No player in the Big 12 has made more dramatic improvement from 2013 to 2014 than West Virginia quarterback Clint Trickett.
Last season, he completed just 52 percent of his passes. He topped 300 yards twice and threw multiple touchdown passes in just two games.. In 2014, he's completed 75 percent of his passes and has yet to throw for fewer than 348 yards in a game, including a matchup against No. 2 Alabama. He's thrown seven touchdowns to just one interception and his 511-yard, four-touchdown day on Saturday against Maryland was the second-best in school history, behind only Geno Smith.
Why? Well, the absence of searing pain in his shoulder has helped. Getting settled into the grooves of West Virginia's program has made an impact, too.
He will have a major say in whether or not West Virginia upsets No. 4 Oklahoma on Saturday night in Morgantown.
Trickett didn't begin practicing with the team until preseason camp in August after transferring to West Virginia from Florida State.
"At the beginning of the year, I didn't understand what (coaches) wanted or why," Trickett told Fox Sports Southwest this week. "By the end of the year, I started to understand a little bit of what they wanted."
He played sparingly in West Virginia's first four games, but made his debut in a 30-21 upset of preseason Big 12 favorite Oklahoma State.
"He didn't really have a relationship with the coaching staff or the players, which makes it tough at that position where you're naturally put into a leadership role," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said.
Trickett suffered a shoulder injury in the win over Oklahoma State that required postseason surgery to repair his rotator cuff and labrum and sentenced him to a season playing through pain.
"It was excruciating," he said, estimating he played at about 60 percent for much of the season.
The pain was constant and made daily life difficult off the field while forcing him to alter his throwing mechanics and accuracy on the field.
During the spring, sidelined by a recovering shoulder, Trickett developed a deeper relationship with coaches while watching practice from the sideline and began to understand the "why" along with the "what" of what made Holgorsen's offense run.
This fall, he's taken to sitting in on coaches meetings, which was a big no-no under Jimbo Fisher.
"You don't do that at Florida State. That's coach's time," Trickett said. "It took me awhile to grasp that here."
He's got a death grip on it now, stopping by the facilities in between classes and mostly observing, but offering his input when its asked on things like which plays he's most comfortable running.
Situations like that are where the laid-back atmosphere in Holgorsen's program pays off.
Trickett's older brother, Travis, is the offensive coordinator at Samford and another brother, Chance, is a recruiting assistant at Florida State where the boys' father, longtime OL coaching legend Rick Trickett, serves on Fisher's staff.
"My plan has always been to play as long as I can and then go into coaching," Trickett said.
Holgorsen called Trickett's leadership "off the charts" this week, and he's already got a head start on sounding like a coach. Who cares about 511 yards and four touchdowns in the rain?
"There's a lot I could have done that I didn't," Trickett said. "I didn't think I played that well."
BUZZ BUILDING IN THE LITTLE APPLE
When classes start getting canceled, you know it's a big game.
Kansas State's Thursday-night date with No. 5 Auburn is the biggest nonconference game in Bill Snyder's tenure. The Wildcats have only played one other ranked team at home in Bill Snyder's history in Manhattan, a 27-20 win over No. 11 USC in 2002. Auburn will be the highest-ranked nonconference team to play in Manhattan since No. 2 Penn State came to town in 1969 and just the fifth Power 5 school team to play a nonconference in Manhattan under Snyder.
K-State, by the way, is 4-0 in those games.
Some professors have canceled afternoon classes on Thursday and morning classes on Friday because of the mid-week game.
"This early in the year, you constantly hear students talking about it," cornerback Morgan Burns said. "Just talking about how this game's going to be crazy and loud."
It will be. The atmosphere at Bill Snyder Family Stadium is far too often underrated. It may be the most consistently loud stadium in the Big 12.
"It's been exciting, and we're just trying to stay focused with all the extra stuff going on on campus. There's definitely been a buzz in the air about this big game. The student body as a whole is excited," Burns said. "There's been a lot going on but at the same time, I've just been trying to keep my blinders on and have a good week of preparation."
Even Snyder admitted the atmosphere's impact on Tuesday. Expect a good one on Thursday night.
"It can have an impact and it has had an impact here," Snyder said. "Though we are small by numbers, comparatively speaking, it still has an impact."
The Wildcats will find it a little easier to stay even-keel on game day considering that's Snyder's calling card, but quarterback Jake Waters has embraced a leadership role this season. That's become easier in a second year with his teammates, but also without Daniel Sams on campus sharing quarterback duties.
"Most QBs slide, but he was running full speed and getting hit and lowering his shoulder," Burns said of Waters' 138-yard performance on the ground in a comeback win over Iowa State. Waters went out of his way to motivate his teammates on both sides of the ball on the sidelines and sparked the rally.
