That wet night time in Stillwater, Okla., final October nonetheless lingers for Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield. The Bearcats have been on the highway, losers of 5 straight, searching for this system’s first-ever Large 12 convention win.
Oklahoma State led solely 10-7 on the half, with Cincinnati doing nicely to include Cowboys star working again Ollie Gordon II, who had 60 yards on 13 carries however had but to shake free.
Issues modified in a rush within the second half. Gordon saved pounding away, and the eventual Doak Walker Award winner broke by way of, ending the sport with 271 dashing yards and two touchdowns because the Pokes splashed to a 45-13 romp. The physicality, and the way it dictated the tenor of that recreation and the entire season, resonated with Satterfield.
“Oklahoma State may need began out the 12 months slightly shaky, however they ended up getting us fairly good after which went on to make the convention championship (recreation),” stated Satterfield. “What actually stood out was how powerful the league was from high to backside. You must present up each week on this league otherwise you’re going to get beat.”
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— Large 12 Convention (@Big12Conference) July 1, 2024
The Large 12 is a league in transition, on and off the sphere. The convention has grown from 10 to 16 groups over the previous 12 months, molting its Texas-and-Oklahoma id whereas bringing in eight new colleges — BYU, Cincinnati, UCF and Houston final 12 months, plus Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah this summer season. For the preliminary 4 newcomers in 2023, that change was outlined by the rising pains of higher competitors, evidenced by a mixed report of 8-28 in Large 12 matchups in 12 months one, and the way they’ve responded to it. For the faculties becoming a member of from the Pac-12, their strikes will likely be marked by notable shifts in play type and recruiting footprints.
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This fall, it should take some getting used to when the Crimson River rivalry departs for the SEC and UCF treks to Arizona State or Utah visits Iowa State. However the upshot needs to be a declare as one of many deepest, best leagues. To not point out all of the eyeballs on Deion Sanders and the Buffs.
Final 12 months’s additions have been baptized in these waters. BYU head coach Kalani Sitake was an assistant at Utah in 2011 when the Utes jumped from the Mountain West to the Pac-12, versed within the grind of a convention schedule and upgrades to expertise and physicality. However he in contrast BYU making that leap from independence to an influence convention — now that includes a back-loaded schedule versus the opposite means round — to the expertise of changing into a first-time mum or dad.
“It was a tough factor to prep everybody for,” stated Sitake. “How do you clarify it to another person? You type of must undergo it.”
UCF and Cincinnati have been the category of the Group of 5 within the AAC however have been shortly humbled within the Large 12. The Bearcats, who needed to take care of a training change as nicely, completed 1-8 and useless final within the convention standings, their lone win coming over fellow newcomer Houston. Satterfield acknowledged that “we didn’t seem like lots of the groups we performed within the league,” and targeted on growing size and energy when constructing the roster for 12 months two, including greater than 45 new gamers this offseason.
Two of UCF’s three league wins got here in opposition to Cincinnati and Houston, and the Knights misplaced 5 in a row to open convention play final fall, together with a humiliating 36-35 dwelling loss to Baylor through which they blew a 25-point lead within the fourth quarter.
“We needed to improve our roster this season. Our total depth, total high quality of depth (was missing),” stated UCF head coach Gus Malzahn. “You get into the thick of it, get some guys banged up and a few of the different packages have higher high quality depth. We misplaced some actually shut video games, which was uncharacteristic for us.”
The league’s shift towards a ground-and-pound type uncovered that lack of power-conference depth. The Large 12 had 5 of the highest 15 dashing offenses in 2023 when it comes to yards per recreation, and that doesn’t even embrace Gordon or Tahj Brooks at Texas Tech, the league’s high two particular person rushers in 2023. BYU, Cincinnati, UCF and Houston usually had sufficient top-line expertise to hold with groups like Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Kansas, Iowa State and West Virginia early, however as video games and the season wore on, their depth charts wore skinny.
“We didn’t cease the run very nicely,” stated Malzahn. “The notion folks had up to now of a seven-on-seven league isn’t true anymore. It’s a bodily league.”
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This isn’t your cool older uncle’s Large 12. TCU and Texas Tech nonetheless have some Air Raid components, however the days of each offense spreading it out and placing up 50 factors are gone. Which makes the 4 Pac-12 additions, from a league suffering from quarterback-centric, air-it-out offenses final season, much more fascinating.
