What are the five key questions going into the season that need to be asked at Big 12 football media days?
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Big 12 Team Previews, 5 Things To Know
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Big 12 Media Days
July 15-16, Arlington, TX
5. Q: Big 12 … when are you going to be a 12-team league again?
Let’s start with the basic fundamental question when it comes to a ten-team league that calls itself the Big 12.
Does it even need to expand?
It’s doing fine overall. The football is competitive and entertaining – more on that later – and the schools are making out just fine, with each one getting about $40 million a year in revenue. SEC and Big Ten teams make more, but for the most part, the ten schools getting their share of the pie isn’t bad.
Would expansion help make the revenue share bigger? Will the idea of TV markets even matter in an ever-increasing cordless world full of niche programming?
Yeah, maybe, because if the Big 12 isn’t proactive, the other Power Five schools are going to figure out how to land the top free agent schools out there – at least, the ones ready to turn pro – and then the Big 12 product doesn’t become as attractive.
Heaven help the Big 12 if Oklahoma and Texas are both struggling at the same time.
Everyone watches Sooner and Longhorn games, and the Big 12 was a must-see event in a fun 2018, but conferences aren’t dumb. There’s a reason the Big Ten went after Rutgers and Maryland, and it wasn’t because they were all that amazing at football. There’s a reason the SEC stole Missouri and Texas A&M.
And there’s a reason the Big 12 needs to play three-dimensional chess and expand – don’t think the other Power Five conferences aren’t thinking about how to steal the Big 12’s top stars.
But the blocking and tackling on this is for another time. For now, let’s just say someone figures out that the Big 12 needs to expand and get bigger, stronger, and more diverse nationally – where does it go?
The simple answer continues to be to grab UCF and USF as a package deal. Massive enrollments, amazing recruiting areas, huge TV markets, and a chance to have a market share in Florida.
Remember, TCU and Utah were Mountain West schools before going to the Big 12 and Pac-12, respectively. Don’t blow off the I-4 corridor schools just because they’re in the American Athletic Conference.
The hiring of Dana Holgorsen as head coach was a slick move by Houston to look more and more like a Big 12 program. The Big 12 might be too Texas-centric, and people in Houston will pay attention to the league no matter what, but like the AAC’s Florida schools, there’s a big base, a big TV market, and a big recruiting area.
Cincinnati and Memphis are interesting from a basketball perspective, to go along with the geographic rivalry tie-in with West Virginia.
Or the Big 12 might look to the west, with Boise State, Fresno State and San Diego State expanding the reach in a different way. However, for time zone purposes and eyeballs, going east is the smarter play.
It continues to be the one conference with the biggest growth potential, and it seems happy to stay as is. For now. All it will take is one hot rumor to float around, and that all changes.
NEXT: How good will the new head coaches really be?
4. Q: How good will the new head coaches really be?
Every league has to undergo a little bit of change every season when it comes to new head coaches taking over. But when 40% of a conference’s teams are breaking in new guys, the energy level all across the board perks up a bit.
Depending on the schools and the circumstances, there are always two ways things can go with a slew of coaching changes. Either it becomes a rebuilding year – like the Pac-12 was last season with five new head men taking over – with the hope of taking a massive step forward after a few years, or it’s a quick-fix in a tweaking and retooling way.
In the case of the Big 12, it’s more of the latter, and even more so considering the four programs with new coaches appear to have upgraded. They all got exactly what they needed.
After dominating the FCS world at North Dakota State, Chris Klieman is just the right guy to take what Bill Snyder had built and make it even better.
Klieman’s Bison teams were what K-State was when it was rocking and rolling – own the time of possession, keep the chains moving, don’t turn the ball over, play great special teams, win up front. It all sounds so simple, but Klieman did all of that at the most consistent and highest of FCS levels. That works in the Big 12.
How many coaches go from a losing season and almost-fired to a plum gig in the NFL? Gene Chizik went from clunking at Iowa State to winning a national title at Auburn, but Kliff Kingsbury falling up in meteoric fashion was something different.
Matt Wells is a wee bit of a questionable call, only because he struggled for a few seasons after starting out strong at Utah State. His star rose after going 10-2 last year with one of the nation’s most efficient offenses, but it also helped that his Aggies didn’t beat anyone with a pulse. Even so, Wells’ teams will play some defense – defense? Texas Tech? – and his offensive system fits what Red Raider fans have become accustomed to.
Neal Brown was a fantastic get for West Virginia. The program is used to having high-powered offenses and innovative minds running the show, and that’s Brown. After turning Troy into a dangerous Sun Belt powerhouse that was good enough to beat both LSU and Nebraska over the last two seasons, he’s more than ready for the job upgrade.
And then there’s Les Miles.
He’s really not all that far removed from doing huge things at LSU. His 2013 team won ten games, and he won 17 games in two seasons before getting fired in 2016 after a 2-2 start.
It might seem like a lifetime ago, but he’s just seven seasons removed from coaching in the BCS National Championship.
Of course he’s not going to recruit like he did at LSU, but he won a national championship. No other coach in the Big 12 can say that – at least at the FBS level.
He’s a big name, he’ll be a star personality for a program that needs an injection of anything positive, and he’s going to add some more pizzazz to a conference full of excellent coaches across the board.
NEXT: No, really … is Texas back?
3. Q: No, really … is Texas back?
Back? As what?
