SWC Preview: Week 6
Texas and Texas A&M headline SEC showdowns, TCU seeks payback on Deion, and Houston aims for an upset of Texas Tech.
It was a mixed bag for the Southwest Conference last week. Arkansas got its doors blown off against Notre Dame and TCU lost a heartbreaker to Arizona State, but Baylor and Texas A&M both picked up wins. I’m not really sure how to grade it. How about this—let’s just move on to this week, which appears to be bringing much more pleasant results.
This week’s batch of games includes Texas traveling to Florida in a big-time SEC tilt, Texas A&M hosting a resurgent Mississippi State squad in College Station, and TCU trying to get its revenge against Colorado and Deion Sanders. It’s a packed week, and if everything goes how I see it, then it’s also going to be a successful weekend for the former members of the Southwest Conference.
Even though I was never alive for a single second of the Southwest Conference’s existence, I yearn for the league. So, I decided to bring it back as much as I could here on SethStack. Below, I’ve previewed every game for the former core members of the SWC: Arkansas, Baylor, Houston, Rice, SMU, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech. Some previews will focus more on a school’s individual matchup, while others will hone in on particular storylines surrounding that team’s season. It just depends on the week.
This post is a companion piece to the SWC Poll that dropped yesterday, so if you haven’t read that already, make sure to check that out at the link below.
If you weren’t already aware, I love the regionality of college football. Without it, I don’t think this sport can stand toe-to-toe with the NFL. It’s a shame that the bigwigs in conference rooms have begun to take it away, so this is my last-ditch effort to keep it alive.
Here’s the SWC Preview for Week 6.
Arkansas (2-3, 0-1 SEC)
BYE
No game this week for the Razorbacks, and that’s probably for the best. Any sort of rest and recuperation following last week’s beatdown is a good thing.
The week off also gives Bobby Petrino and the rest of the staff time to set up a game plan for how they want to approach the rest of this turbulent season. Petrino fired a good portion of the defensive staff, and the people taking over probably welcome the chance to instill different philosophies into the players. Whether those actually work is something nobody has an answer to at the moment.
Nothing gets easier for Arkansas as the weeks roll on, as the team has to travel to Knoxville to play Tennessee next Saturday before hosting Texas A&M the weekend after. If Petrino is able to make it to a bowl with this slate of games ahead of him, then just crown him as the permanent head coach.
Baylor (3-2, 1-1 Big 12)
vs. Kansas State — 11 AM CT — ESPN+
Baylor has yet to string together a couple of victories in a row, and it’ll get the chance to do that with Kansas State coming to Waco tomorrow. K-State’s season has been a roller coaster, with most of the time being spent on the big long drop right after you crest the lift hill. But following a win over UCF last week, there’s a tiny sense of optimism in Manhattan that this thing, which started out so terribly with losses to Iowa State, Army, and Arizona, can actually be turned in the right direction.
What Baylor needs to do is excel at its strengths and capitalize on K-State’s weaknesses. The Bears are excellent at finding innovative ways to attack defenses through the air, with Sawyer Robertson’s ability to find receivers down the field being a big reason for that. If Baylor puts up 28 points or more, this game shouldn’t be an issue for them. The problems would come if K-State is able to slow everything down and limit possessions. If that occurs, then this could become a rock fight, and Baylor hasn’t exactly done well in games that haven’t been offensive shootouts.
It’s a big game for both teams, but arguably even more so for Baylor. Falling to 1-2 in conference play would almost be a death sentence, but moving to 2-1 puts the team right back in position to potentially contend for a spot in the Big 12 title game in Arlington in December. It’s what the folks on those big-time talk shows like to call a “hinge game.” However this one goes will determine a lot of the future for Baylor.
Prediction: Baylor wins and covers -6.
Houston (4-0, 1-0 Big 12)
vs. Texas Tech – 6 PM CT – ESPN
Can Houston block Texas Tech? That’s my main concern for the Cougars, and following a close game against Oregon State where they almost left Corvallis with a shocking loss, I’m not too bullish on the prospect.
