Well, the BYU Cougars managed to stay unbeaten as they bowled over the Iowa State Cyclones in Ames, Iowa over the weekend. BYU is now off to an 8-0 start and sure appears to be the biggest threat to Texas Tech’s Big 12 championship ambitions and hopes this season.
Iowa State, a team that many expected to be a Big 12 contender alongside the Cougars and Red Raiders has now fallen to 5-3 overall (which isn’t the end of the world) and 2-3 in Big 12 play (which will effectively keep the Cyclones out of the Big 12 title game.
This is a game where Iowa State was doing everything right to get things started and the Cyclones were able to jump out to an early 24-10 lead over BYU. And yet, despite that early 14-point lead for Iowa State, the Cougars ended up coming out on top of this one by 14 points.
What do Texas Tech fans need to know about BYU’s impressive road comeback win over the Iowa State Cyclones?
Well, the path to the Big 12 championship game likely runs through Provo right now. The Cougars are the only unbeaten Big 12 team left right now at 8-0 and they’re tied to lead the conference at 5-0 right alongside a shockingly good Cincinnati Bearcats team.
BYU controls its path forward right now and that will include a road game against Texas Tech and then another one against the Bearcats. If the Cougars perform like they did on the road against Iowa State, then they’ll be just fine when they meet up with the Red Raiders in Lubbock and Cincinnati at Cincinnati.
We have to talk about how impressive it is that BYU won the way that it did. The fact that the Cougars found themselves down by 14 points and then refused to get rattled and subsequently took advantage of every single Iowa State error and misstep to go on to win 41-27 is impressive! It didn’t matter that this game was in Ames and the Iowa State had the home field advantage
And it may not matter that Texas Tech has the home field advantage in a couple weeks. It may not matter that BYU will face a Cincinnati team that will have home field advantage. This game was proof of concept that BYU can win on the road against good Big 12 teams. Texas Tech needs to be aware of that.