Preseason Big 12 top-five teams Utah, Oklahoma St., Kansas and Arizona at bottom of league standings
AP Sports Writer
An early season matchup between Oklahoma State and Utah generated national attention and was touted as a possible Big 12 championship game preview.
League newcomer Utah was the conference favorite in the preseason media poll. Oklahoma State, with star running back Ollie Gordon II, was picked to finish third.
After running out to a 19-point lead, then-No. 12 Utah held on to beat the 14th-ranked Cowboys 22-19 in what seemed like a massive victory for coach Kyle Whittingham’s squad.
Neither team has won since.
Utah and Oklahoma State aren’t the only Big 12 teams slotted well below where media members who cover the league expected them to be. Kansas and Arizona — also picked to finish in the top five in the conference’s preseason poll — join Utah and Oklahoma State in occupying the bottom four spots in the 16-team league’s standings.
Utah has lost four straight games by a combined 30 points. Things don’t get easier this week — the Utes (4-4, 1-4) host No. 9 BYU (8-0, 5-0) on Saturday.
Oklahoma State is alone in last place heading into Saturday’s game at TCU. The Cowboys (3-6, 0-6) have lost six in a row and must win out to avoid a losing season. After playing TCU (5-4, 3-3), they close with Texas Tech (6-3, 4-2) and a much-improved Colorado (6-2, 4-1) squad.
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said the effort has been mostly good and his players have been focused. He’s annoyed by those who have questioned his team.
“In most cases, the people that are negative and voicing their opinion are the same ones that can’t pay their own bills,” Gundy said. “They’re not taking care of themselves. They’re not taking care of their own family. They’re not taking care of their own job. But they have an obligation to speak out and complain about others because it makes them feel better.
But then, in the end, when they go to bed at night, they’re the same failure that they were before they said anything negative about anybody else.”
Oklahoma State has dealt with several key injuries, most notably to defensive lineman Collin Oliver. An experienced offensive line has not opened as many holes for Gordon this year after he won the Doak Walker Award for the nation’s top running back last season. Gordon has had his moments this season, rushing for two touchdowns against BYU and Baylor and posting six total touchdowns in his past three games combined. Still, his overall numbers are down.
Now, Gundy’s 18-year bowl streak is in danger of ending. He remains confident, in part because he has won 169 games in 20 years leading the Cowboys.
“I think what’s important for all the Oklahoma State fans to know is that we’re very aware of what’s going on, and at some point in life, we all have to put trust into somebody,” he said. “And I think they need to trust that we have a good plan for what’s going on here in the big picture, and we have answers.”
Expectations were the highest in years at Kansas, but the Jayhawks lost five of their first six games, squandering late leads in all of them. They also blew a late lead in a last-second loss to Kansas State, leaving them 2-6 with games against No. 17 Iowa State (7-1, 4-1), BYU and No. 21 Colorado up next.
Quarterback Jalon Daniels turned the ball over at an incredible rate early in the season. The offense also struggled to produce after losing creative coordinator Andy Kotelnicki to Penn State. Lately, the defense has been unable to hold late leads.
The tough season comes at an especially bad time for Kansas (2-6, 1-4). The school is renovating its on-campus football stadium, and it still needs to drum up money from a fan base unhappy with the losing. It also has been playing conference home games at Arrowhead Stadium, and the empty seats have been multiplying with every loss, creating a dire look for a program that had been on the rise.
Arizona started its first season under coach Brent Brennan with huge expectations. The Wildcats opened the season No. 21 in the AP Top 25 and won three of their first four games.
Little has gone right during a five-game losing streak.
The defense, after making big strides a year ago, has taken a step back. Arizona (3-6, 1-5) struggled defensively at times early in the season and it has only gotten worse since linebacker Jacob Manu was lost for the season with a leg injury suffered against Colorado. The Wildcats are 106th nationally in scoring defense, allowing 31.1 points per game, and are giving up 393 yards per game, which is 97th nationally.
Quarterback Noah Fifita has been up and down after a stellar first season as starter a year ago. He has thrown for 2,324 yards with 13 touchdowns, but he also has 10 interceptions. Arizona hasn’t gotten much from its running game.
Preseason All-American receiver Tetairoa McMillan has been superb most of the season, leading the Big 12 with 63 catches and 1,066 yards with six touchdowns. But there hasn’t been much else for Arizona fans to cheer about.
“I think that the most important thing is that the players, the coaches — is that we stay together and we move forward together,” Brennan said. “I think that’s one of those things that gets hard to do after you lose games, and the outside world tries to pull them apart. But these players care about each other. They care about their coaches. That part of it is like, how much can we lean on each other, and find a way to move forward together?”
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AP Sports Writers John Marshall and Dave Skretta contributed to this report.
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