This week's installment of our weekley Big 12 Roundtable is hosted by Rock M Nation. Check later in the week for consolidated results. Below are Clone Chronicles' answers:
1. The game between Texas Tech and Texas got the Big 12 in the national eye early in the season. If your team was approached with this opportunity (or for Tech and Texas, approached again), would you accept and reap the benefits of the exposure, or decline because of the potential pitfalls of playing a conference foe so early in the season?
I am all for playing a conference opponent early. ISU currently doesn’t schedule a bye week during the season, and playing the 8 conference games all in a row can be rough. I wouldn’t mind getting a game over with earlier in the year, if then later in the year there would be a relatively easy non-conference game in the middle, to give the team confidence going into the last several weeks of the Big 12 season. This is going to benefit Miami a lot as they knocked off a 2 ACC foes early
2. Some of the Big 12 teams are starting to become known quantities, but there are still a few teams that most of us can't quite measure. Which team in the Big 12 do you consider the biggest enigma right now?
Missouri. Are they rebuilding or have they reloaded? They stumbled against Bowling Green which I found suprising, but have looked good otherwise. That Thursday night game against Nebraska coming soon is going to tell me a lot about that team.
3. What did you learn about your team in Week 3, and what questions has your team failed to answer at this point of the season?
That we can beat teams we are supposed to beat on the road. The questions that I do not know is can ISU’s front four make an impact on the game? They haven’t done much in the way of sacks and tackles and will need to in order to win some Big 12 games. Also is the running game for real? Alexander Robinson is almost halfway to last year’s rushing total already, and ISU is averaging 5.6 yards/carry in 2009 thus far vs. 4.0 yards/carry in 2008.
4. There aren't exactly a whole lot of marquee matchups in Week 4. Which Big 12 game this week not involving your team piques your interest the most?
Southern Miss vs. Kansas. On the surface it doesn’t seem like a great game, but I think Southern Miss has the talent of a Top 25 team, and this game is going to tell me a lot about this team. I also think that Texas Tech at Houston will be interesting as Tech doesn’t play all that well away from home, and if they do, this will likely be a shootout.
5. Give us your Offensive Player of the Week, Defensive Player of the Week, and Surprise (team, individual, coaching decision, etc. Whatever you want it to be...) of the Week.
Offensive POW: Dez Bryant, WR, OSU – 9 catches, 161 yards, 2 TDs
Defensive POW: Ryan Reynolds, LB, OU – 13 tackles, 2 sacks
Suprise of the Week: Texas Tech playing Texas close
6. Power Poll! Rank the teams from 1-12 based on which team would win on a neutral field
- Texas
- Oklahoma
- Oklahoma State
- Kansas
- Nebraska
- Texas Tech
- Missouri
- Texas A&M
- Baylor
- Iowa State
- Kansas State
- Colorado