Big 12 Football: TCU QB Suspension, Game of the Week and Its Injuries

It was a busy week for suspensions and one that hit hard for the Big 12 was #15 TCU’s Casey Pachall. The quarterback is out indefinitely and looking ahead to the team’s season (4-0,1-0), it is likely to change.

As last week’s offensive monster, West Virginia (4-0, 1-0) will have their biggest game of the season to-date against Texas (4-0,1-0).

This is the Big 12’s Game of the Week and for both teams, they’ll be without some key players.

Suspension of TCU’s Casey Pachall

Early on Thursday morning, TCU quarterback Casey Pachall was arrested by police for a DWI. Later in the morning, TCU’s coach Gary Patterson released the following statement, “Casey Pachall has been suspended indefinitely from competition. My job as a head coach is to win games, educate our kids and help them with their lives.”

While disappointing for the team and for Pachall, it doesn’t came as a complete surprise. The player had known for his drug use and his house mate and former TCU linebacker Tanner Brock was among a group of TCU football players who had been arrested in February for marijuana possession.

Pachall dodged an arrest that time but months later, he wasn’t so lucky.

The team loses a quarterback who had almost 1,000 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and one interception.

Redshirt freshman Trevone Boykin will take over the quarterback reins and this season, he is 9 for 10 passes, 74 yards and one score. He can also run: 12 carries for 122 yards.

Saturday represents his first start.

How does this impact TCU’s offense? The team has already lost 20 players since last year (including two running backs) and some shuffling around will be done this week to take on Iowa State (3-1, 0-1).

Patterson spoke positively of Boykin, calling him an athletic guy that “can do a lot of other things that Casey can’t do.”

In addition to their undefeated record, TCU will try to keep their win streak going with lucky win number 13.

Iowa State has had some offensive challenges (low scoring) but it’s defense is tough.

TCU is poised for an upset, but they’ll enter the game at -7 with a 41 over/under.

Game of the Week: #8 West Virginia vs. #11 Texas

Welcome to October, Mountaineers. This is when your season is really going to begin.

Fans have been waiting for this offensive-driven game for awhile and it should live up to its expectations.

Top-rated quarterback Geno Smith travels to Austin with impressive stats: 1,728 passing yards, 20 touchdowns and zero picks. He’s accurate with an 83.4 percent completion rate and has a 208.4 passer efficiency rating.

And he is still the No. 1 Heisman contender.

Smith will be without his running back Shawne Alston but he relies heavily on his two wide receivers: Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey. They have grabbed 61.5 percent of Smith passes for 1,195 passing yards.

But on the defensive side, neither team has anything to brag about. Texas sits at No. 63 with the Mountaineers coming in lower at No. 106. With a pair of talented quarterbacks, their defensive deficiencies could be glaring in this game.

As for Texas, this may be even more so with the absence of the team’s top linebacker, Jordan Hicks. He has a hip injury and also missed last week’s game against Oklahoma State. Also possibly on the sidelines is defensive tackle Brandon Moore (illness) but he’s been listed as probable.

Fortunately Texas has quarterback David Ash. He sits as No. 2 behind Smith with his 184.0 passer rating. In the 41-36 Texas win against Oklahoma State, Ash had 304 passing yards. This put him in the Texas record books as No. 4 to have two straight 300-yard games.

Texas will be playing without tailback Malcolm Brown (ankle) but Ash will have wide receiver Mike Davis with his 16 receptions, 243 yards and two touchdowns. Pinch hitting for Brown is Joe Bergeron with his 52 carries for 255 yards and five touchdowns to-date.

In this likely high-scoring game, bettors give the winning nod to the home team at -7 with a 73.5 over/under.