FRISCO, Texas \u2014 No conference in the country returns more quarterback production than the Big 12.<\/p>\n
Nine teams, over half the conference, have a returning signal caller that threw for over 2,400 yards last season. The rest of the Power 4 \u2014 52 programs total between the ACC, Big Ten and SEC \u2014 has 11 combined.<\/p>\n
Scan the lists of the top quarterbacks in college football and you\u2019re guaranteed to see a handful from the Big 12 \u2014 almost all of whom will be present at the league\u2019s annual media days this week at the Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters.<\/p>\n
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Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht (3) throws a pass during the first half of the Pop Tarts Bowl NCAA college football game against Miami, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo\/John Raoux)<\/p>\n
John Raoux<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s what always made this conference really special,\u201d Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said. \u201cGoing into my 10th year, boy, there\u2019s been some incredible runs of quarterbacks in this league. I think it makes it really challenging. I think it\u2019s why there\u2019s so much parity because there\u2019s so many talented coaches and quarterbacks that reside in the Big 12.\u201d<\/p>\n
During Campbell\u2019s tenure in Ames, he\u2019s had to face future No. 1 NFL draft picks Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray at Oklahoma and three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech. He\u2019s also coached a player in Brock Purdy who just signed a record-setting contract with the 49ers this offseason.<\/p>\n
But 2025 might be the best year for quarterbacks in quite some time.<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s Rocco Becht for Campbell and the Cyclones, Avery Johnson at Kansas State, Sawyer Robertson at Baylor, Josh Hoover at TCU, Behren Morton at Texas Tech, Brendan Sorsby at Cincinnati or preseason Offensive Player of the Year Sam Leavitt at Arizona State, most Big 12 games will see a returning quarterback that gives opposing coaches headaches.<\/p>\n
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Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson, right, answers a question with teammate wide receiver Josh Cameron during the Big 12 NCAA college football media days in Frisco, Texas, Tuesday, July 8, 2025. (AP Photo\/LM Otero)<\/p>\n
LM Otero<\/p>\n
That doesn’t even include newcomers capable of making a big impact like Colorado’s Kaidon Salter (Liberty transfer), Utah’s Devon Dampier (New Mexico) and Houston’s Conner Weigman (Texas A&M).\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Ask Kenny Dillingham and he\u2019ll tell you it reminds him of his first season in charge of the Sun Devils and the last year of the old Pac-12. That year, he had to go up against a player he previously coached in current Broncos QB Bo Nix (then at Oregon), as well as the likes of Caleb Williams at USC, Michael Penix Jr. at Washington, Cam Ward at Washington State and Shedeur Sanders with the Buffs \u2014 all of whom now are in the NFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe quarterbacks in this league are phenomenal,\u201d Dillingham said. \u201cYou look at your schedule and it\u2019s like every week you\u2019re facing a really good quarterback. Anytime you face a good quarterback, you can lose the game. That\u2019s the scary part.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you go into a game and you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, that quarterback isn\u2019t very good,\u2019 you feel really confident as a coach. When you go into a game and you\u2019re like, \u2018This dude can play on Sundays,\u2019 all the players (don\u2019t) matter because if that dude catches fire\u2026 he can be an \u2018X’ factor.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a healthy competition going on between them, too. A handful spent time with each other recently at the Manning Passing Academy and talked about their collective decisions to spurn bigger offers to potentially transfer to the Big Ten or SEC and return to the Big 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever you\u2019re studying defenses going week after week and watching the film of the other teams, it really does stick out how (good) the quarterbacks are in the Big 12,\u201d Sorsby said. \u201cI would put us up against any conference top-to-bottom (in terms of) quarterback talent. We\u2019ve got a really talented conference and I tip my cap to all these guys out here. A bunch of good dudes as well, so good to get to know these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Cincinnati quarterback Brendan Sorsby answers a question during the Big 12 NCAA college football media days in Frisco, Texas, Tuesday, July 8, 2025. (AP Photo\/LM Otero)<\/p>\n
LM Otero<\/p>\n
Collectively, they combine to form a group that makes commissioner Brett Yormark boldly label the Big 12 \u201cthe deepest conference in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo league offers the competitive balance that we do,\u201d Yormark said.<\/p>\n
The quarterbacks are eager to prove his point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRISCO, Texas \u2014 No conference in the country returns more quarterback production than the Big 12. Nine teams,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":50091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-50090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114820543567734890","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}