THIS IS A WEEKLY COLUMN WHERE WE GIVE OUT AWARDS TO THE BEST (AND WORST) PERFORMANCES OF THE WEEK IN THE BIG 12.
Eric Taylor Coach of the Week – Bob Stoops (Oklahoma)
A lesser man might have panicked after the Sooners disastrous 1-2 start, Bob Stoops didn’t. The Sooners have put together three consecutive wins against solid Big 12 opponents since their week three loss to Ohio State. Kansas State is a team that has given the Sooners trouble in Norman before, but Stoops and company were having none of it on Saturday. The Wildcats’ defense had no answer for Oklahoma’s passing attack including a perfectly executed halfback pass from Joe Mixon to Dede Westbrook for a 26-yard touchdown.
Mike Leach Offensive Player of the Week – Dede Westbrook (WR-Oklahoma)
Back to back like he’s on the cover of Lethal Weapon. Back to back like he’s Switzer ’74-’75 whoa.
Dede Westbrook is our offensive player of the week for the second consecutive week after another monster performance against Kansas State. He hauled in 9 receptions for 184 yards and 3 touchdowns in the Sooners 38-17 victory.
Don’t look now, but Westbrook is not-so-quietly making his was into the conversation for the Biletnikoff Award. In just the last three weeks he has posted 26 receptions, 574 yards, 8 touchdowns. He’ll look to keep the hot streak going as the Sooner face the worst defense in the Big 12 in Texas Tech this weekend.
Brian Bosworth Defensive Player of the Week – Ryan Reid (CB-Baylor)
Reid has seen his playing time drop off since last season as the Bears have added some solid young talent in the secondary. Instead of putting his head down and pouting, Reid went out and made the most of his senior homecoming. He came into Saturday’s game with only three career interceptions in four years, but he made up for lost time as he picked off Ryan Willis twice including a 64-yard pick-six in Baylor’s route of Kansas. While I still don’t trust Ryan Reid in a crisis, his performance Saturday was absolutely deserving of this award.
J.D. McCoy Freshman of the Week – Devin Duvernay (WR-Texas)
Say what you will about Charlie Strong and the Longhorns, but they’ve got some true freshman who can flat out ball. Duvernay posted 4 catches for 96 yards including a 75-yard bomb from Shane Buechele. He has quickly established himself as a legitimate deep threat that opposing secondaries have to gameplan around. I know every Texas fan is ready to declare Buechele and Duvernay as the new Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley, but they may want to pump the breaks a little bit on that.
Kentucky Deluxe Bottom Shelf Performance of the Week – Chris Callahan (K-Baylor)
Congrats to Chris Callahan on becoming the first two-time recipient of this prestigious award. I have absolutely no idea how this guy still has a starting position. He has missed 35% of his field goal attempts in his three years as Baylor’s starter, and this weekend against Kansas was more of the same. His misfortunes began when he trotted out to attempt a 36-yarder at the beginning of the second quarter.
He shanked it about 20 feet to the left. It looked like they pulled a drunk fan out of the stands to kick a field goal to win free pizza for a month.
That’s alright though, because he got his shot at redemption just two and a half minutes later. Surely he’ll avenge himself and nail this 34-yard field goal, right?
Not even close. I don’t wanna see Callahan anywhere near the field or a kicking tee the rest of the season. We’re one missed extra point away from renaming this award “The Chris Callahan award for kids who can’t play football good and wanna learn to do other stuff good too.”
That wraps up this week’s awards. Tune in next week to see who brought home the hardware that weekend.