On Tuesday and Wednesday, head coaches and representatives from Big 12 schools are scheduled to gather at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for the league’s football media days.
But this year’s location is more symbolic than ever, as a conference realignment will see the conference move west, changing the location of the conference kickoff event.
This year marks not only the first year the event will be held in Las Vegas, but also the first since Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State joined from the Pac-12 and since Texas and Oklahoma moved to the SEC.
Media Day will likely reveal a lot about the new frontier that is the 2024 football season, as newcomers try to upend the status quo and veterans try to navigate an ever-changing landscape.
Here are five storylines to watch ahead of the event.
Power vacuum?
The Big 12 preseason football poll was released last Tuesday, and perhaps the most notable takeaway from it is that the conference standings are in hot water. With the Longhorns and Sooners out of the running, the status of conference powerhouse is up for grabs this year, with several schools looking to claim that spot.
Five different programs received first-place votes, with Utah and Kansas State in a tight race for the top spot, followed closely by Oklahoma State, newcomers Arizona State and football newcomers Kansas State.
By comparison, Oklahoma has topped the polls for the ninth straight year in 11 years, winning overwhelming majority votes in those years and also winning six conference championships in 2021. After a tough 2022, Texas was picked to be No. 1 by a wide margin in 2023 and win the Big 12 title.
With so many changes, this season is likely to become even more unpredictable.
There’s a new sheriff in town
Utah was ranked atop the preseason polls, and it’s easy to see why. They won back-to-back Pac-12 titles before an injury-plagued 2023 season and three division championships in the six years prior to that. If any school is a favorite to fill this power void, it’s Utah.
For the time being, Utah returns several key players, including starting quarterback Cameron Rising and tight end Brant Quite. Both missed all of last season due to injuries. They are expected to comment Tuesday. Rising was the Pac-12 Championship Game MVP in 2022 and was named to the all-conference first team in 2021. Quite was a second-team selection from 2019-2021 but missed 2022 after four games with a torn ACL.
Long term, Utah recently announced that ninth-year defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley has been named the successor to Kyle Whittingham, the team’s winningest head coach of all time. While Whittingham’s retirement date has yet to be determined, the move gives Utah stability and continuity in a philosophy that is popular in college football today.
Oklahoma State running back Ollie Gordon II attends after arrest
Running back Ollie Gordon II had a breakout season last year, being named the Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Year and winning the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s best running back. But the 20-year-old was arrested last week on suspicion of drunk driving. The same day the arrest was reported, the conference announced its media day attendees and Gordon was on the list.
In 2010, Cowboys star receiver Justin Blackmon was also arrested for DUI at age 20 and was suspended one game into a wildly successful season.
Dave Aranda’s shoulder injury
This year is a make-or-break year for the Baylor Bears coaching staff, led by Dave Aranda. After going 2-9 in Aranda’s first season at the helm, the Bears won a conference championship in 2021. But the Bears have turned things around dramatically since then, finishing 3-9 overall (2-7 in the Big 12 Conference) last year. Baylor has revamped its assistant staff for next season, hiring six new faces, four on the offensive line. If things don’t work out for the Bears, this week’s media day could be Aranda’s last.
The Bears’ offense finished 95th in the nation in scoring last year. The rebuild of the offense will fall largely on Aranda’s new assistants, but the weapons are scarce. Baylor tied for the fewest players selected to the All-Big 12 last season and had no players on the first or second team. Baylor brings in the 53rd-ranked transfer class in the nation in 2024, but all of the other three-star recruits are former Toledo quarterback Dequan Finn.
Aranda, meanwhile, will focus on a defense that ranked 122nd in the nation in opponents points allowed per game in 2023. He said he presented a plan to Baylor University’s athletic director at the end of last season on why he would be the program’s head coach. Waco Tribune-Herald. he He will call plays, as he did as defensive coordinator for the 2019 LSU team that won the national championship.
If the move proves successful, Aranda’s position may be more stable, but for now he is certainly feeling the pressure.
Welcome to the Club
Two head coaches will get their first experience with power-conference media next week: Arizona’s Brent Brennan and Houston’s Willie Fritz, both in their first years at their respective schools after leading Group of Five programs to national prominence.
Brennan led San Jose State to its first Mountain West title game in 2020, the school’s first conference championship since 1991. Brennan was named Coach of the Year by the Lombardi Foundation and the Spartans finished the season inside the Associated Press Top 25.
In 2022, under Coach Fritz, Tulane won 12 games, including an AAC championship and a close Cotton Bowl victory over No. 8 USC. The team had only two wins the previous year, but this turnaround was the largest year-over-year improvement in NCAA football history.
Additionally, Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham and Colorado’s Deion Sanders are each entering their second year at their respective universities, and both have questions to answer after disappointing first years.
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