The Big XII has long seen college football powers like Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, and Missouri come and go, but the league’s new identity is no longer just about expansion—it’s about the variety of coaching styles shaping its next era. Veteran leaders like Utah’s Kyle Whittingham and Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy bring stability and experience. UCF’s Scott Frost and West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez return to familiar programs with hopes of rekindling past success. Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire and Kansas State’s Chris Klieman have become the faces of their schools, quietly building contenders. Meanwhile, new-wave program builders like Deion Sanders, Lance Leipold, and Kenny Dillingham have energized their teams with bold, modern approaches. The Big XII’s evolving coaching landscape gives it a competitive identity all its own. In this article, I will reveal the final part of my Big XII predictions and previews consisting of the following teams: Texas Tech, UCF, Utah, and West Virginia.

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Texas Tech Red Raiders

8/30 – vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff – Win

9/6 – vs. Kent State – Win

9/13 – vs. Oregon State – Win

9/20 – @ Utah – Win

9/27 – BYE

10/4 – @ Houston – Win

10/11 – vs. Kansas – Win

10/18 – @ Arizona State – Loss

10/25 – vs. Oklahoma State – Win

11/1 – @ Kansas State – Loss

11/8 – vs. BYU – Win

11/15 – vs. UCF – Win

11/22 – BYE

11/29 – @ West Virginia – Win

Final Record: 10-2 (7-2)

In a conference that has had a brand new champion crowned for five straight seasons, you never know which team will come through and win the conference title next. If the pattern continues, it could be Texas Tech’s turn as fourth-year head coach Joey McGuire might have the program’s most talented roster since the late great Mike Leach’s tenure in Lubbock.

The top total offense in the Big XII is now under new leadership with Mack Leftwich taking over for new FAU head coach Zach Kittley, and he’ll once again continue the Red Raider tradition of showcasing the Air Raid playbook behind the arm of senior quarterback Behren Morton. Even after recovering from a late shoulder injury last year, he should be more than capable of reaching north of 3,500 passing yards, and he’ll have both Caleb Douglas and Coy Eakin back after combining for over 1,500 receiving yards. Although 1,000-yard wideout Josh Kelly is gone, his replacement is another deep ball threat in Miami (OH) transfer Reggie Virgil. Tight end Jalin Conyers is also gone, but Terrance Carter Jr. had a fantastic last year at Louisiana, making the pass offense even deadlier. The biggest loss, however, is running back Tahj Brooks, who ran for a school-record 4,560 yards in five seasons at Texas Tech, but USC transfer Quinten Joyner is another solid option who should make some noise in the backfield this season with J’Koby Williams and Cameron Dickey. The offensive line will also get much better at protecting the quarterback with two starters back and two great tackles out of the portal.

McGuire also hired Shiel Wood from Houston to coach the defense, and for a unit that gave up lots of yards through both the air and ground, the transfer portal played a huge role in fixing both of those issues. That statement holds more than true for a newly stacked front with star pass rushers David Bailey and Romello Height arriving from Stanford and Georgia Tech and then tackles Lee Hunter and Skyler Gill-Howard from UCF and Northern Illinois. The linebackers have returning production in both Jacob Rodriguez and Ben Roberts, who had over 200 combined tackles last season. The defensive backs also return three starters and add a couple of transfers as well, but there’s more that needs to be fixed in a secondary that allowed the second-most passing yards in the FBS last year.

They even have a schedule that’s not very hard, but their conference title hopes will be decided by a trio of road games at Utah, Arizona State, and Kansas State.

After finishing 8-5 last year, I think they’ll find at least ten wins by the end of the season, but they’ll be competing with two, maybe three teams for a Big XII Championship spot, which they’ll need for a shot at the College Football Playoff.

