If Texas is going to upset Oklahoma, it's going to do it with defense. The Longhorns have scored an average of 13.5 points in their last four games, but held Baylor without an offensive point in the first half of Saturday's 28-7 loss. A year ago, with the Big 12 title on the line, Texas held Baylor to just three first-half points before falling, 30-10.
The Bears have an all-too-intimate knowledge of the Longhorns' defense that Bryce Petty said left his head spinning.
The Longhorns ran a four-man front almost exclusively early in the season and moved to a 3-3-5 to defend Kansas last week. Baylor saw a mix of both and the Longhorns sometimes changed between even and odd fronts in the middle of drives.
"They threw a couple of new coverages in there, too," Montgomery said. "I think they're just building as the year goes on and he's installing his defense. Each week, they're going to get better and better as they're able to do what he's wanting."
Baylor's coaches studied just one Louisville game from last year's team, choosing to focus their study on what Strong's defense showed with his current personnel. The Longhorns were able to dare Baylor to run but still slow a run game that had topped five yards a carry in all but one game this year. Texas held Baylor to 4.63 yards a carry and frustrated Petty into his worst outing as a Bear. He completed just 7-of-22 passes (31.8 percent) for 111 yards, though he did throw two second-half touchdown passes.
Petty hadn't been sacked in Baylor's first four games, but Texas got to him three times. He completed just two passes longer than 11 yards.
"We’d like for him to be a lot clearer mentally than what he was insinuating. I think he really was, but early in the game, he maybe didn’t see things the way that we anticipated and it might could’ve caused him to make a statement like that, but he was fine," Briles said. "The game dictated that we run the football so we ran the ball."
It doesn't get easier for Baylor this week. There are only a few defenses in the Big 12 with the personnel to slow down the Bears' top-ranked offense, but TCU is one of them.
The Frogs lost corner Jason Verrett from last year's team but Kevin White has moved into his role as TCU's most trusted corner.
"They’re always sound defensively. You’ve got to go beat them," Montgomery said. "They’re not going to beat themselves."
TCU's coverage schemes haven't changed much without the departed first-rounder on the field, he said, but TCU's defensive tackle duo of Chucky Hunter and Davion Pierson along with a speedy group of linebackers headlined by Paul Dawson and Marcus Mallet (73 combined tackles in 2014) could make life difficult for the Bears for a second consecutive week.
"We win a game 3-2 and get on a bus happy," Briles said. "That’s all we’re concerned with."
TCU CRACKING BAYLOR'S DOMINANCE IN TEXAS
How do you build a program? Your home state is a good place to start. Baylor's proven its dominance in Texas as it has risen from also-ran to Big 12 power.
When it takes the field at home on Saturday for the first time in a month and five days, it will boast a 16-game winning streak in the state of Texas and a 21-1 record in its last 22 games at home.
The lone loss in that stretch? Well, that's TCU, of course. The Frogs routed Baylor 49-21 in Waco on Oct. 13, 2012.
Baylor has won the last 16 games in Texas by an average of 35.06 points. Only three of those wins came by fewer than 20 points. Nobody came closer than TCU, who lost at Amon G. Carter by three points last season.
Methinks we're in for a fantastic matchup on Saturday between the Frogs and Bears.
KINGSBURY: 'STAY THE COURSE'
Kliff Kingsbury's Texas Tech team is struggling through a three-game losing streak and has fallen to 2-3 after starting 7-0 a year ago. The scheduling is a big reason for the discrepancy between seasons, but the Red Raiders have not improved in any phase from 2013 to 2014. Last year, Tech bounced back from its five-game losing streak last season and routed Arizona as a two-touchdown underdog in the Holiday Bowl.
Keeping his team invested may be a difficult task for Kingsbury, whose team lost its final five games of the 2013 regular season.
"You just stay the course, really," he said said.
The Red Raiders have turned the ball over 11 times and committed 30 penalties for 307 yards over the last three games. Twenty-five of those penalties came in their last two games on the road against top 20 opponents Oklahoma State and Kansas State.
At this point, though, Kingsbury sounds like a broken record. His teams (and the entire program, really) have struggled with this issue for years, and though this team is too talented to be blown out by teams like K-State and Arkansas, it's not talented enough to play through mistakes like this.
"They’ve handled it well. They’ve stayed locked in, they’ve worked hard, we just haven’t cleaned it up on the field. That’s on me as a coach. That’s what I’m here to do, is make sure they play clean and disciplined on the field and I haven’t gotten that done yet," he said. "Continue to work hard and good things will happen. Eventually good things will happen and the ball will start bouncing our way if they continue to put in the effort, which they have. Stay focused and good things will happen."
He's taking responsibility, but not coming up with a solution. That's a big problem.
SCHEDULING AS AN ART FORM
Tuesday, Pitt announced a home-and-home with Marshall in 2016 and 2020. Marshall, if you're not familiar with the geography, is located in West Virginia.
