Big 12 receivers proving to be a handful (plus predictions)

The Big 12 might have a Doak Walker Award winner in Ollie Gordon II (Oklahoma State) and a truckload of talented running backs, but this season the league features seven of the top 25 receivers in the country.
No other league has more than four in the top 25.
Utah saw this firsthand in its loss to Arizona when star receiver Tetairoa McMillan and standout QB Aaron Fifita came up big against the Utes.
If McMillan, who faces Texas Tech this weekend, isn’t the top receiver in the country, then Colorado’s Travis Hunter might be as he is a leading candidate to win the Heisman Trophy as a two-way player.
Catches per game is the NCAA statistical category that has seven Big 12 receivers ranked in the top 25. Hunter ranks No. 4 with 9.2 catches, as the Buffs target him frequently. Josh Kelly (Texas Tech) is No. 8 with 7.8 catches per game. No. 9 is McMillan with 7.3, followed by TCU’s Jack Bech (7.0), No. 16 Brennan Pressley (Oklahoma State) 6.6, No. 20 Xzavier Henderson (Cincinnati), 6.4 and No. 23 Jayden Higgins (Iowa State) 6.3.
That’s some decent talent attacking defenses in that league.
Big 12 statistical rankings for players have Bech ranked No. 1 followed by McMillan and Hunter.
Bech is a 6-foot-2 speedster for the Horned Frogs, who transferred in from LSU. He ranks No. 4 nationally in yards per game with a whopping 129.4. McMillan, who was a teammate of his QB Fifita at Servite High in Orange County, California, is No. 6 in that category, hauling in an average of 124.8 yards per game. Hunter, who doubles as a cornerback for Deion Sanders CU team, averages 112.2 yards per game.
While Hunter and McMillan gain most of the national attention, Bech is a huge threat for TCU, a player who draws a lot of interest from defenses. He simply gobbles up yards on big plays. He ranks No. 2 nationally in yards receiving at 647, a decent lead over much-targeted Hunter at 561.
Both Hunter and Bech are tied for fourth nationally in touchdown passes with six.
Bech was just named to the Biletnikoff Award Watch List this week. His TCU teammate, Eric McAlister, was already on it.
Of note, Utah State’s Jalen Royals ranks 23rd in the country in catches per game with 6.3. He is also a Biletnikoff candidate.
In BYU’s camp, Chase Roberts got a lift on Thursday when the NCAA ruled his line-of-scrimmage screen TD catch a reception. At Baylor, the statistician ruled his touchdown a run.
Roberts leads BYU in catches per game (4.2) and yards per game (67.2) in an offense that has spread the ball to 17 receivers.
At Utah, Dorian Singer leads the team in catches per game at 5.2 and receiving yards per game with 71.8. His offense likes to target tight ends and balance things out with running back Micah Bernard, who is averaging 110.6 yards per game.
Both Utah and BYU are idle this week.
The No. 17 Cougars have climbed atop the Big 12 standings at 5-0 and join Notre Dame as the only two teams with three wins over Power Four opponents.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on the idea of a CFB commissioner: “I’ve studied it a little bit, and I come back to I don’t want to dumb down the Southeastern Conference to be a part of some super league notion with 70 teams that some people speculate would happen. They want to be us, and that’s on them to figure it out, not on me to bring myself back to Earth.” (Triple Option Broadcast)
Last week 10-5; overall 64-19 (.771)