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Big 12 nInsider James Westling checks in.
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00:01and now digging deeper with the teams you follow it's another sports daily insider interview on
00:08kfh and that insider interview right now james wesling covers the big 12 each and every week
00:16and is our big 12 insider you can find him on the calls espn nbc find him on big 12
00:23today tune in
00:24radio james how are we going into week four you in the groove yet yeah i feel like this past
00:31weekend
00:32was pretty rock solid for the big 12 um you know the only non-conference game that the league lost
00:40was colorado west virginia picking up a top 25 win definitely helps i thought kansas state looked once
00:47again you know that that was a spot for k state that historically has been rough on the cats this
00:53is a spot for everybody where you're just ready for for league play you've had the two cupcakes and
01:01usually teams get upset so just the fact that you know kansas state was able to kind of bounce back
01:06from a rocky first quarter i thought was was really good and they weren't the only team in the big
01:1112
01:11a lot of teams in the league kind of started out that way uh and then picked it up in
01:15the second
01:16half so so that was good to see yeah james talking about k state i think one thing that i'm
01:21just
01:22noticing more and more and we noticed it during the first two games but again like you mentioned
01:25a little easier time with those two uh schools as opposed to tulane who's still showing that
01:31you know new coaching staff and stuff they're still showing that uh a lot of that legacy from before and
01:36kind of the things that they've established over the last few years are still there but i think the
01:40biggest thing that i noticed compared to last year is that they just don't panic i feel like last year
01:47when things went wrong they snowballed really really fast and one mistake really led to another
01:52and this year i credit credit the easier schedule to start things out and maybe credit uh coach klein
01:59just kind of having that really calm demeanor that really just seems to that everybody seems to follow
02:04along with and and uh take note of yeah i i think it's all calling klein the the way the
02:11team just
02:11kind of embodies his personality he's very matter of fact and even his sideline interviews during the
02:20k-state tulane game he he just looked confident and there's no panic with this team and i think we've
02:27seen that even from his quarterback avery johnson i mean last year avery would make a mistake and it
02:33would compound in two more mistakes and one thing that was really encouraging to me was there was a
02:40play in the two lane game where he hit drawn tibbs right between the numbers the one and the two
02:45on
02:46the chest and it was dropped and then on the next drive avery bounced back and kansas state marched
02:51down the field and they scored a touchdown moments like that we didn't see last year we saw things
02:56unravel and so that tells me that you know colin klein when you listen to him speak about avery i
03:03think
03:03something they're working on is injecting him with confidence and that is something that you need
03:10from your coaches and your quarterback and there's just a swagger about this k-state team and it's it's
03:18not real loud and obnoxious and rah rah look at me but they just seem confident to me like they
03:24never felt
03:25like they were in any danger of losing that game and that's huge especially when you open up big 12
03:30play
03:31for like the billionth year in a row on the road against the tough cincinnati team who's kind of
03:37underrated at three you know like that's another kind of trap game spot for k-state but i i think
03:42they'll be dialed in well let's talk let's just talk about that game then because it looks like the
03:48looks like the game of the week in the conference going into week four unless i'm missing one or you
03:53have a different take on it i i think it's a pretty i think it's a pretty dangerous spot for
03:59k-state
04:00going on the road against a team that has won all their games you never know how that first road
04:06trips go we've never seen colin klein coach a road game in college football i i think it's i think
04:11that's
04:11a this is a pretty interesting spot for the cats i totally agree and kansas state over the years
04:17it felt like they struggled in that big 12 opener on the road i can remember losses to
04:24oklahoma state teams that that k-state frankly were better than and this is another game where k-state
04:32has the better quarterback they have the better defense they have the deeper roster but it's still a night
04:41game at nippert stadium in cincinnati where it gets loud and rowdy and that is the stadium
04:47stadium that's uh very very low for lack of a better term with a lot of sound that gets kind
04:56of trapped in inside the walls it's right in the heart of campus and i've called games there it's a
05:02very underrated environment it's going to be it's going to be a tall task for k-state but if they
05:09go
05:09in there and they don't turn the ball over and they don't have penalties they should get out of there
05:14with a win i mean cincinnati was down 28 to 7 to miami ohio and had to rally back to
05:19survive
05:20in in that game on saturday meanwhile kansas state just looks like a well-oiled machine in
05:26in every phase of the game and i agree i do think that game is one of the top two
05:32games the other one
05:33i would look at oklahoma state plays at west virginia that's another big game in the league
05:37but in terms of like wins and losses yeah you've got two teams that are combined six and oh you
05:42can't
05:42you can't ask for a better matchup than than that and james the uh odds makers have it at 54
05:49and a half
05:49do you see that many points 54 and a half i would probably lean the under right now i think
05:59it's going
05:59to be kind of like a 28 to 21 type game where i could see it similar to what case
06:07two lane kind
06:08of played out and that was what 51 combined even with the late two lane touchdown i just don't see
06:14cincinnati being able to move the football at will on k-state's defense they very much lean on their
06:20ground game and they have a deep backfield and they have a really good offensive line but
06:24cincinnati's going to try and shorten the game and lean on those backs and then they have a dual
06:30threat quarterback and then kansas state i think k-state you know will have more explosive plays
06:36but that's kind of k-state's mo is longer drives wear down the opponent the line of scrimmage is where
06:44i think this game will be won or lost on on either side cincinnati has a really good o-line
06:48but they have
06:49a defensive line that has really struggled and is probably a bottom third defensive line in the big
06:5512 whereas i think k-state's offensive line can hold its own and then i think defensively window
