Every Tuesday, CN will present nominations for the Big 12 Cob Of The Week. The COTW represents the worst performances around the Big 12, whether they be by a coach, team, fans, players, cheerleaders, you have it.
Last week's Cob of the Week winner was ESPN's announcing crew that didn't know who Zac Lee was. They barely edged out Colorado's coaching staff - being nominated for throwing the ball 42 times against Colorado State. Now Colorado's in an even worse world of hurt... funny how a week can change things.
Here's this week's nominations:
Jlew:
My nomination for the week goes not to the the Missouri Tigers Football team, but to the numerous people in the media, and on the blogs that put a rebuilding Tiger team on a pedestal. This was led by Jason Whitlock's ridiculous article, but too many people followed along as well.
Suddenly Missouri was the team to beat in the B12 North, rated in the top 25, and Gabbert was better than Daniel, hell he was better than Elway! Well this is what happens when you base too much on a single win, over a team nobody knows anything about. At half against Bowling Green, a team picked to finish 5th in the East Division of the Mid-Atlantic Conference, and was a19-point dog, Gabbert's stats were 11 of 22 passing for 48 yards; five rushes for 1 yard, 1 lost fumble, and 1 sack. Missouri doesn't get the cob nomination because they righted the ship and won, but maybe some of this hype will settle down for a week or two.
Husker Mike:
Let's start with the Colorado Buffaloes. Actually, where do I start? Their defense gave up 624 yards and 54 points to a Toledo Rockets squad that was ranked 84th last season in total offense and 94th in scoring offense. The one bright spot of the game for Colorado was Darrell Scott, who rushed 12 times for 85 yards early on before being pulled from the game to allow Cody Hawkins to complete a blistering 47% of his passes and only four interceptions. In the waning moments of the game, rather than get a backup quarterback into the game, Hawkins was left to finish out the game. Late in the 4th quarter, Hawkins dived into the end zone for a meaningless touchdown, taking a hard shot to the head, and then wobbly headed straight for the Bat Cave. Great googily moogily, are the Buffies playing bad and being coached worse.
Then when you think the Big XII couldn't look even worse, Kansas State gave Bill Snyder a five-year, $10 million contract. Then to celebrate, Snyder took his team to Lafayette, Louisiana and promptly lost 17-15 to the Ragin' Caguns. Senior running back Undrea Sails rushed for 78 yards (1 yard more than his total for the entire 2008 season) and a touchdown. If Snyder is going to repeat his miracle, he'll likely need all five years on that contract.
Yours Truly:
At least they left me with Mike Gundy and the Oklahoma State Cowboys. I have to admit, though, it's hard justifying their nomination. Why? Because their upset loss to Houston isn't anything out of the ordinary - it's just Oklahoma State being Oklahoma State.
Whenever I think of the Cowboys, I have to recall a childhood favorite, The Little Engine That Could. It isn't that Oklahoma State is the The Little Engine That Couldn't - it's more like they're never going to run out of energy (It's a veiled T. Boone Pickens joke! Get it... T. Boone. Wind. Energy. Money. Ok, moving on....) so they keep chugging away, huffing and puffing up that mountain. Every time they think they've reached the peak, it turns out to be nothing more than a big hill they couldn't see over and another bigger rise awaits them.
Mike Gundy plays a cowboy enginer driving the train and looking like you did when you were five, complete in cowboy outfit, with a little fake six-shooter going "Bang! Bang!". I loved that cap gun.... you had one, right? No?
There are your nominations - caste your vote for this week's winner of the Big 12 Cob of the Week.