Big 12 spotlight: Five preseason storylines to follow

The Big 12 has been the center of attention since the end of last season as it saw its two marquee programs replace their head coaches. The league championship game has returned, adding more intrigue to the upcoming regular season. Here is a quick look at some of the biggest storylines heading into the year.

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One might think that the new coach with the most at stake this season is Tom Herman at Texas, but it really has to be new Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley. Oklahoma’s conference dominance wasn’t going to be made any easier this season with the addition of the championship game, but now a first-year head coach has to be the one to lead them through it. Herman really is just being asked to show a step in the right direction, but expectations will likely be sky-high in 2018 for him.

The early reviews on Riley have been nothing but positive, so there hasn’t been any reason to think that the Sooners will struggle to be a top team in the Big 12. But he’s going to be tested right away, especially with a non-league visit to Ohio State in Week 2. It's interesting that now, after the anticipation and elation from Longhorns fans following Herman’s arrival at Texas, Riley has an opportunity to send his stock through the roof if the Sooners beat Texas and continue their winning ways. Whether they’ll think about it or not, the two coaches will be compared to each other the longer they both stay at their respective programs.

At Big 12 media days last month, Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury was inundated with questions about when the Red Raiders' defense is going to stop getting pounded on. He tried to keep a light mood about it, but that issue has to be weighing on his mind, as some are speculating that this could be a make-or-break season for him.

Defensive coordinator David Gibbs has discussed the toughness that his team added this offseason with a number of junior college defensive backs. That's a good thing, because after two weeks of practice in fall camp, the Red Raiders are lining up four sophomores on their defensive front - the highest-ranked of which coming out of high school is Joseph Wallace - who graduated in 2016 as a 5.5 three-star. Although expectations are high for new starter and senior quarterback Nic Shimonek simply because of Tech’s offensive reputation, asking him to win games without defensive support won’t likely be as simple as when Pat Mahomes was taking snaps.

If Will Grier didn’t end up at West Virginia, the Mountaineers' quarterback group would be pretty desperate. Head coach Dana Holgorsen was complimentary of his work in the spring, and there has been no word of him looking incapable in fall camp thus far, but Grier is without the team’s top two receivers from last season.

Of course, Grier isn’t guaranteed to be a home run player for WVU this season, either. He sat out last season due to his transfer from Florida, but only played in six games for the Gators in two seasons prior to that. He finished with some good numbers before being suspended for a taking a banned substance, but got off to a relatively slow start. Regardless, he still gives the Mountaineers their best chance to win and needs to stay on the field, or things could take a hard turn south very quickly for West Virginia.

After last season’s run through the back half of last season, many look at Kansas State and the key players it returns as a sneaky conference championship contender. Quarterback Jesse Ertz was productive despite not putting up some of the eye-popping numbers other conference passers do, and the Wildcats' defense is usually given the benefit of the doubt as a stout unit.

The big difference this season is expectations. Bill Snyder is as old-school as you can get and he said at the conference media days say that it’s about preparation over people, but even he acknowledges that some of this year’s returning talent gives credence to the team’s expectations.

“We have a reasonably large number of people returning; players, starters in the program,” he said. “But it’s not about who have back or how many, it’s how you prepare yourself game by game. That’s the important thing for us.”

Even though everyone knows why Matt Rhule is the head coach at Baylor, there have been varying opinions about what the team’s potential on the field is this season after losing significant pieces of its last two recruiting classes. Rhule also likely has a pretty big cushion when it comes to immediate results in wins and losses, but can the Bears surprise and win six games (or more) again this season?

In wins against FBS opponents last season with Temple, Rhule and his balanced offensive attack won by an average of 20.4 points. Zach Smith was strong at the end of last season, and Rhule said that he’s liked what he’s seen from him this offseason, but he’ll be playing behind a distressed offensive line in a new scheme. The Bears’ non-conference schedule isn’t a cakewalk, either, with games against UTSA and at Duke in weeks two and three. However, if Baylor can stay healthy and improve over the course of the season, it could be primed for a run with Kansas, Texas Tech and Iowa State in three of its last four weeks.