Big 12 Bookend: Where’s the Real McCoy?

September 24th, 2009 by James Lawrence

ColtMcCoy3-1 Texas fans and Colt McCoy (pictured left, thanks Icon SMI) owners will breathe a sigh of relief to hear that his lackluster play may in part be attributable to a weeklong bout with the flu. McCoy overcame his game time symptoms like a man – with peanut butter & jelly sandwiches at halftime – and can probably lay off the Pedialyte from here out. Jordan Shipley had yet another big night, but two noteworthy developments happened at WR/TE with Dan Buckner actually leading the team in yards receiving and at RB with Tre Newton getting 20 carries for 88 yards and a score. Buckner is the kind of big target that drove a lot of defenses crazy last season when facing the likes of Oklahoma, Ok State, or Missouri. While he won’t be putting up Gresham-like numbers, Buckner looks like a solid #2 target in a pass-first offense. Newton became the RB of choice over the course of the game, and could help Texas establish a bit more balance in an offense that perhaps has leaned too heavily on one man’s arm.

Officially, Taylor Potts is for real. After throwing for 420 yards and 3 TDs against one of the conference’s top defenses, it’s safe to expect Potts to have a big week every week. Lyle Leong was Tech’s leading receiver, after coming just 6 yards shy of that in week 2; meaning another strong fantasy play.

Missouri’s offensive woes from week 2 were remedied by a visit from FCS opponent Furman.

QB Todd Reesing looking for an open receiver (thanks Icon SMI)

Kansas’ dynamic duo of Todd Reesing (338 yds, 3 TD) and Dezmon Briscoe (117 yds, 1 TD) had a strong performance against lowly Duke.

It’s early, but something may be going wrong with the Oklahoma State offense. Zac Robinson threw for just 227 yards and 2 TD, while Keith Toston was held to 75 yards rushing in place of injured Kendall Hunter. While the offense has looked out of sync all season, Dez Bryant continues to be a strong fantasy performer, this time hauling in 161 yards and both of Robinson’s TD tosses.

In a surprisingly close game with Utah State, Texas A&M quarterback Jerrod Johnson was the game’s top performer with 322 yards passing, 4 TDs, and 78 yards rushing on top of that. This was not an efficient outing (51% completion), but the numbers were big nonetheless. Uzoma Nwachukwu was the Aggies’ leading receiver, making the most of his 3 receptions to score on every catch!

The Baylor Fighting Robert Griffins were held to a shockingly low offensive performance against UConn. After beating Wake Forest on the road, and after how close the game was in Connecticut last season, I expected the Bears to roll at home. Instead, I’m wondering if the offense has actually regressed (I had expected a better outing against Wake, despite the fact that they did narrowly win it).

Just when you thought Colorado could be the worst team in the Big 12, Kansas State goes and loses back-to-back games against LA Lafayette and UCLA. Losing a road game to the Bruins isn’t the worst thing in the world, but for the offense to be completely shut down after not having good outings against UMass or LA Lafayette probably means the season is already doomed to failure. Daniel Thomas is the only player on this team worth keeping, and that’s debatable considering they’ll face 8-9 men in the box all season.

Week 4′s Potential Big Numbers

Missouri travels to Nevada, a defense that was already scorched by Jimmy Clausen for 4 TDs earlier this season and struggled to slow down Colorado State’s offense! Expect more big things from Blaine Gabbert and his top target Jared Perry.

Kansas faces a surprisingly stout Southern Mississippi team that has started the season 3-0. By all means Reesing and Briscoe are playable, but if you have similar caliber players facing cupcakes you might want to start them instead.

For all of Oklahoma State’s struggles with consistency, they are facing Grambling State. As of now, Kendall Hunter is day-to-day and even if he is healthy enough to play, the Pokes might not leave him in for long in a game that they will easily win without him. Robinson should be able to get things going this week – unless his hamstring injury in the offseason was more serious than we know and he is still recovering (I’m grasping a bit to try to figure out the offensive struggles) – but almost regardless of how he fares, Dez Bryant should be in for a monster week.

If Texas has looked a little out of sync on offense so far, they should be looking to right that when UTEP visits on Saturday. This week is followed by a bye and then a full leap into the conference part of the schedule, so I expect a strong performance in perparation of that — meaning McCoy, Shipley, and possibly Newton and Buckner, are good starts.

Jerrod Johnson has put up big numbers through two games, and I expect that to continue against UAB this week. We’ll get to see more of the true quality of this Aggie offense when they face Arkansas in their 4th game — until then, let the cupcake points keep rolling!

Northwestern State is of particularly low quality, even for a non-FBS school. Start Robert Griffin if you have him. If he doesn’t put up the numbers you want against this kind of opponent, there’s not much point in keeping him on your team, sadly.

For Roy Helu to rack up 169 yards on the ground against Virginia Tech is impressive. He’s a lock to have one of the better (probably the best) rushing week of Big 12 backs, as the Huskers face LA Lafayette. Zac Lee should get back on track against this secondary as well.

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