That's only further entrenched him as the team's leader.
UNFRIENDLY CONFINES OF AT&T STADIUM
There was much rejoicing in Big 12 land when "North Texas" and AT&T Stadium won the bid to host the College Football Playoff's first championship game.
If a Big 12 team happens to win its way into the game's season finale, it'll have to reverse a trend that's equal parts amazing and troubling for the conference.
A Big 12 team has never won a nonconference game at Cowboys Stadium since it opened in 2009, racking up an eye-popping 0-12 record. Here's the breakdown:
• Sept. 5, 2009: BYU 14, Oklahoma 13
• Oct. 3, 2009: Arkansas 47, Texas A&M 19
• Jan 2, 2010: Ole Miss 21, Oklahoma State 7
• Oct. 9, 2010: Arkansas 24, Texas A&M 17
• Jan. 7, 2011: LSU 41, Texas A&M 24
• Oct. 1, 2011: Arkansas 42, Texas A&M 38
• Jan. 6, 2012: Arkansas 29, Kansas State 16
• Jan. 4, 2013: Texas A&M 41, Oklahoma 13
• Aug. 31, 2013: LSU 37, TCU 27
• Jan. 3, 2014: Missouri 41, Oklahoma State 31
• Aug. 30, 2014: Florida State 37, Oklahoma State 31
• Sept. 13, 2014: UCLA 20, Texas 17
That's quite a run. Oklahoma was a the only team in those 12 games who was a heavy favorite, but there's a good chunk of winnable games in that group.
MALCOM BROWN: A MARRIED MAN MAKING MONEY
Defensive tackles are not supposed to lead the Big 12 in tackles for loss. And yet, there Malcom Brown is, all 320 pounds of him, atop the list with seven TFLs, three more than any player in the league.
If the season ended today, I might just cast a vote for him as the Big 12's Defensive Player of the Year, with apologies to Oklahoma's Eric Striker.
"He's done an unbelievable job, had two great games back to back. He played really well against UCLA, he was the only shining star in the BYU game," Texas coach Charlie Strong said. "I just love how he approaches the game. He plays so hard and with so much passion and I love how he controls the line of scrimmage."
Brown, who is married and has two children, has done a lot to secure their future early this season. He's just a junior, but considering his play in 2014 and situation at home, it's hard to see him returning to Austin in 2015 if his pace remains anything close to what it's been. Cedric Reed and Tank Jackson got more preseason hype from Texas' coaches, but Brown has been the star of a loaded defensive line.
His versatility is what's allowed him to put up the kind of numbers you rarely see from guys charged with plugging holes and freeing up linebackers to make plays in the running game. Brown led the team with 11 tackles in the BYU loss.
"We can move him a lot because he's got enough quickness and speed to beat linemen on the line of scrimmage," Strong said. "Then, when it comes time to get to third down, it's going to be hard because it's a 1-on-1 matchup and if he can get a 1-on-1 matchup, there's a good chance that he can win it."
FOOTBALL'S CHANGING CLIMATE
If you ever doubted how much public opinion influences decision-making alongside--and often above-- actual facts, look no further than Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione's comments to Sports Illustrated this week.
Receiver Dorial Green-Beckham transferred to Oklahoma after being dismissed from Missouri, and Castiglione revisited the decision in the wake of the NFL's scandal surrounding Ray Rice.
"If someone presented a case like that now, I think you would be fair to say that he probably wouldn't be at Oklahoma," Castiglione said. "Just because of the attention and the cases now in the public consciousness, the university would have been unlikely to take on a situation like that."
Here's my original column when the Sooners brought DGB aboard in early July.
Green-Beckham's talent is what earned him a second chance in a program that broadcasts games somewhere beyond a stream on the team's website. It'll be very interesting to see how Oklahoma weathers the inevitable public opinion storm that will rage when the video of Joe Mixon punching a female student is released to the public on Nov. 1.
It's absurd that anyone would need video to know a man knocking a woman to the ground with a fist to the face isn't palatable. A yearlong suspension from all team activities was a pretty serious penalty and probably a fitting one, but I'm intrigued to see if public opinion after the Rice incident pressures Oklahoma into doing even more when the video becomes public.
ANOTHER TIRED PACE OF PLAY COMPLAINT
West Virginia's offense was humming against Maryland and turned in its best performance of the season. Clint Trickett threw for 511 yards ... and West Virginia ran the ball 59 times. That can happen when you run 108 plays, but Maryland coach Randy Edsall may have thrown his hat in with Bret Bielema and Nick Saban after the game.