How are we all defining “back”?
If being back means being relevant and interesting, yeah. Of course. Tom Herman has done a wonderful job of taking what Charlie Strong rebuilt and made it all stronger, with the program’s first ten-win season since losing the BCS Championship to Alabama in the 2009 campaign.
By back, does that mean at a Big 12 championship level? Yeah, of course. The Longhorns played in the title game last season and is one of the favorites to win it this year. It’s back as one of the top two teams in the Big 12.
Actually, it’s more like the expectations are realistically back to being one of the top two teams in the Big 12.
By back, does that mean Texas is at the level Mack Brown got the program two when it was rocking and rolling in the 2000s?
Nope. Not yet.
The needle is absolutely pointing up, and there’s a whole lot to love about what Herman is putting together, but when Texas was amazing, it rolled out of bed and won ten games, winning ten or more in every season from 2001 to 2009.
Or, by back, does that mean Texas is returning to the days when it was supposed to be national title-good, and kept falling short of true greatness up until Mr. Young went off in 2005?
No, it’s not quite there yet, either.
Remember, Texas has just one national championship since 1970. So maybe being “back” isn’t necessarily what Texas fans really want or need.
Try this … is Texas moving forward? Yeah, absolutely.
NEXT: Can Jalen Hurts really be the Next Quarterback Up in the Oklahoma system?
2. Q: Can Jalen Hurts really be the Next Quarterback Up in the Oklahoma system?
Why not?
He might not be a pocket-passing gunslinger like many Big 12 quarterbacks, but it’s not like Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray were Tom Brady-like statues.
Hurts isn’t the ideal passer in terms of tools to fit into the Lincoln Riley system – Utah State’s Jordan Love would be really, really interesting running this thing – but he’s smart, he’s experienced, he’s an ultimate leader, and everyone seems to blow off one key part to his game – he can throw.
He’s not Tua Tagovailoa. He doesn’t have that uncanny accuracy, and he doesn’t have the drive on the deep passes, but he was more than accurate enough for the Crimson Tide. hitting 63% of his career throws averaging eight yards per attempt.
No, he’s not going to push the ball down the field like Murray or Mayfield did, but he’s also not going to make a whole slew of mistakes, throwing just 12 picks with his 48 touchdown passes in his his two-plus years with the Crimson Tide.
Make the right read, make things happen on the move, get the ball to the really fast guys in stride in space, and watch them go. Hurts can absolutely do that.
The guy who ran for almost 2,000 yards with 23 touchdowns can run a bit, too.
And then there’s the unquantifiable IT factor.
It takes IT to run Nick Saban’s national championship-caliber team as a freshman.
It takes IT to almost pull the team out of the fire with what would’ve gone down as one of the biggest clutch drives and touchdown runs in college football history in the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship against Clemson – but that Deshaun Watson guy had other ideas.
It takes IT to come off the bench cold – and a bit banged up – and lead Alabama to an SEC Championship like he did against Georgia last season.
It takes a certain guy to be able to follow that, and Hurts is certainly it.
NEXT: To go suck-up … is this still going to be the most fun conference in college football?
1. Q: Is this still going to be the most fun conference in college football?
Seriously, what more could you have possibly wanted out of a conference week in and week out?
Yeah, Oklahoma and Texas rolled to the conference championship game, and the rest of the league was just a big bag of okay, but who cares when you’re having that much fun?
Start with Cameron Dicker the freshman Texas kicker beating Oklahoma in the 48-45 shootout. When your signature game is that, and it might not even be in the team photo of the most entertaining games of the conference season, your league is a blast.
Defense, schmefense … what wasn’t amazing about the OU 51-46 win over Texas Tech, or the bombs-away 59-56-fest against Will Grier and West Virginia, or the gripping 48-47 win over Oklahoma State?
Was there any bigger chutzpah moment than Grier’s game-winning finish in the 42-41 win over Texas? The Mountaineers got that one, but were on the wrong side in the 45-41 game against Oklahoma State.
The Cowboys had their share of heartbreakers, too. like in an insanely fun 35-31 loss to Baylor and the 48-42 thrill ride against Iowa State.
And this goes on and on and on …
Even Kansas pushed Texas in a 24-17 game, hung 40 on Oklahoma in a loss, and shocked TCU 27-26.
“But the conference doesn’t play any defense,” you say.
Yeah, TCU’s season was more about offensive ineptitude than amazing D, but seven of its last nine games were decided by seven points or fewer, and its offense scored more than 17 points just three times in the stretch.
So will this still be as fun? Why not?
Is Lincoln Riley the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys? Not yet.
Is Matt Rhule the head coach of the New York Jets? Not yet.
Is Matt Campbell the head coach of (insert bigger Power Five program than Iowa State here)? Not yet.
Is Kliff Kingsbury the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals? Uhhhhh, yeah, somehow, but Matt Wells should pump up the Texas Tech offense if his quarterbacks can stay healthy.
Are any of the Big 12 teams looking worse than they were this time last year? Not appreciably so, if at all.
Is defense still optional enough to keep the shootouts coming? Of course.
Is this going to be the most entertaining sugar-rush conference in college football? Yeah, every week.
Big 12 Team Previews, 5 Things To Know
Baylor | Iowa State | Kansas | Kansas State | Oklahoma
Oklahoma State | TCU | Texas | Texas Tech | West Virginia