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UCF Knights

8/28 – vs. Jacksonville State – Win

9/6 – vs. North Carolina A&T – Win

9/13 – BYE

9/20 – vs. North Carolina – Loss

9/27 – @ Kansas State – Loss

10/4 – vs. Kansas – Loss

10/11 – @ Cincinnati – Loss

10/18 – vs. West Virginia – Win

10/25 – BYE

11/1 – @ Baylor – Loss

11/7 – vs. Houston – Win

11/15 – @ Texas Tech – Loss

11/22 – vs. Oklahoma State – Win

11/29 – @ BYU – Loss

Final Record: 5-7 (3-6)

After leaving for Nebraska in 2018, Scott Frost is back coaching at the Bounce House again, and while he won’t have to take over an 0-12 team this time around, he’ll be in a tougher conference with a less talented roster. UCF, like fellow former AAC members Cincinnati and Houston, haven’t been able to find their footing in the Big XII after two straight seasons of losing records.

Former assistant Steve Cooper is back on Frost’s staff as an offensive coordinator this time around, and as someone who loves to run the ball, he’ll oversee a quarterback battle between three dual-threat options in Jacurri Brown, Indiana transfer Tayven Jackson, and FAU transfer Cam Fancher. Cooper, who worked with Ashton Jeanty a lot last season as a Boise State analyst, was one year late to the experience of watching RJ Harvey run all over defenses as he’s off to the NFL, but he’ll get to work with Western Michigan transfer Jaden Nixon, former backup Myles Montgomery, and possibly even Stacy Gage for some reps. The wide receiver room is going through a major overhaul with a new-looking group full of transfers from lower-level programs, but the tight end room, even without Randy Pittman, will still be solid with Maryland transfer Dylan Wade and possibly young talent Kylan Fox. Only one offensive lineman returns, but if the new additions can become solid at run blocking, they’ll be just fine there.

They’ll also have a new face coaching the defense, and it’s Alex Grinch, who will be joining his sixth program in eleven seasons. The UCF run defense was actually third in the Big XII last year, and joining a returning John Walker on the inside of their defensive line is Georgia Tech’s Horace Lockett, who missed all of last season. The outside pass rush will improve with ends Nyjalik Kelly and Malachi Lawrence back as well as Pittsburgh transfer Sincere Edwards, and they’ll hopefully get more help in that category as well from the transfer linebacker duo of Oklahoma’s Lewis Carter and Virginia Tech’s Keli Lawson. Their pass defense, in contrast, was okay, and the secondary unit will rely on safety Demari Henderson and their new transfers to hold their own in the defensive backfield.

Their schedule gives them a early home opportunity against future NFL Hall of Famer Bill Belichick and his North Carolina squad, but for a team that played poorly away from home last year, they’ll have a hard time with the Big XII’s toughest road slate with Kansas State, Baylor, Texas Tech, and BYU lying ahead.

It might be his first year back with the Knights, but considering his past success there, Scott Frost is under lots of pressure to get them back to that level again. It’ll take some time, and UCF fans might have to wait another year or two before that possibly happens again.

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Utah Utes

8/30 – @ UCLA – Loss

9/6 – vs. Cal Poly – Win

9/13 – @ Wyoming – Win

9/20 – vs. Texas Tech – Loss

9/27 – @ West Virginia – Win

10/4 – BYE

10/11 – vs. Arizona State – Win

10/18 – @ BYU – Win

10/25 – vs. Colorado – Win

11/1 – vs. Cincinnati – Win

11/8 – BYE

11/15 – @ Baylor – Loss

11/22 – vs. Kansas State – Loss

11/28 – @ Kansas – Win

Final Record: 8-4 (6-3)

Kyle Whittingham is set for his 21st season as Utah’s head coach after speculation of his retirement at the end of last season. After years of being one of the more consistently strong teams in the Pac-12, the Utes’ first season as a Big XII member saw them finish with their first losing record since 2013.

A big reason for that was that the quarterback room struggled to protect the football and stay healthy. To make matters worse, Cam Rising, who had battled many injuries over his career including one from last year that kept him out for the majority of the season, has medically retired from football, and three more quarterbacks entered the transfer portal. However, new offensive coordinator Jason Beck has arrived with his starting quarterback at New Mexico, Devon Dampier, who’s a much more athletic option at quarterback than previous Ute signal callers. He’ll also be joined in Salt Lake City by his former running back NaQuari Rogers in the backfield with Washington State transfer Wayshawn Parker to replace 1,000-yard rusher Micah Bernard. Leading wideout Dorian Singer is gone as well, who’ll have a plethora of replacement options out of the portal, including former Lobo Ryan Davis and Utah State’s Otto Tia, and with tight end Brant Kuithe also moving on, someone will have big shoes to fill there as well. The offensive line will have plenty of experience to be one of the Big XII’s best, especially with future first-rounder Spencer Fano back at tackle and Caleb Lomu at guard.

