Big 12 Conference Recap Week 1 – Rattle and Hum Sports

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A recap of the action in the Big 12 Conference week 1

Each week we will be compiling game stories from all the Big 12 Conference action in one place for our readers. Week one went as expected, as all the Big 12 schools were victorious against inferior non-conference opponents. The stories of the day were the 84 points Oklahoma State hung on Savannah State, the Oklahoma Sooners surviving a scare from UTEP and West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith announcing his presence in the Big 12 as a Heisman Trophy candidate.

Baylor will host SMU in Waco Sunday at 5:30pm central time. The game will be televised on FSN.

TCU was idle this week and will open their season next Saturday against Grambling State in front of a sellout crowd at the newly remodeled Amen Carter Stadium.

West Virginia Mountaineers

West Virgina 69 Marshall 34

The Sports Network

Geno Smith threw for 323 yards and four touchdowns and added another score on the ground, as the 11th-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers started the season with a 69-34 rout of the Marshall Thundering Herd.

Smith completed 32-of-36 passes and carried the ball eight times for 65 yards for the Mountaineers (1-0), who racked up 655 yards of total offense. Paul Millard also threw a touchdown pass.

Shawne Alston carried the ball 16 times for 123 yards and two touchdowns for West Virginia, which played its first game as a member of the Big 12 Conference. Stedman Bailey led the receiving corps with nine catches for 104 yards and two scores.

Rakeem Cato connected on 38-of-54 passes for 413 yards, two touchdowns and an interception for the Thundering Herd (0-1). Travon Van carried the ball 16 times for 38 yards and two scores.

Iowa State Cyclones

Iowa State 38 Tulsa 23

The Sports Network

Shontrelle Johnson tallied a career-high 120 rushing yards as the Iowa State Cyclones took care of business against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, 38-23, at Jack Trice Stadium.

Steele Jantz completed 32-of-45 passes for 281 yards and added three total touchdowns for the Cyclones (1-0). Josh Lenz finished with eight receptions for 96 yards and a score.

Cody Green threw for 198 yards and two touchdowns but also tossed two interceptions for Tulsa (0-1). Trey Watts gained 125 yards on the ground and Bryan Burnham led all receivers in catches with nine.

ISU got off to a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter when Jantz connected on a 43-yard touchdown strike to Lenz.

After pinning the Cyclones deep in their own territory, Tulsa recorded a safety to get on the scoreboard, 7-2.

The Golden Hurricane took a 10-7 lead on the ensuing drive thanks a one-yard touchdown run from Ja’Terian Douglas and a successful two-point conversion attempt.

Just before the close of the first quarter, Green hooked up with Thomas Roberson on a six-yard touchdown pass to extend Tulsa’s lead, though the extra point was blocked.

Jantz ran in a five-yard touchdown with 11:55 left in the second quarter to bring the Cyclones to within two, 16-14.

Following a Tulsa three-and-out, ISU regained the lead on a seven-yard touchdown reception by Ernst Brun from Jantz.

Edwin Arceo added a 30-yard field goal just before the half to extend the Cyclones’ lead to 24-16.

The Cyclones added to their advantage at the 5:08 mark of the third quarter on a six-yard touchdown run by James White.

Tulsa brought its deficit back to one score, 31-23, following a four-yard touchdown catch by Keyarris Garrett from Green with under 10 minutes to play in the game.

ISU put the game out of reach late in the fourth quarter with a five-yard touchdown run by Johnson.

Both teams gained 160 yards on the ground, though Tulsa fumbled the ball four times and lost possession once.

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Texas Tech 44 Northwest Louisiana 6

Associated Press

Eric Stephens ran for two touchdowns to lead Texas Tech over Northwestern State 44-6 on Saturday night.

Stephens, back after a season-ending knee injury last year, finished with 58 yards on 16 carries.

The Red Raiders did what they wanted against Northwestern State (0-1). The defense succeeded in shutting down the Demons rushing game and quarterback Seth Doege led Texas Tech on scoring drives on five of eight possessions.

Doege completed 23 of 34 passes for one touchdown and 199 yards. He threw one interception and completed passes to at least 10 receivers. Bradley Marquez led Texas Tech with 92 yards on seven receptions.

Demons quarterback Brad Henderson completed 10 of 19 passes for 70 yards. They got only 84 total yards.

It was the first win for the Red Raiders since Oct. 22, when they stunned then-No. 3 Oklahoma to break the Sooners 39-game win streak in Norman.

Oklahoma State Cowboys

Oklahoma State 84 Savannah State 0

The Sports Xchange

Oklahoma State went from having the oldest quarterback in college football to the youngest.

And in the transition, didn’t miss a beat, at least not in a mismatched opener, an 84-0 romp past Savannah State at Boone Pickens Stadium.

True freshman Wes Lunt, taking over for Brandon Weeden, kept OSU’s offense humming, starting his career with 11 straight completions before exiting in the second quarter to make way for the backups.

Lunt, an 18-year-old rookie from Rochester, Ill., had the Cowboys’ no-huddle, spread attack running at the fast and efficient pace so familiar under Weeden, who was 28 as a senior last fall and is now considered an “old” rookie with the Cleveland Browns. Lunt led scoring drives on each of his four first-quarter possessions, throwing for 129 yards with his 11-for-11 passing performance.

The running game was dominant as well, with Joseph Randle,Jeremy Smith and Desmond Roland combining for 293 yards and eight touchdowns – a school record for rushing touchdowns in a game.

The Tigers were playing up in class, making the jump from the FCS level, and it showed.

Savannah State managed only eight first downs and 139 total yards, most of it coming against OSU deep reserves in the second half.

