It’s no secret that the Big 12 has been home to some talented signal callers over the years.
Most recently, Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield was taken with the No. 1 overall pick by the Cleveland Browns in the 2018 NFL Draft. With his departure, however, the quarterback landscape has vastly change in a single season.
West Virginia senior Will Grier is the clear frontrunner of the group, and has some serious Heisman potential. After Grier, though, there is a lot of uncertainty for the league’s quarterback position. In fact, Grier is the only player returning who finished in the top six in passings yards per game in 2017.
And that was evident during the 2018 Big 12 Media Days, as five quarterbacks — two from Kansas State — and five running backs were available to answer questions.
“There are some very good (running backs),” TCU head coach Gary Patterson said during Big 12 Media Days. “I think we have two very good ones and there are other guys in the league that have good tail backs. It’s a position where I don’t think you can have enough good tail backs, and obviously, anytime you have a guy that can make you miss in the league, you have to play them.”
Patterson brought junior Sewo Olonilua to speak at Media Days after a strong sophomore campaign. Olonilua had 64 carries for 330 yards and seven touchdowns in 2017. Coming out of high school, Olonilua was the No. 1 ranked athlete in Texas and No. 13 overall player in the state by 247Sports.com.
But Olonilua wasn’t even one of the top-10 rushers last season, in terms of rushing yards per game. TCU junior Darius Anderson averaged 69.8 rushing yards per contest in 13 games, which ranked sixth in the Big 12.
Seven out of the top-10 rushing leaders in the conference are back for another campaign, including Oklahoma State’s Justice Hill. As a sophomore, Hill paced the league with 112.8 yards per outing on 268 attempts in 13 contests. Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy believes that Hill has only scratched the surface of his potential.
“He will continue to improve,” Gundy said. “Your first year you’re finding your way. Your second year you start to learn how to play the game at this level, and in your third year it’s really a year if you’re as talented as he is and you can relax and play. I would expect to see that from him.”
In addition, junior running backs David Montgomery of Iowa State and Rodney Anderson of Oklahoma are back after finishing in the top five among rushings leaders in the conference.
After taking over the starting job in mid-October, Anderson finished with 1,161 rushing yards last season to finish fourth in rushing yards per game with 82.9. Montgomery, meanwhile, ranked third in the Big 12 in rushing yards (1,146) and yards per game (88.2). He also led the nation in forced missed tackles (109).
The hype train for Iowa State RB David Montgomery has taken off. Runs like this are why. His explosiveness in the open field is awesome. Always looking to create more with beautiful cutbacks. pic.twitter.com/4PfrO7fWeD
— Bobby Football (@Rob__Paul) July 29, 2018
“Has he exceeded my expectations? I don’t think so,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said. “I think the greatest thing about David is who he is as a worker, what he is in terms of worker, attitude, commitment to be the best version of himself, that’s never wavered. Nothing has surprised me of why he’s been able to have great success and I think there are great things to come from David Montgomery.”
There are also a pair of talented backs playing in the Sunflower State. Kansas State junior Alex Barnes and Kansas junior Khalil Herbert posted top-10 campaigns last season. Barnes ran for 819 yards on 146 attempts, while Herbert toted the ball 120 times to rack up 663 yards.
As a result, Big 12 defenses might be forced to adjust this season after years of prioritizing the pass. After all, a Big 12 running back hasn’t won the Heisman Trophy since 1998 when Ricky Williams did it for Texas. Over that span, five quarterbacks have netted the award.
“There are some talented, young players,” Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “There’s a handful of others who can play for anybody and with the zone coverages and teams dropping everybody out and playing the dime defenses, teams are going to be leaning on running backs more and more and you’re going to see productive years from those guys.”
[1]: https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/video/kansas-hc-david-beaty-talks-big-12-running-backs/
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/video/kansas-hc-david-beaty-talks-big-12-running-backs/
