Cowboys Shoot Down Big Brand Longhorns; Wazzu Outshoots Stanford

No one doubts who three of the top four teams are gonna be when the College Football Playoff's Selection Committee sends out their first puffs of white smoke this coming week.

Alabama, Clemson, and Notre Dame.

The scramble happens after that, a sorta refreshing chaos where nobody's safe.

 

The Texas Longhorns are wondering that right now.

The second-richest program in all of college football with a name recognition to match can't even lean on the latter after Oklahoma State capitalized on 'Horns' miscues to post a 38-35 upset:

 

Damn. Hard to believe Texas is still the master of its own fate in the conference title chase.

Especially with a team defense ranked No 48 in the FBS. Only TCU seems to take that side of the ball seriously, but that's not helping them all that much this season.

 

Speaking of ...

Coach Herman. Really?

 

Cowboys' coach Mike Gundy knew better than that because he's a man who's now 'way past 40.

 

The net effect of this game will be Oklahoma solidifying Texas as the Big XII's great last hope to make the Anointed Four. Too bad about that Red River result, though.

Meanwhile, out farther west, there are four Pac-12 teams with better defensive stats than TCU.

 

That's right, because everyone knows the West Coast is too suave and debonair to take smashmouth football seriously.

 

A mere eyeballing of Washington State's 41-38 road victory at Stanford would seem to confirm this.

Wazzu's No 19 in FBS total defense and Stanford's having a down year, ranked No 80. However, when the Cardinal had to do something to keep up with Big XII refugee Mike Leach's weekly aerial show, KJ Costello & Co rose to the occasion.

Thing is, the Cougs don't mind, because they're better at that sorta thing:

 

Leach doesn't mince words when he assesses the skills of Gardner Minshew II, either:

 

That's because Leach is making good on his recruiting promise to the East Carolina grad transfer:

How’d you like to come and lead the country in passing yards?

 

Being real, a team like Washington State can never take anything for granted, but dudes are in control of their destiny in the competitive Pac-12 North.

They're also the conference's only one-loss squad.

The Cougs get their day in the sun every so often, but neither they nor the Pac-12 get much due from the Committee.

 

But what the hell. Win the conference and they're in the Rose Bowl.

Many in the West still think that's a better deal, anyway.