Big 12 Football: Kansas putting OU on upset alert in defensive struggle

On a very crazy start to the day around the Big 12 football landscape on Oct. 23, the No. 3 ranked Oklahoma Sooners are surprisingly struggling against the lowly Kansas Jayhawks and first-year head coach Lance Leipold. Kansas came into this meeting with the rolling Sooners as a 38.5-point underdog.

But that didn’t hold the Jayhawks back as the defense came out firing on all cylinders. Kansas held the Sooners to a donut hole for points in the first half. It took Oklahoma until around the halfway point of the third quarter to even get their first points of the game against this suddenly stifling Kansas defense.

Freshman quarterback Caleb Williams got a five-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jadon Haselwood to finally snap the scoreless bout for Oklahoma in this game. But Kansas would respond to that Oklahoma touchdown later in the third quarter, to put them back up by 10 points.

Many thought that head coach Lincoln Riley might try to put in sophomore quarterback Spencer Rattler in place of the struggling Williams in this game. But Riley held true to his true freshman signal-caller throughout the third quarter.

Big 12 football getting crazy this weekend with Lance Leipold and KU putting Caleb Williams and OU on upset alert

And Williams did help Riley to get some return on that faith by putting up another touchdown pass in the third quarter to close the gap with the leading Jayhawks to just three points. Wiliams got an eight-yard touchdown pass to Jeremiah Hall late in the third quarter to get the Sooners back within one possession of Kansas.

No matter what happens down the stretch in this meeting between Oklahoma and Kansas, this is an impressive outing for Leipold. In his first year as the Kansas head coach (formerly with the Buffalo Bulls), Leipold could be making some strides with what was a program struggling mightily to find any traction in the Big 12.

Kansas is currently repping a winless streak against FBS opposition that is drawing close to 20 games. Maybe this can be the game that turns the tide for Leipold and the Jayhawks.

There are some other important games going on around the Big 12 landscape on Oct. 23, as the Texas Longhorns are in the midst of their first bye week of the season. The No. 8 ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys are about to take on the unranked, but improving, Iowa State Cyclones in a tough place to play in Ames.

It will also be interesting to see if head coach Chris Klieman and the Kansas State Wildcats can right the ship after a tough start to Big 12 play. Kansas State went into Big 12 play with a record of 3-0. But they have lost each of their first three Big 12 game. Kansas State is looking to respond against an improving Texas Tech Red Raiders team in a tight game in the second half in Lubbock.

Outside of the Oklahoma State-Iowa State game in Ames on the afternoon of Oct. 23, this looked to be a rather pedestrian weekend among the ranked Big 12 teams. But Kansas putting Oklahoma on upset alert changed that narrative in a hurry.