Two important Big 12 non-conference games and Colorado makes plans for the ski season

Another nail was driven into the coffin of Dan Hawkins Thursday night as his Colorado team dropped to 1-3 in non conference play after a 35-24 loss to West Virginia.  The Mountaineers ran all over the Buffs for 220 yards. Hawkins had stated “10 wins no excuses” before the season.  His team would have to run the table, win the Big 12 and a bowl game to do that now.

Before the conference games go into full swing next week, there are still a couple of interesting Non-con games this weekend.  Let’s focus on a couple of them, first Oklahoma.  The Sooners have rebounded fro their season opening loss to BYU to win two in a row and blank both opponents.

Freshman QB Landry Jones has filled in nicely for the injured Sam Bradford, but this week the talent level is a step higher in Miami and the game is on the road.  The Hurricanes are licking their wounds after a tail whipping in Blacksburg at the hands of Virginia Tech.  A week removed from a top ten ranking, they re looking for redemption.

Sooner coach Bob Stoops has already ruled Bradford out as starter Saturday, but he might be available for emergency duty.  Oklahoma gets a chance with this game toprove whether or not they’re still national championship contenders or a step down on the next rung of the ladder.  It’ll be interesting to see how Jones responds in a hostile environment, but I’m picking the Sooners.  they’ve had two weeks to prepare for this one.

Texas A&M is a surprising 3-0 and tangles with Arkansas Saturday night in the new Cowboys stadium in Dallas.  This would be the most impressive win in Mike Sherman’s tenure at College Station even though the Razorbacks haven’t performed up tho expectations so far this year.  They’re 1-2, with losses to Georgia and Alabama. 

The Aggies have averaged 244 yards rushing against a fairly weak schedule to date.  They’ll need to pound it against Arkansas and keep the ball out of the hands of Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett.  Mallett has thrown the ball for almost 300 yards per game and put 41 points on the board in the loss to the Bulldogs.  I think we’ll see a lot of points Saturday night and Arkansas will find a way to win in the end against an Aggie defense that won’t be able to slow Mallett down..