Eight Big 12 teams play this week to wrap up the regular season including Kansas on the road at WVU.
Kansas coach Charlie Weis gave his players a portion of the holiday weekend off as they had a bye week The team was back to practice at 5:30 a.m. Monday.
"We let them come back in on Sunday evening and we got a good practice in Monday which is normally a players day off," Weis said. "We used two practices last week just to practice on West Virginia. We have a pretty good jump start on the task at hand. Over half of our practice was dedicated as if we were playing West Virginia last week."
And first and foremost on the defensive agenda; trying to figure out a way to stop #1.
"He is faster than most people on the field," Weis said of WVU’s Tavon Austin. "Just take two plays from that game last week (vs Iowa State.) Take the punt return and take the pass in the flat on the lefthand side of the field when everyone had angles on him and he just outran everyone. That’s just unusual talent and unusual speed.
"He’s a very, very dynamic player," Weis said. No matter where he is, he’s just a pain in the butt that you always have to account for."
Kansas State hasn’t played since the upset loss at the hands of Baylor back on Nov. 17. The Wildcats are out of the mix for the national championship, but they can still be outright Big 12 champions with a win at home over Texas Saturday.
"They weren’t born yesterday," Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said of his players. "These are young guys who understand what is at stake for this ball game . We’ve met and I’ve certainly shared that with them but it’s nothing we have to go around and beat the drum about everyday.
"They know what’s at stake," Snyder said.
Baylor has beaten Kansas State and Texas Tech back to back to improve to 6-5 and get to a bowl for a third consecutive season.
"They did a good job of rising up," said Baylor coach Art Briles. "The odds were certainly against us. Our guys did a great job of saving the season.
"I’m extremely proud of their effort, attitude, belief and production," Briles said."
Baylor will close the regular season at home against 7-4 Oklahoma State Saturday.
Another team that did it the hard way was TCU.
"We won four of our five conference games on the road," TCU coach Gary Patterson pointed out. "That is one of the things people struggle to do. "We’ve just got to find a way to win a home game."
TCU beat Kansas, Baylor, WVU and Texas away from home losing only at Oklahoma State. The Horned Frogs close out the regular season at home the week against #11 and 9-2 Oklahoma.
And what did that victory at Texas Thanksgiving night do for the program?
"Big win for us and for the alumni," Patterson said. "People that have been through the old Southwest Conference, it was a huge win for them. A lot of them said it was bigger than the Rose Bowl. I’d say it was not bigger than the Rose Bowl. But it was a big win for us."
Texas Tech is headed for a bowl after finishing the season 7-5. In his third year at the helm, coach Tommy Tuberville helped the team improve from a five win season a year ago.
"We start bowl practice a week from Friday," Tuberville said. "I usually try try give them 10-12 days off. We don’t interfere with finals. We try to get at least 7-8 practice days in before we go home and then we’ll have 4-5 at the bowl site.
"We really don’t know which bowl yet," said Tuberville. "It looks like we’ll have to go before Christmas. We usually try to give the players 4-5 days off before Christmas so they can spend time with their families. Then we’ll show up a the bowl site."
6-6 Iowa State matched its win total from a year ago. The Cyclones went to New York for a Pinstripe Bowl match up with Rutgers a year ago. Coach Paul Rhodes has no idea what to expect this year.
"Zero," Rhodes answered when asked if he had any idea where his team would be headed.
The Big 12 has nine bowl elidible teams and eight guaranteed spots. It’s possible both Kansas State and Oklahoma could land in BCS bowls which would free up a spot for the remaining Big 12 teams.
"I know there are a lot of phone calls and a lot of meetings taking place this week," Rhodes said. "The biggest piece is still missing whether we can place two up in the BCS."
But Rhodes is confident his team will have a 13th game regardless of what happens with the rest of the league.
"We’ll be ‘bowlin," Rhodes said. "Huge reward to our kids for a successful season."
Rhodes wants his team fresh and ready to hit the practice field again in about a week and a half.
"The focus is on rest," Rhodes said. "No running, no lifting, no practicing. Guys will rehab and rest. Then once we find out where we are headed and who we are playing, we’ll start getting back at it next week."