"I think there's a problem in college football, I really do, with that many plays," Edsall told reporters.
Edsall is speaking in interest of player safety, but like the problem with Bielema and Saban's arguments, there's no objective statistical backing to their arguments. Additionally, Maryland only ran 65 plays, meaning the game itself only featured 173 plays from scrimmage.
That averages out to 86.5 plays per team. That number, extrapolated for each team over three games, would be in the top 10 nationally. Still, if Edsall really wants to slow the pace down, not going 4-of-15 on third down might help.
According to this study from CFBMatrix.com, Big 12 teams ran the most plays of any conference from 2009-12, but had the lowest injury rate and lowest number of total starts lost on offense and defense.
The argument against hurry-up offenses is specious at best and disingenuous at worst.
Slowing the pace hasn't helped Edsall all that much anyway. In 2012, he was left to start Shawn Petty, a true freshman linebacker, at quarterback because of injuries.
I understand the basic theory from coaches like Edsall. Football is a dangerous game and more plays mean more danger. However, considering the lack of evidence supporting those assertions, it's hard to take complaints like Edsall's as anything more than sour grapes.
He also submitted 13 plays to the Big Ten for review, including West Virginia's game-winning field goal. That number is a little higher than usual, but rarely do you hear coaches do so publicly. I highly doubt he says any of what he's said if Maryland had won the game.
THIN WEEK 4 SLATE FOR BIG 12
Last week, the Big 12's schedule made history. It's doing it again this week.
The conference went 4-3 in seven games against Power 5 opponents. It had never played more than five in a single day before Week 3.
This week, the entire Big 12 slate has just three games. Excluding the traditional, trimmed-down schedule on the final week of the regular season, that's a first for the Big 12. On Saturday, it will play just two games (Kansas-Central Michigan and West Virginia-Oklahoma). That's the fewest ever other than when the entire schedule was wiped for the Saturday after Sept. 11, 2001.
Two of the Big 12's three Week 3 games are must-see matchups, so I suppose you could argue quality over quantity this week.
FUN WITH NUMBERS
• West Virginia receiver Kevin White needs three catches and 47 yards on Saturday vs. Oklahoma to surpass his 2013 season totals. He's already got 32 catches for 460 yards, with at least nine catches and 100 yards in all three games so far this season. Holgorsen called him the best player on the field in WVU's win over Maryland. "He's an absolute freak. He walks into a room and when scouts are there and they immediately gravitate to him," Trickett said. "This is the kind of player we thought he could be. He's even going over the top. I don't know if we thought he could be this good." Trickett, who's seen plenty of five-star talent in his time at Florida State, said White has as much talent as any player he's been around.
• How dead is the time of possession stat in the Big 12? Kansas, whose biggest strength is running the ball, is second in the conference in the stat, averaging almost 34 minutes of possession a game. Granted, Texas Tech is last in the Big 12 in the stat, but that number was skewed a little bit by having the ball for only 19:21 in their loss to Arkansas last week.
• We're three weeks into the season and no Big 12 team has missed an extra point yet. Last year, every team but TCU missed one. Texas Tech and Kansas missed three.
• Texas Tech may be struggling in several areas, but pass protection has been one of major improvement this year. Tech gave up 33 sacks a year ago, second-most in the Big 12. That number is aided by throwing the ball 714 times, 230 more than any team in the Big 12, but this year, you can't argue with numbers. Davis Webb has yet to be sacked. Baylor is the only other Big 12 team who hasn't given up a sack, and there are only two other teams (Syracuse, New Mexico State) in all of college football with that distinction. Texas Tech's 129 pass attempts are second-most in the Big 12 this season and would surpass West Virginia's 138 if Arkansas hadn't played a legendary game of "Keep Away" on Saturday.
• Every Big 12 quarterback who has started each of his team's games so far this season has thrown an interception.
POWER RANKINGS
It's always been nice after a long day of writing about college football to sit back and ... play a college football video game. That's lost a little luster this year without a new version of NCAA College Football, so in dishonor, it's time for a look back at the greatest games of yesteryear.
My only rules for this week's power rankings: Each game must have been released in the 90s and I have to have played it. As such, my apologies to Mega Man, Super Metroid and Battletoads.
1. NBA Jam: Tournament Edition
2. Goldeneye 007
3. Super Mario franchise
4. Sonic The Hedgehog franchise
5. Donkey Kong franchise
6. Crash Bandicoot
7. Star Fox franchise
8. Legend of Zelda franchise
9. Zombies Ate My Neighbors
10. Cruis'n franchise
11. Street Fighter franchise
12. Earthworm Jim
13. Toejam & Earl
15,769. Ecco The Dolphin
21,770. Lemmings
