though I try to keep them objective, I have to admit the Sooner fan in me is ecstatic over the Big 12 title game tonight.

The Sooners dominated the second half of the game, turning in what was probably their best one-half performance of the season, to flip a 14-14 game at halftime into a rout.

And they did it against an outstanding #1 ranked Missouri team that, in my opinion, played the best football in the Big 12 over the course of the entire season (slightly edging the Sooners). Unfortunately for Mizzou, they didn’t play like the best team in the Big 12 in two games — both against Oklahoma.

I missed the first half because I was watching UH basketball (another good performance, to another nearly empty building — very disappointing and hard to understand) cruise to another win. So that was cool. And the BCS officially blew up tonight. That’s pretty cool too. Win, win, win!