First it’s Graham Harrell vs. Colt McCoy. Next it’s Graham Harrell vs. Chatfield High School graduate Zac Robinson.
Yes, the Big 12’s round-robin king-of-the-hill quarterback competition returns to Lubbock, Texas, again Saturday night. The wildest division race in conference history continues with a West Texas gunslinger against the cool, madly efficient underdog from the Denver suburbs.
Harrell’s Texas Tech Red Raiders, who jumped to No. 2 in Sunday’s BCS rankings, are halfway through their Murderer’s Row of four straight ranked teams. Next is Robinson’s Oklahoma State Cowboys, No. 8 in the Associated Press poll and No. 9 in the BCS, with the world watching.
Again.
Texas Tech’s made-for-shlocky- TV-movie 39-33 win over top-ranked Texas made the Red Raiders 9-0 for the first time since 1938. But for all of Harrell’s gaudy numbers — 3,621 yards, 71 percent passing, 30 touchdowns — Robinson is second nationally in pass efficiency and tops the quarterback stable that is the Big 12. He’s 129-for-187 for 2,082 yards with 20 touchdowns and five interceptions for a ranking of 192.5, trailing only Tulsa’s David Johnson.
Robinson beefed up his stats by filleting the sieve that is Iowa State with 395 yards and five touchdowns in a 59-17 romp. (Note to CU coach Dan Hawkins: If you can’t top two touchdowns against these guys Saturday at home, hold a campus-wide quarterback tryout.)
Robinson threw TDs of 80 yards and 95 yards and would have had another for 70 if backup receiver Bo Bowling hadn’t let up on a flea-flicker bomb in which no Cyclone was within a time zone of him. Robinson had never thrown a 95-yard TD pass.
But he caught one longer. He was a junior at Chatfield.
“We were on our 2-yard line,” Robinson told reporters after the game. “It was almost identical (a slant pass) but it was on the right side. It was against Fort Collins.”
Robinson’s numbers aren’t neon enough to get him into Heisman talk. Harrell’s are. So did this — driving Texas Tech 62 yards in six plays in the final 1:29.
“As a quarterback, that’s what you live for — a chance to bring your team back down the stretch against a great team,” Harrell told reporters after the game. “If you’re a quarterback and you don’t want to be in that situation, you should probably change positions.”
Didn’t want to say it, but . . .
I told you so. Texas’ Achilles’ heel is its secondary. It proved it on the last two plays Saturday night. Blake Gideon, a true freshman starting at safety, dropped an easy interception on Tech’s final drive. The next play, Harrell threw the pass heard around the college football world. Cornerback Curtis Brown didn’t turn around fast enough on the sideline strike, allowing Michael Crabtree to turn it into a winning 28-yard TD with one second left. The Longhorns are 80th in pass efficiency defense.
The road to Kansas City.
The Texas win won’t mean much if Texas Tech doesn’t beat Oklahoma State, then Oklahoma on the road the following week. If both beat Texas Tech, the Big 12 South title — and possibly the inside track to a BCS title berth — will likely be on the line Nov. 29 when Oklahoma plays at Oklahoma State. The Big 12 tiebreaker is the BCS rankings.
Slip, slipping away.
In the Southeastern Conference, where coaches would have week-to-week contracts if fans had their way, two stalwarts sound as if the inevitable is near.
Auburn (4-5) lost its fourth straight for the first time since Tommy Tub- erville’s first year in 1999, this time to a Mississippi team that was favored, which is indictment enough. The previous week, legendary ex-coach Pat Dye hinted that the Tigers all but quit in their 34-17 drubbing at West Virginia.
“What happens at the end of the year happens,” Tuberville said after Saturday’s 17-7 loss, “and there’s nothing anybody can do about it.”
Last week, the Knoxville News-Sentinel reported Phil Fulmer would be fired if he lost six games. Saturday’s 27-6 loss to South Carolina put the Volunteers at 3-6 and 1-5 in the SEC. Asked after the game what he’d tell Volunteer fans, Fulmer told the media, “I think you’ve probably said about all that needs to be said.”
K-State defenseless.
Yes, it happened. Kansas State does have a worse defense than it did a year ago when it gave up the most points — 198 — in a four-game stretch in school history. Its total defense has dropped from 400.58 (69th nationally) to 444.67 (108th), scoring defense from 30.83 (86th) to 33.67 (107th) and turnover margin from plus .33 (33rd) to minus 1.22 (114th).