Life is what u make it out to be. #CoachPrime pic.twitter.com/38Zu3qWNee
— COACH PRIME (@DeionSanders) June 19, 2024
“The dedication to run the ball is excessive on this league,” stated Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham. “The Large 12 play type proper now — 12 and 21 personnel, run the ball, play-action — it’s undoubtedly attention-grabbing as a result of seven years in the past it was the other.”
Dillingham, coming into his second season on the helm for the Solar Devils, stated his protection has already gotten extra work in opposition to 12 and 21 personnel units in spring follow. It was the same deal for the offense, with Arizona State working in opposition to three-high security seems which have been extra frequent within the Large 12, although Dillingham wonders how for much longer that may be the case.
“The three-high security defenses combatted the Air Raid, and now the league has responded to that offensively, so will probably be attention-grabbing how a lot that stuff continues,” Dillingham stated. “You already hear Kansas State is supposedly shifting away from three excessive safeties and the odd fronts and can return to four-down (defensive linemen).”
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There’s no apparent expertise disparity for the Pac-12 colleges to take care of, however there’s a give-and-take to these differing kinds. Groups like Colorado and Arizona — with appreciable pop at quarterback and receiver — may benefit from their change of tempo coming into the league, however may additionally labor defensively in opposition to extra bodily dashing assaults. Whereas a workforce like Utah with a hard-nosed, defensive-minded status, extra carefully resembles the present Large 12 and may make for a smoother adjustment.
“We’re a very good match for this league in that regard,” stated Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham. “It’s one thing we’ve subscribed to for lots of years, with the ability to run the soccer successfully and defend the run on protection.”
Whittingham needed to thoughts these transition gaps again in 2011 when navigating Utah from Mountain West to the Pac-12 however stated the one tailoring he’s completed so far is scaling this system’s recruiting footprint into ever-expanding Large 12 nation.
“Extra (recruiting) manpower in Texas and into Louisiana and over into Florida,” stated Whittingham. “Nothing actually schematically or roster-wise when it comes to what we search for in gamers. That each one stays fixed.”
Quarterback Cameron Rising and the Utah Utes could already be well-positioned to contend within the Large 12. (Chris Gardner / Getty Photos)
Dillingham has completed the identical, focusing ASU’s recruiting extra closely in Texas, the place he’s culled upwards of 20 gamers on the present roster between transfers and highschool recruits. But with expanded attain comes expanded journey. The convention now spans 4 time zones, stretching from Orlando to Daylight Financial savings-averse Arizona. UCF felt that distance final 12 months when it traveled 15,000 miles in 2023, probably the most of any power-conference program.
“The schedule was a monster,” stated Malzahn, “nevertheless it was additionally a studying expertise, and now we’ve a greater thought of what we’re coping with.”
The Large 12’s scheduling matrix was developed to restrict cross-country journeys as a lot as doable, and alternates between 4 and 5 highway video games each different 12 months for every workforce. The Knights do journey to Arizona State in November, however get Colorado, BYU, Arizona and Utah at dwelling this season. And despite the fact that including the Pac-12 colleges means rekindling the Holy Conflict rivalry between Utah and BYU and reintroducing Colorado (and the Coach Prime expertise) to its former Large 12 foes, a 16-team league means extra unusual opponents and fewer intra-conference familiarity, too.
“We solely play two of the identical Large 12 opponents that we confronted final season,” Malzahn added. “It’s virtually like a brand-new convention once more, which is weird.”
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Weird, but additionally distinctive, even amid the newest wave of convention realignment. The entire transitioning and adjusting is fueling a much-needed parity subplot inside the sport, one the Large 12 was already leaning into at spring conferences again in Could.
“What’s going to unfold this upcoming season is the parity and depth of this convention,” stated Large 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark. “I feel it’s going to be essential, and I’m undecided you’re going to see that in every single place else. However on this convention, each recreation goes to matter.”
Because the league reckons with the truth of shedding its conventional bellwethers alongside eight new colleges, amorphous geography and no apparent nationwide title contenders, that nose-to-toes competitiveness can turn into the Large 12’s id — one which advantages holdovers and newcomers alike and bolsters exterior notion. The 12-team Playoff primarily ensures the league champ a top-four seed within the bracket, and leaves open the potential for a second workforce making the sphere.
For the New Large 12 — Allstate 12? — rebranding itself as probably the most thrilling convention race in faculty soccer isn’t a foul place to start out.
“The parity goes to be unbelievable,” stated Dillingham. “Any workforce can win any recreation on any week, and that’s what is going to make it such a enjoyable league to be in. As a result of not all of them are like that.”
(Prime photograph of Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita: Ronald Cortes / Getty Photos)
