Did you miss me?
I've been out of pocket the last week or so (thanks to the nice folks at St. Francis Hospital for helping my wife deliver a healthy and happy baby boy -- even if he was a little early).
But now that mom and baby are home, I'm back on the blog and back in the office on football Saturday nights.
Per usual, there was no lack of excitement this week.
Here are a few quick observations from Week 2 of the season.
* By the end of the year, I may have to apologize about doubting Oklahoma State. I'm still not sold on the Cowboys defense, but Baylor is the only Big 12 team who has had as good a two weeks to start the season as OSU.
* The SI investigation into the OSU football program is going to make things pretty uncomfortable for Cowboys fans in the near term. Those in the know seem to think it's going to be pretty embarrassing. But here's my guess -- in the long term, what comes out will be worse for the individuals mentioned in the stories than the school itself.
* I have no more idea of what to make of Oklahoma than I did before the season started. The Sooners look to be in a full scale quarterback controversy, and those rarely work themselves out cleanly. Texas A&M lived with Johnny Manziel's on-field errors early last season while he developed. But the Aggies didn't have a veteran back-up like Blake Bell who some fans would be happy to see start instead of Trevor Knight.
* For two weeks, the Oklahoma defense appears to be vastly improved. Get back to me after the Baylor game.
* It wasn't pretty, but Tulsa did what it needed to do -- find a way to win a must-win game. A loss to Colorado State, and the Hurricane starts facing the possibility of a losing season. But Tulsa teams under Bill Blankenship are nothing if not resilient.
* Good for Carl Salazar to kick the game-winning field goal Saturday night for Tulsa. I got a chance to meet him during the Chamber kickoff luncheon. It couldn't have been an easy week after missing two short ones against Bowling Green. If you want to know how it feels to be a goat one week and a hero the next, please read John Hoover's excellent column on Salazar's game winner in Sunday's paper.
* Did I really pick Texas to win the Big 12? Shame on me. I should have known better -- I was in Dallas for Red River last year, after all. The Longhorns allowed 550 rushing yards in a loss to BYU on Saturday. Unbelievable. Now, I say there's a better chance Mack Brown isn't Texas' coach next year than there is of the Longhorns winning the Big 12 this year.
* For the second straight week, the SEC lost a high-profile out-of-conference matchup -- Miami knocked off Florida this week after Clemson handled Georgia a week ago. Does this mean the big, bad SEC is losing its grip on college football? Probably not. But it will be an interesting trend to follow the rest of the season.
* I got a pretty hearty laugh out of Washington State 10, USC 7 late Saturday night. Mike Leach looked like he didn't even know a game had taken place during the post-game TV interview. Speaking of coaches who won't be at their current school next year -- USC's Lane Kiffin, come on down.
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