Texas Has Been Unanimously Picked To Win The Big 12, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Shoutout to the Unnecessary Roughness team. They do a great job covering college football and have been gracious enough to have me on the show from time to time to talk some Ohio State football. However I think they are BIG TIME drinking the kool-aid on this Texas team. Granted should they be the favorite on paper? I wouldn’t argue it too much. Realistically they are the most talented roster and return the most talent to be excited about amongst Big 12 teams. Also not to mention this is their last year with a chance to win a conference title before they enter the SEC next year and get curb stomped by Georgia, Alabama, LSU and whatever other SEC teams rise up to give Texas a stern ass-kicking. 

The other glaring outlier on this chart goes hand and hand with Texas winning the Big 12 is really what I want to talk about. They all picked Quinn Ewers to win Big 12 Player of the Year and for the life of me I can’t understand why. Coming out of high school some people were saying he was the best prospect in the history of high school recruiting, putting him up there with the Trevor Lawrence, Andrew Luck’s and Peyton Manning’s of the world when it comes to blue chip “can’t miss” prospects. Through one year of being a starter he’s done absolutely nothing to show he’s that guy. Could that change thus year. Of course it could. 

But last year in 10 starts (really nine games as he got hurt early in the Alabama game) he only threw 15 touchdown passes and completely a relatively lousy 58% of his passes. He was very inconsistent and was especially inconsistent in crunch time throwing a lot of his interceptions late in games. He only threw 6 interceptions to his credit but  the timing of those picks definitely matter. The guy was 6-4 as a starter, why are we just handing Texas the Big 12 championship and Quinn Ewers all this benefit oft he doubt that they certainly don’t deserve. 

For me personally, I’m gonna go with Kansas State to repeat as Big 12 Champions (sitting at +500 right now) and I’m choosing Dillon Gabriel as Big 12 Player of the Year. Walker Howard played very well last year and I think they should have a strong defense that can keep this Texas and Oklahoma offenses in check. I think in this Oklahoma offense Dillon Gabriel is gonna put up huge numbers and win the award. Even if they don‘t get back to true “Oklahoma“ form I think they significantly improve from last year. 

So the moral of the story is Texas is……… NOT back.