The reigning Big 12 Champion coach in the conference was the first man to step up to the podium on Thursday. One of the questions he received was about going from the hunter to the hunted, a role that he relishes being in.
“But yeah, to be the hunted, the fact that we’re the defending Big 12 champs means nothing when you go into that game. I mean, still, you’ve got to perform. Fortunately, we’ve had past experiences from my previous school that we had to win a championship and then come back and follow it up with another championship.”
Klieman also was the first coach to get the chance to repeat a message that coach after coach had to say on Day 2: you have to bring your A-game to win in this league.
“Each week in this league you are going to get beat every week if you don’t have your A game or great focus or great preparation. 1-14 anybody can beat anybody and I truly believe that.”
Klieman also was quick to praise Brett Yormark for his leadership in the league, and also had good things to say about K-State’s two key offensive positions with Will Howard at quarterback and both DJ Giddens and Treshaun Ward at running back.
If there was one area that Klieman seemed unsure of on Media Day, it was about his secondary, acknowledging how much they had to replace with the losses of Julius Brents, Josh Hayes and Ekow Boye-Doe.
GUS MALZAHN: BEING READY FOR A DEEP, POWER 5 CONFERENCE
UCF might have the best chance of the four new schools to compete fastest in the Big 12, and head coach Gus Malzahn made sure to note about the importance of having John Rhys Plumlee at quarterback, a player that started at Ole Miss and has experience in the SEC. Wide receiver Christian Leaery transferred this past offseason from Alabama to UCF, giving the Knights another high-caliber player that has the experience to compete.
Another thing that Malzahn is prepared for is the experiences he had at past stops, like taking Auburn to Manhattan for a game in 2014.
Malzahn plans to keep his up-tempo style intact for the Knights in 2023 even with some changes to the clock rules in college football.
JOEY McGUIRE: MEETING HIGH EXPECTATIONS
Joey McGuire brought a lot of high energy and understanding of where things currently stood for the Red Raiders. Expectations are high and many are looking at Texas Tech as a surprise team in the league this season.
McGuire knows what it will take for the Red Raiders to reach the level they want to be, and it involves staying humble. He also noted other elements that benefit the Red Raiders, like quarterback Tyler Shough having the same offensive coordinator for consecutive seasons for the first time in his career. They also benefit from getting K-State and TCU at home, which McGuire acknowledged.
There was also high praise for a position that lost a first-round draft pick on the edge in Tyree Wilson, but McGuire thinks the entirety of that position is better this season than last season.
“Don’t throw anything at me, but I think we’re actually better in that room. I would take Tyree Wilson back right now; I’m not crazy. But whenever you talk about the depth, Myles Cole had a great last few games once we moved him from inside to outside. Played really well against Ole Miss.”
SCOTT SATTERFIELD: IT WILL TAKE TIME THAT NO ONE HAS
New school and new league for Scott Satterfield and the Cincinnati coach wasn’t going to overpromise in his first Big 12 Media Days.
“The thing that as a newcomer into the league, you don’t know the makeup of the teams. We haven’t played in this league. We haven’t played the teams that are in this league, so you don’t really understand the ins and outs of the teams that we’re getting ready to play.”
Satterfield also made it clear that while he liked the additions of quarterback Emory Jones and other transfers, Cincinnati had 21 total transfers come in this season and lost their entire wide receiver room after 2022.
Other coaches didn’t take a strong stance on the Thursday and Friday games that will be played in the Big 12 in 2023 and onward, but Satterfield did note he wasn’t the biggest fan of Cincinnati’s road trip to Provo on a Friday after playing Oklahoma the Saturday before.
“I don’t like playing those short weeks.”
NEAL BROWN: THE MEDIA IS WRONG
Last year Neal Brown wore his emotions on his sleeve at Big 12 Media Days and those emotions were nerves. This year it was anger and hurt feelings over being picked dead last in the league in the preseason.
Time and time again Brown highlighted why he thought the media was incorrect, including late-season wins against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State last year. He also made sure everyone knew it “ruined” his vacation when the poll came out.
Brown did make note of things that the Mountaineers needed to improve on from last year, like limiting big pass plays and keeping the action in front of the defense when teams do complete passes. Offensively he said that West Virginia needs more explosive pass plays themselves.
“Running the football is going to be the offensive strength of our team. But we have to be more explosive in the passing game. We didn’t take advantage of being good in the run game with some explosive pass plays.”
MATT CAMPBELL: FOCUSED ON THE ENTIRE PROCESS
Last year wasn’t the season many expected for Iowa State as they bottomed out and went 4-8. Matt Campbell continued his approach of not just wanting to address football deficiencies, but making sure that the Cyclones were good on the non-football stuff too.
That was brought up when asked about what it would take for Iowa State to get back to competing for a Big 12 title, but also when asked about an update on the gambling investigation that Iowa State football is in the middle of.
The Cyclones still don’t have clarity, but Campbell expressed the feeling that he thinks a decision is coming soon. Whether a player was involved in the investigation or not, he wanted to use it as another teaching moment for the players on his team.
“I think what I would just say for any of our young men that either are or aren’t involved in this is it’s a great learning lesson. Part of what I love about teaching is you’re teaching 18 to 22-year-old young men. There’s rules and regulations. We’ll kind of learn what happened in that situation here shortly, but it’s a great teaching moment, and how to handle things when it doesn’t go well, and how do you respond from that.”
Campbell was another coach that noted you have to bring your A-Game to win in the Big 12.
BRENT VENABLES: FOND MEMORIES OF THE BIG 12 ON THE WAY OUT
As complimentary as many coaches were of Brett Yormark and the work the Big 12 has done, outgoing Big 12 coach Brent Venables might have given the most love to the league. In both his time on the podium and on the ESPNU set he spoke fondly of memories as a player in the Big Eight and a coach in the Big 12, including being on Bill Snyder’s staff for the first Big 12 game in history against Texas Tech.
Another big element of Venables and Oklahoma leaving for the SEC is the status of their rivalry with Oklahoma State. Venables expressed that he would like it to continue if he was ever asked, but he didn’t make those decisions and would let the people that do make them.
As for bouncing back from a lousy season for Oklahoma standards, Venables said, “we went 6-7 last year and fell well below our standards and expectations and we learned a lot. We have looked long and hard in the offseason, since January to learn what we need to do to become a more efficient football team.”
One of the keys to making an adjustment was on defense. His approach with the team has been pointing out some of the good like their standing with interceptions and tackles for loss leading the Big 12 last season. But they need to improve at stopping the run, as they allowed 4.4 yards per carry last season, which put them outside the top 120 in college football. The leaders were around 2.4 yards per carry.