The Mountaineers ceased their rivalry with Marshall following the 2012 season and Pitt has refused to play WVU after the Mountaineers left the Big East for the Big 12.
Now, this happens and West Virginia's left out in the cold.
This news is on the heels of Michigan announcing an upcoming series with Texas after ending its rivalry with Notre Dame, who just announced a series with Texas A&M.
Call it an unintended consequence of realignment: Using scheduling practices to troll your rival.
I can't decide if it's delightfully sinister or endlessly frustrating.
JIM HARBAUGH TO KANSAS?
The coaching carousel brings about some truly ludicrous rumors. That's half the fun.
I don't see any reason why Bill Belichick won't make the jump to Florida or why Jon Gruden isn't licking his chops at becoming the head man at Illinois.
So naturally, the idea of San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh leaving for Kansas makes perfect sense.
According to ESPN.com, if Harbaugh does leave San Francisco at the end of the season for a college job, "it would be for Kansas."
The basis? Harbaugh's wife is from Kansas and Jim has an affinity for the state.
“He’s just crazy enough to do it,” a Harbaugh confidant told ESPN.com.
No, no he's not. I believe people are saying these things, but I also believe they're just talking. Considering a job is a long way from taking it. I can consider trading in my car for a Moped built in 1973, but it's going to take a lot for me to make a real change.
Kansas wrangling Harbaugh would be one of the most jaw-dropping hires in college football history. Harbaugh knows how to build. He took a 1-11 Stanford team and turned them into a BCS bowl winner in four seasons. Having Andrew Luck and Toby Gerhart helped with that, but you don't end up with those kinds of talent by accident.
Harbaugh and 49ers owner Jed York have publicly denied reports that Harbaugh won't return in 2015, but if he doesn't another NFL team (or Michigan) will scoop him up. Kansas is in a deeper hole than Stanford was back in 2006 and doesn't have the same history or upside.
I'm skeptical that Harbaugh would want to go back to spending his days glad-handing boosters and tracking down prospects in tiny towns. I don't know Harbaugh, but based on what I've read, he seems like a much better fit for the trimmed-down responsibilities of an NFL head coach.
Over the next few months, I will consider taking the idea of Harbaugh landing in Lawrence seriously.
BIG 12 CAN SEND TWO TO PLAYOFF
I got the question numerous times on Twitter on Sunday: If TCU wins the Big 12, how would Oklahoma reach the playoff?
The underlying assumption here is that the Big 12 would only have one team in the playoff.
Why? Two is well within the realm of possibility.
The committee isn't going to look at the SEC West and say, "Wow, they definitely deserve two teams in the playoff!" It's going to be assessed on an individual, team-by-team basis.
If--and it's a big if, but still--Oklahoma and TCU run the table the rest of the season, the Sooners and Frogs would both be in the playoff. Considering the chaos that's already been inflicted on the nation's top teams, that's anything but a far-fetched assumption.
Oklahoma fans ought to put their TCU capes on and ride the Frogs the rest of the way. The better they are, the better it is for the Sooners. Oklahoma could conceivably have an 11-1 mark with the lone loss coming on the road by four points to an undefeated or a one-loss team. That's a heck of a resume.
The same goes for Baylor. If the Big 12 has two one-loss teams at the end of the year (For the record, I believe the Big 12 will have one, with a pair of two-loss teams), it will have two teams in the playoff.
There's a lot of depth in the conference yet again, and Oklahoma and TCU both played somewhat decent nonconference schedules. Oklahoma's was markedly better than TCU's, but there's not a marquee win on either team's nonconference resume. There's an opportunity for a bunch of quality wins in Big 12 play. Baylor will have the toughest time making the playoff as a one-loss team because of its nonconference schedule, but unlike much of the rest of college football, the Big 12 hasn't had a marquee team suffer a head-scratching loss. Like I wrote over the weekend, TCU is not a fluke. It's always had a solid defense, even in last year's four-win disaster. Now, the offense is keeping pace. Trevone Boykin is experienced and has an understanding of the offense that can now score enough to keep TCU on pace with its Big 12 brethren. I'll be shocked if the Frogs win fewer than nine games.
FUN WITH NUMBERS
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Trevor Knight isn't single, and thus, won't be answering Katy Perry's catcall. However, it sounds like his older brother has some interest.
Judging by his Twitter photo, Trevor Knight's twin brother, Oklahoma tight end Connor Knight isn't single either. He might have had a better shot when it came to duplicating Trevor's genes.
POWER RANKINGS
I don't know why Dallas needs to top 90 degrees in October, but it happened. I went in search of relief and found the inspiration for this week's list.
@katyperry how about @trevor_knight9's brother #almostthesame
— Tyler Knight (@tknight08) October 4, 2014
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