Morgan Scalley is back in his tenth season as the Utes’ defensive coordinator, and as he waits to be Whittingham’s successor as head coach, he has a solid unit that’ll look to bounce back after a tough finish to 2024. Up front, although they lose size with Keanu Tanuvasa’s departure, there’s still some potential out of their depth, and with Logan Fano back on the end, whoever steps up on the other side to replace sack leader Van Fillinger will make an athletic starting pass rush duo. Tackle leader Lander Barton is back at linebacker, and both a healthy Levani Damuni and returning Johnathan Hall should make this a strong group. The secondary loses a couple of guys, but it’ll be just as strong with safety Tao Johnson and corners Elijah Davis and Smith Snowden adding a boost.

Looking at the schedule, they’ll open at Rose Bowl Stadium against fellow former Pac-12 member UCLA, and while they’ll have tough road games at BYU, Baylor, and Kansas, their biggest matchups are at home against Texas Tech, Arizona State, and Kansas State.

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West Virginia Mountaineers

8/30 – vs. Robert Morris – Win

9/6 – @ Ohio – Win

9/13 – vs. Pittsburgh – Loss

9/20 – @ Kansas – Loss

9/27 – vs. Utah – Loss

10/3 – @ BYU – Loss

10/11 – BYE

10/18 – @ UCF – Loss

10/25 – vs. TCU – Win

11/1 – @ Houston – Loss

11/8 – vs. Colorado – Win

11/15 – @ Arizona State – Loss

11/22 – BYE

11/29 – vs. Texas Tech – Loss

Final Record: 4-8 (2-7)

After six seasons with Neal Brown, West Virginia decided to go in a different direction by bringing back former head coach Rich Rodriguez for his second run in Morgantown.

His roster and staff might look completely different from top to bottom, but he opted to keep offensive coordinator Chad Scott for another year, who’s a values running the ball a great deal. He loses a dual-threat quarterback under center in Garrett Greene, who transitioned into the NFL as a wide receiver, but Nicco Marchiol is very capable of fitting right in. The run game does, however, bring back leading rusher Jahiem White, who’s set to make a even bigger jump in production following last year’s 800-yard season. Both the receiver and tight end rooms will be going through some major overhauls, giving Marchiol much less to work with, but Rodriguez has brought over Cam Vaughns from Jacksonville State and added Northern Illinois tight end Grayson Barnes along with other wideout transfers to be instant factors through the air. Another group that has gone through a slew of changes is the offensive line room after all five starters left, but they’ve added transfer help at each position if the depth pieces fail to create huge spikes in progression.

Oklahoma’s Zac Alley is also arriving to replace Jordan Lesley as the Mountaineers’ new defensive coordinator, and he’ll be tasked with fixing a pass defense that was the third worst in the Big XII. It will look a lot different with top tackler Anthony Wilson Jr. gone and lots of transfers arriving in a secondary headlined by former Jacksonville State safety Fred Perry and former Nevada corner Michael Coats Jr. The linebacker room will be a work in progress as well with Josiah Trotter and Trey Lathan both going to new schools, but Reid Carrico is back with Colorado State transfer Chase Wilson taking the other spot. On the line, the interior will have experience after Hammond Russell IV and Edward Vesterinen both returned, and on the outside, they’ll have UTSA’s Jimmori Robinson as the new star of the entire defensive unit after his 10.5 sacks and 17 tackles for loss last year.

On their schedule, they’ll face Pittsburgh in a fourth consecutive Backyard Brawl, but they then will hit the ground running in Big XII play with Kansas, Utah, and BYU early. They won’t face very many significant challenges until the end of the season with a cross-country road game at Arizona State and then a home finale against Texas Tech.

In Rich Rodriguez’s first season back, he will be in for a tough time with a roster that needs a little more big game experience to remain comfortable and confident, and he will soon find out that playing in the Big XII is nowhere near playing in the Big East, ultimately resulting in a rough start to his return.