Tigers quarterback Antonio Bostick finished 12-of-25 passing for 81 yards and was intercepted twice. Alex Simmons led Tigers rushers with 36 yards on seven carries.

After one quarter, the rout was already on, as the Cowboys had more points than Savannah State had yards: 35-15.

OSU scored on its first five possessions, with running backs Randle and Smith finishing each drive. Randle had scoring runs of 2 and 40, while Smith went in from the 6, 2 and 1.

Desmond Roland - the Cowboys’ third-team back – only continued the production and punishment, scoring two more touchdowns on the ground, pushing the score to the halftime lead of 49-0.

Kansas State Wildcats

Kansas State 51 Missouri State 9

The Sports Network

John Hubert carried the ball 12 times for 152 yards, including a 95-yard touchdown burst, as No. 22 Kansas State bounced back from a sluggish first half to rout Missouri State, 51-9, on Saturday at Bill Snyder Stadium.

The Wildcats (1-0) held a slim 9-6 lead at halftime, but got touchdown runs from Hubert, Daniel Sams and Braden Wilson in the second half to run away with the victory.

Sams finished with 61 yards on three carries, while Wilson carried the ball twice for nine yards.

Collin Klein was effective under center, going 19-of-28 for 169 yards and two touchdowns, while also rushing 12 times for 59 yards for Kansas State, which finished 10-3 a season ago and lost in the Cotton Bowl to Arkansas.

Missouri transfer Ashton Glaser got his first start at quarterback for Missouri State (0-1), completing half of his 44 passes for 249 yards and one interception.

Vernon Scott rushed for 69 yards on 11 carries, while Dorian Buford hauled in seven passes for 109 yards for the Bears, who struggled to a 2-9 mark last season.

Texas Longhorns

Texas 37 Wyoming 17

Associated Press

Joe Bergeron and Malcolm Brown both rushed for more than 100 yards and combined for three touchdowns, leading No. 15 Texas to a 37-17 win over Wyoming on Saturday night.

Texas quarterback David Ash, who won the starting job over Case McCoy in training camp, was an efficient 20-of-27 passing for 156 yards and a touchdown to Jaxon Shipley.

Bergeron had 110 yards and scored Texas’ first touchdown on a 1-yard run in first quarter. He put the game away with a 17-yard TD in the fourth. Brown ran for 105 yards for Texas (1-0).

Robert Herron had touchdown catches of 82 and 22 yards for Wyoming (0-1). Cowboys quarterback Brett Smith passed for 276 yards but threw two interceptions in the second quarter that set up Texas touchdowns.

Kansas Jayhawks

Kansas 37 South Dakota State 17

Associated Press

Tony Pierson rushed for two touchdowns, Dayne Crist connected with former Notre Dame teammate Mike Ragone on a short touchdown pass, and Kansas launched the Charlie Weis era Saturday night with a 31-17 victory over South Dakota State.

Weis, a winner of three Super Bowls as a key assistant coach at New England and former head coach at Notre Dame, brings his considerable prestige to a program that won just five games the previous two seasons and ranked dead last in defense among major colleges last year.

His first game started with a jolt. Zach Zenner gave the Jackrabbits a 7-0 lead with a school-record 99-yard run.

Crist, who was recruited to Notre Dame by Weis and played for him until Weis was fired in 2009, was 17 for 36 for 169 yards. Pierson rushed for 124 yards and scored on runs of 3 and 47 yards.

The Jayhawks held a 24-7 lead with 5:29 left in the third after Crist tossed a 2-yard TD pass to tight end Ragone. But the Jackrabbits scored 10 straight points in the fourth quarter on Austin Sumner’s 22-yard scoring pass to Tyler Kool and Justin Syrovatka’s 25-yard field goal.

After Kansas’ second possession, Ben Heeney downed a punt on the South Dakota State 1, putting huge pressure on the Jackrabbit offense.

But Zenner, who won the starting running back job in spring training, popped through a big hole up the middle, brushed off one would-be tackler and unfurled the longest run in South Dakota State’s 115-year football history. Safety Bradley McDougald gave chase but stayed about 5 yards behind the 215-pound Zenner as they sprinted down the field.

Crist, just two days short of one year since he last started a game for Notre Dame, showed poise and a strong arm. On the initial play of the game, he hooked up with a wide openKale Pick for a 43-yard gain. But on third-and-8 from the 17, he overthrew Ragone in the end zone and then Ron Doherty missed a 35-year-old field goal attempt. Crist, who earned his degree in management at Notre Dame in December, overthrew receivers in the end zone three times before Kansas settled for a 10-7 halftime lead.

Pierson boosted the lead to 17-7 when he bolted up the middle, juked defensive back Bo Helm and scored on a 47-yard run.

McDougald had two interceptions for the Jayhawks.

Oklahoma Sooners

Oklahoma 24 UTEP 7

Associated Press

Landry Jones threw two touchdown passes and Damien Williams ran 65 yards for another score in the fourth quarter, helping No. 4 Oklahoma slog out a 24-7 win over Texas-El Paso on Saturday night.

Oklahoma labored in its opener, unable to generate much of a running game or get anything downfield.

Up just 10-7 in the fourth quarter, the Sooners stuffed UTEP on a fake punt to set up an 18-yard touchdown pass from Jones to Brannon Green and Williams sealed it late with his long run.

The 30-point underdog Miners weren’t intimidated by the mighty Sooners, the highest-ranked team they had faced at home.

Nathan Jeffrey ran for 177 yards and returned a blocked punt 24 yards for a touchdown for UTEP, which also had a blocked field goal to remain tied with Oklahoma at the half.

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