Big 12 Football: What To Expect At Media Days
Football season is almost here. In just weeks, action on the gridiron returns to stadiums across the country. The Big 12 Media Days is an annual rite that marks the beginning of the football season. This year’s event will be held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Wednesday, July 13, and Thursday, July 14.
Your KillerFrogs team will be in attendance, talking to the coaches and players, live-tweeting, and capturing photos and video clips. Here are some storylines we will be following:
Meet the Commish
Brett Yormack hasn’t officially even begun his new gig. He was announced on June 29 as the new commissioner of the Big 12, replacing Bob Bowlsby, who stepped down in April after holding the job for the last ten years. Yormack officially takes on the job on August 1.
One day after Yormack, the former COO and co-CEO at Roc Nation Unified, more turmoil hit the college landscape when USC and UCLA announced their move to the Big Ten. That has raised more questions about the future of the Big 12. Will the Big 12 take on more new members, perhaps from the Pac-12? Or will the Big 12 and Pac-12 merge? Or will the Big 12 fold because its member schools all move to new leagues?
Yormack has an introductory press conference on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. We don’t expect a big announcement on conference realignment, but we expect many questions and buzz on the topic.
Big 12 Preview
In advance of Media Days, we published our Big 12 Preview on Tuesday. Can Baylor stave off contenders like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas to repeat as Big 12 champions in 2022? How will Oklahoma respond under their new head coach? Is Kansas State with Deuce Vaughn the team we aren’t watching close enough? What about Texas with Bijan Robinson and now Quinn Ewers? Could Texas Tech or Kansas be an underdog?
In addition to these questions, we predict the final Big 12 standings in our preview.
New Coaches
With Gary Patterson no longer at the helm at TCU after 20+ years, the most tenured coach in the Big 12 is Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State (23 years). After that, it’s Matt Campbell at Iowa State (seven years). The remaining eight coaches have all been at their respective schools for four years or less.
Three schools have new head coaches, each of whom will be making their first appearance as head coach at the Big 12 Media Days. Those coaches are:
- Sonny Dykes -TCU (was the head coach at SMU)
- Joey McGuire – Texas Tech (was an assistant to both Matt Rhule and Dave Aranda at Baylor)
- Brent Venables – Oklahoma (was the defensive coordinator at Clemson, a role he had previously for years at OU)
Split the Teams
Big 12 Media Days is such a big event; it requires two days to meet all the teams. Each day, five schools from the league come with their head coach and 2-4 players. Here is how this year’s event will be split:
Wednesday, July 13:
- Baylor
- Kansas
- Kansas State
- Oklahoma State
- West Virginia
Thursday, July 14
- Iowa State
- Oklahoma
- TCU
- Texas
- Texas Tech
Participating Players
Here are the players from each school who are scheduled to appear at Big 12 Media Days:
Baylor
- LB, Dillon Doyle
- LB, Bryson Jackson
- TE, Ben Sims
Iowa State
- LB, O’Rien Vance
- WR, Xavier Hutchinson
- OL, Trevor Downing
Kansas
- S, Kenny Logan Jr.
- QB, Jalon Daniels
- RB, Devin Neal
- OL, Earl Bostic Jr.
Kansas State
- QB, Adrian Martinez
- RB, Deuce Vaughn
- LB, Daniel Green
- DT, Eli Huggins
Oklahoma
- DE, Ethan Downs
- CB, Woodi Washington
- QB, Dillon Gabriel
- WR, Marvin Mims
Oklahoma State
- QB, Spencer Sanders
- WR, Brennan Presley
- DE, Brock Martin
- DE, Tyler Lacy
TCU
- C, Steve Avila
- CB, Tre’Vius Hodges Tomlinson
- WR, Quentin Johnson
- LB, Dee Winters
Texas
- RB, Roschon Johnson
- RB, Bijan Robinson
- LB, DeMarvion Overshown
- DE, Ovie Oghoufo
Texas Tech
- OL, Caleb Rogers
- WR, Myles Price
- OLB, Tyree Wilson
- DB, Dadrion Taylor-Demerson
West Virginia
- WR, Bryce Ford-Wheaton
- OL, Zach Frazier
- DL, Dante Stills
- CB, Charles Woods
Want to join the discussion? Click here to become a member of the Killer Frogs message board community today!
Follow KillerFrogs on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest TCU news! Follow KillerFrogs on Facebook and Instagram as well. Download the KillerFrogs app on Google Play or in the Apple App Store.