SAN ANTONIO — We’re five weeks through the college football season and we’re starting to learn who is coming to play and who is not. Conference play always separates those pretenders from the contenders. Let’s roll around the Great State Of Texas from the week that was!
UTSA
Brace yourselves. 7-of-22 on third down. Twelve penalties for 79 yards. Three turnovers. Translation? Loss. 30-20 was the Saturday final in Greenville, N.C. The Roadrunners are 2-3 and once again unable to exorcise those September schedule demons.
The ‘Runners avoid, and we’ve pointed this out before, Tulane/USF/Navy on this season’s schedule, but they still have FAU, Memphis, North Texas and Army to deal with between now and the end of November.
The one break, and no disrespect to Rice Nation, comes next weekend in Houston against the 1-4 Owls. They scored their most points of the season in their most recent outing, a 21-20 loss to Charlotte over the weekend.
UTSA has some time to prep, since this week is the first of their two regular season bye weeks. #BirdsUp
TEXAS
Craig Way and the UT radio broadcast crew made note of it during the second half of the Longhorns' SEC opener against Mississippi State: Some days, the football struggle is real.
It was clear by the second quarter that Texas wasn’t going to cover the 37 point spread, and they also learned that even the cellar dwellers of the toughest conference in college football are still, ya know, not bad.
The 'Horns eventually dispatched the Bulldogs (who did come to play, and give them credit) by the score of 35-13, improving to 5-0. This was the program's first win in a Southeastern Conference game. Still feels weird to say, too, actually.
Texas now enjoys their bye week as we move into October, and you know what that means! It is Texas State Fair time! Coach Sark gets the extras days to presumably have Quinn Ewers ready to roll for the Red River Game in roughly two weeks.
Oklahoma looks shaky, at best, but they did win their conference opener on the road at Auburn. You know the ‘Burnt Orange’ are gonna wanna make their statement to the Sooners in the metroplex. Let the hype begin! Now. #HookEm
TEXAS A&M
The scoring math was simple at Jerry’s World in Arlington. The Aggies scored three TDs. The pigs scored two TDs and one FG. That’s how you do that.
A&M has won four straight after that season opening showdown against Notre Dame at Kyle Field that didn’t go their way.
The Aggies have six SEC games remaining, and three of those are against current Top 25 teams, and they get all three of those at home: 11th-ranked Missouri, 14th-ranked LSU, and oh boy, oh goodness, No. 2 Texas on the last day of November. It is back! And thank goodness for that! #GigEm
TEXAS TECH
Well, look at that! The mighty Red Raiders are at the top of the crowded Big 12 Conference with upstart BYU and Coach Prime’s Colorado bunch. TTU held off Cincy on Saturday night in Lubbock, 44-41, improving to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in league play.
I started my sports broadcasting career nearly 30 years ago in west Texas, and I’m happy for the good folks on the South Plains. If you haven’t watched Red Raider QB Behren Morton do his thing, check him out. He can sling it!
Tech has enjoyed their first two conference games at home, but the league is about to return the favor with three of their next four on the road, including trips to Tucson, Fort Worth and Ames.
If they can navigate that with success, well then pay attention. Texas Tech has never won the conference championship, and the league started play in 1996. Could this be the year? Stay tuned. #WreckEm
TEXAS STATE
I guess the Bobcats can take the title from Baylor even after the Bears' brutal loss to Colorado last week. Texas State led 22-0 after the first quarter. 22-0! And they lost! Did they play an NBA game instead of football? That would make more sense to me. Those leads are never safe.
But credit the SHSU Bearkats, who are a really solid, traditionally strong program, and they dominated the final three quarters, outscoring the Bobcats 40-17 to win the game, 40-39, with the game-winning FG with six seconds left.
That’s two gut punches in back-to-back outings for G.J. Kinne’s team. They had their chances at home against Arizona State in early September and let that slip away, and then there was Saturday in Houston. That is having their football soul taken not just once, but twice.
They’ll try to rebound at Troy later this week. I’d normally say good luck with that, but the Trojans are only 1-4 this year. #EatEmUpCats
NOTES
Baylor head coach Dave Aranda might need whoopee cushions under any chair in which he sits this week. They’re gonna be getting hotter and hotter. Their first quarter was horrendous against BYU over the weekend. Now they did show some heart getting the deficit to within one score late, but never any closer. The Bears are 2-3 and face back-to-back road games at Iowa State and Texas Tech. That’s not exactly trending up, is it?
TCU won a big ballgame at Arrowhead Stadium over KU, 38-27. My KENS producer friend Molly, a Frog alumnus, gave ‘em no shot! Where ya at Molly, let’s go! TCU is 3-2.
And the Houston Cougars. These are the dark days for Coog Nation. They scored ZERO points at home, falling to Iowa State, 20-0. And with their remaining opponents TCU/KU/Utah/KSU/UA/BU/BYU, are we sure they’ll score any at all? Can we just get to college hoops for H-Town? They deserve it.
Looking forward to Week Six!
