Dirty Dozen Rankings - Week 2

Our weekly rankings of all Big 12 teams. The first game of the non-conference season has been played, and we've had some upsets and some key injuries. The teams are ranked based on where I think  they are right now in the season. Previous weeks rankings are in parenthesis. As always, comments and criticism are welcome.

1. Oklahoma State(2): Win over Georgia made Big 12 look good.
2. texas(3): Vondrell McGee looked better than I expected, but where is the pass rush?
3. Missouri(10): Proved me wrong by beating Illinois. Gabbert can become something special.
4. Nebraska(4): Solid win over a bowl-winning team in FAU.
5. Oklahoma(1): Sorry, sorry, sorry showing against BYU, even before Bradford's injury.
6. Kansas(5): Ho-hum, Fighting Manginos blow out a cupcake.
7. Baylor(9):   Impressive win over Wake Forest causes Baylor to move up in the rankings.        
8. Texas A&M(7): Despite their dominant win over UNM, A&M drops because of OL concerns.
9. Texas Tech(6): Potts had over 300 yds passing, as I predicted, but also had 3 INTs.
10. Kansas State(11): Only moved up because Colorado really was that bad.
11. Colorado(8): The only reason they aren't last is because I don't like Iowa State's run defense.
12. Iowa State(12): Hope they enjoyed their win; they will be few and far between this season.

Notes: Like I predicted last week, Oklahoma State had enough offense to outscore Georgia; more importantly, though, their defense held Georgia in check, too, although some of that was self-inflicted on UGA's part, due to Joe Cox's sucknificence...... Vondrell McGee looked better than I expected, running hard and giving texas the look of a rushing attack. The emergence of D.J. Monroe, a David Allen clone, at RB and PR/KR gives Greg Davis another weapon to play with. However, their pass rush was non-existent; they had no sacks against Louisiana-Monroe. I guess someone gave their offensive line a GPS? Sergio Kindle was a virtual non-factor, with only 2 tackles..... Blaine Gabbert and Missouri proved me wrong, playing well enough to shoort seven spots up the rankings. They didn't just put a whipping on a more experienced Illinois team, they didn't break a sweat doing it. Gary Pinkel may have actually built a program that is substainable past any one star QB in Columbia....Nebraska got their running game going against FAU, with Roy Helu averaging over 9 yds per carry. Those kind of numbers probably a made a lot of Husker fans' football pants go crazy.....Oklahoma's offensive line was putrid with Bradford on the field, and his injury only showed what a poor job Stoops & Co. did preparing depth at the QB position......Kansas was up only 28-3 before piling on three TDs in the fourth quarter to make the margin of victory look better. We'll get a better read on the Fighting Manginos after they play UTEP this Saturday.....The rebuilding in Waco may be progressing faster than we thought, as Baylor notched an impressive win over Wake Forest. With games against UConn, Northwestern St, and Kent State remaining in non-conference, the Bears may start the season 4-0 for the first time since 1991. Some of Baylor's students weren't even born then.......The Aggies win over New Mexico was surprisingly dominant, which would normally mean a jump in the DDR. However, the Aggies still have major question marks on the offensive line, which the move of Shumard back to left tackle underscored.....Texas Tech was sloppy and had too many turnovers against a I-AA team....Kansas State struggled to hold off UMass at the end. Really? This just goes to show you how far the Wildcats have to go to get back to respectability under Snyder.....Colorado looked like the coaches just rolled out the footballs and told the guys to go play last Saturday. They looked disorganized, and looked like they hadn't received any coaching. Dan Hawkins seems to be adamant about going down in flames with his son as the starting QB......I really struggled with putting Iowa State below Colorado, simply because Colorado was so unimpressive on Sunday. However, I think State's lack of a run defense (NDSU had 210 yds rushing on 38 carries for 5.5 yds per carry) will be their undoing against Iowa, and many other teams they will face this season.