Five-hundred-forty minutes, or one-twelfth, of the Big 12 football year is in the books, and the information gleaned may not be anything we didn’t know already.

The league went 6-3 on the opening weekend of the 2018 college football season, with Oklahoma more than looking the part in the post-Baker Mayfield era and Texas, Texas Tech and Kansas showing they may not quite be ready to show improvements.

Texas Tech, widely publicized in the offseason for defensive improvements, got throttled by Ole Miss, allowing 546 yards and 47 points. Texas made the Associated Press Top 25 voters possibly regret their preseason ballots, as the No. 23 Longhorns fell to Maryland. Kansas, one of the worst FBS programs during the past several years, lost to an FCS team at home. 

“Frustrated and embarrassed the way that game went,” Texas Texas Coach Kliff Kingsbury said on Monday’s Big 12 conference call.

“It isn’t who we want to be as a football team. When you’re playing a talented team like Ole Miss Week 1 and you make all those Week 1 mistakes like that, you’re going to get exposed, and that’s what happened.”

Kingsbury said the defensive performance was disheartening. He still thinks his group is capable of making “big strides,” but he openly admitted they need to get better in a hurry.

Meanwhile, Texas Coach Tom Herman said his team wanted to win so badly it had an adverse effect.

“We wanted to please our teammates and our coaches so badly that we pressed and we tightened up. We’ve gotta do a better job as coaches of still fostering that culture of cohesiveness and unity and brotherhood, but also teach our guys how to relax and cut loose and not worry about anything and go play football,” he said.

The losses by Texas and Texas Tech drop the Big 12’s record against Power Five teams to just 7-14 since the start of the 2016 season.

Perhaps one of the more interesting developments of the weekend came in Manhattan, Kansas, where the Wildcats nearly gift-wrapped a win to FCS South Dakota.

Kansas State, known for being one of the most well-coached teams annually under the direction of the legendary Bill Snyder, played the exact opposite. The Wildcats turned it over four times and committed 13 penalties.

“We left a lot of points on the stadium board just through our own mistakes. It goes to that old adage of ‘don’t beat yourself,’” Snyder said. “That’s probably been the byword of Kansas State for an awful long time. It comes up and bit us this time. Those are the things we have to go back and work on. It stems from being able to readdress where we are in the way of self-discipline.”

SAME OLE BIG 12 FIREWORKS?

Any questions of the Big 12’s firepower following several notable star departures were quickly answered.

Oklahoma State put up 732 yards against Missouri State, and Oklahoma rolled up 650 against Florida Atlantic. West Virginia contributed a ho-hum effort of 547 total yards against Tennessee, as quarterback Will Grier threw for 429 yards and five scores.

“I think we had a decent day, but we’re still middle of the pack offensively when it comes to all the stats. Shoot, I think Oklahoma and Oklahoma State had 5,000 yards each,” West Virginia Coach Dana Holgorsen joked.

CAMPBELL HAS EXPERIENCE WITH WEATHER CANCELLATIONS

Iowa State Coach Matt Campbell is all too familiar with an 11-game regular season caused by weather.

Two years ago at Toledo, the Rockets’ season opener was canceled due to severe conditions. This past weekend, Iowa State had its opener against South Dakota State canceled for the same reason.

Campbell flipped a negative into a positive then, going on the road the following week to lead Toledo to an upset win over then-No. 18 Arkansas, and the hope is he can duplicate that for this weekend’s tilt at in-state rival Iowa.

“You learn to keep your composure,” Campbell said.

“Really trying to get your kids back as soon as you can and understand you can’t control what just happened.”

ON THE MEND

Several teams suffered notable injuries over the weekend. Holgorsen said West Virginia linebacker Charlie Benton is out for the year with a knee injury. TCU Coach Gary Patterson said reserve defensive back Michael Onyemaobi is probably done for the year, too. Baylor offensive lineman Josh Malin is out at least four weeks with an MCL injury, according to Coach Matt Rhule.

Three Big 12 quarterbacks were injured. Baylor’s Charlie Brewer had to leave the game with a back injury. Rhule said Brewer should be fine moving forward. Prior to the injury, Brewer had rotated with North Carolina State graduate transfer Jalan McClendon.

Texas Tech quarterback McLane Carter suffered a high-ankle sprain. Kingsbury said Monday it’s unclear how much time he’ll miss. Oklahoma backup quarterback Austin Kendall should be back shortly after suffering a leg injury against Florida Atlantic, according to coach Lincoln Riley.