07:00gregory like cincinnati just hasn't seen the pass rushers that k-state's going to bring to the table
07:05on saturday all right let's uh before we before we get to ku and i do want to talk about
07:12that weird
07:12game in london just a little bit the game of last week and in the year so far in the
07:17big 12
07:18was texas tech in houston it delivered does it say more about houston or does it say more about
07:25texas tech in your opinion i think a little bit of both but i would probably lean it says more
07:30about
07:30texas tech uh like you know he's good way or in a good way or bad way like we we
07:35want to think of
07:36texas tech as a national title contender and right now i would say they are not so i would answer
07:41that
07:41with in a bad way you know if it's texas tech against the field it's the field right now i
07:46mean byu
07:47just looks incredible the way they crushed colorado state was shocking to me and then i think
07:53the floor has been raised with kansas state with oklahoma state i mean we saw on saturday the version
07:59of oklahoma state albeit against a much inferior opponent that we saw against oregon that that is
08:06the version of oklahoma state i expect the rest of the way with west virginia picking up a top 25
08:11win
08:11with utah continuing their dominance they pitched a shutout against utah state who's one of the better
08:18group of five teams in the country i think all of these teams that were chasing texas tech last year
08:23are better and this is not the same texas tech defense i mean they they are lucky to have won
08:28that
08:28game on friday because houston out gained them they were better on third down they had fewer turnovers
08:34they had fewer penalties just somehow some way texas tech got that win and that was a total coin
08:40flip game that could have easily gone either way so to me to be able to go into lubbock on
08:45a friday
08:46night texas tech would have beaten anybody in that spot last year by 40. the fact that houston hung
08:52around tells me this is this is not the same texas tech all right james let's go across the pond
08:57have
08:57some fish and chips and talk about uh ku and zona state uh boy uh came a lot closer there
09:04at the end
09:0524 17 uh arizona state uh how should ku fans be be feeling right now because they did they kept
09:13fighting they they made it a touchdown game at the end but you you just kind of wonder if uh
09:19it's just
09:19is this the trend yeah i don't feel great if i'm ku or arizona state you know i think this
09:27was an
09:27ugly football game there were not a lot of explosive plays offensively the three biggest
09:32plays in the game were a punt return uh kickoff return and then a fumble recovery outside of that
09:38it was pretty vanilla i do think ku can be pleased with how they they held those arizona state receivers
09:46in check you know cutter bully the arizona state quarterback had less than 100 yards passing which i
09:52don't foresee him having a game like that again the rest of the season but i think both teams were
09:57really impacted by the week and the stakes and the travel and the time zone differences we were
10:04talking uh to the the chief football competition officer kind of the logistics guy for the big 12
10:11and he was over there and he just got back and he said man it is it is messing with
10:15people like it is a
10:17huge difference in terms of the the climate and the the time zone and so i didn't expect this game
10:26to be
10:26pretty and it definitely wasn't so i don't i don't know that either side can feel really good about
10:34what took place yeah that's a good way to put it james wesling with us our big 12 insider uh
10:40you can
10:40hear him on and see him on espn and nbc and big 12 today i you mentioned by you i
10:47think four teams in
10:48the top 25 now k-state's not one of them so maybe five let's call it top 25 caliber teams
10:55it's about
10:56where we feel it everybody so far that we expected to be at the top of the league kind of
11:02passing
11:02their test early on now they're gonna kind of play each other but you brought this up last week and
11:08i
11:08think it's a really interesting point or will they play each other like we can have a hot mess at
11:13the
11:13end of this year because none of these teams seem to play each other this year that's exactly where
11:19i think we're headed and we this morning posed the question you know is is houston a contender
11:26i said no even though they have the talents to contend their schedule has kansas state oklahoma state
11:34utah in three consecutive weeks they still have to play at west virginia so the schedule is very much
11:40to me going to dictate who's in this thing and who's not at the end that bodes very well for
11:46kansas
11:46state because they don't play any of the top three byu and utah play one another and then nobody else
11:52so with five teams ranked with three others getting votes half of the conference now is receiving votes
11:59to be in the top 25 that's a really good thing because eight of the last nine teams that started
12:04the
12:04year in the ap top 25 finished the year unranked the only survivor was texas tech
12:10i see that trend coming to a halt this year with the way byu and utah has just been dominant
12:17so i could see like texas tech utah byu kansas state even who knows if we get the oregon version
12:25of oklahoma state they might run the table like there are a lot of scenarios where there could be
12:30multiple teams at 10 and 2 or 11 and 1 or even undefeated it would not shock me you know
12:37james looking
12:38at uh next saturday well at the utah iowa state game i that could be pretty interesting actually
12:45utah favored uh seven and a half in ames but yeah i was state uh they could easily be undefeated
12:51right
12:52now as well yeah and i i expect utah to win that game but iowa state's going to ruin somebody's
12:58season
12:58at some point like the way they just dominated bowling green on saturday uh was surprising to
13:05me and they have a totally revamped defense where they're putting a ton of guys on the line of
13:10scrimmage they're super physical they're very old school you know west virginia picks up that huge win
13:16against virginia and then i look at their schedule and they play oklahoma state followed by iowa state on
13:22the road in ames i could see west virginia losing both of those games like iowa state in ames is
13:28going to be a problem they have not lost a game at night at home in two years so keep
13:34an eye on that
13:34when the schedule and the kickoff times are released over the next couple of weeks because
13:39iowa state is much better than i anticipated uh them being coming into this season i i guess my point
13:45is i didn't think they were capable of beating anybody 55 to 7 like they did on saturday
13:50all right james wesling we appreciate it our big 12 insider follow along at james wesling on x
13:56you'll hear him espn nbc play by play in the big 12
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