Winners and losers: Kansas State QB Will Howard proves to be reliable

WINNERS

1) WILL HOWARD: Filling in for the injured Adrian Martinez, Kansas State quarterback Will Howard played one of the best games of his career on Saturday night. The junior quarterback threw for 225 yards on just 13 completions and had three total touchdowns. He was ready when his number was called.

2) TCU: For the second straight week, TCU is a winner. After defeating K-State, the Horned Frogs are in the driver’s seat in the Big 12 race. Not only that, they have erased deficits of 24-7 and 28-10 in consecutive weeks.

3) JEROME TANG: Let’s be honest, Jerome Tang could be on the list every week. He makes an appearance this time not just for Big 12 Media Days and his handling of questions, but he continues to embracing the Kansas State students. He was seen in a viral line dancing video at one of the sororities with his wife.

4) CLEMSON: After a come-from-behind victory over Syracuse, Clemson is in prime position to finish 12-0 and won’t face a team currently ranked in the Top 25 until the ACC Championship Game.

5) BO NIX: Bo Nix is writing one heck of a redemption story at Oregon. After struggling much of his career at Auburn, Nix has reunited with offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham and already has a career high in touchdown passes seven games into the season for the Ducks.

LOSERS

1) K-STATE: That was probably the worst way possible to lose, right? A three-score lead on the road in the second quarter was erased, seven players were forced out at one point due to injury, four did not return and Khalid Duke was ejected for targeting in the fourth quarter and will miss the first half of the Oklahoma State game. To top it all off, College GameDay was probably coming to Manhattan if Kansas State would have found a way to win.

2) STEVE SARKISIAN: For the second straight year, Texas blew a double-digit lead to Oklahoma State. While Quinn Ewers was not great in the contest, he should not have thrown the ball 49 times when Texas was running for 6.8 yards per carry. In fact, the running backs alone tallied nearly eight yards per carry. Yo, Sark, I know a guy. His name is Bijan Robinson. He wears burnt orange, too.

3) STARTING QUARTERBACKS VERSUS TCU: It is kind of a random statistic, but TCU has forced out the starting quarterback in three of the four conference games they have played. The only quarterback who wasn’t hurt against the Horned Frogs was Spencer Sanders and he was so banged up going into the game that there were rumors he was not going to play. Heck, they knocked out two different quarterbacks for K-State.

4) JIMBO FISHER: For all the talent Texas A&M has acquired in College Station, the Aggies can’t figure anything out on the offensive side of the ball. They have lost three straight SEC games and it could be a struggle to reach a bowl game.

5) IOWA: Iowa had a bye week before traveling to Columbus to face Ohio State and still were woeful on offense. The Hawkeyes managed just 158 yards and turned the ball over six times en route to a 44-point loss. Kirk Ferentz was very contentious with the media afterwards as well as more questions about his son, offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, were asked.